The Rich Girl and the Gangster

Chapter Four

‘Where’s my other hermano?’ I asked him.

‘Off to work,’ Miquel said it like he wanted to ignore me, but also wanted to show what he knows, ‘Diego is waiting for you.’

‘Mi mejor amigo,’  I greeted Diego with a shove, once I saw him.

‘verlo.’ He sneers back. I know he’s just tense about tonight so I let it go, but he’d better cheer up ‘cause I aint gonna deal with his cranky ass all day.

That’s what I told him, but he just told me to fuck off as we drove on our motorcycles to school. The only class I had with Diego today was gym, so I wouldn’t have to deal with him until the end of the day.

‘Guerrero,’ Pedro came to me as soon as he saw me. Diego gave me a look and stalked off. Mierda.

‘What’s up, cous.’ I say.

‘Sorry for draggin’ you in tonight, bro. But I gotta do it.’

I only nod at him. Pedro and I were going into the R8 territory tonight, to defend his girlfriend. I know it sounds like a stupid reason to risk gettin’ beaten up, but Pedro was crazy about Emilia. Some of the R8 boys had harassed her when on neutral territory, and Pedro wasn’t going to let it go.

The R8 had always been our rival gang, seeing as their territory started where ours ended, but for some reason the youth of both sides always went out of their way to piss the other off. We really hated each other.

‘Don’t sweat it bro.’ it was not like we were the only ones going, that would be too close to suicide. Rafael and Fernando were comin’ too.  And Diego probably as well, but not because he wanted too, just to watch my back, like I did his.

And I was right, when I arrived at my locker, an impatient Diego was waiting for me there.

‘I’m comin’ with.’ He said as soon as I open my locker.

I flash him a smile, ‘I knew you would,’

‘Yeah, yeah. But you owe me, güey,  you owe me big time.’

I nodded, and am about to speak when I spot Eliza and her simio. Her back is towards him, and I don’t think she’d noticed him yet as she rummages through her locker.

When he puts his hand on her, she’s startled and turns around, even from here I can see the fear in her eyes.

That was more than just a little scare when someone surprises you. Suddenly the image of her wrists is in my head.

Did Drew hurt her? I couldn’t help but wonder. But as she relaxes again and gives him a kiss (bruto) I put that thought out of my head. Why did I care anyway?

I was thinking about tonight, and all the things that could go wrong. We knew exactemente where the culeros  were tonight. With a bit of luck, we wouldn’t even run into other gang members. And I knew we could take them, easily.

Before I knew it, Diego and I were walking towards the  locker rooms for gym. I was glad to find out everything had stayed the same here, the white guys on the other side of the room than us. We were trash-talking and insulting every-one of them, in Spanish of course, and they just ignored us. They probably had ideas what we were talking about, but they never said a word.

It was just too weird to talk to a white guy when your undressing and getting into your gym clothes.

I did notice though that Drew Collins was in our gym class. Good, I thought. I’d never had gym with him before, and I wanted to show everyone I was better than he was. At least when it came to physical stuff. Like when I’m fucking his girlfriend. I laughed and told it to the others.

‘Way to go, amigo,’ Diego said, ‘Hope you can keep that promise.’

I laughed but el simio himself cut me off.  

‘O my god, they speak English. I would’ve never guessed.’

‘vete a la mierda,’  I tell him, ‘we were just talkin’ bout your girlfriend bro.’  I had a big grin on my face, and so do mis cuates.

‘Understandable,’ he said, surprising me,  ‘she’s hotter than all off your Mexican girls combined.’

This sets off a stream of insults, but I stay calm, ‘No, more like how I could have her bend over my motorcycle any day I wanted.’

Drew’s face gets red, and he steps over that invisible line into our half of the room, but before he can say anything, coach Peterson walks in and tells us to hurry up or it’s detention.

Before I leave the locker room Diego stops me, ‘Look bro, I know pissing off Drew is fun, but keep talkin’ like that about his girlfriend and you’re gonna have to prove it. So unless you wanna do that, you’d better shut the fuck up, kay?’

I nod, I figured as much, ‘I’ll keep it down a notch.’

As we walked on the field together, I see Eliza talking to Peterson, she’s in her normal clothes and Peterson nods at her and she heads over to the bleachers.

‘I’m going to regret this,’ I hear Peterson say when we catch up with the rest of the group.

‘Okay, here’s the deal, I have to leave early so we are going to play soccer. The girls are going to watch and cheer.

Collins, Sanchez, pick your teams.’

I smiled, this was just perfecta.