Last Kiss Goodbye • Teenage Juice Ortiz

67 - Mateo's First Time

"You can't take my son from me!"

He started to laugh. "What? He's your son now? A son whose birthday you don't even celebrate, a son who you've never given a present, never given a kiss?" He leaned back in the couch, enjoying the sight of her angry face. "I see why you want him to stay here. So the neighbors ain't gonna ask difficult questions, huh? So you don't have to explain to your fancy friends why none of your children want to live at your place. Cause that would be a nightmare huh? The world discoverin' what a shitty mother you are?"

She stared at him, hatred churning in her eyes. He wondered what she would do; throwing the nearest vase at his head or spitting every curse she knew at him. 

She went for the last option. 

Mateo turned up the volume of the tv and fixed his attention on the screen while his mother was starting her rant. Only when the door was slammed shut, he looked to the side. She wasn't going to come back tonight, he thought, feeling satisfied. Good. As long as he hadn't his own place to live, it was best for everyone if she spent the nights with her fling. 

He hadn't told Juan that he was looking for an apartment, nor that he wanted his brother to move in with him. Back in the day he would have done so immediately, but after his mother's insinuations he was still afraid that she had poisoned Juan's mind during the time he spent in prison. Who knows what that bitch had hissed at him the past weeks. Negative thoughts always got stuck in his head. The accusations of that bitch echoed around in his own head with times, so there was no doubt the same went for Juan. Maybe he didn't feel safe around him anymore; he was too short at home to decide how much their relationship had changed, and even when Juan agreed, he was hundred percent sure his mother would use her sharp tongue to convince him their relationship wasn't healthy. The thought that Juan might not want to live with him because of that lie, hurt. Their close friendship had always meant a lot to him, especially since he was abandoned by his father, hated by his mother and he'd never gotten along that well with his sister. The thought that his mother was trying to fuck this up for them too, filled him with a sickening rage. 

. . .

The anger kept coursing through his veins until Juan came home. He smiled as he entered the living room, making the corners of Mateo's mouth curl up too. 

"Hey kid. That was a long first day of school." He winked at his brother, assuming he'd had dinner at June's and he appreciated the fact that Juan had come home at all. 

"Well, not really," he answered, flopping down on the couch next to him. "After lunch, June was gone and I went looking for her."

Mateo lifted his eyebrows; he didn't take June for a girl who skipped a lot of school. 

"Was she okay?" He assumed she was, if his brother hadn't found her he would have called hours ago. 

"Yeah." He sighed. "She was really pissed when she saw Beth's car."

Mateo rolled his eyes, although he wasn't surprised. 

"When she didn't show up in class and neither did Beth, I thought that Beth had hurt her again. But it turned out that she'd just gone home."

Mateo knew Juan well enough to know that the fear must have paralyzed his brain. "That whore's never gonna touch her again, little brother. I made sure of that, told 'er I'd tattoo her body with the images at her car if she ever does."