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people want to be teachers or lawyers but I love what I'm doing."
     
    I noticed a spider crawling on the ground, obviously in a hurry, and stayed silent, not sure of what to say. This boy was confusing me more and more as this conversation went on.
     
    "What about you, McKinley? What do you want in your life?"
     
    I laughe d. "You know, I'm twenty-two years old and I get asked that a lot. A lot of people I went to high school with are graduated or married or have kids. I've been in school, taking random classes and trying to fix all the screw-ups I made in high school and right after. The only thing that makes me happy is being in that diner. Its the only thing I can picture myself doing." I finished and sucked in my breath, wondering why I had said all that.
     
    "The diner? Why the diner?"
     
    I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "My mom left me at the diner when I was five years old. And I don't really think I understood that at first. I thought-no, I knew -she was coming back. And anytime someone tried to take me out of the diner, I screamed and kicked. Part of me remembers thinking, I can't leave, I have to be here when she gets back" I paused, wondering why I continued to tell him this. Amanda was the only person I ever felt even remotely comfortable confiding in. There was something about Jake Kennedy, “ teen heartthrob ” , that made me feel at ease. Maybe because I knew that whatever I said didn’t matter; he wouldn’t remember me after this and my story wouldn’t matter.
     
    I continued. "So I stayed at the diner. Luke was only twenty-three years old and was my mother's boyfriend, li ving in the diner with his dad , also called Luke, who was the original owner of the diner. And as time went on, the diner became my home. The same regulars have been coming in since I was kid. They're my family and I get to see my family every day. What can be better than that?" I turned to Jake and saw him watching me intensely. I cleared my throat. "Plus I feed people. Nothing makes people happier than food."
     
    "You know, at five years old, we were both experiencing way different things. I mean, Jesus, that’s a lot for a five-year-old to handle," Jake said.
     
    "Becoming an actor at five-years-old still had to have been crazy. That was probably a lot to handle too."
     
    "Yeah, it was, now that I think about it. At the time, it was the coolest thing that had ever happened." He smiled, faintly. His eyes were somewhere else.
     
    "You know, you weren't exactly what I had expected, Jake Kennedy."
     
    "Oh, yeah?" he asked, twirling a blade of grass in his fingers. "What did you expect?"
     
    "Someone who was spoiled and conceited and completely capable of taking advantage of a diner girl like me," I said, quickly, but smiling. "But you're a nice guy, Jake Kennedy."
     
    "And you are a nice girl, McKinley Evans."
     
    My smile faded a little at that. If there was one thing in life I was absolutely sure of, it was that I was not a nice girl.
     
    "So I'm going to ask again..." Jake said nervously. "Did you maybe want to hang out sometime?"
     
    I hesitated as Jake pulled out his phone. It showed on his face. It must have showed on my face.
     
    Jake's nervous smile stretched into a genuine amused smile. I found myself liking this smile; it was so much better than the one he showed on the big screen. He slid his phone, some intimidating-looking thing with no buttons, only a touch screen, back into his jacket pocket. "Okay, I can see that didn't go over well," he said, slowly but he was grinning. "Okay, how ‘ bou t this, McKinley? What if I give you my number and you can call me? That way its all up to you."
     
    "But Amanda..." I said, feebly, remembering what Amanda had told me before we had gone to take our "walk".
     
    "Really, McKinley? You have got to stop using Amanda as a shield."
     
    I took out my iPhone-my two year old, completely out-of-date iPhone-out of my back pocket and held it my hand nervously.