The Bad Boy with a Heart of Gold

✖ Chapter 24 ✖

"I think you should apologize."

I stared at Toni as though she were growing a second head. In a way she kind of was. She was approaching the fourth month mark and was finally starting to show a little bit, which made everybody in the Martinez Fernandez household hyper aware of everything around Toni. Now that papa and mama had made peace with the facts, they were starting to border on helicopter grandparenthood. Mama was on a campaign to get Toni to eat only organic and homemade. Meanwhile papa was showing the first stages of obsession with converting what used to be our studio into a nursery.

I'd earned myself a break from the madness the couple of weeks leading to Homecoming, since I'd been so busy with it that I'd barely been at home enough to sleep and eat. Now that that was over and it was back to the regular routine, my nerves were chafing every time I got home from school and the two of them were fretting about Toni and the baby, barely realizing if I was there. My sister and I had got to a mutual agreement after that one scare, that from then on we were going to be honest to each other, no matter what.

This morning after a hectic breakfast where mama was explaining the nutritional superiority of homemade arepas versus white bread, I'd exchanged a look with Toni and pulled her aside. Openly I told her, "If I sound jealous it's because I am, but I'm so sick of their fretting about you."

She chuckled for a hot second but then said, "Honestly, so am I. I need a break. Wanna trade?"

I thought it through. Much as I always enjoyed standing out to our parents, I didn't want their spotlight on me. Under the extra light they might see things I didn't want them to. Like for example the calluses in my hands for spending nearly every night of my life drawing in my room. Or the bags under my eyes I had developed the past few nights, awake until late as I thought about every interaction with a certain boy.

"No, thanks," I said, which surprised us both. "What if we go to the mall or something?"

She'd perked up at the idea and a half hour later Adam came to pick us up for a strange sort of family outing. On the way to the mall he asked me how Sawyer was doing and I made a crucial mistake. Instead of connecting the dots and figuring he asked about Sawyer's injuries, I thought he was asking a broader question—which instead gave them very specific answers. By that point I'd already got multiple lectures from Courtney and Lina on the topic, but I wanted to hear their perspectives. Which brought me back to Toni's suggestion.

But since the honesty rule was established between the Martinez sisters, I should have expected the conversation to take a direction I might not like.

By that same token, though, I was free to reply to her with, "I don't want to."

Toni's dark eyes shone bright with laughter as she turned from the baby onesie in her hand to me. We were in a store packed to the brim in baby paraphernalia, and although our combined budget was limited at best, I was sure we were going to come out at least with little socks. Adam had bee lined straight to the toys section while Toni and I were drawn to the clothes.

That was not enough to distract her from the topic. "It's not about whether you want to or not, but whether you should."

I groaned.

"Not fair," I said. "Why doesn't he apologize to me for subjecting me to public ridicule?"

She shrugged. "Unless he created the rumors himself, why should he?"

I frowned at the fool proof logic and grumbled, "Well, he's the one who kissed me."

"Sure, but since it was consensual there's no need for him to apologize. Unless it was really bad," this she said with a pointed look and since I'd already put my foot in my mouth by spilling all the beans, I figured there was no use in holding anything back anyway. I was actually relieved she wasn't judging me as hard as the girls were.