So, this is not my best. uhm, the mother of my aunt (by marriage) died and I've spent the last few days helping out with everything and all and yeah, it didn't put me in a happy writing place. so that's why I have been AWOL
and, as always, thanks for fanning, voting and commenting. it means a lot.
PS: this one is mostly about Julio
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter Nine: Eliza
‘Julio!’
The smile on my face was as big as it could get when Julio walked through the pink and white doors of the ice parlor.
‘How’s my favorite white chick doin’?
I let out a soft laugh, brought up a hand to my chest and fake hurt said, ‘I thought I was the only white girl you know?’
Julio grinned at me, exposing his white teeth, ‘No, there’s Betty, the cashier at SuperMarket. And Jenny who picks out my clothes. And Mary who cuts my hair,’ his hand went over his short cut hair, ‘But don’t worry querida. You’re still my number one.’
‘I’d better be,’ I told him, taking off my apron. ‘Have you ever had spaghetti ice-cream?’
Julio’s eyes almost bulge out of its sockets, ‘You have ice-cream that taste like spaghetti. And you’ve never told me that before?’
I shook my head, ‘No, idiot. It looks like spaghetti, doesn’t taste like it.’
‘Gimme, gimme.’
I took out the vanilla ice-cream and put it in the cutter thingy. I pushed it through and long strings of ice-cream fell on the plate. I made it look like spaghetti, making a little mountain. I went over to the sauces and picked the strawberry and put it over the “spaghetti.” I finished off with three small chocolate ice-cream balls.
Proudly I presented the plate to Julio.
‘Holy shit, girl. That looks fine.’
I gave him a little fork, and he dug in. But before he put the first bite into his mouth, he stopped, the ice-cream inches from his mouth.
‘You never answered my question.’ He stated.
Question? What… oh right, if I was okay.
‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’
Julio lowered his eyebrows in a frown, put his fork down and said, ‘Yeah, that’s the second time I don’t believe you.’
It wasn’t a surprise since I didn’t even believe it myself. Ignoring Xavier had been a bitch. He seemed to be everywhere, and my reactions varied depending on who was with him. I mean, god the guy was handsome, and when he was alone it was easy to forget who and what he was.
And when he was with his friends, yeah, then he was just dangerous. Everybody just moved out of his way as if the air around him was solid and pushed at everyone who came close.
I needed to stay away from him.
I don’t know why I had this strange physical attraction to him, but that was as far it went. And I should do what all the north siders did. Stay away from the south siders. Except Julio of course.
‘Just eat your ice-cream,’ I told him, giving him a pleasant smile. Look how fine I am, mister.
He seemed to think about it, ‘Okay, but only if you go out with me.’
Okaaaaay…. Yeah, I so didn’t see Julio in that way. He was more a friend and a brother than anything else. And, to top it off, I had Drew.
‘Uhmm…’ yeah, I’m real eloquent sometimes.
Julio got a face of horror, and then quickly said, ‘Oh, god. I don’t mean it like that. Not on a date or anything.’ He let out a soft chuckle and shook his head, ‘God knows I don’t see you in that way.’
Phew… I laughed then mentally slapping myself, of course not, he had a girlfriend.
‘I mean, will you hang out with me at the mall after I finished my ice-cream.’
‘Yeah, yeah I will.’ I was a little embarrassed but I tried to not let it show.
‘Good,’ he said and dug into his spaghetti ice-cream. I just hung back and watched him eat it with a look of adoration on his face.
‘So, how do I look,’ I asked Julio as a pouted my lips and posed.
‘Those sunglasses are unacceptable,’ Julio told me, though it was totally unnecessarily. The woman standing next to us was gaping, and I wondered if she believed I actually liked the sunglasses. I’d been wearing them and staring at myself for quite a while now.
The sunglasses were red and heart shaped, and looked so ridiculous people were actually staring at me. I didn’t like it, the staring, but I had already checked trice if all my clothes were in place. No need to check again. Yeah, if I only believed that.
‘But baby,’ I tuned up a whiny tone, ‘I want these sunglasses.’
Julio’s voice hardened, ‘Bitch, if you buy them, I’m gonna beat your ass when we get home.’
What the…
Julio threw me a playful wink.
‘But baby, I really like them.’
He gripped my arm, not hurting at all, but it looked pretty intense, ‘I tell you now, chica, if you buy them, I’m gonna smash your head in with that ugly ass vase your mother bought us. You ain’t gonna buy that ugly shit with my money, whore.’
‘I…I uh…Honey,’
‘Stop honeying me, chica,’ and then Julio went off in a Spanish rant. It went too fast for me to catch anything, so I surreptitiously sneaked a glance around. People were looking. And I mean really looking.
Julio suddenly swapped the sunglasses of my nose and dragged me out side. When we were out of eye-sight, I finally got my voice back.
‘Julio, what the hell. What was that?’
Julio had a big smile plastered on his face, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
‘Didn’t you see the way they were staring at us before?’ he finally said when he’d wiped the grin off his face.
When I shook my head no, he sighed and said, ‘White people always expect us Latinos to cause trouble. So we give it to them.’ he ended it with a shrug.
‘But aren’t you making it worse?’
‘People are going to think what they are going to think. They make their minds up and stick with it. Besides did you see their faces?’
Their gaping mouths, their wide eyes, the soft whispers and the nudging each other. A soft chuckle escaped me, ‘Yeah, that was pretty damn funny, but Julio, I’m not comfortable with… you know, staging it?’ having people look at me, be the center of unwanted attention.
‘And that’s why I did it. You need to let go, querida. You shouldn’t care ‘bout what strangers think of you. So let’s go and stage some drama. Kick some scenes.’
It’s strange. Me and my friends are the popular ones at school. There, I’m used at being watched. But though Julio’s offer sounded attractive, I didn’t want to be that noticed. Just when I was about to say no, Julio threw me the puppy dog eyes. Damn.
‘Fine, fine.’
A broad smile lit up Julio’s face, ‘Alright here’s what we are going to do...’
Julio walked up to the – unfortunate- employee. The girl had long blonde hair, fake nails, fake lashes and a shit-load of make-up on. She looked like one who partied a lot. And she was perfect.
Her back was towards Julio, but that was okay. We’d already gotten everything we’d needed.
‘Darla, is that you?’
The girl turned around and frowned, ‘Do I know you?’
The hurt look on Julio’s face was almost believable, ‘Quirida, don’t you remember me? We had a great night, when was it, a few weeks ago. You told me I was the best fuck you’d had?’
I shook my head, way to go, Julio. Arrogant ass.
‘Uhm…’ the girl brought out, actual embarrassment on her face.
Julio made a move then, stepping closer, invading her personal space, whispering sweet things to her I couldn’t hear.
The panic was clear on Darla’s face, and I took pity on her.
From behind the racks I emerged and walked to them. My steps angry and hasty.
When I reached them, I pulled them apart, none to gently, and turned to Julio.
‘So this is the whore you’ve been fucking behind my back?’
‘Baby, I haven’t been screwing around. You know that.’
‘Yeah, right. Is that why you come home late every night, smelling like a woman? You piece of shit,’ totally unexpected I slapped him right across the face. Damn, that felt good.
‘Look baby, I fucked her only once, and it was her fault, she came onto me. Basically undressed herself in front of me.’
‘What,’ came Darla’s insulted voice behind us, but I paid no attention to it.
‘You worthless shitfaced piece of crap!’
A crowd was gathering, but I focused on Julio, as he told me too.
‘Babe, you’re causing a scene.’ He brought his hands up in a defending way.
‘I’m causing a scene? I’m causing a scene? If you didn’t sleep with everything that moved, I wouldn’t have too! You worthless…’ I punched him on the chest, ‘Cheating,’ punched him , ‘lying,’ punched him again, ‘scumshagging, son of a bitch.’
‘Leave my mom out of this!’
‘Ugh, latino guys with their moms. Do you all have Oedipus complexes?’
Julio frowned, woops was that too smart an insult? I got the answer when Julio clamped a hand over my mouth. That would be a yes.
With the other arm, and I was impressed by how he managed it, he swooped me off my feet and into his arms. I finally got a good look at the crowd we’d attracted and it was a good thing Julio still had his hand over my mouth as he dragged me out of the supermarket. I was positive that otherwise I wouldn’t ’ve been able to stop my laughter.
It was more than an hour later I finally stood on the front steps of my house, and I was tired. Julio and I had hit a few shops after the supermarket and I had become more and more comfortable with the staring thing.
As soon as I opened the door, the Bitch came into sight and hurried her way over.
‘Your friends are here and they’ve been waiting for half an hour.’
Shiiiit. I’d totally forgotten we were supposed to hang at six at my house. Good thing I was only half an hour late then.
‘Girl,’ Caitlin immediately greeted me when I showed my face, ‘Where’ve you been?’
I did a quick look. Besides Caitlin, Lindsey and Lisa where here, and so was Drew and Jake and Shawn.
‘Yeah, I was working and I kind of fell asleep after.’ And the first price for lamest excuse ever goes too… ding, ding, ding… Eliza Williams.
‘It’s cool,’ Shawn said, ‘We’ve just been chilling anyway. With or whitout you, doesn’t really matter.’ For that he got a good hit in the face, with a cushion, by Drew.
‘I’m just gonna… fresh up a little.’
Drew immediately got up and followed me to the kitchen.
I was washing my hands when he sneaked up behind me, putting his arms around my waste.
‘Babe,’ he started and I knew that tone, ‘Why don’t we go to your room, you know, have some private time.’
‘Drew, come on. Our friends are here.’ Yeah that and I soooo wasn’t in the mood.
‘Come on babe, we haven’t had sex in like forever. And you’d promised we’d do it again after I came back from vacation.’
Yeah, that was then and this is now.
‘I know, but now is hardly the time.’ I dried off my hands and Drew took a few steps back.
‘Fine, but soon or I’ll go crazy. I want you. I need you.’
I suppose those words should make a girl’s heart racing, but I wasn’t that interested in sex. Never had been. Even though I liked Drew a lot, that didn’t change.
‘Let’s go back.’
Drew followed me back to the living room, where I sat down between him and Caitlin, who made place by moving to her right.
Lindsey was too busy staring at her phone to notice Caitlin giving her a shove.
‘O my god, guys. Listen. Marie just texted me, her cousin just saw a white girl with a latino guy. The guy threatened to beat his girlfriend in front of a million witnesses because of sunglasses! Can you imagine that!’
‘That just proves that south siders are no good,’ Kate said, shaking her head.
If they only knew.
A nightmare. A ffing nightmare again.
I hated this crap, I thought to myself as I stared up at the ceiling. I was yet again covered in sweat, the images of the dream clear in my head. I needed a shower. Pronto.
The hot water on my body was heaven, but I had school to go to so it ended all too soon. I caught myself in the mirror and inspected my scars. The one on the back was still slightly pink, the one on my arm was fading more quickly, and on my wrist were still visible circles. Great.
Not wanting to look at them any longer, I threw on a top with a jacket and jeans. I did my make-up while letting my hair dry. I had to hurry because Caitlin was picking me up, and not five minutes after I was ready, she honked outside.
I said bye to no one in particular and hurried my way to her.
At school, a large group of DMers had gathered in front of the doors. No Xavier though.
‘Oh, fuck me.’
Kate threw me a sad smile, ‘Hey, I’m with you. And no one can get to you with Karate Kate!’
Kate struck the superman pose proudly.
‘Karate Kate?’ I questioned. That and her sanity.
‘My superhero name.’
Ri-ight. But seriously, ‘I need to get over this.’
‘Yeah, you do.’ Okay, that was unexpected, ‘What you went through was harsh, girl, I’m not denying that. But it’s been what? Three months. And those guys are far, far, far away from here, and as far as we all know, los Diablos Mexicanos never, ever hurt a girl. Well, besides their hearts.’ Caitlin let out a soft chuckle.
‘Anyway, yeah, do get over yourself.’
Alright, my best friend was a weirdo.
‘Come on, let’s go.’
When we passed the DM I looked for Xavier again, but didn’t see him. Where was he? And why was I looking for him? Wasn’t I ignoring him? But… to ignore someone successfully, you had to know where they were, didn’t you.
God I almost believed myself.
‘Walk you to your locker?’ Kate asked.
‘Yeah, okay. But we aren’t dating.’ I tried to joke, to show her I was okay. I wasn’t sure if she bought it though.
Ambush, I thought when my locker came inside. Because there he was. Xavier, waiting for me.
And it wasn’t like I could turn around. Kate would notice something was off, and I really wasn’t interested in answering questions if something happened between me and Xavier. Even though nothing did happen.
‘Chica,’ Xavier greeted me, a grin on his face. God could he ever call me by my name.
‘Xavier,‘ I managed to get out in a non-hostile voice.
‘I need to talk to you about our project.’ I would have believed it if it wasn’t for that wicked glint in his eyes.
‘Right, I’ll be leaving then,’ Kate announced.
No, don’t go. Please don’t leave me….
‘So, I finally…’
‘don’t want to hear it,’ I cut Xavier off.
His eyebrows shot up, ‘It’s about the project, lo juro, I swear. Weren’t you the one that blackmailed me into working seriously on it?’
‘Just tell me in class.’ Now if I could just get to my locker without shoving him out of the way.
Xavier tried to do the puppy dog look. Wow, he sucked at that. Though his eyes were beautiful. So chocolate-ly and those thick long lashes and…
Realizing it didn’t work, Xavier exhaled, ‘Fine,’ he actually looked a little hurt, ‘See you.’
I had to stay away from Xavier, but goddamn it if I didn’t check out his ass when he walked away.
I was back at the parlor and it was almost five. It had been a week since I saw Julio last, the scene making, and I had a lot to ask him.
Mainly about Xavier. Though I wouldn’t mention any names.
A few minutes to five the phone rang. It had me frowning because no one ever pre-ordered anything, and I couldn’t think of any other reason someone would call.
‘Eliza Williams, Ice parlor Sweets and Cream, how can I help you?’ I said in my utmost professional voice.
‘Hey quirida, it’s me.’ The Julio went unsaid, but I knew it was him.
‘Everything okay?’ his voice was a little off.
‘Yeah, but I won’t be coming today,’ God he sounded awful, ‘I’m not feeling very well so I’m staying at home.’
‘Mm, that’s okay. It was nice of you to call though. Otherwise I would have waited till half past and worried my ass off.’
Julio let out a soft chuckle, but it sounded a little forced, ‘Yeah, that’s what I thought. I’m just really nauseous, and… well fuck, I just don’t feel good.’
‘You want me to bring you some ice-cream to make it all better?’ I didn’t know why I offered. Maybe because I really could use his advice and really wanted to talk to him.
‘Shit, querida, couldn’t ask that of you. But damn, I want some ice-cream.’
I laughed, ‘yeah, just give me your address.’
‘Are you sure, I mean, I live in the bad part of town.’
Well, shit. Could I do it? Go over there and…
I needed to get over myself. I really do, and I was going to try damn it.
‘Yeah, I’m sure. I’ll just drive real fast and only stop in front of your house. Or do you think my car will get stolen if it’s parked in front of your place?’
‘Probably not,’ Julio’s voice didn’t sound uncertain, which was a relief, ‘People know better than to steal shit in front of my casa.’
‘All right, give me your address and I’ll come bearing lots of ice-cream.’
Julio gave me his home address and seconds later I was on my way.
It was so not what I expected it to be. The bad part of town was heartbreaking. The houses were so small they probably fit into my house at least a dozen times. The children were playing with old soccer balls. I actually saw no gangsters, though who knew where they were at this time. They probably were like vampires. Only came out after dark.
There was one group of teenagers hanging in front of a few houses, and though I recognized some of them, they were all younger. And they were all staring at my car as I passed by.
I followed Julio’s instructions, and double checked the address before I got out of the car. But yeah, this was it.
I didn’t dare to look around as I walked up to the front door and rang the bell. I had every right to be here, I kept reminding myself. I glanced quickly around, but there were only a few children plying soccer, no gangbangers shooting me any glares. Thank god.
I was still looking around when I heard the door open. I turned around and came face to face with…
‘Xavier?!’
---------------------------------------------------------------------
So what is Xavier doing at Julio's place?
Is it gang business, is that why Julio's "Ill" or is it something else?
Do tell me what you think
RiekaX