[ nine ]
Erick stood by her side, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and giving her a reassuring squeeze. With a sigh, he told her, "I know you're really upset over what happened. But if you need someone to talk to, we can go get some coffee or something. Or maybe dinner? I just got to Mexico City and I'm starving." The young footballer suggested.
She shook her head. "No, thank you Erick. I'd rather head back home. But you go eat something. Its unhealthy to spend so much time without eating." She sniffled and wiped the tears that were soaking her face.
Since she had walked to the Zocalo and it was getting late in the city, she let Erick take her home. In other circumstances, she'd have declined the offer. But she didn't feel like she was up for anything, and that included walking home. All America wanted to do at that moment was climb into bed and stay there for the rest of her life.
They arrived at her home a few minutes later and Erick went around to open the door for her. She stepped out of the car and into her former boyfriend's arms. He rubbed her back soothingly as he said into her hair, "Don't cry over him. I'm here for you."
"I'm crying because it was my fault." America told him, crying into the fabric of his. "He hates me and its my fault."
"But there was no reason for him to immediately turn around and date your cousin." Erick reasoned, sounding outraged. In his heart, he felt bad that she was suffering. But he was happy, at the same time, that he now had the opportunity to win her over once again. He believed that anything and everything was fair in love and war. "I can understand the guy was hurt. I just can't forgive the fact he tried to hurt you by asking Regina out."
"Its not his fault." America defended him. Because even after everything, she loved him. "I lied to him. What did I expect would happen?" A small hint of a smile spread across her lips when she heard his stomach growl. Pulling away from his embrace and looking up into his brown eyes, she told him, "Thank you for the ride home. Maybe you should go get something to eat."
Erick laughed. "I would prefer a home cooked meal. I've been away from Mexico so long that I even forgot what the food tastes like."
She knew he was hinting for her to invite him in. But after what happened between them, her family wasn't fond of him at all. America bit her lip. "I would invite you in, honestly, because even after everything I was able to forgive you. But I think my family would lynch you and burn you at the stake. They absolutely hate your guts, especially my dad." She informed him truthfully. Her dad was the one who took longest to warm up to Erick when they were dating. Mr. Hernandez could never get past the fact that Erick played for Chivas de Guadalajara. Club Deportivo Guadalajara was Club America's strongest and fiercest rival. The rivalry was decades old and the two were the most popular teams in the country. They were like the FC Barcelona and Real Madrid of Mexican football.
"Tell him I'll get him a Cuauhtemoc Blanco autographed jersey if he forgives me." Erick joked.
"Uff," Her eyes widened at the thought. "He would probably adopt you if you did that."
When their moment of laughter and reminiscing ended, there was an awkward silence between them. They both stood there, not saying anything until Erick scratched the back of his head shepishly. "Call me if you need anything." He told her.
She nodded. "Yeah, I will. Goodbye Erick."
"Bye Ami." He said and leaning in, he pressed his lips to her cheek.
.
.
.
.
The moment she got past the front door, her mother took one look at her and knew something was wrong. "America," She began, her expression full of worry. "What happened? You look upset." And that was all it took to trigger a new wave of tears.
With a shake of her head, she said, "Nothing." And she ran to her bedroom.
Once there, she brought her cellphone out of her pocket and opened up her twitter app. The first thing she did was go to her private messages and compose one to Oscar.
america_emboaba: oscar... can we talk?
message send failed.
america_emboaba: please listen to me. i didn't mean for everything to go this way.
message send failed.
america_emboaba: i hope you can see my messages because my twitter is really acting up right now.
message send failed.
When she noticed her messages to him were not sending, she began to worry and she clicked on his profile. She couldn't see his tweets and at the top of his twitter profile was a notification for her; oscar11 has blocked you.
He blocked her.
America couldn't believe it. He was so angry at her that he blocked her.
Her mother went to knock on her bedroom door minutes later and she wanted to talk to her daughter about what was troubling her, but her door was locked. "Sweetie, dinner's ready. Come join us." Mrs. Hernandez encouraged.
America tried to compose herself so that her mother wouldn't worry. "No thanks mom. I have a lot of things to do." She lied.
"But you need to eat." Mrs. Hernandez insisted.
"I said no, mom." America told her.
With a sigh, her mother gave up and disappeared down the hall. The brunette felt miserable. She climbed under the covers without even changing into something more comfortable and cried for what felt like hours.
She discovered she had been crying for five hours when she recieved a text message from Erick and she saw the time on her phone.
x-xxx-xxx-xxxx: hey, its erick. how are you feeling?
america: miserable.
erick: i hate seeing you so upset.
erick: but you need to see this. you'll probably see it eventually anyway.
erick: go to your cousin's twitter.
America did as he asked her and opened up her twitter app. She went into the search bar on the top right corner and typed in her cousin's username, @queenregina. Her heart sank when she saw the latest thing on her account.
queenregina: having the best time at Patria y Libertad restaurant with the bf @oscar11 :D twitpic.com/1ncei6no6ynw35
It was a picture of her cousin at an expensive restaurant with Oscar. On the blonde's face was a boad smile while Oscar looked like he'd rather be anywhere but there. He was smiling, but it looked forced. America wondered why he was torturing himself like that, but then she concluded it was all part of his plan to make her suffer.
And he was succeeding.
America was heart broken and she was finding solace in the boy who was her former boyfriend.
-
as we near the end of the story, including this one there are four more updates, i will post one everyday. because i'm an impatient motherfucker when it comes to writing.
i already have the chapters in drafts, so i could post them now. but i think that would be too much for one day ^.^
anyway, thank you for reading.
i hope you're enjoying the story so far.
i love you.
-clary xx
