CHAPTER 26
Monday was nice. I felt better knowing that things wouldn’t be so chaotic between Dante and me at school. It was perfect. We met up after every class and we could barely keep our hands off each other. I talked to Val over the weekend, making sure I still had her blessing. I didn’t want to flaunt our relationship in her face. She surprised me with news of her own. Apparently she and Malachi were an official couple now. I’d have to talk to him about that. He really fell for her! It was wonderful news and I couldn’t wait to tell him so.
The weeks seemed to be flying by now. College acceptance letters were out. I was surprised to get several letters of my own. I still hadn’t fully decided where to go. I tossed around the idea of earning my Associates Degree before embarking on my Peace Corps adventure. That was something my dad had been urging me to do.
Dante’s sights were still set on the military. Natalia got the acceptance letter she had been waiting for, as well. She would be headed to Los Angeles to become a makeup artist at the school she had been eyeing since she was a small girl. Aiden was still waiting to hear if he would be accepted to the college that was close by where Nat would be attending school.
We seniors were having mixed emotions. On one hand, it was exciting as new adventures awaited us in the big wide world. On the other hand, this chapter would close in our lives and things would change quite a bit for some. I tried like crazy to focus on the positive side of things, but not knowing what would become of my and Dante’s finally stable relationship was scaring me.
“Baby, what am I going to do without you?” I whined.
“Why would you be without me?” He faced me, lying across my bed.
“Stop, you know what I mean. When you leave for boot camp.” I pouted.
“You see this?” He lifted my hand to his lips, kissing the ring I never took off these days. I nodded sadly. “What did I tell you?”
“We are forever. Unending. But—”
He cut me off, “No buts, that’s it. You have my heart and if I’m to believe you, I have yours. You and me against the world.” He clasped our hands together.
“When you leave, I’ll be here …,” I finally decided to attend the local community college. “And then what? You’ll graduate and be shipped off somewhere crazy and forget all about me.”
“If that is what you think, you really must not have any clue how much I love you.” He kissed my nose.
“How much?” I smiled trying to change the subject that was making my belly twist in knots.
He pulled me to him, rolling onto his back and rocking his hips into mine.
“You want me to show you?” He smiled slyly.
I kissed him and that was that. We really were ridiculous lately. I needed to make that darn doctor’s appointment soon, before another mishap happened. Dante hated having to always use protection. And I wasn’t the best at enforcing the rule.
***
Tomorrow was Senior Ditch Day for our group. The senior class had already organized one earlier, but we hadn’t participated because we had important assignments in a couple of classes. Instead our group of friends decided we would take this Friday to use as ours. It was perfect since we had the following Monday off as well.
“Make sure you bring your sunscreen, you know your butt will burn.” Nat scolded me.
“Got it.” I threw it into the large bag we were bringing.
“Sunglasses?” I held up Nat’s as I stuck mine on my head.
“Thank you.” She put them on her head.
“Okay, now which one did you decide on?” I looked at the bed full of different bikinis we had thrown about.
“Ugh, this one?” She held up the black one she had been eyeing all morning.
“It’s cute, have you tried it on?”
“Yes. But I’m torn between that one and this one.” She threw the teal one at me.
“I’ll wear this one, you wear that one.” I suggested.
“No switch, you wear this one.” She threw the black one at me.
“Black? Me? Won’t I look pale?” I frowned.
“Right.” She nodded as she stuck her nail in her mouth, eyeing the other bikinis on my bed. “How about— Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo …” She sang as she thought about it. “Um, let me see.”
“This one?” I raised the bikini for her to see.
“No, I don’t like that. It looks like a baby.” She swiped the blue bikini with pink polka dots out of my hands. “Go try this one.” She picked up one of the ones that still had tags.
“I forgot I had that one.” It wasn’t a bikini, but a monokini instead. I reached for it, but she quickly pulled it back and picked up another.
“No, never mind. This one!” She exclaimed.
“Natalia! You are making me self conscious. Decide already, dude!” I smacked her.
“Ow, you brat!” She smacked me back. I went to smack her and she grabbed my wrist, dropping the bikini and pointing at me with her other hand. “Don’t start!”
“You don’t start!” I laughed. She pulled my ponytail. I grabbed hers and pulled it hard. Neither of us was letting go of the others hair. “Ow!” I screamed
“Ow!” She screamed back.
“Stop and I’ll stop!” I yelled at her, half laughing and half serious.
“No, you stop and then I’ll stop!”
“Natty!”
“Rock, Let go!”
“You!” I yelled at her. Just then her phone rang. It was the familiar custom ring tone for Aiden. I immediately dropped my hand at the exact same time as she did.
“Babe? Are you guys here yet? Yea we are almost ready. Rock has to put hers on.” She stuck her tongue at me, “Okay we will. Yes. Okay. Okay. Bye. Love you too.” She hung up and immediately went for my hair. I tried to grab hers as I fell back onto the bed and we couldn’t stop laughing as we both held onto the others hair. I maneuvered myself trying hard to kick up and off the bed, where she had better leverage. She brought me up by my hair and I squealed loud.
“Natalia, drop my hair!”
“You drop mine!”
This time it was my phone ringing. Again we dropped each other’s hair simultaneously. I grabbed my phone, “Dante? Yes I am. No, she’s the one who needs to get dressed. Cause she’s a brat, that’s why.” I stuck my tongue at her this time, “I will baby. Ok. Love you, bye.” I immediately grabbed for her hair this time. She swung in a circle and juked me grabbing my hair instead. “Yeeeooow!!” I yelled out. I pulled my head forward swinging my arms around till I finally caught her hair.
“Ow!” She yelped.
The door bell rang. Crap! We both dropped the hold we had on one another and ran for the door.
“What? Neither of you are ready!” Aiden was irritated.
“You lied?” Dante’s mouth hung open, as he exaggerated being offended.
“Nat was fighting with me.” I crossed my arms and pouted.
“You started it!” She did the same.
We looked over at each other and started laughing loudly.
“Okay, okay, you two! Go get dressed, Lidia and Parker already left. Val and Malachi are going to be there any minute now and we still have to stop for ice.” Aiden interjected.
We both stuck our tongues at him and walked off laughing.
***
Finally we arrived at the beach. Nat and I grab the towels and beach bag. The boys carry the rest.
“They’re over there, by the tower.” Aiden calls out to us.
“Tower?” I look all around.
“The lifeguard tower, babe.” Dante laughs. He’s so used to my goofiness.
We reach the spot where Lidia, Parker, Malachi and Val are sitting beneath a huge pop up.
“Hey guys, finally.” Val stands up to hug us.
Dante sets up the chairs under the shade. Aiden sets the ice chest down.
“Food!” Malachi cheers.
“Blame the girls. They decided to have a wrestling match instead of getting ready.”
“What? And I wasn’t invited?” Val pretends to be hurt.
“We did not!” I protest
“Yea, we had a hair pulling match. Which I won, by the way.” Nat throws in.
“Don’t you start with me, Natalia.” I raise my fingers pinching them together at her.
She laughs and points at me. “Don’t start Raquel!”
“Girls, girls, get in front of us, if you’re going to start wrestling again.” Malachi laughed. Nat and I both walk over and smack the back of his head.
***
After mostly everyone had lunch, Natalia came up with a brilliant plan.
“Let’s play volleyball.” Nat walked up to us.
“Mmkay.” I looked at Dante, waiting for him to grab my hand.
“Yea come on.” He scooped me up, running with me in the sand.
“Dante!” I screamed for him to put me down. When he reached the net, he gently set me down on my feet.
We played for a while, but the boys couldn’t keep their hands off of us long enough to take the game seriously. Not that we cared.
I sat down and wrapped up in a small blanket staring at the ocean. I had an overwhelming feeling of dread. Maybe it was the realization that the year was nearly over, or maybe it was the warm sandwich I ate earlier, not agreeing with my stomach.
Everyone soon joined me and we sat cuddled in our blankets, admiring the view.
“Can you believe we are almost done?” Nat looked at me.
“I know. It went so fast,” I immediately got teary-eyed.
“Too fast.” Val seemed deep in thought too, “We should plan a day like this again. Maybe we can plan to meet here every summer?”
“That would be cool.” I smiled.
“Let’s do it.” Val put her hand in the middle of the group waiting for us to pile our hands on top of hers. All of us gathered in piling our hands together. “Each summer, we will meet up here; same day, same time. Promise?” Val looked each of us in the eye.
“Promise.” We all said, dipping our hands slightly then raising them up, laughing.
It was a poignant moment for us all. We made the promise with hope in our hearts. At the same time, we knew time would take its toll and life would change so much for everyone soon. None of us could look to our future and guarantee that we could keep this promise. In a sense it was a promise to try our hardest to keep all of our friendships intact and remember how special we were to one another.
CHAPTER 27
Graduation day! It was finally here and I was terrified. Dante’s community service would be up soon and he would be leaving for boot camp. I would have little time with him, before he would be gone and I would be back in school. I needed to get through today, first.
Swinging my legs from the bed I got to my feet. Whoa head rush! Once I was ready for the morning I called Dante to wake him up. “Good morning sleepy head.”
“Good morning.” He grunted with a raspy voice.
“Are you excited?”
“No, not really. You?”
“It’s all still surreal to me.” I said.
“Yea, me too.”
“You wanna come over?” I wanted to get as much time with him as I could.
“I was thinking I’d come pick you up and take you to breakfast.” He said.
“Okay well, I’m ready so whenever you get your booty out of bed, I’ll be here.”
“Why don’t you call up everyone and have them meet us at the usual.” He suggested.
We hung up and I made the calls. Within the hour we were all on our way to our favorite breakfast place. Everyone was pigging out on pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs and hashbrowns. I picked at my bacon and had a couple cups of coffee, not really feeling like eating much.
“So, this is it.” Aiden smiled.
“Yup. This is it.” Dante said.
“Let’s do this. My parents said for everyone to be at our house at five so the photographer can take pictures and then we can all meet back there as soon as the ceremony ends.” Aiden said, looking at all of us sitting around the table.
Aiden’s parents had gone all out planning a party for all of our friends and family, celebrating our graduation. The backyard was beautiful and they hired a professional party planner to decorate it with a Luau theme. The landscaped pool and BBQ area were already beautiful, but he was really excited about how the decorators had gone all out to make it even better.
***
My parents would both be there tonight and my anxiety level was pretty high. Mom’s budding relationship had been irritating to my dad. I could tell whenever we would talk on the phone. It really made no sense to me. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been with other people. So why would it bother him if she was? Since I didn’t mind her new boyfriend, I had already invited him, prior to realizing this little tidbit about my dad. I called him the night before and made him promise to behave tonight. They could do that for me today, of all days, hopefully.
“Baby, you got to let it go. Enjoy your night okay? You don’t get this night back.” Dante pulled me to him on the couch in my living room.
“I know. I hate when they get like this with each other.” I lay back on his shoulder and brought my knees into my chest.
“Well, you can’t control them. You can’t allow that to make you sick. You didn’t eat a thing at breakfast. I don’t want you fainting during the ceremony.” He frowned.
His words gave me a new anxiety as I pictured myself fainting and being the center of attention in the middle of graduation. “Ugh, I don’t feel so well, babe.” I got up and ran to the restroom.
After a minute, Dante came knocking at the door. “You okay? Why’d you lock the door?” He jiggled the handle.
“I’m fine. I’ll be out in a second, babe.” I got up, brushed my teeth and washed my face.
Walking into the living room, I saw Dante sitting with his head resting in his hands. He looked up, concern in his eyes. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Fine. I worked myself up is all.” I sat down beside him.
“Rock. Do you think that maybe— well, remember how— I was wondering if …” He was sputtering. Dante never sputtered and now a look of concern washed over my face. “Are you pregnant?” He finally spit out.
My stomach did a 360, jumped up and landed in my throat. This time I didn’t have enough time to get to the restroom. Instead I made it to the kitchen sink.
“Raquel?” Dante was so worried. He held my hair into a makeshift ponytail and rubbed my tummy as I dry heaved a few more times. I turned the water on, letting it wash away the remnants of what was in the sink. I grabbed the hair tie I had on my wrist and quickly fastened my hair into a ponytail. He went to the fridge, grabbing me a cold bottle of water. I took a small sip and put it back down, bracing myself on the sink. “Are you okay?” He was rubbing my back gently.
“Fine.” I still couldn’t bring myself to look at him.
“Are you sure, baby? I’m so sorry.” He tried to turn me around to face him.
“What are you sorry for? You didn’t make me sick. I’ve been feeling sick all morning.” I gave him a wary look and lowered my eyes. He started walking me back slowly to the couch. Once we were sitting, I finally looked at him. “I hadn’t even thought about it, you know.”
“Yea, I just did when you ran to the bathroom.” He said. “We don’t know if that’s even it. It could be a bug. Are you late?”
Crap! I was. I remembered thinking I would be on it during graduation, which did not thrill me at all. He saw my eyes. “How late, Rock?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head.
“A month? Two? When’s the last time?” His voice sounded panicky.
“Well, a month I think, but before that it was kind of … never mind, that’s not something I’m talking to you about. I’ll figure it out, Dante.” I stood up and went to get my cell from my room. Before I could walk back, he had already followed me.
“What won’t you talk to me about?
” He stalked after me.
“That’s gross, Dante. Talking to you about my thing— it’s gross.” I looked at him irritated. “Besides, I’ve been cramping for a few days now. My back hurts, too.”
“So what’s that supposed to mean?” His eyebrows drew together.
Sometimes I forgot guys didn’t get it, “Well, if I’m cramping it’s because I’m going to start. Stop freaking out.” I hated the look in his eyes. I was stressed enough and him stressing me more was not helping the situation any.
“I’ll be back.” He quickly kissed me and turned to leave.
“Where are you going?” I panicked.
“To the store.” His eyes looked dark.
“Fine.” I needed a moment without him looking through me like that.
“Raquel?” He looked back at me.
“Yes?”
“Keep this between us, please? Till we know for sure. I want us to figure this out.” I nodded in acknowledgement. I was not about to agree to those terms. Natalia was going to be my immediate call. “Promise?” He looked at me, like he could read my mind.
“I promise, Dante.” The last thing I wanted to do was lie to him, but I felt I had no choice. I didn’t want him to stay and fight about it. I really needed to think. When he left I opened up the calendar app on my phone and went over the timeline once, twice, then three times. It couldn’t be right; but it was. I stared at the calendar and tried to come to grips with what was now reality. I thought back. I hadn’t been feeling well lately. Even on senior ditch day I had been feeling ill. I had been eating less and less lately, even noticing some weight loss. I had less pizza now, than ever; which for me was extremely unusual. My back had been hurting and I had been getting cramping but I hadn’t had my period. Last month it was hardly anything at all and only lasted 2 days; rather than my normal 5. I had been happy about that. I still hadn’t gone to get on the pill, even after Natalia nagged me about it numerous times. I hung my head and felt another wave of nausea wash over me. I lay on my bed and stared at the ceiling for what seemed like hours.
I heard Dante knocking and when I opened the door he rushed in with a bag, shoving it into my hands. “What did you do, buy the entire store?”
Breaking Down (The Breaking Series) Page 25