Never Always Sometimes - Adi Alsaid Page 0,12

Dave’s embarrassing flip-cup skills. Throughout the

weekend, Dave’s thoughts had returned to Gretchen, how he’d kind

of fallen in love with the mood of the party. He’d assumed Julia had

talked it all out of her system, though.

“Really? What were you thinking? How much fun you had?”

He smirked, but Julia surprised him by answering, “God, yes. It

was so awful, I couldn’t help but enjoy myself.”

She pulled out her earphone and then plucked Dave’s out,

wrapping the cord around her phone. “There were so many clichés, I

don’t think we even touched on all of them at the diner. Did you see

the girl puking in the bushes? I thought it was you for a second and I

was really proud of you, but then I realized that she was five feet tall and had red curly hair and way bigger boobs than you do.”

“You mean April Holmes? She was in a miniskirt.”

“You could have been in a miniskirt. I think you have the legs for it.”

She sat up and put her phone away in her bag, which was this hand-

stitched, colorful knapsack thing that her mom had sent her as a gift

from Ecuador. “Anyway! I think we should do more.” She’d talked

herself fully awake now. In the background, Ms. Romero had finally

succeeded in getting the projector to work and was asking if anyone had

any questions about the bulletin. She said it in a way that made it sound like she had no interest in answering any of those questions.

DAVE 47

“More parties?”

“No. Well, yes. But I was thinking of more Nevers. Do you have

the list?”

Dave rummaged through his backpack until he found the folded

sheet of paper, a little bent at the corners from whatever it is that

happens inside backpacks that ensures all papers get ruined. He

pulled out a chocolate muffin as well and peeled off the Saran Wrap

while Julia looked at the Nevers. His mom had loved those chocolate

muffins, and now his dad kept them stocked in the house, making

trips to Costco specifically to get them. Dave made eye contact with

Nicky Marquez across the room, whom he had talked to at some

point at the party. He hadn’t known a thing about Nicky before,

but now he knew that his parents were migrant workers, and that he

hadn’t learned English until he was nine.

Julia drew a red line across Never number three. “We can have

so much fun with these.” She brought the paper closer to Dave, so

he could read with her. It always drove him crazy how easily she

minimized the distance between them, as if it didn’t mean anything.

And then, almost out of nowhere, he thought about sitting next to

Gretchen, how he was looking forward to seeing her in chemistry

third period.

“We’re definitely dying our hair crazy colors.”

“We are?”

“This week,” she said, folding both hands on the desk and resting

her chin on top of them, continuing to read the list, the matter not

up for discussion. “Actually, we’re doing all of them.” She sat back up

48 NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES

quickly, smiling. “It’s the perfect way to end the year,” she said. “It’s been so boring; this’ll be the perfect end-of-high-school celebration.

Embrace the clichés so tightly they’ll suffocate. I think my mom

would approve.”

Dave eyed the clock. Homeroom was almost over. His tired brain

tried to process doing all the Nevers, and the first thing he could

think of was the chance at running into Gretchen more often. He

grabbed a chunk of his muffin and chewed on it.

Julia was eyeing the list, chewing on her lip. He did one of those

mouth-shrug-raised-eyebrow things that meant, “Sure, why not?”

Which he immediately regretted when Julia spoke again.

“Mom’ll probably want to be here to see her daughter go to the

prom with the prom king. Side note: You’re definitely running for

prom king.”

Muffin crumbs fell out of his mouth. “Is that so?”

“Yeah. That hasn’t happened yet, right?” She tapped the girl next

to her on the arm. “When do we vote for prom king stuff?”

Margot—petite, nerdy, shy—had never looked so confused in her

life. “Uhh, prom, I think?”

Julia turned back to Dave. “We’ll have to research with Brett. I’m

already seeing big things for your campaign. Fund-raising galas.” Her

leg started racing up and down under the table. She was radiant when

she got excited about something. Her mouth scrunched over to one

side of her face but somehow remained a smile. It was indescribably

cute.

He watched her eyes go wide, a smile that was about ninety-five

DAVE 49

percent mischief spreading her thin lips. “Marroney. Number seven.”

Her finger pointed at the line. Never hook up with a teacher.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Julia, the man collects food in his mustache. He