Carlos -->
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Louis
“Is she awake?” Carlos yelled to me. Ryan laid on our couch, her eyes slowly inching open to see our dimly lighted home.
“She looks like it!” I yelled back to him. I see Ryan look confused and try to get up but wince in pain. Chuy stands up to talk to her.
“Ryan?” He asks unsure if she remembered or not.
“Yes, who are you?” She asked confused. Boy she was pretty when she was confused. You don’t see that a lot. Normally she pretends to know what’s going on.
“I’m Chuy, I’m considered a-a-a doctor. I guess.” He says unsure if he should tell her the truth. Chuy works for the Gangs around here. When they get wounded he allows them to come to him for medical attention. He does great work. Especially with a pen!
“Well, Chuy, you don’t seem sure of that to me.” She says to him
“Well, I am. For certain people… Now, you’re going to have to tell me how this happened.” He tells her in a calm voice. I never knew that a Mafioso could speak in that type of voice.
“Um, uh, I attacked the side walk…. It won?” She says. Obviously lying about it.
“Okay, lets have an understanding. If you tell me what really happened, I’m entitled not to tell anyone. I’m not as doctorish as you would think. But I know my way around an ER pretty well.” He tells her. She sighs and turns her head to look him in the eyes.
“It was my brother. He does this a lot to me. He’s my legal guardian… But he has some… Problems.” She says, a stray tear falls down her eye. “He likes to beat me. He finds it… Entertaining?”
The ways she looks as she explains this gets to me. I realize someone is worse off than me. I could’ve been there for her but I left her when I was little. I could’ve been there to help her…No, she left me.
“Where am I?” She asks confused.
“At Louis Grange’s home. They brought you hear when they found you.” He tells her. Miama walks into the room with the look of worry on her face. She’s going to do something stupid…. I know it.
“Oh darling girl!” She says in her accent.
“Ma, she doesn’t need you right now!” I tell her. That was a mistake. She rambles on to me in Spanish about how I’m not being polite to her guest and that I’m a bad son. Or something like that.
As she stops she turns around to see Ryan. “What’s your name?” She asks politely…. Or as she thinks is polite.
“Ryan, yours?” Ryan asks in her fake voice.
“I’m Tatiana. You know if you’re being abused you can stay here. I can go with you to get your things and we can set up the guest room for you.” She says and Carlos Gasps.
“We have a guest room! I didn’t know that! Is it that door that you said we can’t go in because we’ll wreck it?” Carlos yells to Miama.
Miama rolls her eyes and looks back to Ryan and smiles. Miama is always friendly to girls. But she can get protective at times to us.
“I would love to, but the problem is, I don’t think he’ll let me in again.” she tells her.
“No, he’ll let you in if I have anything to do with it.” She tells her in her stern voice.
Ryan smiles and for the first time in a long time, I think it’s real. Chuy works on her for a while, taking off her rib bandages even though she protests. He tells her about the risks she’s been taking by bandaging up her ribs and trying to do it all on her own. He knows it’ll never work like that.
Once he does he pulls me outside. “You remember our deal right? I fix your friend and you’re forced to jump in tomorrow night.”
“Yes I remember. We just can’t let Miama know until after. Will you be here to help me?”
“Si, don’t let me down Louis.”
