She coughed and then began. “About the other day.”
She noticed his hand, the one on the steering wheel, flinch slightly.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, I’m okay,” he rushed.
“I’m just worried about you.” She waited. “I don’t—”
“I’m fine.” Now he was looking straight ahead, both hands on the steering wheel.
“Do you want your necklace back?” She had it in her pocket, and her hand moved to the lump it formed on her upper thigh.
“I gave it to you.”
“I know. And it means a lot that you did that, but I don’t think I should have it. I can tell it’s important to you.”
She grabbed it out of her pocket and handed it to him, letting the angel wing hang in the air.
He just looked at it and shook his head. “I gave it to you. It’s yours.”
“I want you to have it back. Please,” she said, putting in his hand.
He sighed and held it. Looked at it. And closed his fist around it. “Thanks, Ariana.”
She tried to smile, but it didn’t come. “I’m sorry for what happened.”
She watched Carlos’ eyes water and his jaw tighten.
“I just wish there was something I could do,” she whispered.
She wondered if she should give him a hug, but she decided to take Mayra’s advice and maybe give him a little space.
***
That weekend, Ariana and Mayra were at another party Carlos had invited them to. Ariana’s parents were fast asleep in their bed. Unlike last weekend, she and Carlos were having a good time. Ever since their last make up and the conversation they’d had about his past, things had been better. But she still noticed him zone out sometimes when they were together. Maybe he just had a lot on his mind.
She took a big swig of her drink. She had no idea what it was, but she found she didn’t care. She just wanted to have a have fun tonight and forget what had happened recently. Mayra was on the couch with a guy from school. She couldn’t stop laughing at what he was saying, and he was smiling back. Ariana thought that was hilarious.
“What’s so funny?” Carlos was kind of leaning against her. They were leaning against each other, really. He kissed her. His breath smelled of alcohol.
“I forgot,” she said. She began laughing again.
They were dancing. It was about two in the morning, and they were wasted. Like most of the people there. Another song came on.
“Dance for me, baby,” he said, taking a few steps back so he could get a complete view.
She moved her hips from side to side and raised her arms. She loved this song. She got a few whistles from some other guys, and Carlos smiled.
She saw Ryan, Jimmy’s friend, walk by. She waved. He didn’t wave back.
Oh well, she thought. She kept dancing, moving around the room.
“Take off your clothes!” one guy shouted. She turned towards whoever had said it, but she couldn’t figure out who it had been.
It was a little hot in there. She took off the cardigan she had on over her shirt.
Everyone began cheering. She smiled.
She danced some more. She walked over to Mayra and took her hands. She got up, and they both began to dance. She felt someone grab her butt. She turned around. It was Carlos. He hugged her from behind.
“I want you so bad, baby,” he whispered. She giggled and pushed him away.
“Maybe later,” she said. She went back to Mayra, and they danced together, raising their arms and bending their knees.
They moved to the music and made their way around the room. She was still hot. Mayra must have felt the same because she was taking off her shirt. She threw it. Ariana was about to do the same when she heard yelling.
Someone shoved Mayra’s shirt into her chest and told her to put it back on.
Jimmy.
What was he doing here? She began giggling.
He walked over to her. “What the hell are you doing?” he asked.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m stopping you from doing stupid shit, apparently,” he said. “Come on. We’re going home.”
Then Carlos was there. “Where do you think you’re taking her? She’s here with me.” He grabbed her arm.
“Get off of her!” Jimmy said. He got in Carlos’ face.
“Hey, Jimmy’s taller than you. When did that happen?” Ariana asked, dissolving into laughter.
She barely heard Carlos as he replied to her brother. “She’s mine.” She looked at him, confused.
“She’s my sister, and she’s coming home with me. And so is Mayra.”
“Here!” Mayra said. She was on the sofa again. Everyone was dead quiet.
“I’m saying she’s staying here. And I’ll take her home when I feel like it.”
She didn’t know who swung first, but before she knew it, Carlos and Jimmy were fighting. She saw Carlos hit Jimmy in the face. Then she saw Jimmy hit him back. Carlos fell down but got back up. There was a small crowd gathered around them now. They were hitting each other so fast she couldn’t tell who was who and who was winning.
She began crying. “Stop! Stop!” She tried to get in between them, but someone held her back. It was Ryan.
“Let me go!”
She struggled, but he was too strong for her. And she had zero balance anyway. She heard people make a commotion. She turned back around and saw Jimmy come towards her. His lip was bloody and so was his shirt.
“I’ll get Mayra,” he said to Ryan. “Take her to the car. I’ll be right there.”
Ryan grabbed her arm and began walking Ariana towards the door. She struggled again.
“What about Carlos?” She looked for him. He was on the ground. There were a few people around him, trying to help him up.
“Carlos! He needs help!” she called, frantic.
She saw him come to and sit up. Some girl, she didn’t know who, practically had his head in her lap. His nose was bloody, and there was a long red smear across his shirt. He looked around until he found Jimmy, who was helping Mayra towards the door.
Carlos looked straight at him. Everyone was dead silent.
“I’m gonna kill you.”
She needed to see if Carlos was okay, but Ryan kept pulling her until she was in his car. She sat in the back seat and closed her eyes.
Her eyelids weighed about a hundred pounds each. She needed to see—where was Mayra? And her brother? But she couldn’t wait another second.
She leaned her head against the window and let sleep take over.
chapter fifteen
The sound of a TV woke Ariana up.
Ariana's head was cracking open at the seams. It felt like there was a hammer pounding and pounding inside her head. She tried to open her eyes, but it was too bright. She could feel that she was in a bed. Her clothes were on. That was good. She tried to roll over, and her body ached. She opened her eyes a millimeter at a time.
“Oh, God.” The light was too much.
“About damn time you woke up.” It was Jimmy. She slowly shifted up onto her elbows and saw him at her desk. He was watching TV. He didn’t even look at her. The remote was in his hand. He was flipping through channels.
“What time is it?” she whispered.
“Noon.”
Noon?
“Where are Mom and Dad?”
“Mom went shopping. Dad went to go wash his truck and run some errands.” He looked at her and shook his head. Then he turned back to the TV. “You look like crap. You need a shower.”
She just stared. What was his problem?
She noticed his lip was cut, and he had a small bruise on his cheek.
“What happened to you?”
“You dare ask what happened to me?”
She tried to remember what happened last night. Bits and pieces came to her. Carlos. The party. Oh gosh, she had been drinking. Mayra.
“Where’s Mayra?”
“At home. She�
�s okay.”
“How’d we get home?”
“Ryan gave us a ride.”
She walked over to her dresser and began rummaging in her underwear drawer. She did need a shower. She reeked.
“Wait. How’d you know I was there?”
“You seriously don’t remember? I guess it makes sense. You were so freakin’ wasted when I found you. And Mayra was no better.”
He shook his head again and went back to the TV.
She remembered now. At least part of it. “Oh my gosh. Carlos. You and him got into a fight.” She began looking for her phone.
“He’s fine.”
“I need to talk to him.”
“I hid your phone.”
“What? Why? You can’t do that.” Her hands turned into fists. He stood up.
“Your stupid boyfriend—” He turned around and grabbed his hair. He exhaled loudly. He looked at her again.
“Don’t you remember what he did to you? And Mayra?” he asked. He was pacing.
What is he talking about?
“When I found you…” he began. He fixed his eyes on her. “You’re lucky Ryan happened to be at that stupid party with his older brother.” He paused again.
“Jimmy, what are you talking about?”
“You and Mayra were dancing in front of everybody, taking your clothes off.”
She gasped. “What? I don’t—” Tears flooded her eyes. She covered her mouth with her hand as she remembered.
“People were taking pictures.” Jimmy said quietly.
“Did I—”
“Luckily, I got there before it got really bad. You had only taken off your cardigan. But Mayra had taken her shirt off and you were about to.”
She sat down on the bed.
“I got there right as she did. I got her to put it back on right away, but I don’t know if anyone got pictures of her half-dressed.”
She had no words.
“Now you see why my face is like this? Believe me, Carlos is worse. I kicked his ass until he was on the ground for what he was doing. He’s the one who was telling you to do that. And you were too drunk to say no.” He spit out Carlos’ name like it tasted bad.
She was sobbing now. She squeezed her eyes shut.
But Jimmy wasn’t done. “Imagine what would have happened if Ryan hadn’t told me, gotten his brother’s car, and gotten me over there in time. You could have been raped or something.”
She just couldn’t understand how Carlos could have done this to her. To Mayra. She felt so stupid. How could she have done something like that? Even if he had told her to do it, how could she have just done what he was asking?
“I need to speak to Mayra.”
“I already talked to her.”
“She’s my best friend. I have to see her.” She was surprised at the sound of her voice.
“Just take a shower, and then we’ll go over there.”
She got up and got her things in a hurry.
She had one more question before she left the room. She turned to Jimmy.
“Do Mom and Dad know?”
He shook his head. “This morning I pretended I was really tired and didn’t want to get up. Then I hopped straight in the shower.” He stood up and walked over to her. He sat down next to her.
“Ariana, they’re going to find out about all of this eventually.”
“No. Telling them what happened is the last thing I would do.” She finished getting her things together and hurried off to take a shower.
***
“Mom and Dad are going to be back soon,” Jimmy said as they hurried down the block to Mayra’s house.
“I texted Mayra, and she didn’t answer,” she said. She walked faster. She still tasted the water in her mouth. She’d had two glasses plus a honey bun before leaving the house.
They ran up her porch stairs and knocked on the door. Mayra’s mom’s car was in the driveway.
She knocked again.
The door opened. Mayra’s mom was looking back at them after rubbing her eyes. She looked like a zombie. “Hola, Ariana y Jimmy.”
“Sorry to bother you, Mrs. Lopez,” she said quickly in Spanish. “Can I talk to Mayra, please? It’s really important.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” she stammered. “I just need to ask her something about a project we have to turn in.”
“She should be in her room.”
She got out of the way to let Ariana and Jimmy in. As Jimmy went past her, Mayra’s mom stared at his face but didn’t say anything. She closed the front door.
“Gracias.” Mayra’s mom went back to her room and shut the door.
They went to Mayra’s room and knocked.
“Mayra?” she said through the door. Her ear was up to it, listening for any sounds inside.
“Mayra.” Jimmy said. “Open the door.”
She tried the knob. It was unlocked. They walked inside.
The bed was unmade. Her bathroom door was closed. She walked over to it and tried the knob. Locked.
“Mayra, it’s me. I need you to open the door.” She jiggled the knob.
Jimmy was at her nightstand, her phone in his hand.
“Someone sent her pictures of last night,” he said quietly.
Ariana began pounding on the door. She really hoped her mom wouldn’t wake up again, but she had to know if Mayra was okay.
“Mayra!”
“Go away,” she heard. She could tell Mayra was crying.
“Please open the door,” she pleaded.
She heard more crying. Jimmy came up to the door.
“Mayra, open the door, or I’m gonna have to kick it in. And I don’t want to do that. We’d have a lot of explaining to do.”
They waited.
She was about to start pounding again when the lock clicked.
They opened the door and walked in. Mayra was on the floor in gym shorts and a t-shirt. Her eyes were red, and she had hair plastered to her face from crying. She sniffled and wiped her nose with a tissue.
“What do you guys want?” She looked down as she spoke.
“Are you okay?” Ariana asked.
Mayra laughed.
“Mayra, about last night—” she began.
Mayra seemed to explode. “That was the worst night of my life! I can’t believe I let myself get drunk and do all of that. There are pictures of me in my bra.” She began crying again.
Jimmy knelt down beside her. Ariana did the same and put her arm around her.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
They cried together.
“There are pictures of both of us, but the ones of me are worse.” She wiped her nose again. “Someone sent a video, and you can clearly hear Carlos telling us to do it.”
She shook her head. “We were so stupid.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I can’t believe what he did.”
Mayra looked at Jimmy and hugged him. “Thank you so much for getting us out of there.”
Jimmy hugged her back.
Mayra looked back at her. “What are we going to do?”
“We should turn him into the police.” Jimmy said. He had his arm around her. “He deserves to go to jail for what he did.”
“We can’t do that. Mom and Dad’ll find out, and we’ll be in a lot of trouble. For drinking. Ryan for driving.”
Jimmy stared at her. “You’re going to let him get away with what he did to you and Mayra? Those pictures are going to keep getting sent around.”
Mayra looked down. Ariana looked at her. She exhaled.
“We can’t do anything about the pictures now. And Carlos and I are over. I was stupid to have been his girlfriend in the first place.”
Jimmy shook his head. “You need to leave him for good.”
“I will.” She hugged Mayra. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I feel better with you guys here. I get that you don’t want to get in trouble, Ariana. And I don’t want more attention on this than there alr
eady is. Let’s just forget about it. The pictures aren’t as bad as they could have been. I just want to forget everything.”
“I promise he won’t hurt you guys again,” Jimmy said, squeezing her hand.
***
Mayra had finally fallen asleep in her bed. Jimmy was next to her, stroking her cheek.
Her phone buzzed.
Jimmy looked at her. “Carlos?”
She nodded.
Jimmy got up from the bed and walked over to her.
She answered. “Hello?”
“Hey,” Carlos said. “How’re you doing?”
Jimmy was listening.
“It doesn’t sound like you really want to know how I’m doing.”
“You saw what Jimmy did to me.”
She thought she’d rather not say anything.
Jimmy shook his head and smiled. “He got what he deserved,” he said, not bothering to keep his voice down.
“Is that him?” Carlos asked.
“Yes,” she said. “He’s my brother, remember?”
“Yeah, well, tell him he’s going to pay for what he did. I don’t care if he’s your stupid little brother.”
“Did you have anything else you wanted to say?” she demanded. She tried to keep her voice down for Mayra, but it was hard.
“Yeah. I do. What happened last night was not my fault. You and Mayra chose to go to that party with me. You chose to drink. No one forced you to do anything. And you’re the ones who wanted to get up there in front of everybody. Yeah, I enjoyed it. But I didn’t make you.”
“You’re right. It was my choice. My stupid mistake. I shouldn’t have let you talk me into drinking in the first place. But it’s not going to happen again. I don’t want to be your girlfriend anymore. I realize now that was my biggest mistake of all.”
“I counted on you, Ariana. I can’t believe you’re doing this, after everything we’ve gone through.”
A few tears escaped her eyes. “I can’t do this anymore. It’s just not good for either of us. Bye, Carlos.”
She hung up.
Unbreakable Love Page 18