Hector

by Elizabeth Reyes

  He listened to his voicemail next: the first from Sam telling him he’d be late and arguing with someone else in the background then two from Abel saying basically the same thing he’d said in the texts. The last one was from Abel again just a few minutes earlier. In it, he wasn’t as calm as in the first two.

  “Sam’s pissing me off. Nobody’s heard from you in hours, and he’s the only one that knows where you are, but he ain’t talking. Call me now, Hector, or I swear to God, concussion or not, I’ll go down to that hospital and beat it out of that old man.”

  “Damn it.” He hung up and hit speed dial.

  “Something wrong?” Leticia asked, pulling away just slightly.

  “Yeah, there is. Do you two have a car here?”

  They both shook their heads. “No, we were dropped off and were gonna call and get a ride until . . .”

  Abel answered just then. “Where the hell are you!”

  Hector motioned to Leticia to give him a second. He explained quickly about the tournament and having to turn off his phone then asked about Sam.

  “How’s he doing?”

  “Good enough. You know him. He’s probably driving everyone crazy at that hospital. I guess he’s got some hemorrhaging in his brain, but he ain’t saying much more.” Abel chuckled. “He says they’re full of shit. He feels just fine.”

  Hector was still focused on the words that scared the hell out of him. He’s got some hemorrhaging in his brain.

  As soon as he was off the phone with Abel, he asked the girls where they wanted to be dropped off and apologized for having to postpone their night together. He skidded out of the parking lot, his heart racing in fear. He should’ve known something was wrong when Sam never showed up. The only thing that would’ve kept Sam from being here today was death itself or being held against his will. Hector was only grateful it was the latter.

  Chapter 5

  Between dealing with Sam who was released the day after the tournament and his training for the fight that Friday, Hector hadn’t been able to make it to either of the chess teams meetings yet. To say his brother had been ecstatic about Hector making the U.S team was the understatement of the century. Abel said he’d always known Hector was good but he’d never imagined he was U.S. team good. The guy was telling everyone that would listen, and even though Hector would roll his eyes and pretend to be annoyed by Abel’s bragging, he secretly loved how proud he’d made his big brother.

  Sam had been adamantly warned that he needed to take it easy—no overexerting himself, just rest. But he was moving that week to Florida, and, of course, his stubborn ass wasn’t putting that off for anything, no matter what the “quacks” said.

  So Hector and Abel had done most of the work, helping Sam load up the huge moving truck for the last few days, and then Hector hit the gym every evening. Sam and his brother would be driving cross-country for the next week. Hector had already downloaded and setup the video message app on the old crank’s phone so they could stay in touch about anything Hector needed to ask him about chess. The chess team would have to wait until the end of week at the earliest. But he was getting antsy, wondering if he’d have to prove himself still.

  Luckily, he didn’t have to wait until the end of the week to find out. To his surprise, Walter showed up on Wednesday at the gym. Hector spotted him just as he was finishing up his training with Abel in the ring. He walked over to the side of the ring and leaned on the ropes. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

  Walter shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. He glanced around the gym. “I’ve been, you know, thinking about joining a gym. You’re right: I need to get in shape.”

  Hector laughed. “But I thought you were up to lifting thirty-five pounds.” He climbed over the ropes and jumped off the ring, landing next to Walter. He jabbed the big guy against the arm to show him he was only messing with him. “Well, you’ve come to the right place, my friend. And I just finished my workout, so I can show you around and get you started if you want.”

  Walter smiled. “Yeah, that’s what I was hoping for.” His eyes went a little sheepish. “You did say you owed me one, so I thought maybe you could show me what the best workout for me is. Just this once,” he added quickly. “After that, I’ll just do whatever you showed me on my own.”

  Hector smiled as they both made their way to the locker room. Walter certainly hadn’t wasted any time cashing in the favor. Hector hadn’t even remembered saying it until Walter brought it up. Of course, he agreed, not so much because he owed him for his help at the tournament but because he was still feeling that annoying twinge of remorse.

  “First thing,” he said as he took a seat on a bench in the locker room. He started to work on taking the wrap off his hands but stopped and looked up. “What your wearing is not gonna fly. It will for today, but next time you need to wear shorts.”

  Walter looked down at his baggy sweats and ridiculous long-sleeved oversized Adidas shirt then looked up. “What’s wrong with this?”

  Hector looked back down at his hands. “You’ll see just a few minutes after you start working out.”

  The guy would be sweating like a pig in no time. Had he never worked out in his life? That’s the only way he couldn’t know this.

  “And next time?” Walter asked. Hector looked up just in time to see Walter rub his neck with his hand. “I don’t wanna take up too much of your time because, uh . . .” his eyes met Hector’s for a second then darted away again. “I was hoping maybe you could help me with something else too.”

  Hector refrained from frowning, but was this guy kidding? Instead of frowning, he stared at him without saying a word and waited. What could he possibly want now? After watching Walter rub his neck a few more times without saying anything, Hector lost his patience.

  “Just spit it out already. What is it?”

  Walter hesitated again until Hector stopped refraining and unleashed an all-out scowl.

  “It has to do with Charlee,” Walter finally said.

  Curiosity replaced his irritation, but the irritation was quickly back when he remembered her total lack of enthusiasm about her newest teammate. “What about her?”

  “Well,” Walter started with the neck rubbing again, but Hector gave him a look again and he stopped. “I was thinking now that you’re on the team maybe you could help me . . .” A few guys walked by and Walter shut up until they were far enough away. “You know, help me get her attention or something.”

  Hector looked up at him, surprised at just how irritated he felt, remembering Charlee’s indifference and the impression he must’ve made on her, smiling all stupid like he had. Growing up in a neighborhood where it was predominantly Hispanic, Hector had always gotten the feeling that white people sort of looked down on them. It never bothered him, and it wasn’t his reason for preferring Latina girls over white girls. He just thought he personally wasn’t attracted to them—they weren’t his type. Now he was beginning to think maybe that wasn’t the case. So maybe his reasons for never even considering being with one ran deeper.

  Walter must’ve mistaken Hector’s irritation about Charlee for irritation about his request, because he sat down, looking very frustrated and started pleading his case. “I really like her, man, and I know I need to get in shape. That’s why I’m here, but I’m no good at talking to girls. I get all choked up and nervous, and then something stupid always happens.”

  Hector scoffed, throwing the final piece of wrap from his hands in the trash and stood up. As if he would know the first thing about impressing white girls. Obviously, he didn’t. Then he remembered her friend Drew. She was white and she’d flirted with him. Okay, maybe he was being stupid about judging girls by their race. He’d never had a racist thought in his life, and he wasn’t going to start now.

  “Yeah, I guess I can give you a few tips.” He pulled his t-shirt off and pulled out a clean one from his locker. “First things first.” He punched his own abs lightly. “You don’t have to get this hard, but you have
to work on that gut. No tip I give you is gonna work as long as you’re hauling all that weight around.” He pulled the clean t-shirt over his head and almost didn’t say his next statement, but he had to. If Walter wanted his help, he was going to hear the truth even if it hurt. “And you gotta do something about the unibrow and that hair. C‘mon.” He threw a towel at Walter and started out the locker room.

  Walter touched his unibrow and frowned but said nothing then touched his hair. “What’s wrong with my hair?”

  “Dude,” Hector glanced back at him. “The shaggy look wasn’t even cool when it was in, and that was like five years ago. Cut that shit off already.”

  Saying Walter was sporting the shag look was putting it nicely. The shag had actually been a style once upon a time. Hector didn’t know what to call that curly mess on Walter’s head. Hector had his work cut out for him. Great. All he’d wanted was to ease a little of the guilt he felt about Walter. Now the guy had become his project.

  ~*~

  He was a pig. Charlee reminded herself again as her heart pounded faster with every step she got closer to her school’s chess lab. She knew Hector was too good to be true Saturday—knew there had to be something wrong with him. Walter had already mentioned he was popular with the ladies. That had come as no surprise, but to behave the way he had in the parking lot with those two girls was just disgusting.

  It was bad enough to see the one girl, Leticia, throw herself at him the way she had, especially since they knew perfectly well she’d just met him. But both Drew and Charlee’s jaws had dropped when they saw him pull the second girl to him and proceed to make out with her as well. Drew had been that close to honking as they sat there in her car, watching the whole thing unfold just a few spaces away. But Charlee had begged her not to.

  There was no question where the three of them were headed and what the rest of their night entailed. The way he’d skidded out of there in such a hurry just added to her disgust. Obviously, he could hardly wait to get to it. And although Charlee would never admit it, even to Drew, she’d been green with envy that those two whores got to do with him what she’d been fantasizing about doing for days. But she’d never stoop to the level of being with a guy who clearly had zero respect for women, no matter how beautiful he was.

  Granted those two sluts didn’t deserve any respect but still. Didn’t he have any respect for himself? If those girls were so ready to jump in his truck just minutes after meeting him, surely this wasn’t the first time they’d done something like this.

  Reality kicked her in the gut as she walked in the room and the very first thing her eyes saw was Hector standing around with Walter and some of the other guys in the class. He glanced at her for a moment and smiled when their eyes met. The visual of him and those two girls in the parking lot thwarted what should’ve been all out bliss that he’d actually showed up and she’d be seeing him this close every day now.

  Charlee smiled back but looked away quickly. Her only hope now was that, aside from being a pig, he was a conceited jerk, because, honestly, who would blame any guy for taking up girls offering a threesome?

  Feeling the irritation overwhelm her, she took a seat at one of the tables furthest from where Hector and the other guys were standing. For the past three days when he didn’t show up to the meetings and just a few minutes, ago she was so ready to mentally lynch him from her thoughts that she completely disallowed herself to have any more fantasies about him. Now here it was only the very first time she’d seen him since being witness to that shameless parking lot scene, and she was already making excuses for his behavior.

  A few nights this past week, she actually wished she hadn’t seen him that night with those girls so she could continue her harmless fantasizing. But seeing him now only reaffirmed that being around him every day might not make those fantasies seem so harmless anymore. It was also painfully obvious from the way he’d handled those girls that it hadn’t been the first time he’d been in a situation like that.

  This could be bad news. Her hopes that maybe he’d changed his mind about joining the school team had been crushed. Falling for someone like Hector would not only be hopeless but, in her case, it would be bad. She could feel it already, and she’d barely spoken to the guy.

  Glancing up when she heard the group of guys laugh, their eyes met again. Even as he laughed, he’d been watching her from across the room. Turning away this time not returning the smile, she began to set up her chess pieces. She was really beginning to get a bad feeling about this.

  She sunk in her seat a bit. Her assumption about him being a conceited jerk was also slowly flying out the window. This whole week when he hadn’t showed up, she’d played out a few theories in her head: perhaps making the U.S. team was obviously commendable but joining a college chess team wasn’t cool enough for him, or maybe he was so arrogant as to think he didn’t need to show up to the meetings or labs for the school team. Maybe just like he had on Saturday, he could show up at just the tournaments and blow everyone out of the water. She’d even imagined him walking in, completely full of himself and unapproachable.

  Now here he was not only socializing and looking as down to earth as the next guy but he genuinely seemed to be enjoying the company of these people—her people—people she would’ve never in a million years thought would be intermingling with someone like him. He’d taken two girls home Saturday night for crying out loud. Most of the guys here looked as if they’d never taken a girl home period. Still, for someone her mother would probably refer to as a lady-killer and who’d won the way he did Saturday to actually come in here and not act superior in any way, well, it was just infuriating!

  It wasn’t even just about looks. She and Walter were the only other two on the school team who were also on the U.S. team with him. Nobody else in here had even been invited to play in the tournament. Hector was superior to mostly everyone in here in more ways than one. She’d hoped to see that he was stuck-up, arrogant—at the very least a little smug. Instead, he was being mindful of everyone. He’d even smiled at her—twice.

  She hadn’t realized how lost she was in her thoughts until someone pulled the chair across from her out. “Hey,” Walter said as she looked up.

  “Hey,” she smiled then went back to setting up her board.

  In the last few days, Walter had been talking to her a little more often than before. It seemed his sitting with her and Drew at the tournament then bringing Hector over to meet them after had sort of made them friends, not that she hadn’t been nice to him before. The Monday after the Ross incident, she’d gone right up to him first thing when she got to the chess lab and asked how he was. She’d even thanked him for what he’d done once again, although he didn’t seem too thrilled to be talking about it. But he did mention having to go to the emergency room the day after. Of course, she felt terrible, but he’d changed the subject quickly. She got that he was evidently embarrassed. She didn’t want to embarrass him further, so she’d stopped asking him anything related, except for the few times she’d asked about Hector.

  This week, she’d made it a point not to ask about Hector at all until yesterday morning. More out of hope than anything, she’d asked if Hector had decided not to join the school team after all. Walter said he hadn’t talked to him since.

  Walter began arranging the chess pieces on his side of the board. “Kind of cool to have someone like Hector on the team, huh?”

  She stopped arranging her pieces and looked up at him again. Hearing the man-crush in his voice only added to her already conflicting feelings about Hector. “What do you mean someone like Hector?”

  Walter smiled a little bigger this time but still looked every bit as nervous as he always did when he talked to her. Charlee would never hold his weirdness against him. In a small way, he reminded her of herself. She, too, did dumb stuff to hide her embarrassment or feeling out of place. Only now, there was an added oddity to Walter’s normal weirdness. “I told you he boxes, right?” She nodded, pushing away
the visual of Hector shirtless and in the ring. “So he’s fighting tomorrow night, and he said if we go, we can all get into the after party right there at 5th Street.” He leaned in, wincing a little as if in pain. “His brother is Abel Ayala. Not sure if you know anything about boxing, but he’s getting pretty famous around East L.A. and in the boxing world.”

  Charlee stared at him. She’d never heard of him, but she could hardly believe that on top of it all Hector had a brother who was pretty famous. No wonder those girls were all over him. With fame, there also came fortune. Wow. She didn’t think he could be any more unattainable.

  “Anyway,” Walter said, clearing his throat, still wincing as he set up his last piece. “He said it hasn’t been formally announced and probably won’t be for months until everything is finalized, but it looks like Abel’s going for the heavyweight title next year. That’s what the party is for. And it’s not open to anyone else but close friends and family, so it’s cool that Hector said we can all go.” Walter’s eyes suddenly opened even wider. “He said Felix Sanchez might even be there.”

  Charlee caught herself as her mouth fell slightly open. Felix Sanchez—now there was a name she recognized. He’d become one of those household names now like Shaquille O’Neal or Tiger Woods. Even if you knew nothing about the sport they played, everyone’s heard of them because they were all over television and tabloids either for good reason or bad.

  In the case of Felix, there was a little from column A and a little from column B. While he did a lot for his charity to help troubled youth and he won quite a few big bouts, he was also in the tabloids a lot. Because of his famously boyish good looks, in spite of how many fights he’d been in, his many romantic escapades with Hollywood starlets and other famous female athletes had made the front pages of countless gossip magazines.

  Charlee purged the incredible urge to roll her eyes. Of course, Hector would be closely acquainted with someone like Felix. In a way, she was happy to hear this. His inviting the guys in the chess club to such an exclusive party had only furthered the confirmation of one thing: her theory about Hector thinking himself to too good to hang with the chess club people was completely debunked. She needed something, anything that would remind her he wasn’t perfect. Sure being friends with someone like Felix added to the already staggering mountain of cool Hector stood atop of, but it also helped further the other conclusion she’d come to about Hector Saturday night.