Unbroken

by Jasmine Carolina

“Your friend’s dad passed away. So likely he hasn’t had time or even the presence of mind to eat. That’s where you come in. You take care of what he can’t.”

  I nod, remembering how Grandma and Granddad came to our house everyday, bringing us food in the form of casseroles and baked goods. I remember I ate Grandma’s tuna noodle casserole so much, I thought I was going to turn into one. Now, I wish I had thought ahead just like Sabrina did.

  Thirty minutes later, we’re pulling into the parking complex behind Nickayla and Colin’s apartment. I have two boxes full of chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, red beans and rice, and biscuits. We also stopped for a variety of two-liter sodas, paper plates, paper cups, and plastic cutlery. I feel prepared for an evening of being someone else’s shoulder to cry on for a change.

  “Give your friend my condolences. Text me when you’re ready to come home, and I’ll come get you.”

  Cocking an eyebrow, I smirk knowingly at her. “You know I don’t have your number.”

  She laughs, putting the car in drive an instant before I open the car door. “Ah, you don’t know me well at all, Mr. Durham. I stole your phone while I slept in your arms and programmed my number in your contacts with a very flattering selfie to accompany it.”

  Now it’s my turn to laugh. Bags in hand, I lean over the center console and press a kiss to her temple. “Thanks, Dove. I’ll see you soon.”

  Blinking in surprise, she gives me a small smile and a timid wave. I hop out of the car, closing the door behind me. I wave back.

  She drives off, and I stand on the edge of the curb, watching until her car disappears.

  Once I’m clear of her presence, I trudge upstairs and knock on the door to Nic and Colin’s apartment. I often forget which apartment number is theirs, but the fact that their apartment is the only one in the entire complex with a Welcome mat in front of the door helps out during times like these.

  I’m embraced by Nic the minute the door is opened, and she thanks me for the food as she leads me into the kitchen. She starts chattering about Colin and the issues he’s facing with his dad now being gone for good, about his friend Madilyn’s too-convenient visit, and how grateful she is for mine and Michie’s friendship right now.

  I’m hearing everything she’s saying, but all I can think about is Sabrina. Absentmindedly, I stuff my hand in my pocket and pull my cell phone out. I swipe it unlocked and search the various home screens for my contacts app. I scroll until I find Sabrina’s name in the short list. I open her contact and click on her picture until it enlarges.

  I do a double take when I see the picture she’s attached. She’s on her back in my bed, our hands intertwined and resting beside her. Her ample cleavage looks phenomenal, and her hair encircles her head like an ebony halo.

  Motherfucking angel.

  ELEVEN

  I’M MEETING A COUPLE FRIENDS for lunch, because I need advice on the Brody front. I can’t get him out from under my skin, and I’m not even sure I want to. I just need to know how to move forward, if that’s what he wants. It’s definitely what I want.

  Kelsey, Henry, and I have been friends for a while. Well, Henry and I became friends sophomore year, the minute I enrolled at Valley Public. Kelsey transferred to our school during junior year, and they started dating shortly afterward. Our circle is small, but it’s impenetrable. Well, it has been ever since I kicked Kelsey’s ass.

  When she came into our lives, she had a problem with how close I was to Henry. However, I told her I wasn’t going anywhere unless Henry asked me to—which was never going to happen as long as we both shall live, Amen—and that led to her trying to pit him against me. Once I realized what was going on, I approached her in the hallway at school one day. She had her back turned to me, and I hate a bitch who’ll hit someone with their back turned. So I politely tapped her on the shoulder. I was totally fair. I gave her enough time to turn completely around and say, “What?” before I clocked her. We fought until one of us forfeited—it wasn’t me—and then we talked out our differences in front of Henry.

  We’ve been copasetic since then.

  Today, they’re meeting me at Ana’s Sweeties for coffee, a slice of cake, and book talk.

  The logo was designed by my artistically inclined sister Bianca. At the time when she opened her first location, she had three daughters, so Bianca sketched a woman who looked just like Mom to lean against the ‘A’ in ‘Ana’s’. For each of the ‘e’s’ in ‘Sweeties’, she sketched a different cupcake—each according to our favorite cupcake flavor. Devil’s food for Grecia, red velvet for herself, and strawberry cheesecake for me. When Mila arrived, she edited the logo so Mom was holding a tray with a single cupcake atop it. Mila’s cupcake is carrot, because carrot baby food has always been her favorite.

  Mom’s bakery is different than most. She runs a secondhand bookstore—she calls them Previously Loved Books instead of ‘secondhand’—attached to each bakery location. The layout of the bakery is set up more like a library. Sofas, love seats, beanbag chairs, and the like adorn every small corner of the premises, and coffee tables sit near each seating area. Rather than offer free WiFi, she offers a free Previously Loved Book to each of her bakery customers. She hasn’t had any complaints about how she runs things here.

  The doorbell above the door chimes when I make my way inside. Henry and Kelsey are seated in a love seat at the back of the bakery. They’re completely facing each other, engrossed in whatever conversation they’re having.

  “Hey,” I say, tossing my purse onto the couch across from them and plopping down. “I need boy advice.”

  At that, Kelsey squeals and Henry narrows his eyes. He’s concerned that I’m going to forgive Maddox for all he’s done, but little does he know, there’s a new guy in my life now. And I can’t wait to give him all the details. What’s more is, I can’t wait to give Kelsey the details because now maybe she’ll quit questioning my friendship with her boyfriend. I was here first, so I’m not going to back off unless he tells me to. But I’m also not going to defend our relationship at every turn just because she’s insecure.

  “Ooh, tell me everything!” she exclaims.

  See?

  I wait for Ivy, the manager of this location, to approach our seating area and take our orders. I never go to the counter unless I’m making a quick pit stop on my way somewhere.

  She strolls over to us, arms at the ready for a hug, and jots down my order. I ask for a chai tea latte, a slice of strawberry cheesecake cupcake, and a bottle of Fiji water. Henry orders the same, and Kelsey substitutes the strawberry cheesecake cupcake for a gluten free vanilla cupcake with sugar free icing and the chai tea for a decaf black coffee with two sugars. She’s trying to drop ten pounds by prom.

  I don’t understand her whole diet craze anyway. I was born with my curvy, Latina figure for a reason.

  I don’t count calories.

  I collect them.

  “So, who is it?” Henry asks, leaning forward and away from Kelsey’s embrace. “It’s not Maddox is it?”

  I shake my head. “God, no. I haven’t thought that way about Maddox since everything went down.” With a sly grin, I decide to tell him about our most recent encounter. “I did see him not too long ago, though. You’d be so proud of me. I warned him to get away from me, and when he didn’t, I threatened to hit him with my car. I didn’t, but I’m sure he knows by now I’m crazy enough to do it.”

  Henry starts laughing so hard he claps his hands, and Kelsey shoots him a death glare. He continues hooting and hollering to his heart’s content, not caring that it’s annoying his girlfriend.

  “So if it’s not Maddox, who is it? I need details!”

  Henry’s excitement startles me, but maybe he’s just ready to finally see me happy.

  “His name is Brody. His best friend is my coworker. He came in drunk off his ass one night complaining about his ex, so I threw ice cold water in his face and yelled at him. Last week, while I was in L.A. visiting my mom, he came by
my job to visit me, but I wasn’t here. He came back last night, and now he’s living in my house and I slept in his bed last night and I’m so attracted to this guy I can’t fucking see straight and I don’t even know how to approach this subject with him because I have no way of knowing if he wants the same or if he even feels the same!”

  The end of my tirade is spoken on one breath, and I have to practically hyperventilate to get my breathing regulated again.

  Kelsey shakes her head like she doesn’t even understand how attraction erupted when our first encounter ended with me basically attacking him. Me, I don’t bother explaining to her, because she wouldn’t understand. The only person besides Bianca who knows knows is Henry, because he was my only friend when I first got to Valley.

  “Enrique,” I say, calling him by his given name rather than the name he chooses to go by. I’m the only one allowed to call him that. “Enrique, Brody is Lewellyn’s Guy.”

  Kelsey’s gaze darts between the two of us, and a scowl appears when neither of us stops to explain. It deepens further when a smile erupts on Henry’s face.

  “Fuck no!” He’s shocked, as was I when Brody walked into Le Chateau D’If for the first time. “How do you know know it’s him?”

  “I just…know. The same feeling I got two years ago is the one I got when he stumbled into my workplace. And it’s his eyes. It’s all in his eyes and the way they look like home to me, in his stride and the way it’s so…unsure. It’s everything and nothing and I want him so bad like you wouldn’t believe.”

  He raises an eyebrow as Kelsey snarls. She hates being out of the loop.

  So maybe I’m fucking with her a little bit and leaving her out of it on purpose.

  Henry leans forward some more. “How bad?”

  “As bad as Little Brucie wanted Ms. Trunchbull’s chocolate cake.”

  “Holy fucking shit! Start from the beginning, and don’t leave out a single detail!”

  For the next three hours, I explain in vivid detail what happened with Brody, from recapping how we met in the first place to him calling me ‘Dove’ half an hour ago. Kelsey picks everything apart with a fine-toothed comb, and Henry clashes his opinion with hers as he tells what he sees and feels from a guy’s perspective. By the time I’m done going over our little lust story for the millionth time with them, I think I know what I want to do.

  “So you say he called you ‘Dove’?” Henry asks. “What does that even mean?”

  Now it’s Kelsey’s turn to chime in. “Well, I was reading this book the other day called Walking Disaster, and Travis calls Abby ‘Pidge’.”

  I roll my eyes. “Brody is not Travis Maddox. And he’s not the type of guy who says things just to say them. What I know of him so far is that he’s a man of few words. He won’t use his words unless he means them. If he called me that, he did it for a reason. I just don’t know what that reason is.”

  I know my best bet is to ask Brody what he meant by the nickname, but I haven’t had my fun until I’ve let my two closest friends analyze everything to death.

  “If you know him so well, why don’t you tell us what he means by it, then?” Kelsey asks.

  I roll my eyes in her general direction. She’s been making snide comments toward me ever since I broke up with Maddox. Her insecurities always shine when I’m single. I’m always secure in my relationships with people as long as they’re upfront and honest about their feelings for me. It sucks that my relationship with Kelsey is anything but.

  “You might want to watch yourself. I love Henry, but that doesn’t mean I won’t kick your ass a second time.”

  “I was just saying that—”

  “I’ll see you guys later. I’ll be over there, enjoying much better company.” I turn to Henry as I stand up and gesture for him to follow me. He glances momentarily between the two of us. He takes in the grimace on Kelsey’s face, and the glower on mine, and he wisely chooses to follow me. He knows how I can get when shit hits the fan between the three of us.

  He mutters a quick apology to his girlfriend, walking away from her. I peer at her over my shoulder, mentally laughing at the fact that she’s stomping her foot and crossing her arms at our retreating figures.

  I sit down in front of a coffee table on the other side of the bakery and Henry sits adjacent to me.

  “What’s up, Bree?” he asks.

  Enrique “Henry” Velez was the first person in Valley who wasn’t part of Maddox’s crew to speak to me. We had half our classes together, and we hit it off immediately. We found we had loads in common, starting with our unconventional families—he’s adopted—and ending with the fact that we’re both Hispanic.

  “You need to get your girl under control. She thinks I’m the most amazing person in the world when I’m dating, but she hates my fucking guts when I’m single. You better tell her to watch herself, or I will. And I’m sure you know my methods are much more violent than yours are.”

  With a sigh, he shakes his head. “Kels doesn’t hate you. She’s just threatened by you.”

  Yeah, and therein lies the problem. She has no reason to be threatened by me. Henry’s my best friend, he’s like my brother. I’ve no more interest in him romantically than I do in Napoleon Dynamite.

  “Well do something to make her feel unthreatened,” I retort. “You two have been together for over a year now, and I’m tired of having to defend our friendship at every turn just because your girl doesn’t feel good enough about herself.”

  I hope he understands I’m not trying to be a bitch. I’m just telling it how it is. And I didn’t come here to talk about Kelsey and whatever issues she’s having. I came to talk about Brody and the issues I’m having with him.

  “Noted.” He leans forward on his elbows. “So, about this Brody…”

  “Don’t you want to go back to your girlfriend?” I ask, and I immediately regret the question. I shouldn’t care about how she feels or whether he goes to check on her or not, because she put herself in this predicament.

  Henry shakes his head and takes a long sip of his latte. “No. She knows I refuse to entertain her childishness. I’ve tried every day for a year to convince her there’s nothing happening between us. If she can’t see that and keeps antagonizing you, we have nothing to talk about.” He glances at her momentarily. “Besides, I’m sure she’ll storm out in t-minus five minutes and show up at my house later tonight.”

  Shaking my head and suppressing a laugh, I lean back in my seat. I bring my latte up to my mouth and take a drink.

  I wonder if I’m ready to even take a leap with Brody. I want to. God knows I want to. I want to be his, and I want him to be mine, in every way that’s humanly possible. But am I ready for the unnecessary drama that comes with it? He has an ex still hanging around—I heard through The Grapevine that the ‘Chele’ in ‘Brichele’ continues to attend Valley-PHASS—who I’m sure comes with a can of worms I’m not ready to crack open. He has some deep, dark secret that’s tearing him apart from the inside out. He’s a parent at eighteen years old, and I don’t even know how or why it happened. He walks around like he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, and I can’t imagine how he’s got so much to worry about at only eighteen. There’s so much that comes with him, that comes with the potential of being with him, and I’m not sure if I’m mentally prepared for it all.

  At the same time, though, I have to wonder whether any of that is strong enough to tear us apart. Is any of that stronger than the connection we seem to have to one another? Stronger than the pull I felt in my heart when he cried out last night? Stronger than the desperate yearning behind his startled, gray gaze as he begged me to stay with him? Stronger than the chills that ran up my spine as I fell asleep wrapped up in his arms? Stronger than the first genuine smile I got from him when I teased him about watching me sleep?

  No, surely the secrets of the past aren’t strong enough to break apart the hope we have for the future.

  There is a sweet magic—and an ever-gr
owing fire—burning between us.

  My heart flutters when he’s around, and I can’t breathe when he isn’t.

  “Hello! Earth to Sabrina!” Henry says loudly, waving his hands in front of me. “Where’d you go?”

  I shake my head, smiling softly to myself. I’ve only just now realized the extent of my feelings for this man, and I’m counting down the minutes until I have the chance to see him again.

  I reach in my purse for my cell phone and refresh the notifications screen, hoping that maybe he’s texted to let me know he’s ready to come home. Instead though, I find a text from Maddox, which I promptly delete, and a stupid, irritating game request from Facebook.

  “Nowhere.” I immediately regret the little white lie, however. After two years of friendship, I’ve realized Henry is the only person I know worth being honest with. “I was thinking about Brody.”

  On a laugh, he reaches over and takes my cell phone from me. As the older brother of a recently-turned-teenage sister, he’s a strong believer in the notion that boys should chase girls, and not the other way around.

  “You’ve got it bad, Bree.” He chuckles again, patting the back of my hand. “Is he really that good of a guy?”

  At that, I have to laugh. The question is so ridiculous, I debate whether I should entertain the thought of even answering it.

  Brody is sweet, although he’d never want anyone to see that side of him if he can help it. I haven’t gotten a joke out of him yet, but he seems like he could be funny. He treats his sister like the queen of the world, and provides structure for his brother where it appears to be lacking. He’s a great friend. I’d planned on us spending the day together, but when his friend needed him, he went running without a second thought. He cares about me, but he holds me at arm’s length. I’m not sure whether that’s to protect me or himself, but either way, it’s what I least expected. He’s completely unprecedented in every way.

  With my chin in the palm of my hand, I close my eyes. A fond smile grows on my face and my eyes drift open to stare at Henry. He looks at me as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking, and because of that look, I know he knows what my answer is to his question.