Tamales

Zayn POV
A cold breeze through my spine is a feeling that is totally needed right now. I don't understand how summer is suppose to end in a couple of weeks and it still feels like hell. But in San Diego, fall is like summer part two.
Once you leave the outdoors it’s like you get a taste of the devil’s flesh. Even though i admire his work of evil to shitty people, I don’t want him one me. This is like rape. Rape is bad. Devil, this is too much. One step out of the apartment and you feel a burst of heat that hits your entire body and you don't know what is going on.
Speaking of hell, when you’re in hell you gotta make friends and accomplices to make hell fun. But yeah so far, I like my roommates.
Niall is a funny guy but it's obvious he's not very social but it's all good because I hate people too. The first day we got here, right after he got settled into his room, he came out with a deck of UNO cards and asked if I wanted to play with an excited expression just like a little kid would be when asking to go baking for cookies. It was fun because he made me hate UNO. And anyone that creates hatred goes from acquaintance to friend real quick because that hatred can be used for revenge for people that I don’t like. But the game was fun because it made me hate him for all the skips and rotations, making him go again. He ended up winning. I'm sure the game was rigged. After all they we're his cards.
Harry is a cool guy. He's always... active. And anyone that's active makes me question... why? Why would you run 5 miles Harry? You're skinny and rich already. But he does have a cool sense of fashion that makes me hate him because I'm a better looking than he is and with his raggedy clothes, he looks like a GQ model.
Louis is a cool guy. I haven't talked to him much but that's because he's always with Harry. It's weird because they are always talking and laughing. To me it looks like it's a bro-romance. But I'm sure Louis wants something more than a friendship because he's always staring at his butt when Harry gets up and starts to lick his lips. Plus the way he looks at him! He stares into his eyes, deep into his soul, but whats abnormal from other guys, he stares way too deep into Harry’s soul. Harry is a positive, happy guy, but when Louis talks to him, he's fucking smiling you see a whole different person and fuck, I wish I had a, quote, “friend” that makes me that happy.
And Liam. He's a cool guy. He's like the Mexican lady of the apartment. And it's funny because he's a Chicano Studies major. He's always the one cooking or if not, planning what to cook, and but cleaning the restrooms, well actually the whole apartment. He's a clean freak and that's creepy. But I like him because he does the chores nobody dares to do.
Right now we're all in the living room, sitting on the couch while others are getting ready to go to the college orientation. I was planning on not going but I wanna know where the food shack and coffee shop is at.
"So tell me Zayn, what do you like Mexico?" Liam asks.
"What do you mean?"
“Mexico… Aren’t you Mexican?" Oh my god. I come to America thinking this a cool place for foreigners to come and everyone here thinks I'm something that I'm not. I'm done trying. I start to laugh as much as I can.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha oh my god no. I'm Arabian. I've never heard that one before."
"Wait your not Mexican?" Niall asks.
"No I'm not! Anybody else think I was Mexican?”
"I thought you we're straight ass white, from British and everything." Louis says. You just like men, that's why you say that.
“No, well kind off. I'm from the UK. That's where I was born and everything but my dad is Arabian so I have Arabian blood in me."
"No kidding! That's cool though." Liam says.
"Thanks."
Harry comes out of his room wearing black jeans, a blue cardigan, and a The Beatles tee with his hair pulled back. My first thought is to look right at Louis to see his reaction.
He's amused. He does look good but in the crush-for-harry world, he looks hot.
"Alright I'm ready. Let's go."
"What took you so long?" Niall asks.
"I had to find the right cardigan."
We all make our way to the orientation hall. It's funny how we don't really have groupies amongst all of ourselves but Harry and Louis are beside each other in front of us, and Niall, Liam, and I are behind them. Louis and Harry are literally "Gayer than laughter," a lyric from Younger Than Springtime, the South Pacific musical. Their laughs together is just a small part of why they get along. And being gay for each other is a huge part of that.
We step in and Niall rushes in front of us. I'm guessing to lead us the way to sit at a row in the back row. Is he really that anti-social?
“Welcome and farewell to the freshmen class of the San Diego State University Aztec’s! We have a special guest here to perform. We couldn’t get Jenny Rivera to come,” Liam taps my shoulder and pouts with a sad face, “So instead we got a ginger and white girl. Ha-ha-ha! Eh?” No laughs. Just silence.
“Give it up for Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, America’s pop sensation duo, 2nd Harmony performing Drunk In Love!” Everyone is shocked by their appearance and start screaming to cheer on the performance.
I’m watching a white girl twerk to heavy electronic beats. Some go crazy for it but I think it’s all shit. No white girl should twerk. God please no. But Ed’s rapping is really good. It’s interesting how he rapped with a guitar with the heavy electronic beats in the background.
The rest of the presentation is so boring. Nobody else is really paying attention that they to turn to their phones to east the pain.
Louis whispers to us, “Wanna leave? Harry said he can drive us to Starbucks, you guys down to go?”
“Yeah let’s go,” Liam says.
“But what if we miss something important?” Niall asks.
“Literally all of this is in the student handbook. If you don’t want to leave then just stay.” I say.
“No I’ll go. I want coffee.”
Leaving the hall feels like a leaving a really awkward funeral. It’s was a relief to leave that place.
“That performance was really good though. I enjoyed Ed Sheeran’s rapping. I feel like he and I would be great best friends.” Harry says.
“But we all know Taylor didn’t have the vocals to sing that song.” I say. It bothered me because the notes we’re flat and not amusing at all.
“Oh whatever. Call me when your vocals are great as hers.” Louis says. Oh if he only knew my abilities.
“Dude is this your car? Nice car!” Liam tells to Harry. It’s a nice black Toyota Camry. It has that new car smell and new car smells are what I live for. It even has tented cars so that people can’t see him! I think I’m in love with his car.
We have arrived our destination. Starbucks. Home of the free for people who say they love coffee but only drink Starbucks’s coffee.
I believe there’s something that signifies someone’s personality just by knowing their Starbucks order. For example:
Liam, “Hello. I’ll have a venti hot carmel macchiato.” The carmel means he’s sweet and caring, and yet at the same time he gets a hot macchiato which means he’s manly. He loves coffee and chooses to get the carmel to show he wants to have a good time. He doesn’t need to get straight, strong, coffee to show that he’s the man.
Niall, “Hi. I’ll get the white chocolate mocha actually no I’ll get a mocha espresso no ugh just scratch that and I’ll get a venti iced passion tea.” His life is a mess. He doesn’t know what to get. He goes to hang out with a group of friends and when he’s with them, he can’t adjust to the environment and has a tough time choosing what he wants. I feel like he’s a person who doesn’t know how to make decisions and when he thinks he made the right decision, he later on regrets it.
Harry, “Hello can I have a mocha frappuchino with no whip cream and an extra shot of espresso?” No whip cream because he doesn’t want anything sweet but yet get’s the mocha…. Hm. He’s mysterious. All I could think of is that he doesn’t like the whip cream because he doesn’t like the hassle of drinking the whip cream. He likes to take things easy and that’s a good thing.
Louis, “Hello, I’ll have a venti carmel frappuchino with extra caramel.”… He totally is gay. The sweet and the extra sweet of his drink. He is in a way girly and most gay guys are a little girly but are different from other gay guys in general. He totally has the hots for Harry.
My turn. “Hello I’ll have a green tea frappuchino. And also can I get banana nut bread?” Green tea because I’m healthy and banana nut bread because I’m a type of person who always takes advantage of things in life. So that I don’t get hungry later.
We all get our coffee, and I, my heated banana bread which is freaking hot and ready for me to eat, and head our way to a table to chat.
“Well I feel like we haven’t really, really got time to know each other. We should play 20 questions or something.” Liam said.
“Sure. Shoot. Ask a question.” Harry said.
“Okay, does anybody smoke? Cigarettes or weed?”
“Lol I do. Both. But I’ve stopped smoking weed.” I said.
“I’ve always wanted to try it.” Louis said.
“Yeah me too. I guess we should both try it someday. Hahaha.” Harry said. There it is. The smile that kills each other, making their smiles wider when they make eye contact.
“Nah I don’t want to.” Niall says and whispers to me, “I’m already fucked up the way I am. Hahaha.” Am I suppose to feel sympathy?
“Yeah me neither. They don’t interest me.” Liam says.
“Okay I got one. Favorite TV show.” Louis says.
“Awkward.” Niall says. We all turn with a confusing face, “What? I’m a fan of Jenna’s blogging. Her voice in her writing is interesting.”
“Mine is CSI because killing.” I say.
“My favorite TV show is The Carrie Diaries. Really great writing.” Louis says.
“Oh is it good? I’ve heard of it.” Harry asks.
“Oh yes it’s really good. I love it. It’s a cute little drama show about teenagers and how their dreams all fall into place. It’s just amazing how relatable it is even though the story takes place during the 90s.” Louis says.
“Oh that’s cool. My favorite TV show is Supernatural.” Harry says.
“Oh that’s a good show.” Liam says.
“Yeah. Ha. It is.” Niall says in attempt to agree with the group.
“My favorite is Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. It’s a classic, man.” Liam says. Followed by a drink of his strong, yet sweet, coffee. Man, he is so manly.
“I’ve got a question. Why come here? To San Diego for college?” Harry ask’s.
“Well for me it was to get away from my mother. From her and her stupid rules.” Louis says.
“I wanted to get away from my father. I guess you and I have that in common Louis. Both wanting to get away from our parents. Haha.” Harry said.
“I really don’t know why. I just choose San Diego because my counselor told me it was a good school and they accepted the most international students than any other university in the country. And I wanted to come to america for the reason why a lot of people do. To live the american dream and hope to become somebody.” Niall said.
“Know I get you. I wanted to come here because I love San Diego. I’ve always been fascinated by California and when I saw pictures of San Diego, I just fell in love. The whole town looked nice. And it is. I don’t see myself get homesick here.”
“Yeah, that’s cool.” Harry said.
“What about you Zayn?” Niall asked.
“Well…I came here the same reason why you did. I wanted to be somebody. All my friends didn’t plan or want to go to college and I did. My friends all got obsessed with the idea of working at small, dead end jobs and making their own money. I kind of got where they we’re coming from. Not having to pay rent at their parents house or most of the bills but only their own but working at jobs that make you tired at the end of the day was not what I wanted. Plus I want my own house. My own place to live at and not at a cheap apartment. I wanted to get an education and not be like my friends. And yeah it hurts a bit to know my friends are not going to get an eduction or nevertheless experience this whole college thing with me, hating people but I hope with you guys, you make me forget my loser friends…”
I’ve never opened up like that to anybody but it felt good. God what have I become? They are not Dr.Phil or neither am I one of those people who freaking open up to people so easily.

Notes