I'm back from Spain! With a chapter that i wrote there, in the rain, ( No kidding, it was pretty bad weather over there, we even had thunderstorms.)
Chapter thirteen. Eliza
‘I need a man.’
I stopped putting books in my locker to look over at Caitlin. ‘I think you said that already.’
‘Yeah,’ she whined, ‘but I really do need a man.’ She studied a group of boys that were walking past.
‘How about Max,’ she offered, looking the blond haired, blue eyed boy over.
‘You want a serious answer, Kate?’ I asked, just to be sure.
Caitlin threw me an annoyed look, ‘When am I not serious.’
I so didn’t answer that one. She wouldn’t like the answer. But I did what she asked, I considered it. I looked Max over, and then Caitlin. There was no doubt that Caitlin could have him. Her red hair was up in a loose bun, loose curly strings artfully framing her face. She had done her make-up like she usually did, so it looked like she was wearing almost none. No matter what clothes you dressed her in, Caitlin would always be pretty.
‘Honestly, I don’t think you fit.’ I said and went back to putting books in my locker.
‘Why not?’ Caitlin asked, her eyebrows raised, ‘He’s hot enough.’
A laugh escaped my lips, ‘Yeah, he is. But think about it, really think about it. Do you remember the way he was with his ex-gf? Can you imagine being followed everywhere you go? The guy is almost a dog, Kate. You need your privacy.’
Caitlin sighed, then shook her head, ‘I’ve always wanted a dog.’ Then laughed, ‘Yeah, you’re right, he’s no bf-material for me. Maybe just once though…’
She left of when she saw the look on my face, and said, ‘Okay, okay, it would crush him, probably.’ Again came that sigh, ‘but I really need a boy, someone I can cuddle with and make out with. I’m lonely, Eliza.’
‘Then maybe you should get a dog.’
‘Ew,’ she exclaimed, and then completely stilled. Her eyes were fixed on something behind me, and a feeling of dread filled me.
I turned around, the few people that were still in the hallway parted. Fear crept up my spine, sending unpleasant shivers down my body. Caitlin gripped my arm, ‘Relax,’ she whispered, as we watched all fifteen-or-so DM members walk past.
Xavier was with them, too, casually talking with one of his friends, Diego, not even noticing the fact that everybody got out of their way, even the other Mexican kids.
Or maybe he did notice and didn’t care.
Xavier looked up, as if he felt me staring at him and gave me a slow smile, no, smirk. He kept looking at me, that smirk still in place and winked.
I felt my face redden, and turned around quickly. I had no idea how I had to act and react to him after his confession and our little talk afterward. I mean, he didn’t seem dangerous to me, and yet everybody was afraid of him.
‘In the summer before our junior year, Xavier got arrested. Nobody on our side knew why, but rumors were spread.’
Lindsay’s voice rang through my head.
‘Some say he was involved in a drug deal gone bad. Others say he did something stupid like stealing a car. But most say though, he was arrested for murder.’
Xavier couldn’t have actually, gulp, murdered someone, could he?
No, no I couldn’t believe that. It were rumors, that’s what Lindsey said. I wasn’t going to believe the worst of him. Who knows, I might even ask him.
‘Can you feel it in the air?’ Caitlin asked me once they were well out of sight.
‘Feel what?’ I thought I knew what Caitlin was talking about, the extra violent aura in the air, but asked anyway.
‘There’s going to be a fight, soon.’
Well, it had to happen sometime. It was actually a surprise that it took so long for the boys to find something to fight about. It was usually something small that was blown way out of proportion so that the guys of the south and north could fight each other and see who was more manly than the other. It was stupid, but it seemed that I was the only one who thought so. Around here, it seemed like another one of those traditions I probably would never get used to.
I glanced at Caitlin and couldn’t help but laugh. She was staring at me with big eyes, her lips her fingertips pressed together, her lips forming a knowing smile, looking like some fortune teller.
‘What did I miss?’ I asked as I turned away from my locker and started walking to our first class. Caitlin hooked her arm through mine, and told me in a bored tone, ‘This Mario kid didn’t watch where he was going, crashed his car into Shawn’s brand new Camaro. Now, you know how protective Shawn is of his new baby, and she had a dent and the paint was scratched.’
I finished for her, ‘And he in turn gave Mario a nice beating.’ That had happened before. Just not with Mario and Shawn.
Caitlin was nodding eagerly, ‘Yep. He has a black eye and a busted lip. You can almost touch the tension in the air. There’s no way the south siders will let this go. Heaven knows they fought over less.’
Sadly they had, ‘I still don’t see how you can find all this amusing.’
Caitlin was always excited when she thought there was going to be another fight. Sometimes I thought it was because her three favorites, Drew, Shawn and David, were always standing afterwards. Sometimes I didn’t know what went on in that head of hers.
‘Of course I find it amusing. I always imagine that the guys are fighting for our honor, and in a way they are. Besides, a lot of them always remove their shirts and then it’s like we’re at a all-the-hotties-you-can-eat buffet.’
I shook my head, ‘They are hot when they fight.’
‘You betcha.’
Drew’s arm was around me protectively as we were walking towards our cars. We were going to May’s, we being, Caitlin, Lindsey, Lisa, Shawn, Jake and Drew and me. Despite the tension in the air, nothing had happened, yet. I didn’t have a great feeling about going to May’s, the guys wouldn’t have risked fighting at school, but they had fought once in front of May’s, where there was a parking lot for the supermarket Valdo.
I’d asked May why she didn’t call the police, whereupon she’d answered that , ‘Boys will be boys. They have to get that aggression out one way or another.’
To say that the answer from the nice thirty-ish woman who ran a diner had surprised me, was the understatement of the year.
It also meant that that would be a perfect place for a fight.
I was not wrong, I knew that from the moment we stepped foot in May’s. Every guy in the soccer team was there, and that couldn’t be a coincidence.
We took one of the back booths that were still empty. Shawn, Jake and Drew looked quite bored, hanging back, not talking. Lindsey and Lisa were quietly talking among themselves, and Caitlin was staring at the door, twinkles in her eyes.
It didn’t take long. Kate gasped as the door opened and almost everybody visibly tensed, Drew, Shawn and David were the only ones who didn’t. Jake tensed too, slightly, but it was there.
Xavier walked in, arrogant as always, with Diego and Pedro next to him, but a little behind him too.
I’d never seen him fight, I only now realized, and normally it was Diego who was point guy when it came to fighting. Apparently it was a loaned title, as Xavier said, ‘Are we going to do this, or what?’
His smile was smug, confident, and not a hint of fear. I hadn’t expected it either, to be honest. Xavier seemed like a guy that was good at fighting, I just hoped he wouldn’t be hurt too much.
Diego was one of the few that still stood after the fight was over, and physically he didn’t look as strong as Xavier, but I was still worried.
I tried to imagine Julio in Xavier’s place, for he must have been in that place once too. Somehow I just still couldn’t fully grasp that funny, nice Julio was also a gangmember.
Drew stood up, and smiled, ‘Sure, Sanchez. Though, I have to ask, are you sure you’re up to it? I mean, you’ve been in Juvie so long, do you still know how to fight?’
Nothing changed in Xavier’s face, just a flash in his eyes one moment and then it was gone. ‘I’d love to kick your shitty face into the ground, Drewy, but I have other priorities.’ His dark gaze glided over to Shawn, who was standing now, too.
Drew opened his mouth to say something, but Xavier cut him off just as quickly, ‘Are we going to stand here the whole day or what?’
Pedro said something to Xavier in Spanish, and both Xavier and Diego laughed. Great, I just love it when people insult me and I don’t even know what they’re saying. And there was no question that whatever Pedro had said was an insult.
The soccer guys moved outside, and we followed.
In the parking lot the south sider girls where sitting or leaning against the motorcycles, talking to their men. As soon as they saw us, the guys gathered in the middle, and us girls stood outside the invisible circle, watching.
At first nothing happened, then Xavier punched Shawn and all hell broke loose.
Everybody was punching everybody, but my eyes were on Drew, and sometimes on Xavier.
Drew was good in this, I gave him that. He was quicker then he looked, and easily dodged or blocked Pedro’s attempts to hit him. Still, I winced every time he did get hit, or got a kick meant for somebody else.
I knew that that kick was meant for somebody else, because it was Xavier that did it. At second thought, maybe it was meant for Drew. Xavier was smirking, even from here was the twinkle in his eyes visible, as he punched Shawn over and over again. Shawn blocked as well as he could, but some punches still got to him, some kicks still managed to find the way to his stomach. I almost felt sorry for him, the way he got pummeled, almost though. He started this whole thing in the first place.
Xavier moved with a… grace- for lack of a better word- that none of them had. Somehow he moved faster than the others, his punches better placed. It made me wonder what he exactly did for the DM.
My eyes found Drew again, still standing but fighting someone else. I was playing with my phone, wondering if I should break it up by calling the cops or not. It normally didn’t take them this long to break up a fight.
Just as I thought it, a car came speeding around the corner, a Mexican kid behind the wheel, ‘Cops,’ he yelled and everybody just stopped at the magic word.
Xavier and Drew were standing straight, and so where Diego and David. The rest was either standing half-bent, limping or crouching. Shawn was lying on the ground, not moving.
As I looked at Xavier, his hands in the pockets of his faded ripped jeans, his dark eyes staring at Drew, I still couldn’t see him kill somebody. But he came closer to it than this morning.
A feeling of unease settled in me. Had it simply started out as a fight, like this one, and had Xavier just gone too far? What did I really know of him. The difference between the Xavier when he was alone with me, and him standing here, at the feet of an unconscious Shawn, was unsettling. He could have been two different persons. And that made me wonder if the nicer Xavier was just all an act.
The next morning everything seemed to have gone back to normal, except for the fact that a lot of students were now sporting fresh colored bruises. The teachers were shaking their heads at them and muttering things under their breaths. But none of the guys noticed any of that.
They all had proven that they were big strong caveman and all the tension had ebbed away. For now.
Someone was waiting for me at my locker, and at first I thought it was Xavier, but when I came closer I saw that it was actually Diego. That stopped me dead for a second. Now it could be that he was just leaning against any locker and didn’t know it was mine, or maybe he had a message from Xavier? I didn’t think that Diego would act as a message boy, though, and why would he be leaning against a locker when all of his friends were outside, I knew that because I just passed them. Both options didn’t seem likely, which left the option that maybe, maybe he wanted to talk to me. Though about what?
Diego’s bare arms were crossed in front of his chest, his stance very casual, very non-threatening. After what I’d seen yesterday, I didn’t believe that for a second.
‘You’re uhm… can I please… that’s my locker,’ I stuttered, ready to face palm myself. Why couldn’t I just ask him normally if he would please move so I could get to my stuff.
Diego pushed himself off my locker, without using his hands, and rolled his eyes, ‘I know, I wanted to talk to you.’ His accent was thicker than Xavier’s, as if he spoke a lot more Spanish at home.
‘Oh,’ was my brilliant reply.
Diego was handsome, really handsome. He had features you only saw in models, add that to the Spanish accent and I wanted to bet he was a ladies man. That alone would have made me feel uncomfortable, but the fact that he was just standing there, saying nothing, studying me…
It send chills down my spine, and not good ones.
Finally, Diego shook his head, and looked up at me again.
‘What are your plans with Xavier?’
I frowned, ‘Sorry?’
He looked at me the same way all south siders looked at me. I was stupid, and it was a waste of breath and time to talk to me. It annoyed me to no end.
‘Look,’ I said before he could say something else, ‘I don’t know what you mean with that. I have no plans with Xavier. We’re just working together on a project.’
He narrowed his eyes at me, ‘I’m just saying that if Xavier gets hurt, because I don’t know, Drew finds out you’ve been cheating on him with Xavier because he’s such a bad lay that you had to find it elsewhere,’
Why did everyone insult Drew’s sex performances?
Maybe because they’re not good?
I pushed the little voice in my head away and listened to Diego again.
‘I don’t care, but if he get’s hurt, I’ll hurt Drew. Badly.’
With that he walked away, before I got the chance to say something back. Not that I had something to say back, I could hardly tell him I was glad he wouldn’t take it out on me personally. And what did he mean, my plans with Xavier? I sighed. Guys.
Drew was at my side the second Diego left.
‘What did he want?’
I smiled up at him, ‘Nothing.’ That I could understand anyway.
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Can anybody tell me what happened to Crimsonnebula, because she's gone, and she had awesome stories.
Anyway, like i mentioned, i'm back from spain and the hotties that live there. seriously it seems like every guy there has longer lashes than i do, and mine are pretty freaky damn long. it's just so unfair. i saw a lot of potential Diego's and Pedro's and everybody else and all, but i didn't make pictures for the same reason as before. I mean, that a little kid things i'm crazy, i'm okay with that. but that a hot guy older than me things i'm crazy, well, yeah, no way. anyways i'm rambling.
PS: Thanks for all the amazing comments, votes, fanning and just reading my story!!