DAKOTA LAHOTE - e.c

2. dinner parties

"yeah, it's alright." dakota says into the phone friday night. "but i miss you."

"i miss you more, kota." amara's digital voice says. "today was the first friday we've gone without sharing a strawberry milkshake at bee's diner."

"don't remind me. i'm trying not to think about it." dakota responds. she hears the back door open, and loud pairs of footsteps that descend towards the kitchen. "listen, i'll call you tomorrow. same time."

"kk, night." amara mutters, and dakota hears the hang up noise. she puts the phone back on the wall and walks to the kitchen, where she finds jared and paul feasting on potato chips.

"jared, don't you have your own house to go to?" dakota snaps. this is the third time jared's been over this week, and he and paul have done nothing but eat and snore loudly. dakota swears she couldn't sleep because of them two.

"ease up, dakota." paul says, then turns to jared. "our casa es su casa."

she rolls her eyes and walks out the room.

***

the next day, dakota has absolutely no plans whatsoever. the only friends she's made were the boys, but they'd probably be talking about paul the entire time.

so she's sitting in the living room reading a book, waiting for her dad to get back from work. paul and jared burst through the door, laughing with their stomachs out. they stop when they see dakota sitting alone. she lowers the book so she can see them. "what are you guys doing?"

"oh, i was just grabbing my keys." paul looks at jared. "we're gonna go to dinner at sam's house."

dakota recognized sam's name as the one the boys mentioned. she was suddenly intrigued.

"do you wanna join us, loser?" paul asks.

"yeah, sure why not." she says after a pause, acting like she had better plans. paul grabs the keys from kitchen counter and pushes jared, quickly dashing out the door. "last one to the car is a rotten egg!"

dakota takes her time getting up, not caring for their shenanigans. she takes her book and puts a jacket and her shoes on then heads out the door.

it takes them about seven minutes to get to sam's house. when they get there, dakota takes in the house. it's a two story wooden house surrounded by miles and miles of trees. they get out of the car and dakota's surprised by the fact that paul and jared just walked themselves in without knocking or anything. the inside of the house was even prettier. sam sure knew how to decorate.

dakota looked around the room as paul dropped himself on the couch, instantly closing his eyes. jared took a seat at the round table, which had a basket full of bread on it. jared took two slices to start off and kept going back for more. dakota decided to sit down across from him and waited patiently. "so, where's sam?"

jared mutters an 'eh' as he stuffs his face with his fourth slice. the back door opens and they hear laughing come from a soft, easy-going voice. dakota looks that way and is surprised to see a couple laughing their way through the door, one of them holding a large wooden bowl.

dakota notices the man. he looks in his early twenties. he's got wild dark hair and tan skin and he looks about six foot seven, if dakota had to guess. even though he's wearing a regular t-shirt, she can still tell how muscular he is. and she can see his tattoo peeking out from under his sleeve.

the girl, on the other hand, looks like a ray of sunshine. she's wearing a cute tan headband with a sweater and loose jeans. she has a large scar on the left side of her face, going from her hairline to her chin. dakota makes a mental note to look away from it, but it's so distracting. she wonders how it happened.