Fast Company by Rich Wallace Read Free Book Online Page B

Manny said, louder.
    “Send ’em over,” Anthony said. “Me and Zero will polish them off.”
    Manny felt a smack on his shoulder. He turned to see Jason Fiorelli standing there, alongside Donald. “Not so fast with those wings,” he said. “Save some for us.”
    “Where’d you come from?” Manny said.
    “Donald called me. Told me you guys were hanging out here,” Fiorelli said, reaching for a wing.
    Manny looked over at Donald. They hadn’t seen much of each other over the past couple of weeks. Was Donald hanging out with Fiorelli now?
    Jason Fiorelli was considered the coolest kid in the sixth grade—an athlete and a comedian with good looks and the kind of attitude that never took anything quite too seriously. He was a star in football and basketball, and generally had at least a couple of girls following him around. He was fast and agile. The type of athlete Manny wanted to be. Sort of like Kester Serrano.
    “Hi, Sherry,” Fiorelli said.
    “Hey,” Sherry said flatly, looking past Fiorelli toward something at the front of the restaurant.
    Donald brought a chair over from another table and slid in between DiMarco and Manny.
    “What’s up?” Manny said.
    “Nothing much,” Donald replied. He tipped his head slightly in Sherry’s direction and gave Manny a questioning look, like, What’s the story with you and her?
    Manny turned up his hand and gave an I don’t know look back. Sherry had obviously been after Fiorelli this year. Jason hadn’t caved, though. Maybe Sherry had given up the chase.
    Manny caught Donald’s eye and gave the same unspoken gesture about Fiorelli. Donald shrugged. “We been hanging out some,” he said.
    Sherry had gotten up and walked to the jukebox. She was leaning against it, looking at the selections. Villa Roma was known for having a good jukebox, although there was almost nothing current on it. Mostly classic rock and dance, plus a dozen or so Frank Sinatra songs and some big band stuff.
    Manny left his seat and walked over.
    “I’ve got a couple of quarters,” he said when he reached Sherry.
    “I already put in a buck.” She pointed to the listing for “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor. “What do you think of that?”
    “Disco,” he said dismissively.
    “The best disco song of all time,” she said. “What do you want, Aerosmith or something?”
    “My dad plays the Doors every time we come in here.”
    “Okay.” Sherry punched in the numbers for “Light My Fire.” “That’s for your dad. What about you?”
    Manny studied the selections. He glanced back at the table. Nobody was watching them. Anthony was sitting with his chair tipped back, talking to Mary Pineda. Zero and Calvin were playing table football with a wad of paper.
    “A New Jersey boy,” he said. “State pride.”
    “Sinatra?”
    “No. Springsteen.”
    “You got it,” she said. “And one more for me.” She chose Madonna’s “Borderline.”
    Manny started to walk back to the table.
    “Wait,” she said.
    “What?” He stepped over.
    Sherry leaned with her back on the jukebox and wiped her hands on her jeans. “Nothing,” she said.
    “Come on. What?”
    “I couldn’t believe it when Jason walked in here.”
    “Why not?”
    She looked over at the table. Jason and Donald were eating the wings and talking with their mouths full. She started to speak, then stopped.
    Manny stood there flat-footed. He felt a trickle of sweat run down his side from his armpit.
    “I asked him out about two weeks ago,” she said. “To come here for pizza, believe it or not.”
    “So, what happened?”
    “He said he’d get back to me. And he didn’t.”
    “Oh.”
    “He acted like it never happened. The next day in school he said hello like he always does, then he walked away real fast. The day after that he started avoiding me.”
    Manny scratched his jaw. “Well,” he said, “Jason gets a lot of attention from girls.”
    “No kidding,” she said. “He could have just said no.