***
Back in the car, Ariana got in the driver’s seat and just focused on the road. As she headed home, she had forced the tears back, and the frog in her throat had finally gone away, but she didn’t know what might happen if her dad started talking about what had just occurred.
Talk about worst birthday ever.
“Don’t worry. We’ll come back next week. When you have your license, you won’t even like to drive anymore,” he said, chuckling.
She nodded and came to a stop at a red light.
“How are you doing in school?” he asked, his elbow next to hers on the arm rest in the middle of their seats.
“Good.”
“You have good grades?”
“All As,” she replied, glad for the change of subject. She took a deep breath.
“That’s good. Have you thought about what you want to study?”
“I kind of like business.”
He nodded. “That’s a smart choice. You think you might open your own business some day?”
“Or work as a CEO or something for a huge company.”
“I like that. Looks like you just figured out my retirement plan.” He winked, and she giggled. “I’m proud of you.” He glanced at her before staring straight ahead.
She smiled. There was something she didn’t hear every day.
“I know at this age you start to get feelings for boys and all of that, but I just want to tell you to wait a little longer. Focus on school first. Your mom and I didn’t get that opportunity. We get by okay now, but we struggled for a long time, especially when you two were little.”
She didn’t remember the place where they used to live, but apparently it had been a trailer park.
“Now we have a house, and we don’t worry as much about having enough to pay the bills. Jimmy’s playing basketball, and you’re going to college next year. We never had that, don’t even know about that, but you deserve it. Better. Don’t let boys get in the way.”
She nodded, pushing the sinking feeling in her stomach away.
***
“What’d they say?” Jimmy met them in the driveway. He came in for a hug. “Happy birthday, by the way. Did you pass?”
Ariana tried to smile and handed him a fast food bag with a hamburger and fries inside. Her dad had taken her for a consolation brunch. “I was supposed to have an appointment.”
“That sucks. Are you gonna go back soon?”
“Yeah. I went ahead and made the appointment.”
“Sounds good.” He took his bag, looked inside, and headed to his room before their mom saw.
She closed the car door and followed her dad inside. Her mom was getting her big birthday dinner ready. It was her favorite: enchiladas, San Luis Potosi style. They looked like little orange tacos with all kinds of stuff on them and some fajitas on the side. At least she would have that to look forward to today.
She had already said she didn’t want a party or anything since she had gotten her car, so they were going to have a family dinner. Mayra and Jimmy’s friend, Ryan, were the only ones invited. She had shuddered at the thought of having all their extended family over. It would have been more annoying than fun, especially with all her spoiled little cousins.
She wished Carlos was there to make her feel better, but in this reality, he wasn’t even supposed to exist.
She went to her room and shut the door. She jumped onto her bed, landing on her stomach. She rolled over and took her phone out of her back jean pocket. She had a text from Carlos.
Happy birthday, Cinderella. I love you, and I hope today is awesome even though I can’t be there. Maybe tonight I can see you so I can give you your present.
She squealed and sat up in bed. He’d never used that word with her before. She looked at the text again. Okay, so her day had gotten a lot better already. She texted him back, saying absolutely she would see him that night, whatever it took. It would make her seventeenth birthday as perfect as it could get. For now.
***
That night, after stuffing themselves with more enchiladas than they could count, Ariana, Mayra, Jimmy, and Ryan dragged themselves to the couch in the living room. They had also had birthday cake. Jimmy had dunked her face into the cake, and Mayra, being Mayra, had taken plenty of pictures.
Her mom began cleaning up the kitchen as everyone closed their eyes and rested.
She knew that, as the birthday girl, she wasn’t supposed do any chores today, but for once in her life, she felt a little guilty for the huge mess they had all left. She got up, and Mayra followed her into the kitchen to take dishes to the dishwasher to load.
“Why don’t you two and the boys go watch a movie in the living room? Mayra and Ryan are probably going to have to leave soon.”
“It’s only seven o’clock.” Ariana rinsed a plate and handed it to Mayra, who placed it on a rack in the dishwasher.
“Doña Aguilar, is it okay if we all go to my house to watch a movie?”
Her mom paused while wiping down the stove. “Why don’t you all just watch one here?”
“Mayra has a lot of really cool movies we can choose from.”
“You can go with Jimmy to get it and come back.” Her mom’s back was to them, and Mayra and Ariana just looked at each other before giving it another try.
“Please, can we go? I never get to go out. At least let us go three houses down.”
Her mom sighed. “Okay then.”
Mayra smiled at Ariana, and they finished loading the dishes.
Not too long after, they were at Mayra’s house.
“So what should we watch?” Mayra asked.
“Something with action, something scary, or both if possible,” Jimmy said as he sat down on the couch, giving Ryan a high five. Ryan was in the same grade as Jimmy and lived a couple of streets over. He was an only child and had a single mom like Mayra, so he came over sometimes.
“Nah,” Ariana replied. “Maybe something with romance.” She rummaged through a drawer full of movies, and Jimmy joined her.
Ariana’s phone buzzed.
Be there soon.
She smiled and Jimmy looked at her.
“What?”
“Is he coming over?”
“Yeah. It’s my birthday. How can I not see him?”
He shook his head and went back to the couch. “Shoulda known.”
Ariana settled for rolling her eyes. Mayra put in an action movie with a romantic subplot, and they all settled in.
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. It was dark out, but Mayra took a peek out the window anyway.
“It’s Carlos.”
“I’ll get it.” Ariana went to the door and opened it.
Carlos stood there, smiling, with a present bag in his hand.
“Hey,” he said. Ariana hugged him and stepped onto the porch, closing the door behind her. She didn’t let go of him as he came in for a kiss.
A long, awesome birthday kiss. Hopefully her parents wouldn’t peek out the window and notice his car.
“Happy birthday,” he said at last.
“I’m glad you came.” She smiled.
“Me too.” He gave her the bag. “This is for you.”
It was a teddy bear and some expensive-looking chocolates.
“I love it. Thank you.”
“I love you,” she barely heard him say. She looked up at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, putting the bag on the floor. She brought her face to his until her lips were less than an inch away. Carlos put his hands low on her waist and looked at her mouth.
“I love you,” she whispered before sinking her mouth into his.
They pulled back eventually.
“Have you been feeling better?” she asked.
He nodded and glanced away.
They went inside and took a seat together on the couch. She saw Jimmy roll his eyes and Ryan kind of smirk.
“I can’t stay long,” Carlos whispered as Jimmy finally hit play again on the movie.
“How come?” She knew it was probably better that way, but her heart sank a little anyway.
“I promised my cousin I’d take him somewhere.”
“Oh.” She looked at the screen and tried to follow the movie. Carlos took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze. She squeezed back.
chapter eleven
A week later, she was finally headed back to the DMV to take her test.
She took a deep breath as she switched lanes so she could turn left up ahead at the DMV place.
“I wish you’d let me bring my car. It’s so much easier to park with it.”
“If you can’t pass the test in this beauty, then you don’t deserve to have your full license. Simple as that. You need to be able to park or drive in any vehicle.”
Jimmy had wanted to come along, but if she failed the test, she wanted enough time to regain her composure before letting him see her. He hadn’t been happy about having to stay home, but he had agreed.
They had done one last practice run before leaving the house, practicing parking in reverse and the dreaded parallel. Her dad had been surprised at how much she had improved.
“You haven’t taken the car out while I’ve been at work, have you?” he had asked.
“Dad, you take the only two keys with you every day,” she had said, laughing. “I guess I just got the hang of it.”
No way she was going to tell him who had given her some pointers.
She pulled into a parking spot, and they headed inside. She filled out the paperwork and waited. Just a few minutes later, her name was called.
She signed some paperwork and followed an old lady with a clipboard and pen outside, where she pulled her car up to the side of the building.
“Get in, and let’s head to those cones over there first,” the lady said.
***
She pulled into the driveway of her house. Her dad had let her drive home. Jimmy ran outside as she parked and got out.
“So?” He waited for her reply. He looked at her dad, who shook his head and walked inside, but not before patting her on the shoulder. As he closed the door, he gave her a smile.
“Bam!” she yelled, whipping out her wallet with her temporary license. It wasn’t the real thing. The real one would be in the mail within a couple of weeks, but with this, she could go ahead and drive on her own.
“No way,” he said, taking it and inspecting it. “Was it hard?”
“I was nervous, but I pretended the lady wasn’t even there, and I passed. I still messed up a little on the parallel, but it was good enough. I had to drive around town and everything. That was actually the easy part.”
He laughed. “Let’s go for a ride.”
She bit her lip.
“I’ll go tell ‘em we’ll be right back.” He ran inside. She got in the car.
Jimmy ran outside again and got in the front passenger seat, slamming the door once he was in. He handed her the keys to her car.
Their mom opened a window and stuck her head out. “Be careful! Be back in five minutes! No more!”
“Did you hear anything?” Jimmy asked as she pulled out of the driveway.
“Nope,” she said, laughing.
Jimmy opened the window and stuck half his body out as she drove past Mayra’s house.
“Whoo!” He did a fist pump.
“Jimmy!” her mom yelled.
“Best week after my birthday ever,” Ariana told Jimmy.
***
Ariana set her keys down on her desk and thought for a minute. It was Friday, and school was over, but she had a dilemma. There was a party she wanted to go to with Carlos and Mayra, but it was in just a couple of hours. Her parents would never let her go, not even if Jimmy went. This party was at a guy’s house, and it was really just an excuse for everyone to get together and hang out.
Maybe if they said they were going somewhere else, like the movies. With Jimmy. There was no conditioning tonight since the coach was out sick, so he could go.
She got up and went to Jimmy’s room, where he was lying down and watching TV.
“Hey,” she said as she sat down next to him. “Want to go to the movies with me and Mayra?”
“No,” he said without looking at her.
“Seriously?”
“Oh, I want to go. I’d rather it just be me and Mayra.”
Ariana rolled her eyes. “Well, too bad. It’s both of us, or neither of us.”
He didn’t say anything, just kept his eyes glued to the TV.
“Come on,” she went on. “Help me ask Mom and Dad. Mayra really wants to go.” Not really, but she was desperate.
“Fine.”
They got up and went into the kitchen. Her mom was home, but their dad was working late.
“Mom, can we go to the movies with Mayra?” Ariana tried her best begging voice as she asked.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you guys to go out by yourselves.” She kept chopping vegetables.
Ariana looked at Jimmy. “Please? We never get to go out.”
“We can go tomorrow. I need to do some shopping anyway.”
Ariana’s heart sank. “We wanted to go today, though. We can go in my car. We’ll go and come right back.”
Their mom sighed. “Ask your dad.”
Ariana sighed, but they went into the living room to call their dad. He sounded busy when he finally answered. They asked and waited for him to reply.
“You can go, but tell your mom to drop you off, and I’ll pick you up on my way home.”
Ariana lay down on the couch. This was not how it was supposed to go.
“Okay,” Jimmy said and hung up. Ariana thought. Maybe if Carlos picked them up from the mall and brought them back and they chose a long movie and said they wanted to eat
She didn’t have any other choice. She texted Mayra, who had been waiting for news.
She replied, We’ll make it work.
A couple of hours later, their mom was dropping them off at the mall, and Carlos was waiting for them in the parking lot.
“What time is the movie over?” their mom asked before leaving.
“Um, ten o’clock, but tell dad we’re gonna eat something after.”
“Isn’t everything closed by then?”
Mayra spoke up. “Not that pizza place right over there. We can walk.”
“Okay,” their mom said reluctantly. “I’ll tell your dad 10:40 then, even though I don’t like you staying out that late. Jimmy, you better take care of these girls.”
“You know it,” he replied.
She finally left. They began walking towards the entrance, but Mayra and Ariana stopped as soon as Ariana’s mom was gone.
“Where are you guys going?” Jimmy asked.
“Sorry, Jimmy, but we’re not watching a movie.” Mayra said.
“What?” He lifted his arms and let them hit his sides. Then he looked at Ariana.
“We’re going to a party. It’ll be fun.”
“Yeah. You can be my date, okay?” Mayra said.
Jimmy rolled his eyes, but he followed them to Carlos’s car. “This is a new low, even for you, Ariana.”
“It’s gonna be fun,” she replied as she saw Carlos wave at her. She ran up to him and gave him a hug. They all piled into his car, but she noticed Jimmy didn’t even say hi.
***
Two and a half hours later, they were speeding back to the pizza place next to the mall.
“We are so late,” Ariana said to Carlos. “Let me call my dad and see how far away he is.” She dialed and gave a sigh of relief when he picked up right away. She spoke in Spanish for a minute and hung back up.
Carlos glanced at her, and she could also feel Jimmy’s eyes on her.
“Fifteen minutes.” She looked at the time. “I think we’ll be good. We’ll be there in like ten minutes, right?”
Carlos nodded. “We’ll make it.”
“That would be so funny if we ran into him in Carlos’ car,” Mayra said as she
laughed. She had had a little too much to drink.
“Oh, Mayra,” Jimmy said as she rested her head on his shoulder.
Ten minutes later, they were at the pizza place.
“Bye,” Ariana said. She gave Carlos a quick kiss.
“Text me when you get home,” he said and then drove away.
They stood outside the pizza place and waited.
“I’m gonna get something to go real quick,” Jimmy said as he walked inside. “There was nothing good to eat at that party. And I think Mayra could use something to eat too.”
“Whoa, look at that car. It’s so tiny!” she said as a car passed by. She waved at the driver, who just stared back.
“Mayra, don’t do that.”
“What? He was kind of cute. Like his car.”
Ariana shook her head, hoping her dad wouldn’t notice her behavior. She led Mayra to a nearby bench.
A few minutes later, he pulled up and Jimmy came out the pizza place with a couple of small pizza boxes.
“I was just getting some to go boxes,” he said as he climbed in the back with Mayra. “Okay. We can go.” Ariana was in the front passenger seat.
“Jimmy, you’re so tall. You like, barely fit in here.” Mayra said as she giggled.
Ariana looked back at them and tried to smile, but it came out more like a grimace. Her dad was changing radio stations, though, so he didn’t seem to notice.
She was glad there wasn’t any traffic at this time of night because Mayra wasn’t putting a lid on it.
Ariana turned around again and Jimmy coughed loudly as she heard Mayra say, “This thing is so uncomfortable.” She was adjusting her bra. Jimmy shook his head at her.
When they got home, she texted Carlos. We are never doing this again. Mayra was so tipsy.
As she went into the bathroom to brush her teeth, Jimmy came out.
“Remind me to never go out with you guys again.”
chapter twelve
Over a month had passed since Ariana had passed her driving test and gotten her full license—and gone on her little joyride with Jimmy.
Unbreakable Love Page 14