“Maybe,” I said. “It’s better we just go straight home as we promised.”
“Can you put the top down, at least?”
I thought about it and nodded.
The girls squealed with delight when they saw the roof lift up and go back. Sophia sat back, gloating.
I drove us out slowly, and it was lucky I did so, too, because before we reached the entrance to the parking lot, Christian Taylor stepped in our way, smiling. I had to hit the brakes fast.
“Estupido!” I screamed at him.
He laughed and leaned over the car. “Wow. Isn’t this too much car for a girl like you? I know I’m too much man.”
“You’re the only one who knows it,” I told him, and accelerated.
He leaped back, and Sophia roared with laughter.
“Now you’re turning into my kind of girl,” she said. “Cousin.”
I looked at her and back through the rearview mirror at Christian, who was complaining to his friends. Sophia turned on the radio loudly and lit a cigarette.
“You want one?”
“No,” I said. “I am not that kind of girl,” I said. “I am sorry for my behavior, but he makes me…”
“I know what you mean,” Sophia said. “You don’t have to explain when it comes to Christian Taylor or any other boy, for that matter.”
It seemed no matter what I said, she would find a way to become my new pal, and all because of the car.
I drove on, fuming inside.
Adan called that night to see how I did, and we talked for almost a half hour. He was very excited about an important political endorsement his father had received. He said it was looking good for him to receive some labor and police endorsements as well.
“I’m beginning to think my father could really win,” he said, which surprised me.
“Didn’t you think so before?”
“I hoped, but now it’s more than hope. There’s a big Latino vote in this state, and we’re going to get a sizable portion of it,” he added. “But that’s all boring stuff. I’d rather talk about you.”
If he could see through the phone, he would see a very thoughtful face and not a face full of delight. Every warm feeling I had for him and every moment of pleasure we had together were truly like pins in my heart because of my feelings for Ignacio. Later, when I went to sleep, I dreamed he had heard about Adan and me and it had driven him to become a criminal in Mexico. His family, especially his father, cursed me. I woke gasping and nearly cried because of how vivid the nightmare had been.
My letter to Ignacio still lay under my panties in my dresser drawer. I struggled to come up with a way to drive to the Davilas’ home, but with Sophia clinging so closely to me now, it was difficult. I had been hoping that my company, even in my sports car, would bore her eventually, but she was still basking in the glow and enjoying the way her girlfriends envied her. Finally, on Thursday, she asked me for a favor I was perhaps too eager to grant.
“My mother is at a meeting in Los Angeles today and won’t be home until evening. She told me last night after dinner,” she said as we drove to school. “We can go meet my girlfriends at Alisha’s house for a while. It will be fun. We can talk and have something to drink and listen to music and—”
“No, I cannot go there,” I said. “I have too much to do.”
She was quiet until we were nearly to the school.
“Okay, but will you at least do me a favor and not tell on me? I’ll go home after school with Alisha, and she’ll bring me home at dinnertime.”
“What you do and where you go are not my business,” I replied, instead of saying I would lie for her. It was enough to please her.
“You’re making a mistake not coming with us after school,” she said when we parked. “But,” she added quickly when I started to look angry, “that’s fine as long as you don’t go blabbing to my mother. We have to trust and help each other if we’re to be real cousins, Delia.”
“Tía Isabela did not ask me to spy on you,” I said. “What I don’t know I don’t know.”
She smiled. “Good. Have a nice day,” she said, getting out.