Chapter 21
Dominique
"Ok people," Mrs. Richards claps her hands together, "we have one more week till
the big fiesta!" She picks up her clip board.
"Alrighty then. Georgia, how is your team?"
"Uh, we are done with getting all the decorations. All we need to do is set up
and we're done." She smiles.
"Great! Ok, Rich?" She scribbles on her clip board.
"Catering is all set," He punches the air. If he didn't have that overly
obnoxious mustache and five o'clock shadow, he'd actually look way he acts:
younger.
"Excellent! Edna, Wilma?"
"Ordered the rentals. They'll be here Friday." Edna says.
"The lights are a go!" Wilma nods with a bright smile. Her blonde bob shook
along with her head.
"And Dominique? How's the music going, soldier?" She asks me.
I pull out my Ipod and raise it up, "All here captain."
"Fab-u-lous! So we are pretty much set! I'll be sending out the invites
Monday and we'll begin set up starting Tuesday with rentals and lighting,"
she places her clip board down, "There are a few thing that I need to go over.
First we will be-."
I jump in my seat when my pocket vibrates. I pull out my phone.
One New Message:
Antonio
Chiquita , I'm still missing a shirt. Bring it later.
I smile to myself. Ever since the day after I told him we should be pals, he
decided to give me a nickname. The dumbo won't even tell me what it means!
I sneakily pound a text back.
To: Antonio
Too bad Fartface. You're not getting it. I'm wearing it tonight.
Don't get the wrong idea. We're definitely not going out on some kind of date,
if that's what you thinking. The town fall fair is opening tonight and since I
never went before, I wanted to go. Riley was going on a movie date with Jake,
Johnny and Stacie (eww disgusting), Julie is babysitting the runt, Kyle is
taking Bunny out (aw so cute, young love!) and CJ and Brooke are hooking up
(double eww times dos)! And who knows what my other friends are doing, so lonely
me asked Antonio if he wanted to go after our study session today before this
meeting. Plus, no one i know really goes to the fair so I don't have to worry
about gossip spreading about us.
New Message:
Antonio
Is that an invite?
To: Antonio
For what, loser?
New Message:
Antonio
To take your shirt off ;]
To: Antonio
Ew! Shut the f up perv. Touch me and my nail file is going up your nose a-hole.
New Message:
Antonio
No promises
"And that wraps it up! See you guys next Friday!" Mrs. Richards shouts. I stuff
my phone and Ipod back in my bag and head out.
I get home ten minutes later. I made sure to watch out for the Phantom on my
street. Gladly it wasn't there, but there was a black Chrysler parked on the
side though.
When I open the front door it's pretty silent.
"Panna?" I walk into the kitchen and drop my keys on the counter.
I walk into the office. She wasn't there either.
"Panna?" I call out again. I walk into the den. I hear faint voices coming from
the deck. I sigh in relief. I slide open the door.
"Dominique! Come here," Panna gleams. She's sitting at glass dining table next
to Milton. Across from them was a lady wearing a elegant black dress, an
oversized beach hat, and sun glasses.
Panna stands, "This is Genevieve, our wedding planner."
"Hello, Dominique," Genevieve holds out a gloved hand.
"Hello." I smile at her.
"My, aren't you gorgeous! Will I be marrying you next?" she smiles, making her
wrinkled face triple in wrinkles.
Panna laughs, "Oh, no. Not anytime soon. She's only 17. She's not even allowed
to date anyways." Ha, that's what you think.
I never actually told her about Kyle. She'd object immediately. Even though he's
an all A student. My sister is very... paranoid when it comes to boys. According
to her, I'm not allowed to date till I'm 21. Like that was going to happen.
"Oh, don't be such a tight ass. She should be allowed to do whatever with that
adorable face of hers." Genevieve slaps the air. I love her already.
"Genevieve, please, no swearing. Let's not get like my grandmother." She says
unfazed by the insult that was directed to her.
"Grams?" I sit down.
"Your sister left out that I am your grandma's best friend in our introduction.
We tore Florida up in our day!" she laughs.
"Really?"
"Oh, please Genevieve. Don't fill her mind up with your embarrassing stories."
Panna rolls her eyes. "You're here for this," she holds up a notebook with a
bunch of wedding notes, "You promised a picture perfect wedding, just like you
did for our parents."
I looked at Panna confused, "Mom and dad," I whisper, clutching my necklace's
pendant.
"I was your parent's wedding planner," she places her hand on my shoulder.
"Oh," I whisper.
Panna gives me a sympathetic look. She knows how I clam up whenever the subject
of mom and dad comes up, "Dominique, you should probably go inside or something.
You don't want to hear about all this wedding stuff." That's the thing I love
about my sister. She's always there to save me, from anything. Plus I really
didn't really want to listen to all her wedding crap.
I swallow, "Actually, I'm going out. I did all my homework so, don't worry." I
get up. I head towards the door and stop. "Oh, don't forget about my demo
Thursday," She probably forgot about it all ready, with the wedding and all.
"Wouldn't miss it," she smiles.
When I pull up to Antonio's house, I wait two minutes before I honk my horn.
Seconds later he walks out the front door. I see Izzy behind him and looking
extremely pissed. Then again, she pretty much always looks pissed.
He taps my window and I roll it down.
"Let's take my bike." He smirks.
"Why? Is big boy scarred people are going to make fun of him because a girl is
driving him around?" I mock.
"Absolutely," He winks, "We'll get there faster."
"I am not going to be riding on your bike if you're going to be recklessly
driving in between cars."
"We'll take different rides then," he smiles and then opens the small garage.
"Ugh!" I roll my eyes as I pull out the drive way. My phone vibrates. I stop my
car to check the message.
New Message:
Antonio
Race you.
To: Antonio
Eat my dust lo
I barely even go to finish my message when Antonio drives up along the side,
passing in front of my car. I watched with my mouth open wide as he does a
wheelie down the street. Hot.
The fair is about ten minutes away from Antonio's house, meaning it's deeper
into the ghetto. If I had known it was this deep, I probably wouldn't have
planned on going. I probably should have really looked at the directions I
printed and mapped out the place before printing.
When I pull into the parking lot, I spot Antonio. He's coolly leaning on his
bike, with his helmet under his arm. I park next to him.
"So, loser, what's my prize?" he asks as I step out my car.
"You wanna know what your prize is?" I ask. He nods. "Come here," I wiggle my
finger at him. Yeah I know I'm being a tease but so what. "Your prize is this,"
I say, pinching him really hard on the arm.
He lifts an eyebrow, "Is that supposed to hurt?"
I feel a little embarrassed. He's probably- no, definitely- has had worse done
to him. "Shut up and come on." I pull him towards the entrance.
"What should we do first? Games or rides?" I ask once we get our stamps.
Tonight is really nice. It's not too dark but even so, the rides and games light
up the night. There's colorful lights everywhere. I swear, someone can get a
seizure.
Antonio hesitates, "Uh, games."
"You better win me something," I grin as we walk over to a water gun game booth.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait one second. I'm the winner here," he puts his hand on
his heart.
We sit down at the booth and pay.
"By the way, I want the big brown bear." He smirks.
"No way," I say. I position my hands on the gun and aim for the bull's-eye. When
my sirens and lights go off, a sense of pride fills me. I turned to look at
Antonio, who was resting his head on his hand, smirking at me.
"You jerk! You let me win!" I slap his arm.
"Select your prize lady," the game operator asks.
"That bear," Antonio answers for me.
"Here you go," he says, handing me a fluffy and extremely soft bear.
"I believe that's mine," he says, taking it from my arms.
"You can have this bear, but you better win me something." I smile.
* * *
"Come on! We've spent like the past hour just playing games. Let's ride some
rides!" I beg.
"We can't. We're we gonna to put our stuff?" he holds up all the prizes we won.
I can barely see him behind all the stuffed animals.
"We can put them on the side where the conductor is. No one's going to steal
them," I laugh.
He doesn't answer as I lead him to one of the roller coasters.
"How about we, uh, start small." He says.
"Small?"
"Yeah, like Ferris wheel small." He says sounding nervous. I see what he's
trying to do.
"Are you... afraid of roller coasters?" I ask trying not to laugh.
"Fuck no," he says, blushing, but I can definitely tell he's lying.
"I'll hold your hand if you want me too," I smile.
"No, I'm no pussy." He says, getting a little mad, but still blushing.
"Look we don't have to go on it if you don't want to."
"No, I'll go. Come on. Ven (come)." He practically sprints to the line. He puts
our stuff down by the conductor and waits for the previous riders to get off.
When we're allowed to board, I pick the end of the coaster. I always like the
end the best. It's not as great as the beginning, but I like it better than the
middle.
I get in first and buckle up. When I see Antonio struggling with the buckle, I
help him out.
"Gracias."
"Mhm, just don't scream like a girl. That's my job."
When the ride starts, I see Antonio take a deep breath in my peripheral vision.
I can't help but smile. The ride starts off with a climb up.
I lean back and close my eyes and wait for the exciting part to come. When I
feel that we're at the top, I open my eyes and look at the steep drop below.
Just as our cart is about to plummet, I feel a sudden hand urgently grab onto
mine.
Antonio
I gotta say, roller coasters aren't that bad you know. Well as long as you ain't
riding it with a screaming chick. I'm playin.
Yeah I grabbed her hand, but I doubt she noticed. She was too busy screaming her
heart out.
"Let's eat, I'll buy." I say.
Dominique gasps when she sees a funnel cakes stand, "I want one!"
"Ight." I walk up to the stand, "Two," I hand the dude behind the stand a five.
"I got them," Dominique says, taking the cakes. We take a seat by the "dining
area", which wasn't even that much of a dining area in the first place.
"We should leave after this," I tell her as she digs in. I spotted a couple of
HG hombres all night. I look behind me and spot a couple of thugs. This'll be
interesting.
"Why?" she asks looking a little upset.
"Uh, there are fights sometimes." By sometimes, I meant all the time. The fights
here are wild. Mostly because they pretty much in public. Every year there's
always one between HG and some random gang. I just hope she gets home before one
breaks out.
"Oh," she says.
We sit there for about a few minutes just talking about random shit.
Dominique yawns, "I'm tired. We should go."
We get up and start to walk to our rides. As we near our car, I hear some
commotion. I'm pretty sure Dominique hears it to because she stops and looks at
me scared. I hold the stuffed animals in one arm and take her by the arm and
escort her to her car. I open the passenger side and place the animals in.
"Dominique," I say seriously, "Go straight home, tu comprendes (you
understand?)?" I turn in the direction of the noise as it gets louder.
"You're not going to fight, are you?" she asks.
"You need to go now. Straight home." I say again before shutting the door and
following the noise.
Dominique
I start my car minutes later and follow Antonio with my lights off. I park two
rows back from the mob fight. From what I can see, there are people throwing
fist and kicking and...violence. I can't express how much I hate violence. It
makes me absolutely sick to my stomach.
I sit here, just watch in terror. I can't leave Antonio. What if he gets hurt?
Who in their right mind you leave someone like that?
My stomach churns when a kid, probably Izzy's age is punched in the face. I try
and close my eyes when someone gets tackled. I can't take it anymore when I see
about five guys beat down on one kid that looked like he was only 13.
My face twists in disgust as I feel the funnel cake come back up in my stomach.
I quickly open the door before I purge all over myself. I puke on the ground.
I can't take this. I-I need to leave. I reach in my glove compartment to get a
napkin to wipe my mouth and then back out, with my lights off.
I practically speed the way home, with tears streaming down my cheeks. I just
felt so sick. Emotionally and physically. I pull into my driveway and rest my
head on the steering wheel for a while.
When I pick my head up, I notice something in the corner of my eye. The fluffy
brown bear resting on top of all the other stuffies. I grab it and run inside. I
scramble up the stairs to my room, ignoring Panna's hello.
I lock the door behind me and collapse on my bed in a fit of tears, hugging my
bear to my chest. The bear even smells like him, making me cry even harder. What
if he gets killed? What if a bunch of guys team up on him, like they did to that
boy?
Questions and questions kept filling my head till my pants turned into slow
relaxed breaths and I drifted away.
When the morning came, I woke up on a moistened pillow. Ew gross! I get up and
wipe the drool of my face.
My stomach still feels a little unsettled and I'm still in last night's clothes.
I hold onto the wall as I walk to the bathroom to shower.
I feel like brand new and revived. I pad into my room and stop dead in my tracks
once I see the bear on my bed. Antonio.
I rush to my bag to retrieve my phone and text him. While waiting for his reply
I pick out my clothes.
I check my phone. No answer. I walk over to my vanity and put on some mascara
and comb my hair into a bun. When I finish securing my bun with billions of
bobby pins I check my phone again. No answer.
I just can't stop worrying if he's ok. If he's hurt it'd be all my fault! I'm so
stupid! I didn't even think to call the cops! I'm so dumb!
I guess the only way I will find out if he's ok is if he comes to school.
* * *
"Dom!" Julie places her hand on my shaking leg, "Your shaking the table."
"S-sorry, my bad." I say, trying to focus on my lunch. Antonio didn't show
today. I'm really starting to get a little paranoid. I texted him like 5 times
and called him twice during free. He never even answered. I barely even paid
attention in all my classes today. The whole periods I've been chewing my
pencils away. I'm down 5 pencils now. As soon as school ends I'm driving
straight to his house. I don't care if I miss my dress rehearsal. I need to see
if he's ok. That's what pals do, right?
"Are you ok? You've been on edge all day." Riley asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine." I force a smile, "So, when are we going shopping for
homecoming?" I change the subject.
"Definitely soon," Julie answers. Homecoming is only two weeks away.
"Saturday?" Riley asks.
"Can't. I'm volunteering." I say.
"Sunday then."
"Yeah, sure. I'll mark my calendar." I take out my phone, as if too mark its
calendar, but check my messages instead. No new message.
"Do you have dates?" Julie asks.
"I have mine!" Riley nods at Kyle, who was sitting with the football players.
"Uh, I'm not taking anyone." I say.
"Gasp! What? Why not?" Julie shouts. Chewed up salad pieces fly ever where.
"Why do I have to go with someone? I'm independent!" I say in defense.
"Whatevs." Julie flips her hair. "I'm trying to get surfer boy over there," she
nods at Shawn, "to take me. Just as friends though," she looks at me with
reassurance.
"What happened to Donny?" Riley asked.
Donny was Julie's hot senior friend from last year who'd helped us score our
fake IDs (I don't know who made them but they look extremely legit. I've used
mine millions of times and never got caught!). Anyways, he was totally into her
and stuff but she didn't think he was right for her, blah, blah, blah, the story
goes on.
"Oh, he's not in town this week. Plus he definitely would not want to go to a
high school's homecoming. Like seriously, that's why he got his ID for
clubbing!" she explained.
"Right, but he'd do anything for you," Riley laughed. It was no joke either.
Donny wasn't really the type to do things for other people but he'd buy a MAC
mega store for her.
"Ew, don't say that." She twists up her face.
"Come on Jules, you know you liked that night when you guys-."
"New subject please! Thank you," Julie shouts.
"Speaking of new subject," I say as Jake walks over to us.
"Babe, you ready?" he asks.
"Mhm," she gets up and grabs her bags and gives him a quick peck, "Call me
laters, kay?" she tells us.
"Got it." Julie smiles and watches them walk away. "Ok, spill."
"What?" I ask. Spill what?
"You've been shaking your leg the whole lunch period and you haven't eaten
anything, which is extremely unusual for you because you eat like a fucking pig.
So spill!" Julie says.
I stare at her.
"Dom."
"It's nothing. I'm fine." I say, trying to sound convincing.
"Dominique." She gives me a I-know-you're-lying look.
"I'm just nervous about the demo, okay," I lie, well not really. I'm kind of
nervous about the demo. I mean, I'm probably going to miss dress rehearsal
today.
"Don't even stress over it! You'll do fine! You always do," Julie pats my
shoulder.
"Yeah, I guess-" I start to say when the bell rings, completely interrupting me.
I grab my bags and walk with Julie towards my next class. Only three more
wasteful periods.
* * *
When the last bell rang I was pretty relieved. I actually thought I couldn't
make it because the suspense was killing me.
I hurry to my locker to get some books for our study session. But then again,
what if he's in too much pain to study? I stare into my locker for a couple of
seconds before I throw all of my books back in.
Once I'm outside, I scurry to my car. I spot Frankie and some other HG members
huddled on the other side of the parking lot. She gives me her infamous dirty
look.
I hop into my car and quickly pull out of the parking lot.
A few minutes later, I pull into Antonio's driveway. I hide my leather bag in my
trunk, since I don't have any books in it, and walk up to the front door. I
furiously ring the doorbell for about a minute.
The door opens and Antonio is standing in front of me, looking perfectly fine.
He's wearing nothing but a pair of black sweat pants. I stand there confused. If
he was fine, then why did he come to school? Why hasn't he answered my texts or
my calls?
"Hello?" he says, ushering me inside. "You know, next time you come over you
only have to ring the doorbell once. Just-"
"Why weren't you in school?" I ask, not even realizing how angry I sounded.
Well, you know what? I should be angry. He had me, a good and amazing pal,
worrying all freaking day if he was ok or, God forbid, dead!
"I got home late," he furrows his eyebrows.
"Why didn't you answer my texts? I've been calling you all day!" I shout.
He looked surprised. I could tell if it was either because I was yelling or
because I was so worried.
"I- my phone was off," he leans against the wall with his arms crossed.
"Your phone was off," I breathed a laugh, "You had me worried shitless all day.
After I left last night I was so scared! You could've gotten really hurt! You
couldn't even call me, just to tell me you were ok! What the fuck, Antonio!" I
shout.
A smile formed on his face.
"You think this is funny?!" I felt even angrier. How could he just think this is
a joke? I'm trying to be a good friend to see if he's ok. "I'm missing my dress
rehearsal just so you can get in a laugh." I start towards the door. "Move!" I
say when he moves to block the door.
"I don't think it's funny, I think it's cute and kind of sexy." He smirks.
"Shut up and move." I say sternly.
He reaches into his pocket, pulls out his phone and turns it on. I shift
uncomfortably as his phone begins to ring nonstop with new messages.
"Wow, you even left a voice mail," he says after the ringing stopped.
"Whatever," I say, less angry but way embarrassed.
His laughs, "I don't think anyone has ever been that worried about me over a
small little fight." he jokes, but his eyes are saying a completely different
thing.
"It's what pals do, right?" I smile back. We stay like that for a few seconds.
"Um, I don't have any books, so um, we can't really study." I look down at my
cute shoes.
"Is that dress rehearsal really important?" he asks.
"What? Oh um, kind of, but I don't really have to go." I say. I mean, I'm
already late and I don't really want Jeannine to yell at me.
He opens the door. I guess I'm being kicked out. I start to walk towards my car,
but turn around when I hear Antonio's front door close. I turn around to see him
following me.
"I wanna see you dance," he laughs in response to my confused look.
"Oh no you're not," I say. The only people that I allow to go to my demos are my
family and Riley and Jules. No one else. No one. I don't even know if Kyle knows
I dance.
"Why you suck?" he teases.
"Um no. I'm actually really good." I cross my arms as he walks closer to me.
"Doubt it," he smirks.
I sneer at him and then unlock my car door. Time to prove him wrong, "Get in." I
huff.
"Ok, stay in the here and do not move ok?," I order Antonio as he takes his
seat. I look towards the stage. A modern dance group is doing a walk through.
That can only mean two things: my group already went on or my group is about to
go on. "Just wait till I come out to get you." I tell him.
"Got it madre (mom)," he looks up at me from his seat.
I roll my eyes and head backstage.
"Dom! Where have you been? We all tried calling you a billion times!" Baby says
when she sees le walk through the dressing room.
"My gosh! Have you ever heard of a phone," Raspberry shakes her phone in my
face, "Jeannine has been running around looking for you. She's gone completely
psycho!"
"Yeah! You need to get your costume on like now before she gets back," Tea says
holding my costume. Everyone was already in theirs and had all their makeup
done.
"Ok! Ok!" I say quickly pulling of my clothes. I reach into my dance bag and
take out my nude leotard and pull it on. God, these things are SO uncomfortable.
"What's the order of our dances?" I ask as I pull on a blue leotard over my nude
one. I shimmy into my big blue tutu.
"Pointe, then hip-hop, then jazz, and then lyrical." Coco lists. Since we're in
advanced classes we are usually in more dances than the other classes.
"Goodie," I sit down and tie on my pointe shoes, "Someone do my makeup, please."
"I got it." Raspberry comes over with her makeup box. Oh boy.
"Please don't make me look like Bozo the Clown, please." I plead.
"Oh shush and close your eyes."
After ten minutes, she's finally done. I actually look pretty good. She did a
dark smokey brown look for my eyes, a little bit of blush and peachy lip gloss.
"I love it! You're doing my makeup from now on!" I tell her.
"I got ya girl!-"
"Alright girls! Time to-," Jeannine rushes into our dressing room, "So, you
finally decided to show, Dominique," she says, extremely pissed.
"Um, yeah, I wasn't really feeling well so I took nap in the nurse's office and
she didn't wake me up till-," I lie.
"Whatever, I don't care, just don't puke on the stage please," she says with a
tiny tiny bit of empathy, which is extremely unusual for her, "Time to go on
stage."
We follow her to the stage. I can feel my stomach fill with butterflies. This is
so weird. I never get nervous for a dress rehearsal. What the hell is going on?
We take our spots on stage during the black out, and then I realize the cause of
my nervousness. He was sitting way in the back of the auditorium.
Antonio
I can't believe this. Me, Antonio fucking Hernandez, sitting in an auditorium
watching girls- and guys- leap across stage. What I should be doin is beatin up
a lil pendejo (asshole) who owes Angel some money. I can't even believe I agreed
to this. I even had to borrow a T- shirt from Dominique since I forgot to get
one before I left. It's hella tight to. At least it's not pink, though.
I shift uncomfortable in my seat each time a "dance mom" glares at me. Shit. I
bet you they probably have never seen a papacito with tattoos.
When the stage lights go down, I relax a little in my seat. I squint a little
when I see some people move on stage. Are they wearing tutus?
The music starts really loud and the lights come on. The first person I see is
her, in the middle. Each girl is wearing different colors and she's wearing
blue.
The whole dance I'm just staring at her. I can't take my eyes off her. I aint
into that ballet shit but she's amazing. When the dance ends and another group
goes on, I'm a bit upset. I wanted to see her dance more.
Two dances later, she still hasn't come to get me. I was just about to call her
when I hear some good music. Now this is what I'm talking about. I nod my head
to Pitbull's Rain Over Me. The first girl on stage had some crazy red hair. Next
was a blonde and then Dominique, wearing a hot costume: short shorts and a
loose T-shirt. Damn. This girl can really dance. I can't lie, she looked pretty
sexy. I definitely need to get her to do one of those dances for me, if you know
what I mean.
About six dances later she comes and gets me.
"You did good," I say when she slides into a seat beside me. She puts her feet
up on the seat in front of her.
"Thanks," she smiles.
"Really, you're amazing." I say. Dios mio I sound like a boob.
She turns to me, "Thanks."
There's a moment of silence. "Soooo, where to now?" she asks.
"The carnival?" I joke. She gives me a serious look, "Your house?"
"No, no, no. No! My house is off limits." She gets up, "I know where we can go."
"The beach?" I say when she pulls into a parking lot by the boardwalk.
"Come on!" she hops out her car and starts running toward the beach.
I follow slowly after her.
"You're a slow runner!" she shouts over her shoulder. She was already in the
sand as I walked down the steps.
Slow runner? Haha! I started running toward her. I caught up with her in a
second.
"Who's the slow runner now?" I say to her from behind my shoulder.
I stop before the water.
"It's nice out." She says once she catches up to me. She's completely out of
breath.
"It's fall," I say.
She sits down in the sand and kicks off her shoes. I do the same.
For a while I stare out at the water. The sun was going to start to set soon.
"You're a nice guy, you know that?" Dominique says, breaking the silence.
"Oh really?" I wink at her.
"Ew. Don't be a perv and ruin it." She laughs. "Why'd you do it? Join the gang,
I mean." She asks.
Great. I really don't want to explain this shit.
"I don't know." I keep my eyes on the water. I can feel her eyes boring a
fucking hole in my face.
"Oh," she sighs, "You don't belong in one."
"What? What the hell do you mean?" I ask trying so hard not to sound mad. But
seriously that was pretty much an insult. That was like sayin I didn't belong in
mi familia.
"What I mean is, well, you're just- just," she pauses, "you're a good person and
you don't fit in. I don't know," she sighs, "Look I've watched an episode Gang
Land before. You're nothing like those guys. I mean, I'm an outsider. I-I'm not
HG and you still treated me, well not necessarily how I wanted to be treated,
but like one of the fam-familia," she tries to pronounce family in Spanish, but
fails. I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing, "If I was paired with some
gang person, I probably would've been through hell and back. Maybe even dead!"
she turns to me. This time I look at her, "You brought me home when I was wasted
off my ass and you didn't even know me or try anything on me. You have a big
heart, Antonio." She smiles at me.
As corny as that sounded, I'm glad she said it. It makes me feel good about
myself. Ha!
"Where did that come from?" I laugh.
"I don't know. I just wanted to say it," she laughs too, "After last night I
realized how dangerous your life is."
"You can be really interesting, Chiquita."
"Yeah, whatever, Mr. Softy." She rolls her eyes.
What did she just call me?
"Mr. Softy?"
"Mhm, that's my newest nickname for you." She gets up and dusts off her butt.
"Hell no," I get up.
"Hmm, too bad, Mr. Softy," she says walking away from me. I grab her from behind
and throw her over my shoulder. "PUT ME DOWN!" she kicks and screams as I start
walking towards the water.
"You better not! I swear Antonio! I'm serious!" she shouts. I'm not going to
really throw her in but hey! Why not have some fun?
"Don't call me Mr. Softy." I tell her.
"Ok! OK! Just don't throw me in! Put me down!"
I slowly bend down to put her down. When I stand back up we're really close to
each other. I lean in close as if to kiss her. When she notices she walks away
and slips her shoes back on.
"Come on! It's getting dark." She starts walking to the boardwalk.
I let out a disappointed groan and grab my shoes and follow her.
"We completely missed a day of studying. And tomorrow is my demo so I can't come
over. Oh man we're going to be so far behind!" she paces around my kitchen.
I stare at her, smiling. She's cute when she's like this.
"I got it! How bout we study Saturday!" she says, "Oh crap! I have volunteering,
though. How bout-,"
"I can come with you." I offer.
"What? You want to come to volunteering?"
"Yeah. It'd be... interesante, interesting," I say. Too be honest, volunteer
wasn't my thing, but whatever.
"Um, ok. Saturday it is. I'll pick you up at 10." She says. She looks down at
her watch, "I better go. I need my rest for tomorrow," she walks to the door.
I open it up for her. Before she leaves, she turns and pulls me into a hug. I
wrap my arms around her waist. Her hair smells good like fruit.
"Thanks, Mr. Softy." She whispers in my ear and leaves.
I actually didn't mind that name. But it was just our secret. If anyone found
out I'm "Mr. Softy" it'd be a bad rap for me.
I watch her as she pulls out the drive way. Damn, this girl is definitely making
me go crazy.