The day was dark. Clouds fill the air, rain pouring down the windows, creating a sense of displeasure that might just make any person upset. It didn’t seem like a normal day. As a matter of fact, everything seemed like it was out of whack- bizarre you might even say. LuJuan was sitting down at the corner of his bed, reading The Great Gatsby, occasionally looking at his wallet as if he needed to be somewhere. 

“Honey, what would you like for dinner?”, asks his mom as she walks in the room. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah I’m fine. I’m just stressed. How about mashed potatoes?” he replied. She nods her head, then walks out of the room. After reading a chapter of the book, he gets up to put on his sweater and his sneakers, then leaves the room and heads to the front door.
“Where are you going?” his mother yells.
“Out. I’ll be back in a bit.”
“I just started dinner! Don’t be back too late. Be careful!” He left the house and made his way down the sidewalk. As he walked, he noticed there was a park. He went towards it and sat at the swingset, where he pulled out his phone and made a call. “Babe, are you busy?”
“No. Why? What’s wrong?” asks his girlfriend. Her name was Ana Miranda. She was the girl at school that every guy wanted to be with. She was the one whom he had spent 4 months trying to make his.
“Come to the park. You know which one I’m talking about. Meet me here in 10 minutes. I don’t have a lot of time.” he tells her.
“I’ll see you in a bit.” LuJuan waits on the swingset, looking at his watch, wondering what’s taking her so long. After about 7 minutes, he gets up as if he was going to walk away. Footsteps were heard behind him. The leaves were crunching with every step. “Going somewhere?”
“I thought you weren’t going to show up. Had me a little worried.” he says. It was Ana. Her hair was blowing underneath the umbrella, and her eyes were glowing like two little lightbulbs. “You’re not leaving are you?”
“I wouldn’t just leave you here. What’s up?”
“You tell me. That call was pretty random. Mind telling me what’s going on?” Ana looked at him with the most curious look in the world. She always made it seem like things weren’t going well. In this case, she wasn’t wrong.
“I’ve just been really stressed as of late. I think we need to be serious for a minute ; let’s just be honest.” he says. “I don’t quite know how to say this, but I think-”
“You think we need a break?” Ana stops him in the middle of his sentence. He stares at her with a surprised face.
“Why would you think that?”
“You don’t seem like you’re in the right place right now. You don’t seem as focused as you always are. I’ve been really worried about you. Let’s take a break. I understand how hard things are with Cross Country and school, along with other sports.” Ana was upset. You could see it in her eyes as they filled with tears.
“I don’t mean to hurt you. I’m really sorry. Things just aren’t going the way I want them to be. This might sound super cheesy, but it seriously isn’t you. It is me. I just need time to think.” LuJuan watches the tears run down her face, but if he didn’t turn away and leave, he would be just as hurt as she was. So without looking back, he left. “It’s going to be okay. It’s just another day..”, he thought. He tried to get home as fast as he could. He couldn’t afford to be late. After all, his mother was making dinner.
The next day, LuJuan woke up at 5:00 am to get his things ready for school. He put his Cross Country things in his bag for practice and made his way downstairs for breakfast. He felt different. As he watched the clock tick, LuJuan thought about how different things were going to be during school. How would people look at him after breaking up with one of the nicest girls on campus? He turned on the car and left the house. When he got there, he grabbed his things and made his way into the hallways. Immediately after walking in, people gave him dirty looks. “Jerk..” said a kid. “You’re stupid for doing that.”
LuJuan kept on moving. He heard these things all day, but continued to ignore them. On the way to his last class, he saw Ana walking with her friends. Guys were with her, trying to cheer her up, making her laugh like it was the only thing she knew how to do. She definitely noticed him. He knew she did because, she gave him the dirtiest look of the day. “Ignore her. It’s not worth it. It’s already been done”, he thought. LuJuan walked into his last class and saw a couple of people staring. As he sat down, a girl approached him and sat right in front of him.
She stared for a second, then said “Tough day, huh?”
“It could be better.” he said. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Cici. We’ve been in this class together for almost half a year now and never said anything to each other. I thought you’d need someone to talk to since you’re obviously going through something right now.”
LuJuan looked at her surprisingly, but he knew he couldn’t be since practically the whole school knew at this point. “I’m LuJuan.”
“I knew that. I kinda figured that out during role call.” LuJuan kept trying to look away because she was just staring at him weirdly. Then he took a second look at her and noticed her. Her eyes were a bright brown color and she had beautiful ombre hair that shined in the light. It was almost unreal when you looked at her.
“I have a question.” she asked. She reached in her bag and grabbed her agenda. It's cover was clean and looked brand new as if she never used it. “Do you have a phone?”
“Yeah I do. Why? What's up?” LuJuan thought for a bit and wondered why she had asked, but it made sense after a bit.
“Can I have your number? I want to get to know you a little better. Is that weird? Sorry if I made that sound weird. I'm a little shy when it comes to things like this.” LuJuan didn't want to be rude, so he pulled out his phone and gave her his number. “What's this chick trying to do..”, he wondered. After receiving his number, she smiled at him and went back to her seat. That really isn't something you see everyday.
After the class had finished, LuJuan went on to practice. He had thought about Cici almost every second after he gave her his number. As weird as it sounds, he was really hoping she'd text him. So when practice ended, he went on to check his phone. When he looked, he saw 2 unread messages from Cici. The biggest smile crossed his face as he saw that she had actually texted him. He had to drive home though, and he really didn't want to wait to text her. Before he pulled out of school, he decided he would call her instead. He plugged in his auxiliary cord and pressed on her name on his phone to start the call. The phone just kept ringing and ringing. It rang about 5 times before he heard a voice. “Hello?”
“Hey, is this Cici?” LuJuan asked.
“Yeah. This is LuJuan right?”
“Yeah of course. You texted me right?” It was one of the most awkward situations he had ever been in. He didn't know what to say at all. It was like he had never talked to anybody before. “What do you wanna talk about?”
“Can I ask you something?” Cici asked. He stood still and grabbed the steering wheel as tightly as he could. Those words always scared a person.
“Um, yeah. Yeah why not. What's up?”
“What are you doing this weekend?”
“This weekend?” LuJuan’s jaw dropped. Was she asking him on a date? It was hard to tell.
“I'm not doing anything. Are you?”
“Do you want to hang out? I know this sounds really weird and random, but I think it would be cool to get to know each other.” Cici said and smiled joyfully. He didn't know what to say. She was right, it was weird. LuJuan had just gotten her number, and now she was already asking him to hang out 3 hours later.
“Yeah, I would like that.” LuJuan told her. His facial expression went from being surprised to the happiest person ever. It was stuck in his head though. He had broken up with Ana just recently and was already saying yes to hang out with another girl. “Is it a bad thing?”, he thought. He finally got home and put his stuff away. He hopped in the shower and got ready to do his homework.
Later that night, LuJuan layed in bed and thought about everything. He was hoping time would pass by faster just to see Cici in school the next day. It was something about her that made his heart start beating a little faster.
The next day, he did see her. Cici was also in his History class. As a matter of fact, he sat right behind her.
LuJuan would never pay mind to her during class, but today was different. He did notice her. He noticed her when he walked through the door. Her hair was still shining under the ceiling light. It was very bright but the thing that really caught his attention were her eyes once again. She turned around to say “Hi” to a friend and he saw them. Those bright brown caramel like eyes would make any person melt. During the class period, he just stared at her hair. He kept thinking about hanging out with her, and time was going by pretty slow. All he wanted to do was to get to know her better. Obviously time wasn't on his side since he wasn't right there with her alone.
“LuJuan,” Cici yelled. “Come here.”LuJuan made his way towards her desk, walking slowly to get to her, shaking with every step he took.
“Yes?” He asked with a crack in his voice. “You wanted me?” Cici just stared like she always did.
“Hey. What’s up?” She flashed a smile at him and winked. He had no idea what to do, so he just sat down. They went the whole class having small conversations about the work, and every time they turned to speak, they both just looked at each other with the biggest smiles. LuJuan wondered if this girl was into him. Was she trying to flirt with him? Or was she just trying to make fun of him and lead him on?
The days passed quickly. Their “date” was approaching rather quickly as well.
LuJuan woke up on that Saturday morning more excited than he has ever been before. He got out of bed and got ready for the big day. He made breakfast and watched White Chicks, waiting for the hours to drive by, hoping that she didn’t forget about their plans. Half an hour after the movie had finished, he had received a call from Cici.
“Hello?”
“Hey, whatcha doing?”
“I was just calling because, I wanted to remind you that we have plans tonight. I honestly can’t wait to see you..” she said joyfully. “Are you really busy later? ‘Cause if not, you could always stop by my house earlier and just hang out before we go.”
LuJuan honestly didn’t know what to say. He nodded his head and told her he would love to do so, but he had to run some errands before he went to pick her up, so it wasn’t possible for them to do that. He did only just meet the girl, so why force something like that so fast?
The time kept ticking. Then, it was finally time. LuJuan was wearing toffee colored khakis, light grey Sperrys, a black cardigan from H&M with grey stripes on it, and a white t-shirt from Abercrombie and Fitch. He showered himself in cologne and rushed downstairs to start the car.
“Have fun hun!” shouted his mother from the kitchen. “I love you, be safe!”
It took him about 10 minutes to get to her house, but when he did get there, he just sat in the car and waited an extra 10. He didn’t want to make it seem like he was too excited about it, so he just hung out for a second. After the time was up, he turned off the car and went towards her front step. As he knocked on the door, his arms felt heavy and his shoulders were weak. He felt sick- maybe even nervous. He just wanted to turn around and leave, but it was too late now. So he knocked on the door and it opened immediately. Cici came out quickly and flashed a smile at him.
“Hey Lu.” Her smile was amazing. Her eyes squinted every time she did this, and her braces just topped it all off. It was.. perfect. “Shall we?”
They hopped in the car and made their way to the movie theater. When they got there, they asked each other what movies they liked. Luckily, they were into the same genres, so they went for a romantic comedy. As they waited for seats to open up in the theater, they sat down and laughed about things they have never heard from each other. They were getting to know each other a lot better. The way they laughed made them the center of attention. Then their movie popped up on the screen, saying “Now Seating.”
“Let's go” LuJuan said and winked at her. They walked into the theater and took their seats all the way at the top. Before the movie had started, a sight of horror appeared. LuJuan saw someone he didn't expect to see- Ana. When he saw her, he froze completely. What else was he going to do?
“There's your ex..” said Cici.
“It's not about her tonight.”
“She might make it about her tonight.”
“I'm not worried about her. Besides, she's with another guy.”
“But-”
“But it's not about her. So don't worry. Okay?” LuJuan interrupted her in the middle of her sentence and gave her a kiss on her cheek.
Then Ana noticed. She saw him giving Cici a kiss at the top of the theater. Although she was with another guy, she couldn't help but get infuriated at the fact that he was there with another girl.
“Over there. That's where we are going to sit. Okay? Okay”, said Ana without giving the anonymous guy a chance to speak.
As she went to sit in front of them, another couple tried to take their seats, so Ana pushed them out of the way. She took the seats and made sure to sit right in front of LuJuan.
“It's not about her” he told Cici once more.
The movie had finally started. LuJuan and Cici had laughed at the same scenes the entire time. You could see they were having a great time, but every time they laughed, Ana laughed harder. And harder. And harder.
“Can you just stop?”  Cici blurted out to Ana. “You're obviously doing this for LuJuan. You need to stop. There's literally no point in doing this anymore. He's over you. DEAL WITH IT.”
“Um, you're not talking to me.” Ana yelled back.
She gets up to the back row and stands up to Cici. Without another word, she slashes Cici with a left and a right. And so it began.
“Don't touch me” said Cici as she catches her with a right hook. She lays out Ana and starts to attack her. The entire theater takes notice and is now ecstatic! LuJuan and the anonymous guy pull them off of each other and back away. LuJuan takes Cici out of the theater, and the guy follows.
“Listen Lu,” she tells LuJuan. “I think it's time.”
“For what?”
“For you to really choose.”
“What do you mean?”
“I just want what's best for you. I know you still have feelings for her. Yes, I do have a crush on you. But my opinion doesn't matter. Yours does. So take your time and think about this. When you have a decision, tell me. I respect whatever you pick..” Cici walks away sadly, but then turns around because LuJuan is her ride. The car ride was silent, making time pass by just a little faster.
He dropped her off, saying no words at all, looking at her with a blank face.
So then he thought. And he thought again. He thought about what she had said all night. The worst thing about it is that he had received a call earlier that night from Ana, who had told him the same thing. What to do?
He fell asleep thinking about what to do. When he woke up, he had an idea. He knew what he wanted. So he did his morning routine, and went directly to school. He saw both of the ladies there, and confronted both of them. “I know what I want.”
“Tell me” said Cici.
“Me, too” said Ana.
Without another word, he handed them a note. As they read it, LuJuan left.
“What does he mean?”, they both say.
The letter said:

“Dear Ana/Cici,
I really don't know how to put this, but I really can't choose between the two. I have feelings for Ana, and I have feelings for Cici, too. As amazing as you both are, none of you deserve to be in a situation like this one. It's unfair to both of you. My only choice is to leave this place to make everything better. It saddens me to do this, but my depression does nothing more than affect my train of thought. So this is my farewell. I hope that you both find someone to treat you better than I could have. Goodbye..”

Then a gunshot went off. And the birds began to sing their final song.