“So?” he echoed, incredulous.
I leaned into it, needing to blow off some steam and being an absolute brat being one of my favorite ways to do it. “Yeah,so? I broke my phone.So what?”
“Did you break your laptop too?Andyour fucking eyeballs, ‘cause I know you’ve seen my messages,” he grumbled.
“Myearsare going to break if I have to listen to another minute of this,” I grumbled right back.
“Ceci,” he gritted out, his fed up tone causing me to peek his way. His nostrils were slightly flaring, his jaw set tight, and for the first time I realized how frustrated he was. He was right, I was being a little shit. Part of ithadstemmed from the fact that I broke my phone, but most of it stemmed from the fact that I was not really much fun lately, and I would hate for him to stop wanting to be around me because I all of a sudden decided to become a Debbie Downer.
Just that fast, I felt guilty for being a brat. Dropping my whole act, I turned back to him in a huff. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? But you saw that in there. Heard what they were saying.”
He shook his head. “Yeah, they were teasing you, so what? You guys do it to each other all the time.”
“So it’s just…I’vejust—” I cut myself off staring hard at the ground trying to gather my thoughts. Taking a long breath, I shook hair out of my face as I tipped my chin up to look at him. “I’ve been needing a lot of help lately. I didn’t want to bother you.”
He frowned. And then he took another step toward me.
“Well you disappeared on me, so I’ve been needing a lot ofyoulately. That’s the only thing bothering me.”
I frowned too and his eyes clocked every movement of it. Reaching forward he used a couple of fingers to move a piece of hair I’d missed from the center of my face, his fingers running the length of the strands before returning to his side. I tried to contain my shiver, but the reaction from his light touch was hard to mask. He leaned forward just slightly, his voice lowering as he added, “Been missing my best friend, you know?”
My body just kept on reacting to him, warming at his words. Melting really. “You never call me that.”
He shrugged. “You know what you are to me. I don’t have to remind you every second.”
“Sometimes it’s nice to be reminded,” I said. What I left out was,that you’re wanted.
His grim expression didn’t let up. In fact it hadn’t let up since I first let him in the front door. Leaning further at the waist, he brought his face down level with my own. He was still a comfortable distance away but being able to see every part of his face so clearly reminded me just how much I’d been missing it. His eyes slid left then right over my gaze, his Ceci-meter calculating. Focusing on me, he spoke slowly, “Best.Friend.”
For whatever reason that made me glow inside, and suddenly I was tired. The kind of tired when you don't want to be alone but you only want to be with certain people. Right then, I only wanted to be with Connor.
“Can we go back innow?” I asked.
Connor straightened, patting his pockets like he was making sure he had everything. “I told everyone I was leaving.”
“Can I come over then?”
“What if I said no?”
“I’d come anyway.” I shrugged
He nodded, a whisper of a smile tipping his lips. “That’smy little shit.”
My grin broke free. Ihadmissed him and if he was leaving, I suddenly wanted to leave too. And since we weren’t coming from the city for once, an idea suddenly popped into my head. “Can we race?”
Admittedly, this wasn't a brand new idea. Occasionally, we did stuff like racing back home solely for the chance to gloat in the one another’s face. But it was easier to do when we were closer to the coast at night, all the cars having ventured back to the city by the time we were returning to the water.
Looking down, Con checked his watch. While he liked racing too, he only agreed to it when it was late enough for there to be virtuallyno oneon the roads. It was only about nine now, so I could tell he wanted to say no. But something in the way he glanced up at me, surveying my face for a long time like it would tell him more than that watch did cause a small, resigned sigh to slip out. “We start in three minutes. If you’re not in your car by then, consider it my head start.”
“AndI’mthe shithead?” I hissed, but I was smiling as I whirled around and practically raced back to my family to grab my stuff and say goodbye.
Three minutes? With the Fernandez’s? That was basically impossible. But they hadn’t really treated me nice today, so I wasn’t opposed to blowing them off a little.
Back in the dining room, I bypassed my seat and rounded the table to my parents. Laying a kiss on my mom’s head I said, “Bye Mami, thanks for dinner.”
“You’re leaving, mija? But you barely ate,” Amá said, looking up at me with concern. I shrugged, and she cast a dark look over to my father that I didn’t understand. I went there next.
“Bye, Apá,” I said and unbeknownst to me, my voice decided to come out stony and gruff. Laying a soft hand on his shoulder, I squeezed but I couldn’t look at him directly. He didn’t like that. His hand shot out to grab mine, twining our palms closely together. He called my name, his voice sounding a little hurt, a little sorrowful, but I still couldn’t look at him. But I squeezed his hand back, trying to reassure him as I leaned down to kiss his cheek. “Te amo, Papi.”
