Remembering Marixa

Quinceñeras

Quinceañeras | Chapter 8

“Daaammmooonnnn!”

“It wasn’t me! I swear!”

I stared at him for a few seconds. “Then... how do you know what I’m talking about..?”

He opened his mouth and then closed it. “You...you...you got me used to it! You always yell at me! You abuse me!”

“No! You usually mess something up so I have to yell at you!”

“I do not. You’re just jealous ‘cause I’m fucking smexy. Anyway, you’ve got mail!”

I stared at him. He was kidding right? I never have mail. In the two months I’d been here I had no reason to get mail. I hadn’t even started school yet. I had to admit I was excited. I never had mail. Ever. I rarely got emails. I tried to look completely casual as I snatched the letter from his hand. I sat on the couch and Damon followed my lead, looking over my shoulder.

“Are you serious?” I asked raising an eyebrow. Usually I wouldn’t mind him reading over my shoulder. If we were in California, in my old house, I wouldn’t mind. But now? Here? What if it was something embarrassing like a doctors’ note? Than Damon would know about my... disease. If we were in California, my doctor would never send me a letter. She would just call or call me over if there was something.

Damon raised his hands in surrender, something I quickly learned he did frequently, and looked away. After scrutinizing the outside of the letter, I recognized the handwriting. I squealed happily like the idiot I was. It was my friends.

I was just about to open the letter when panic seized over me. What if this letter said they wanted nothing more to do with me? After all, they we were really far away. What if something bad had happened. They probably never wanted to talk to me again.

I stared at the letter again, scared. We always wrote letters to each other. When Lizzy went on vacation, or Mariana, we would write letters in our assigned colored pens. We would inform them of the news, and they would always write back. We would use one girl’s address, and fight over the space to write in the single sheet of paper.

However, I knew this wasn’t vacation. There was no way I was going back in the next 3 years. I had to get that through my head.

I sighed. After a while, I told myself to stop being a chicken and act like a man. I opened the letter and looked at the 5 different colors on the page. There was green, blue, purple, pink, and red. Out of the envelope, 5 colored papers also came crashing out. They were made out of the nice paper, the ones that were thicker and had pretty designs. It didn’t take long to figure out what they were. They were invitations to parties. More importantly quinceañeras.

The paper had times, dates, and information all about when the parties were going to be. They had pictures of my friends in dresses, in make-up looking their best.

Tears almost filled my eyes but I forced them down.

Putting the invitations down, I focused on the letter. From the corner of my eye, I could see Damon examining the invitations.

I read the letter. A good chunk of it was pink, which was Destiny’s color. It informed me all about the drama in school and how Mariana’s ex “a total douche” had asked her out. They all filled in on how he was an asshole, and they all told me about the funny moment when he asked her out.

Dude. She was like sitting right next to me when he asked me. Destiny wrote.

He is such a jerk. He doesn’t deserve Mariana or Destiny. Lizzy added.