by Cade, Trista
“And now, at last, I will tell you why I call you here,” Javier began. Oh god, no. Please don’t let him start discussing the bride price in goats or camels or horses again. I stopped in mid-chew, only remembering to keep my mouth closed because my mother was sitting next to me and she was close enough to correct my manners with the jab of a pure silver dessert fork.
“I invite you here so you decide if you wish to stay here in my apartment until Andie is settled, or if you insist on a hotel. If you wish to stay here, there is room for all.”
Oh no, I thought to myself, panic-stricken, he’s going to tell my parents they can sleep on the couch while he and I take the bed. I began shaking my head so slightly but so fast that it must have looked like I was having a seizure. Javier conveniently forgot to look in my direction before continuing to talk.
“There is room for mother and father in the bedroom, and Andie in this room. I, of course, will sleep next door at Diego’s apartment. That way, you have a kitchen and beds, and plenty of room until you find a new home for Andie.”
My dad looked around the apartment and nodded to himself with a smile, probably calculating how much it would not cost him to stay here instead of a hotel. And truthfully, it was a super offer. They could end up staying several days while we apartment hunted, since the semester had already begun and most places around campus had filled up. My mother was eyeing the glass-front cabinets and neatly stacked dishes inside, probably appraising the apartment.
And for my part, I was freaking out.
Chapter Seventeen
“It certainly was nice of your young man to let us stay here,” my mother said, coming to sit on the sofa where I had made my bed. “What did you say his family does?”
“I didn’t say, Mom. They don’t do anything. His dad is deceased.” I wasn’t in the mood for a conversation, certainly not about Javier and his family and how much money they had. Something was eating at me and I couldn’t figure it out. Plus, I just had entered a bizarre realm where my parents jumped at the chance to sleep in a stranger’s apartment, a stranger who happened to introduce himself to them only a few hours ago by announcing that he was marrying their daughter. And that he wanted a goat. Sure, they were fine with that, apparently.
“Well, he’s a little odd, of course, but I think he seems to have come from a good upbringing. His manners certainly are flawless. I wish I’d had a camera to snap the look on your dad’s face when Javier wanted to pay for our dinner! I thought your dad was going to have a heart attack at the thought of some college student buying our meals.” She started laughing so hard she had to cover her mouth with a delicate hand so Dad wouldn’t hear her.
“That was kinda funny,” I agreed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dad actually speechless before.”
“I mean, we had no way of knowing Javier could afford such a thing, so your dad was more confused than anything else. He probably thought this kid was going to go wash the dishes in the kitchen or something, just to pay for our dinner!”
“Yeah...” I muttered, agreeing without really hearing her.
“Sweetie? What’s wrong? You haven’t been yourself since we got back from the restaurant,” she said, really sounding worried about me. The sad thing was, I couldn’t tell her because I didn’t know either. “You know you can talk to me. Are you still upset about Theta? I told you I can place one call to nationals and have this whole thing cleared up by breakfast time.”
“No, that’s not it,” I answered a little too quickly. The last thing I needed was my mother pitching a fit and having me thrown back into that lions’ den with welcome arms, courtesy of threats from the national headquarters.
“Well then, what? Is it school? You know, you don’t have to stay here at the end of the school year if you don’t like it. You can transfer somewhere closer to home if this was too big of a transition. You just seemed so independent, so when this school accepted you, I thought you were ready.”
“No, I like the school, too. I just...I don’t know, I can’t put my finger on it.”
“Is it Javier?” she asked quietly, giving me a knowing look.
“No, why would you think that?” I asked, genuinely wanting to know what made her jump to that conclusion, even while a voice in the back of my brain woke up long enough to start agreeing with her.
“Honey, c’mon. You haven’t noticed?” she said with a smile.
“Noticed what?” I pressed, confused about why she would think there was a problem. She’d only just met him a few hours ago, give him a chance to get settled before you start blaming people!
“Well, besides noticing that he’s totally head over heels for you...haven’t you noticed that he’s just too perfect? It’s like he’s getting all this out of a book on how to be a winning boyfriend. Meet the parents for dinner, shake the father’s hand, have your limo driver stop by to get a perfect dessert...I just hope it’s not all for show.”
I couldn’t believe she could be so abruptly judgmental about someone she’d just met, but then I started to worry because my mom was actually making sense. Javier was too perfect. Even I knew that. And I wasn’t so much worried that this was all some sort of act to impress me, in fact, it was the opposite. I was a little bit worried that I couldn’t be perfect enough to ever impress him.
When I didn’t say anything for a second, Mom smiled down at me and smoothed some hair back off my forehead like she used to do when I was little. “There’s my little over-thinker. You never were one to just jump in without looking at all sides of the situation. I’m sure it’ll come to you, and you’ll feel better once you’ve had time to think it through.” She kissed me on the forehead and headed back down the hallway to the bedroom.
I turned on my side to get comfortable, and from where I was laying on the sofa I could see Javier’s framed pictures on his television stand. He didn’t say much about his family in the few conversations we’d actually had, so I got up and walked closer, picking up each of the three photographs and holding them closer, turning them so they caught the light that had been left on over the stove. Javier was in each of the pictures, one with an older couple that must be his grandparents, one of him with a woman who looked enough like him that she was obviously his mom, and one with his arms linked behind the backs of three girls, two of them younger than Javier and close enough looking that they could have been twins, and one several years older than the rest of the kids, maybe even old enough to have been their babysitter.
No. His sisters. And the missing age gap, the gap where his brothers should have been, brothers who couldn’t have been older than young teenagers when they were killed, if the math from this photograph was right. I somehow just sensed that there were other kids missing, faces that should have come between Javier and the oldest sister. His brothers had been killed just as they would have been high school students, along with his father.
And that’s when it hit me, the thing that had been nagging at the back of my mind for the last few hours, hours that should have been happy as my parents and my new boyfriend laughed and talked like they’d known each other for years.
The bodyguard.
The far-off college in America.
The tiny school in the middle of nowhere.
Javier was on the run.
The people who had come after his family weren’t finished yet. That’s why he had a bodyguard. That’s why he was so happy all the time, living like someone determined to get the most out of life because it could all be over tomorrow.
I replaced the pictures exactly the way I’d found them and crawled back under the soft blanket on the sofa, wide-eyed and afraid, both for Javier’s safety and for what it could mean to a guy I really cared about. Of course, I worried about what it could mean for a future with Javier and me. How could I get involved with someone who was on the run? If he let his guard down for even a moment, he could be gone, and that’s exactly what he had done when I was with him. Every time I came over, he had been alone or sneaking around t
o avoid Diego. Climbing the fire escape or walking to dinner on our date, it had been a way to slip past his bodyguard and be alone with me. He was taking risks with his actual life, just to spend time with me.
No more. I fell asleep on a puddle of my own tears, worrying about Javier and what I was about to do to him.
Chapter Eighteen
My parents spent the morning driving from apartment complex to apartment complex--courtesy of Javier’s car, of course, since he insisted—while I tried to concentrate on my school work. Art came easily, since I was nothing if not a pent-up ball of emotions ready to pop like a balloon. And fear and heartbreak made great sources of inspiration.
My parents met me on campus for lunch, reminiscing about their days at their own school in a neighboring state. It was really hard to enjoy my field greens salad while they compared notes on the Grade-E Beef their cafeteria had served.
“I swear to you, princess, I saw the boxes as they were being loaded off the delivery truck one day. They said, ‘Grade-E Beef, Fit For Human Consumption’ on the side in big black letters.” My dad laughed, gesturing to his lunch like this could be the same quality of mystery meat. Or, lack of quality, I guess.
“Stop it, Robert, you know this isn’t mystery meat. It’s not even meat at all!” my mother teased, joining in my dad’s fun. It was great to see them so relaxed and playful with each other, not that they ever argued in front of me before, but I could just tell that they were a lot less stressed out than I remembered. Of course, having to fly down here to handle my drama probably wasn’t helping their stress levels, but they still seemed at ease. I smiled at their jokes about college life, but some of them were starting to ring a little too true.
“So, you haven’t said much about your classes,” my dad said, picking through his bowl of taco salad to get to the good parts, aka anything that wasn’t actually a salad-type vegetable. “Are the teachers good? The work load too hard?”
“No, I love the classes. I’ve got several projects due at the end of the semester, so in some of the classes that’s all we do, is just work on our pieces for the final review while the professor comes around and works with us. I mean, that’s the art classes, stuff like my basics, you know, English, math, I have papers to write and all that. But no, other than not understanding why an art major has to pass calculus, it’s going great.”
“See? I said the exact same thing when I was in school!” my dad said, turning to my mom who was already shaking her head at both of us. “What did I need with calculus? I was a communications major!”
“I told you back then, and I’m telling you now,” Mom said sternly, turning to me at her last words, “some of your classes are just to weed out the students who aren’t serious about an education. Everyone takes calculus and world literature. It’s to give you a solid base in your studies and to see if you really are cut out for college.”
“She was cut out for college the day my tuition check cleared at the bank,” my dad muttered, only half-joking. My dad hated to let go of money, even when necessary. That’s why he still wore suits that my mother picked out three Presidential administrations ago.
“See? This is what I miss. It’s awesome that the dinner table bickering didn’t fall by the wayside just because I’m not home,” I said sarcastically. That made both of them laugh.
“Oh, don’t let that keep you awake at night, we still do plenty of arguing at the dinner table!”
And then I had this epiphany right there at the cafeteria table, well, minus the bright white light glowing around my head or little naked angel babies floating around with a banner. THIS was what I would be looking for someday in a guy. Not good looks, not gourmet cooking ability and granite countertops, and certainly not throwing up in my car after drinking too much at a dumb party. I wanted somebody who would make me laugh during meal times, even when I was a million years old and packing my kids off to college.
I could tell myself that all I wanted to, but it didn’t help. I didn’t want just someone, I wanted Javier. I didn’t want to try to avoid him for his own good, but I sure didn’t like not telling my parents what was bothering me. How could I explain dumping Javier and why, without bringing up the “on the run from ruthless drug lords” thing? This was one of the first times ever that I’d have to handle it on my own. I guess college was as good a time as any to face real-life problems and stand on my own two feet.
“Well, well, as I live and breathe,” a Southern-accented voice drawled behind me, exaggerating the accent and trying to sound snooty. “If it isn’t Miss Andie, our wayward little sister.” I turned around and saw Quinn standing close enough to our table that I could have spit on her, if I wanted to. I desperately wanted to, but my mother would have my flesh removed from my still-breathing body if I actually worked up the saliva. Kennedy was standing behind Quinn, along with another sister, all three of them wearing matching sorority jerseys and hair bows. Kennedy looked torn, like she really wanted to greet me but wasn’t about to face the wrath of Quinn. I chose to give her a little wave under the table because I really did like her, but I was still a tiny bit afraid of Quinn myself.
“I don’t believe we have been introduced,” my mother said in a voice I’ve never heard her use outside of PTA meetings. “I am Andie’s mother, Sarah McMichaels, former president of the Gamma Omega chapter and national secretary. Of course, you might know me as the former Miss America, I’m sure you were told that during rush week when all the famous sisters are discussed. But I understand that you are now Andie’s former sisters? Is that right?”
Quinn looked flustered for a moment, looking to her fellow sisters for an answer. “Of course, Mrs. McMichaels. You’re practically a Theta legend. It’s nice to meet you in person.” Quinn practically curtseyed.
“Yes, well, I wish it was mutual. I understand that you actually encouraged Andie to part ways with her sorority. You can’t possibly know how devastated I am that my daughter will not be continuing my legacy.” Her frosty tone was really hilarious, especially since I was the only girl there who knew it was a complete act. Quinn looked like she was about to wet herself and her two friends were slowly putting more and more space between themselves and the victim.
“Well, no, that’s...well, that is to say that we...” Quinn began, turning red.
“Save it, dear,” my mother said in a staged whisper, leaning close. “I’ll be taking it up with my friends at national headquarters. You can explain to them what happened.” My mother returned to her salad, pretty much dismissing Quinn where she stood. The trio slunk away, probably in need of clean underwear after Mom’s threat. I stared at my mother open-mouthed.
“What?” she asked, poking her fork around in the salad remnants at the bottom of her styrofoam bowl. “I hope you don’t think that I’m just going to let it slide that they very nearly kicked you out. I will be calling nationals, I wasn’t kidding about that.”
“Mom! You were brilliant!” I reached over and hugged her, flattening her hair a little bit by mistake. My dad grinned at both of us the way he usually did when he didn’t understand the estrogen vapors in the air.
“But sweetie, I am happy to defend you to some girls who need to be put in their place, but you never really did explain what happened. You can tell us, you know,” my mom said, genuinely concerned and putting down her fork to look at me. I looked over at my dad and saw that he, too, had stopped chewing and was watching me. I sighed. Better to get it over with now, I guess.
“Well, it had to do with Javier,” I began, but was interrupted by my dad pounding his fist on the table.
“What?! Did they make you choose between him and the group? Why, just because he’s foreign? He’s a perfectly nice young man and they had no right...” I put my hand on his arm to stop him.
“Well, Dad, that wasn’t all of it. I’m sure it had something to do with it, on some level, but there’s more. And before I tell you guys, I want you to know...I’m done with Javier. It’s for his own good.”
> I spilled it. All of it, every detail—well, except for the details that no parents ever want to hear coming out of their college-aged daughter’s mouth, details like couch makeout sessions and sleepovers—but definitely the parts about Quinn digging up Javier’s past and his explanation about his family. I saved the part about my hunch for last, horrified when my mother’s hand went to cover her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes.
“That poor boy!” she said with a hushed cry. “Losing his family like that!”
“Yeah, I know, right? But that’s why I need to just end it before things get too serious,” I said. Only my voice cracked a little bit on those last words and a tear rolled out of the corner of my eye, splashing on the speckled formica table top. My mom reached out a hand and grabbed mine with hers.
“But are you sure?” she asked.
“Well...no. Of course I’m not sure. But I think I’m right, and the last thing Javier needs to do is sneak around with me and try to ditch the bodyguard. I didn’t even know about Diego until we accepted a ride with him after the dinner the other night. Plus, and yeah, I feel really selfish, but I’m kind of thinking of me, too. I don’t want to be with someone if we have to run from bad people, looking over our shoulders. No, it’s better this way,” I said, all in one rushing breath.
“Princess.” My dad stared at me with that stern look he usually saved for handling teenaged girls who snuck in after curfew or brought home a C in biology on a report card.
“Yeah?”
“Are you trying to convince us?” my dad asked. “Or are you trying to convince yourself?”