“Yes,” I admitted.
He smiled. “Well, we can’t have that, can we? Maybe I’ll fix things up for you,” he said. “I can do that, you know. I’ll tell them we just went for a harmless little ride, and you were very polite and sweet. I’ll tell them nothing happened. It’s what I told Sophia. She wouldn’t believe me, but what she believes doesn’t matter as much as what your aunt believes, and she’ll believe me. Would you like me to do that, help you out?”
I looked at him to see if he was really sincere.
“I’m not lying to you. It’s not a good situation for me, either, to have Edward angry at me,” he continued. “I’d like to hear you say, ‘Please help me.’”
I was silent. I could feel his anger.
“Do you or don’t you want me to help you with your aunt, Delia? I don’t have to do anything.”
He smiled at my continued silence, but I was afraid to do anything, say anything anymore.
“Okay, I’ll just go to your aunt and cry and complain about how you tried to get me to be your lover,” he threatened. “I’ll get my father to come along, and your aunt will have no choice but to send you back in disgrace. Maybe it will be in the newspapers, too. Hell, you made a lot of trouble for me. I should be very angry.”
I started to cry.
“Lucky for you, however, I’m not so angry,” he added. “You just do what I ask, and we’ll get along fine, and everything will go back to the way it was.”
“What do you ask?”
He smiled. “Nothing much, no big deal. Not for you,” he said, and slowed down to pull up beside another car in which two boys sat smoking. The driver leaned out of his window as soon as we stopped.
“Hey, Bradley.”
“This is Jack and our friend Reuben,” Bradley said. “Say hello.”
I stared out at them.
“Yeah, hi, Maria,” the driver said.
“Her name’s Delia, not Maria, Jack.”
“Oh, yeah, right. Delia. What’s the deal, Delia?” he asked, and they laughed.
“These are good friends of mine,” Bradley said. “Say hi. Be nice.”
“Hi,” I said, and looked away quickly.
“I’d like you to do a little more than that, Delia,” Bradley said. “It’s what I ask in return for helping you.”
“What?” I glanced at them and then back at him. “What do you mean, a little more?”
“All you have to do is go for a ride with them, and things will be just fine between us. I’ll fix everything with your aunt,” Bradley said. “Go on. Get into the backseat of their car,” he ordered.
I shook my head. The terror that shot through me sizzled like a bolt of lightning.
He leaned toward me. “I’m not kidding about this. I’ll drive over to your aunt’s house right now, and I’ll tell her a story that will make her eyes bulge out. She might even have you arrested or something. You’ll be in jail with other undocumented Mexicans. They keep the men and women in jail together sometimes, too. They’ll ship you back in a cage.”
“C’mon for a ride with us, Delia,” Jack said. “We’re nicer than Bradley.”
“Well?” Bradley said.
I opened the car door slowly. The boy named Reuben opened his door at the same time and came around to open the rear door of their car for me. I gazed into it and then back at Bradley, who was waving me on. I looked at Reuben, whose smile reminded me of a coyote pulling back its lips to reveal its teeth, and then I turned and ran as hard as I could down the street, back toward the school. I didn’t look behind me, but I heard Bradley curse and then the squeal of tires as he made a sharp U-turn and sped after me. He passed me, waited for some traffic to go by, and turned around again to pull up to the curb and get out of his car to face me.
I stopped running, holding my hand against my side, gasping for breath.
“You’re embarrassing me, Delia,” he said. “I promised those guys you’d go for a ride with them.”