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[indent]While most of the school were beside themselves with anger and outrage about the way things would be happening on this homecoming dance (including Archer, who had stormed out of the auditorium before she could even talk to him properly), Marisol was just [i]chill[/i]. During the course of the last few weeks, she'd been religiously taking her medications and attending therapy, so her anger issues and rollercoaster emotions were taken care of properly now. Had this been done a month ago, Sol would have been the first one up in arms. But today? She simply accepted it. Okay, yeah: not being able to attend homecoming with one of her friends was a really shitty thing. But, hey: the faculty never specified they had to stick to their dates during the night. So if push came to shove and her date was an insufferable person, the option to ditch and be with friends was on the table.

The [i]real[/i] question was: who was the mysterious Mr. Rivera?

Ever the determined, impatient and curious one, the short young woman marched straight to the stage, climbed up and turned to face whatever classmates were remaining on the scene. 

[color=brown]“YO! Who the hell is this Rivera dude?! Anyone know who the fuck that is?”[/color] Marisol shouted across the room in her usual blunt tone of voice, squinting her eyes while looking around the auditorium. [color=brown]“This last name crap is bullshit. I don’t know y’all like that.”[/color]

Salem Rivera looked up from where he was doodling penguins on his forearm in Sharpie, hastily pulling his sleeve down. Being rather new, only just Christened as a King’s Academy student three days before, Salem didn’t really care much about this homecoming business. He paid attention enough to realize what had been happening - and wasn’t this quite an unfortunate situation - but never thought his nonexistent profile would cause such a spectacle.

Slinging his bag over his shoulder, Salem casually walked to the stage and raised his hand leisurely. Salem smiled charmingly, [color=8BCCC5]“I’m the ‘Rivera dude.’ And would you happen to be Miss Castillo?”[/color]

To say she was surprised was an understatement. In all honesty, Marisol had been expecting the face of one of her pasty-ass, plain Jane classmates of a million years. She had already pictured herself bored out of her mind and bailing on her poor date at the thirty-minute mark, making up some stupid excuse about not feeling well and needing to go home. To find herself paired with a person she’d never seen before, and who had absolutely no idea of who she was or what her past misdeeds were, was a blessing Mari planned to take complete advantage of. Plus, his face wasn’t [i]too[/i] bad to look at, even if he did look a little too goody-two-shoes for her tastes - not that it mattered. She wasn’t here for that shit. 

[color=brown]“Damn straight. The one and only,”[/color] she replied with a nod, extending her fist as a greeting in his direction and never once ceasing her habitual gum-chewing.

Salem’s smile turned more boyish, causing his hazel-brown eyes to glisten like a puppy’s and there was an amused, humoring quirk at the side of his lip. While staring into Castillo’s eyes, Salem leaned forward and bumped his fist against hers, never once looking away.

During his quick assessment, Salem Rivera concluded that his homecoming date was beautiful. She had a natural doll-like quality to her, with her small nose and plump lips in relation to her pointed chin and narrow jaw. The way her beanie pressed her brown hair against her face only emphasized it, and the extraordinary light blue of her eyes. Salem had gotten lucky with the name drawings, that much was for sure.

Honorary fist-bump greetings over with, Salem reached into his back pocket with his broad hand and retrieved his phone. In one smooth motion, Salem unlocked it with his fingerprint on the back sensor and extended the phone out to the girl.

[color=8BCCC5]“For the record, it’s [i]Salem[/i] Rivera.”[/color] He threw an over-exaggerated, purposefully-cheesy wink at her. It was done more playfully than teasingly, a light-hearted jest rather than a mean-spirited joke.

Marisol immediately grimaced at the name. Oof. Poor dude. Whatever parent decided to give him that name must have been high as a cloud when they did. [color=brown]“Shit. I don’t know who the fuck names their kid Salem, but whatever. That’s none of my business,”[/color] she said with a shrug, taking his phone, adding her contact information and finishing it off with a [url=https://i.redditmedia.com/CUG_t0VSzajv-d5a_uBnRfqD8LL82a6oL0C7Cgw3mnk.jpg?w=320&s=438273c466aeb963e7d05f0f87657aef]sweet selfie[/url]for good measure. Satisfied with the results, Mari handed the phone back to Salem with a closed-lipped smile. [color=brown]“There. Shoot me a text so I can have yours.”[/color]

[color=8BCCC5]“Of course,”[/color] Salem cocked his head to the side as he looked down at the name in his phone, [color=8BCCC5]“Marisol. Pretty name.”[/color]

The green-eyed girl’s smile widened for a split-second before falling back to her usual nonchalant expression. [color=brown]“Thanks.”[/color]

Salem slapped the phone against the palm of his hand and smiled sincerely, looking at her from where his head was still angled towards his phone. The curls of his brown hair swept into his eyes and he blew a puff of air from his lips to blow it away. 

Backing away, still facing Marisol and blindly trusting that he wouldn’t run into anybody, Salem offered his parting words. [color=8BCCC5]“I guess I’ll see you again. Alla prossima.”[/color]

[color=brown]“Wait, where the fuck were you going?”[/color]
 Marisol asked him with a frown, crossing her arms across her chest. [color=brown]“Aren’t we going to do the whole ‘getting to know each other’ thing, or are you one of those dudes who likes to [i]‘be mysterious’[/i]?”[/color] she added, throwing around some air quotes as if to emphasize her words.

Salem stopped moving away, but he didn’t move closer to Marisol either. With nonchalance, he shrugged his shoulders and threw her a grin, stuffing his hands in his pockets, [color=8BCCC5]“No, I’m one of those dudes who likes to eat lunch. You can join me, but I have some stipulations.”[/color]

When he mentioned lunch, Marisol was overwhelmed with the sudden urge to facepalm herself. Leave it up to her to start making assumptions about people, be completely wrong and embarrass herself in the process.

[color=brown]“Stipulations, you say?”[/color] Mari repeated, a questioning eyebrow raised at the same time the smirk of before made its appearance. What on Earth could this new dude want from her. It couldn’t be a date, because they already had that ([color=brown][i]“Thanks, King’s Academy”[/i][/color]). It couldn’t be sex, because Sol would break nose if he dared to ask. A kiss? Well, that could be negotiable. Anyway… Whatever it was, she was definitely eager to hear it. [color=brown]“Go on. I would love to hear them.”[/color]

He bashfully scuffed his shoe against the floor, looking up at her with a small shy smile. Looking at her and the curiosity in her eyes, the confidence came back to Salem and he straightened his shoulders. [color=8BCCC5]“You’ll have to show me where room 213 is. I was almost late to the assembly, I got so lost.”[/color] Salem gave a disbelieving laugh, ruffling the back of his head as he turned his head and observed the auditorium they were in. [color=8BCCC5]“My last school was a [i]lot[/i] smaller.”[/color]

[color=brown]“That’s it?”[/color] she asked. Well, [i]that[/i] was a lot more boring than she expected. Marisol was sure her disappointment was evident all over her face, and judging by the young man’s reaction she’d been slow on hiding it.

Salem scoffed, his Adam’s apple bobbing with his amusement at the thought that he would ask for something even mildly inappropriate. To Salem, that shit was earned and he wasn’t going to go perving on a girl asking for favors when he could be given them without askance due to [i]good behavior[/i]. [color=8BCCC5]“Was there something else you expected me to say? ‘Buy me lunch?’ Maybe to serenade me? Recite Shakespeare for me?”[/color] Salem quirked his lips in hopes she wouldn’t take his teasing tone as him being harsh when he was just playing around. 

Now it was Marisol’s turn to scoff, giving Salem the first genuine smile since the start of their conversation. Easy on the eyes and with sarcastic humor? This new guy was certainly earning himself a spot in the very limited list of people from Palms she could care about. [color=brown]“You fucking wish,”[/color] she replied with sass, blowing up and popping a minty-fresh gum bubble.

He ruffled the top of his head to get the curls out of his face once more and glanced around the place, seeing that everyone had started moving out. Giving an exaggerated bow and offering his arm out, Salem said, [color=8BCCC5]“Well, my leading lady, shall we go get lunch?”[/color]

Marisol turned to look in the direction of the door, and found herself staring as Sonny and Nadia were getting into some amicable conversation, even leaving the assembly together. Although there was always the familiar stinging feeling in her chest, the time spent in therapy had helped the young woman come to terms with the fact that it was in everyone's best interests to not pursue any sort of romantic relationship with her best friend. When she had openly confessed her feelings towards him back at the preserve, Sonny had merely brushed them off as ‘the meds talking’ and continue to act as if nothing had happened. This had been the sign Sol needed to fully convince herself that her number one priority should be her recovery and loving herself. And loving herself meant letting go of things that set her back. As long as he was happy, she would be happy for him. That's what best friends were for.

Turning back to Salem after taking in a deep breath, Mari linked her arm with his and shot him a small smile. [color=brown]“Hell yes. I'm fucking starving. Let's go.”[/color][/indent]