The Fuentes Family

18

Santiago Fuentes

"Wakie wakie sleepy head."

Val's face is uncomfortably close to mine as he leans over my bed, a big toothy grin spread across his face. I put my hand over it and push his head back. "It's too early for that."

"What? For my beautiful face?"

I grunt in response, pulling my pillow over my face.

"Seriously, get up. You gotta take me to Mon's place remember."

"How about you get your own fuckin' car?"

"Why would I if I can't drive?" He rummages around his drawers, pulling stuff out and throwing them on the floor.

"Learn."

"Nah. Effort."

The door opens so I pull the pillow off my face. Yasmin comes in and closes the door.

"Excuse me, but there are people getting naked in here," Val says, putting a t-shirt over his chest as if he gives a fuck who sees him in underwear.

"Alex isn't here. Did he tell you where we went?" She looks at me and I sit up.

"No." I think back to last night when I heard something smash. What the hell happened? "Ask Amelia."

"Ya'll are so dramatic," Val comments, pulling a shirt over his head.

"Just 'cause you don't have a care in the world about anything, doesn't mean other people don't." Yasmin's pauses. "And you need a haircut."

"You need a life cut."

"That doesn't make sense."

"It does to smart people."

"So that counts you out."

This will go on forever. I tune them out and text Alex, asking where he is. Five minutes later Yasmin and Val are still going at it and Alex hasn't texted back, so I call him. It goes straight to voicemail.

Amelia walks outside, fixing something in her bag while i'm standing there smoking, waiting on Val and Yasmin, even though Val is the one who wanted to leave early. When he tries to be early he ends up being later than usual.

"Everything okay?" She gets a fright, having not seen me and puts her hand over her heart.

"You scared the hell out of me."

"Sorry," I laugh.

"And yeah, i'm uh, fine. Thanks."

"Were you and Alex arguing last night?"

She hesitates before telling me. "Yes. We- we broke up."

What? "Why?"

She shrugs. "Something happened to him I guess and once again he took it out on me. He told me he's done with everything. Whatever that means."