“Full honesty, before you answer, I already have outfits, like, halfway done. I was going to go with that guy I’d been talking to, but, when he realized I wasn’t really into him constantly trying to figure out how to stay over, he ghosted me. And Leana’s been trying to find someone else for me to go with, since it was her fault anyway for needing to FaceTime while I was hanging out with him and mentioning the party, and then he was like, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about it?’ ”
I pick myself up, my hands planted on the mattress behind me. “Has she found someone for you yet?”
“Well, one of her pledge sisters has an older brother, some gay sophomore frat guy, and she said she could introduce me. He’s not bad-looking, so I was thinking about it—”
“Nah.”I try my best not to shout, my hand coming up, palm toward him. “Tell her he’s got to find someone else. I’ll go with you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, I don’t have to find an outfit, it sounds like. And fuck this guy you were talking to; I’m glad he’s not around anymore.”
“Honestlyhonestly, I wasn’t even planning on inviting him in the first place. I wanted to ask you first.”
I’m worried that’s got me smiling goofy right now. Blushing, even. “You promise I was originally going to be your first choice?”
He lets out a breathy laugh and shakes his head at me. “That’s what you want to hear? That you are the main guy in my life right now?”
“It might help,” I tell him, unable to keep the smirk off my face. “Unless you really want to go with that frat guy. I’m not going to be blamed for coming in between that.”
“You aren’t. I promise.”
“I don’t know,” I say as that hand comes to my chin, stroking it, pretending to be considering my options here. That maybe I wanted to go as a group with the boys or something. All, “I’m sure if he’s seen you at all, he’s got it bad for you. Don’t want to have to break a guy’s heart taking you away from him for a night. That wouldn’t be very ally of me.”
But then Vale’s“Gabi, come on”whine and a pillow to my face when I start laughing have me waving the white flag.
“Okay, okay. Ya basta. Yeah. Let’s do it.”
“You sure?”
“Areyou? Giving you one last chance to choose a frat boy over a futbolista.”
His face scrunches, like he got a whiff of something nasty. “A thing that would never happen.”
“If I say yes, can we go get tacos now?”
That gets me another pillow to the face.
And maybe it took another twenty minutes for us to start leaving because taking away the pillow turned into usplay-wrestling on my bed and me nearly falling on the floor. And finding out that Vale is even more ticklish than I am. And spending who knows how long catching our breaths, me on my knees, sitting in between his legs, staring at Vale lying on my bed, wondering if my heart was beating faster than usual because of us acting foolish or because I’m completely down bad for this view.
But if I have to leave this moment, these last couple of hours, here, inside my room, and if one day I’m going to have to figure out how to drop these feelings and pretend they never existed, I’d easily spend twenty more minutes—and twenty more after that—being fools with him and letting myself feel right now. Tacos can wait.
19
“WOW.”
It takes me a second to realize both Vale and I say the word at the exact same time. For me to stop so openly checking him out and remember that he can see my eyes (although, he’s definitely not looking at myeyes). And seeing him nearly drooling has me like, If he’s doing it, let me just go right back to it myself because he’s looking way too good in a loincloth he made himself out of mayonnaise packets and his Halloween-store pair of wings and halo. A little bit of gold, shiny makeup at the top of his cheeks. Justso much body. How am I supposed to not look? I have to beat back the desire to let out a, “Turn around for me. Let me see the other cheeks.”
Especially while we’re in my room, realizing it’d be so easy to have him fall onto my bed and see how bad this angel can be.
“I, uh … I mean, you did a really good job on these outfits, Vale,” I say instead, hoping that, if he noticed the vavas comingout of my mouth, he knows it’s purely appreciation drool. Appreciationof his craft.Obviously.
“Thanks,” Vale replies. “You—you look great.”
“Pues, I got the best costume designer in the game.” I smile as I spread my arms and give him another chance to take in me in this devil outfit, including my own loincloth made from red and black Taco Bell hot sauce packets that’s not leaving a lot to the imagination, with a cloth devil-tail pinned to the back. “But, I got to know, where did you put all the hot sauce and mayo?”
He sucks in his lips, trying to hold back an embarrassed laugh. “Mostof it ended up in jars. But I still keep smelling condiments everywhere. I’ve been traumatized by them. So, if you need any Taco Bell sauce or mayonnaise, let me know. I am your plug.”
I let out a chuckle along with a “Hell yeah.” Actually, “Iremos a la tienda—the H-E-B close by—mañana. I’ll buy some corn and we’ll have esquites.”
