puberty | hiatus

f o u r.

nate

i lean forward, and my breathing increases. lucia's eyes dart to my lips and then to my eyes, her hands still on my chest.

i close my eyes and—then she slaps me.

(HAHAHAA Y'ALL THOUGHT THEY GONNA KISS MWAHAHA)

"what was that for?!" i ask, rubbing my smarting cheek.

"stop being such a player." she mumbles as she shoves past me.

after that, she basically ignores me until i try to confront her again, and she punches me, walking quickly past me to go see where her brother is.

i don't understand until i see cai drive up in her barbie convertible, back from whatever the heck she was doing.

i grimace as i hear her grating voice.

"naaaaaate?" she yells.

"i'm coming, cai," i sigh as i go to meet her.

"heey babyy!" she screams as she grabs ahold of me with her long, puke pink fingernails, stumbling over her own 5 inch heels.

"are you drunk?" i ask incredulously, and then i smell her breath.

woah.

lucia comes down in newer clothes, to be specific, a nike shirt and high waisted shorts.

she looks amazing, and i swallow nervously, forgetting about cai for a minute.

she looks up, confusedly when she sees me staring at her, then she looks at cai.

"oh my goodness cai, what have you gotten yourself into now.." she sighs and leads cai upstairs, where i can hear cai cursing at her.

"leave me alone!!" she yells, until i hear her bed squeak and lucia sigh.

i head upstairs to see if i can help, and then i see lucia closing cai's door and cai's loud snores emanating from it.

lucia looks up and i am accidentally in her way.

"oop—" "sorry—" we say as we bump into one another, and then the doorbell rings.

"look, can you take care of tyler for like, 15 minutes?" she asks, not looking at me.

"sure.." i say uncertainly.

tyler miraculously appears and i lead him to the game room where we play jenga for a couple minutes until i hear loud, angry voices.

"¡déjame en paz!"

(leave me alone!)

"¡cállate!"

(shut up!)

i run upstairs quickly, and separate them from physically fighting.

i'm guessing the guy is cai's horrible exboyfriend, and he's raging mad.

"leave right now, or i'll call the police!" i bellow threateningly, and the dude glares at me, but leaves thankfully.

"sorry—that was cai's ex." lucia says shortly, trembling and not looking at me.

"hey, look at me." i say and lift her face gently.

her eyes are full of tears as she rubs her wrist.

i turn her wrist over, and there is an already purple mark of fingers around her small wrist.

i wince and massage it gently. "come on, let's put some ice on that, okay?" i say gently, and she nods numbly.