First Date EVER pt. 1

"I'm not sure which question is more ridiculous," Daniel rebukes, feeling his roommate has lost his touch with reality. "You're asking if I wore a dress while watching you sleep?!"

"It's a simple question," El stubbornly persists; clueless to the emotions behind Daniel's comically confused reaction.

"First of all, unlike you," Daniel takes a breath to calm down, "real Chinese don't shower in the morning. We shower at night."

"I didn't know that."

"You know what your problem is, El?"

Unknowing to Daniel, the Chinese language spoken by El's great-grandparents is foreign to him as the traditional routines he never practiced. Daniel makes an impulsive comment that leaves El, a first generation Asian American, to again struggle with an identity in which he is still searching for.

"You are more American than you think, El."

El's posture slopes down like the sun setting for the last time; there's a sense of shame Daniel cannot relate to.

"Dude, you're alright," Daniel laughs. "But, not in a way that I'd wear a dress next to your bed."

A girl suddenly approaches their lunch table with gold highlights in her black hair that bounces with each step.

In one motion, she removes a folded note with rigid edges from inside her overcoat. Without slowing her stride, she places the note next to El's lunch tray. She turns her eyes to wink at El, who does not reciprocate with any amount of interest.

Her magnetic features emit a static disruption revealed by Daniel's stuttered reaction.

Frozen between shock and the scent of her perfume, Daniel points to the note. "W-w-what just happened? What is that?"

"It's a piece of paper," El replies, his eyes rolling upward. "Duh!"

Daniel snaps out of his trance. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Aren't you going to read it?!"

El conveys a much deeper interest toward another topic.

"Not until I know more about this 'Chinese' thing of taking showers in the evening. Just to clarify, it's ONLY in the evenings? No exceptions? I never heard that before, and I'm half-Chinese."

Daniel's eyes open wide, still attached to the unfolded note moving in El's hands. He is shocked to see El crumbling the note into a dry spit-wad. Uncaringly, El places the wad of paper inside his jean's pocket like a gum wrapper waiting to be disposed of.

"Dude, El. You ARE weird."

"Being half-Chinese doesn't make me weird."

The reply is misdirected, but Daniel develops a feeling of nausea progressively getting worst from his gut.

Daniel coughs out his water as another pair of girls begin acting strangely behind El; their giggling make it hard for Daniel to drink.

"Are you alright?" El asks.

"The girls behind you are talking...about you!"

"Really?"

"One keeps pointing at you, El. They're laughing every time you lick your ice-cream. Do you know them?"

El glances casually over his shoulder. Noticing his attention, the girls look away.

"I've seen the girl with the long hair before," El answers uninterested.

"That's the one talking how 'cute' you are... over and over."

El continues eating, clearly unconcerned to the transpiring attention behind him.

Daniel, not surprised to El's lack of interest, attempts to motivate his roommate as the girl continues pointing at El, his back still turned away. "She really is into you. Where'd you see her before?"

"She followed me to the bookstore at the start of the semester."

Daniel struggles to admit what appears to be the obvious. "Wait. Does this mean your WHAM! haircut is..."

"...actually working? Honestly, I think it's my ESPIRIT sweater," El smiles.

"I...

can't...

believe this!" Daniel exclaims with shock.

"But..." El begins.

"'But' what? There are no 'but's,' El."

"Okay," El redirects his thoughts, trying to avoid the word 'but.'

"...that's not the girl from the phone booth."

A portion of ham dangles from Daniel's mouth.

"Who cares, El! THAT girl LIKES you! Maybe the phone booth girl is..."

"But," El interrupts Daniel as he catches himself using the word 'but' again; he stops to find another word.

"She...is...not the girl from the phone booth."

Daniel coughs out a larger portion of ham. "I can't believe I'm hearing this!"

His mind walking into what feels like a world of insanity, Daniel hastily considers his roommate's options. El does not recognize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that many would die for.

El appears concerned to Daniel's silence.

Startlingly, Daniel pounds his fist onto the table. His chair falling backwards as he stands up.

"I can't take this anymore!"

"Sit down!" El pleads. "Where are you going?"

Madness in his eyes, Daniel insists, "When I come back you are going to have a date!"

"No! Don't!"

Straightening his collar and brushing the crumbs from his mouth, Daniel walks toward the girls, who uncomfortably accept his request to sit with them.

Ignoring his roommate's interaction, El pretends to enjoy his melting ice cream.

With each laughter from across the table, El sulks behind his ice cream cone.

A few more words exchange between Daniel and the girls before he returns with a look of satisfaction emanating from his smile.

"Okay! It's set!" Daniel declares happily.

"What did you just do?"

"I just hooked you up! You can thank me later."

"What DID you say to them?" El repeats.

Daniel chuckles, "I mentioned how shy you are and that you had something to tell the girl you saw at the bookstore. But, since you have sensitive bowel syndrome, you rushed to the restroom before you could tell her how you feel about her."

A sigh of relief escapes El. "Oh, thank goodness. I thought you told her I liked her."

"Her name is Kaoru!"

Daniel claps his hands once in excitement. "And, you got a date tonight!"