No More Wasting Time

Chapter 33

I couldn't sleep that night. Hector wouldn't tell me what it was that he needed to talk with me about so we said goodnight and that was the end of it. His voice sounded serious but the bad type. I stayed up thinking and processing. My mind wouldn't stop thinking about the past few days and whether or not I messed up somewhere or sometime. My mind came up blank and that seemed to piss me off even more. It bothered me that I didn't know or have even the slightest clue. I wanted to believe that it wasn't that he wanted to break up.

It couldn't be.

"Dude, you okay? You've been lost all morning."

"Yeah," I mumbled and gathered up the trash from the house. "I'll be back."

Just like how my mother mentioned the night before, we all woke up early and began to clean the house. I was surprised that even Daniel was around and helping out. We've been cleaning for about an hour and we were just finishing up, the trash being one of the last tasks. The door opened behind me and I turned to see Caden following me with two more bags I must've forgotten.

"You know," he began and dumped the trash. "It's hard to lie to a professional liar."

"I'm fine."

"And I'm straight," he snorted. "What bullshit happened to make you like this? Some asshole?"

I bit my lip to stop the words from coming out and he narrowed his eyes at me. It's true that I wanted to ask someone what Hector could've meant but at the same time I didn't want to drag Caden into this. It was my relationship drama after all. I'm a terrible person, I know this. Just yesterday I was all up in Caden's business and now I won't even have him help in my business when he's willing to help.

"Hector-"

I was interrupted by the sound of a car pulling up and we both looked over to see Max's shiny new truck. Caden glanced at me and I couldn't help the slight panic that showed on my face. He gave my shoulder a slight squeeze and then proceeded to walk over to the truck, opening up Max's door for him and helping him down. I slowly walked over to greet my best friend and noticed that he also looked somewhat serious. I began to panic a bit more when I saw that Hector wasn't with him.

"Hey, Diego," Max began. "Hector had some things to sort but he said he'd be here later. He. . . said he was going to pick you up in like an hour or two."

I swallowed down the sudden weight that appeared in my throat and nodded my head, blinking away the tears of panic that wanted to slip away. How silly of me, already crying when it could be nothing. It could be something good, something that I'm overthinking. Max looked at me with worry and Caden was standing beside him awkwardly. I cleared my throat and nodded my head at Max to show I understood.

"You guys should get going. I know you guys had plans. I still have to clean my room and I'll be done by the time Hector will get here."

Caden opened his mouth to argue but Max grabbed his arm as if to say 'don't'. It was weird to see him worried for me but at the same time, it made me feel a bit better. We all walked inside so that Caden could say goodbye and that way Max could at least say hi to my mom and Daniel. My mother gushed over Max like how she always does and I made an excuse that I had to go to the bathroom and said my farwell to the both of them, silently telling them that it was okay to leave right away. I didn't want them second guessing themselves and cancel their plans for me. Plus, once Hector got here, I had a strong feeling that he would want to be alone.

"Honey? You aren't going out?"

I took a deep breath to release the tension and cleared my throat once before responding, "Yeah, Hector said he was running late though. He'll be here soon."