Chapter Perspective: Mendez

“Come on Julio, just sink the shot,” Kara said from my side, one of her hands on my shoulder as I took aim at the two cups still remaining on Ty and Jackson’s side of the table.

“I’m trying,” I muttered as I felt the slight sway in my body. Though this was only our second game, Ty and Jackson had more or less stomped us through the first one and trying to be the gentleman, I downed most of Kara’s cups so that she wouldn’t have to.

“Yeah Julio, come on and shoot already, there’s others waiting to play the reigning champs you know,” Ty teased with a broad smile that broke against her darker skin.

“Callate, hermana,” I grunted, shaking my head slightly before tossing the ball. It flew mostly true and I felt my hopes rise only for them to get crushed as the light ball hit the edge of the cup and went bouncing off into the watching crowd.

A large chorus of “oof” echoed from them as I let out a sigh and Kara rubbed my shoulder lightly in condolence. “Maybe next round… if they don’t get our last cup here,” she said with reassuring smile.

The rest of her crew were among the crowd, either watching the game or mingling with both our crew and what seemed like all of the MEGALODON except for their Captain. Jackson hadn’t been kidding either about his interest in the party and when he showed up with several members of his crew and some people from one of the other ships in his year, they had an entire extra case of beer and a bottle of rum that I didn’t even realize was possible to get up here. When Ty and I had asked for the allotment at the Exchange, the service desk member hadn’t exactly given us a menu to choose from and the two cases we were given had only been filled with beer.

Jackson throwing his ball brought my attention back to the game as the shot went wide and bounced off the table only for Kara to deftly grab it before it could bounce off too far. While I had definitely been worried she might have taken our higher score personally, Kara had been nothing but happy for us since she got there, congratulating Curtis directly first before finding me and basically just sticking near my side the entire time.

“And here’s the game,” Ty announced, actually stepping back in a fade away like shot as her ball went short, hitting the table once and bouncing before landing square in our last remaining cup, summoning a round of applause from the audience and a groan of a sigh from me as I reached for the drink only for Kara to stop me and grab the cup herself.

“You know I can drink a little bit too,” she said with a soft smile and quickly tipped the glass back. “I was kinda hoping we’d lose anyway, now we can go and just relax,” she added before looking over to Ty, “Good game Reagan, guess that marksmanship goes beyond just ship weapons eh?”

“My brothers loved this game, we played it before the booze was ever even involved sometimes,” Ty responded with a shrug before looking into the crowd, “Come on, who wants to take on the champions here?”

We didn’t wait around to see who stepped up, Kara instead grabbing my hand and dragging me off toward the fridge in the canteen to refresh our drinks. Curtis seemed to be wrapped in a conversation with a shorter girl wearing round frames that I thought I had recognized as one of Killian’s classmates and I was surprised to find Novarod was even off near the front window, leaning against the wall and chatting with a girl with reddish-blonde hair.

We were only barely around the corner and into the empty canteen when Kara gently pushed me up to a wall and stood onto her toes, her lips finding mine in what I had to assume was motivated by the lower inhibitions from drinking. It was clumsy, and I could taste the beer on her breath, but it was still nice and I only stopped her, lightly pushing her back by her shoulders as I felt a completely unflattering burp rising in my chest.

“Sorry, I just-“ she started but I shook my head as I raised a hand to cover my mouth and turned to the side to allow the burp to come out in a way that was at least slightly less disgusting. “Oh, well that’s attractive, guess it doesn’t really matter, been wanting to do that for a while now,” she said with a small laugh.

“Dios Mio, I just wish you woulda let me get a breath mint first,” I said looking back at her and leaning my head to the side. “You know you coulda done that whenever, been kinda obvious that I’m into yah, right?”

“I guess, I might be a Captain but I’m a lady too you know, kinda was hoping you’d make the first move,” she admitted with a shrug, stepping away from me and opening the fridge, finding a bottle of water and offering it to me, “We should probably hydrate some, you don’t want cotton mouth after all that beer.”

I took the bottle from her, taking a second to take a long swig knowing that she was right and I definitely needed it. “And if you were waiting for me to make the first move, what was that about?” I asked curiously.

“Booze and impatience, guapo,” Kara’s smile was absolutely playful as she put a finger on my chest and looked up at me. “A girl can only give so many signals after all,” she added and started to lean back up again.

“Oh come on Julio, get a room” Killian’s voice interrupted as he and Sera came around the corner, empty cans gathered in their hands as they dumped them into the trash can that had been set up with a large bag.

“Ay ay ay, we had one before you two interrupted,” I groaned and Kara took a step back, her own cheeks growing red.

“How about we go get some “fresh” air,” she offered, actually using air quotes and Sera stifled a laugh behind her hand.

“Smooth,” she offered and Kara rolled her eyes.

“Don’t think Julio hasn’t filled me in on what’s going on with you two,” Kara said with a smirk before looking over to me, “ Wait these are those two right?”

I nodded and said, “Yup, only a matter of time though.” Both Sera and Killian grew red at that, Killians face nearly matching his hair as I let out a laugh and punched his shoulder as we passed them. “Rooms all yours, hermano.”