First Date EVER pt. 2

"What is that?" Daniel asks, watching El remove a shoebox from underneath his bed. He removes the thick rubber band secured around it, adds a crumbled paper inside the box and returns it underneath the bed.

He sits behind his desk never answering Daniel's question. Instead, he tensely engages reading his textbook.

"Can I take a look inside?" Daniel asks, taking hold of the shoebox without permission. Eager, he almost snaps the box's rubber band.

"Go ahead," El replies, his eyes never seem to leave his textbook.

Daniel, bewildered, finds more crumpled notes that would fill two front pockets of a pants.

"There's got to be three...maybe, four dozen phone numbers inside!" Daniel frantically exclaims. His hands shake as if he had won the state lottery.

El, still invested in his reading, appears in responsive as a child lost in a daydream.

"Dude!" Daniel shouts. "Have you called any of these girls?!"

"Nope."

El's calm reply chisels away at Daniel's rationality, as he turns to him in dismay.

"You mean to tell me you've received phone numbers from random girls and you don't intend to return ANY of them?!"

"Yup."

"WHY?!"

Daniel waits for a reply, but it doesn't arrive as urgently as he expects.

"Haven't you ever read a Spider-Man comic?" El asks.

"Wha-- What?!"

"Haven't you read Spider-Man...?" he repeats.

"I know what you said. But, what do comics have to do with girls' phone numbers?"

"If you are familiar with Spider-Man," El begins, "then you probably heard of the phrase, 'With great power comes great responsibility.'"

Daniel's eye twitches. "Dude, El. If I was you, then I'd be the 'Mack-Daddy' of this entire campus!"

"That's why you are not me."

Confused, Daniel stares into the obliviousness of El's eyes that fail to emit any reasoning. Daniel pleads for an explanation while clawing his cheeks with irritation, his patience nearly spent.

"El, I'm afraid to ask, but what does that supposed to mean?"

"Don't you get it? I have this 'great' power, and I'm being responsible with it. If you had this power, then you'd probably misuse it. It's a good thing you're not me. You could end up hurting someone, or yourself."

Daniel makes a comical gesture by stabbing his heart with an imaginary knife.

"I'm going to pick a note and call for you!"

The remark successfully detaches El from his book. Immediately, he stands up, his book falling to the carpet.

"How can I talk with other girls when you already set me up with that girl from the cafeteria?"

"El, remember rule number one! When dating..."

"Let my mom know when I'll be home?" El interrupts his sentence.

Daniel sighs, almost defeated. However, the chance at El taking the right step toward breaking his shell of social awkwardness gives Daniel hope, despite the possibility that everything could end in failure.

"No, Einstein," Daniel corrects. "Always have a 'Plan B,' in case 'Plan A' doesn't work."

"At the very least," Daniel thinks to himself, "I may get a good laugh out of this."

"So, Romeo, what's your game plan for tonight?"

El, picking up his textbook from the carpet, feels the dampness in the book's cover from the moisture of the carpet, where the mysterious presence of water had yet to completely evaporate.

El ignores it, accepting the mysterious vision of the girl dripping water from her ankles to be nothing more than a hallucinogenic result of a burrito supreme he ate for dinner very late into the night.

"Maybe, she'll want to try origami?"

"Really, El? She's from Japan. That's like taking her to eat ramen noodles when she came here for the burger and fries."

"So, Panda Express?" El suggests.

"Didn't I just say she came here for the burger and fries? She's had plenty of noodle recipes from where she came."

"But," El argues, "Panda Express makes Chinese food, not Japanese."

"El, I'll pray for you."

"You're not religious." El is still oblivious.

"For your sake, El, it won't hurt for me to believe."

El begins walking toward the shower room located outside in the dorm hall. He is not certain whether, or not his chosen style of fashion resembling his idol, Andrew Ridgeley, will appeal to his date.

El is clearly undecided. Yet, what tears him apart is deciding between serenading 'Careless Whisper' or, 'Last Christmas' to her.

Suddenly, from five rooms away, Daniel yells into the hall.

"Yo, El!"

El reveals his head from around the corner of boys' bathroom door.

"You do know that origami is viewed as feminine in Japan, right?!" Daniel laughs.

"No, it's not!" El laughs in return.

"She might think you're gay!"

Simultaneously, from each side of the all-boys hall, rows of doors abruptly open. Each resident peers outside their rooms, curious and amused to whom Daniel is shouting at.

El rushes into the shower room, his hand covering his face before a noticeable blush validates the subtle, but obvious embarrassment of his face.