I pack a smaller bag this time because winter break is just a few weeks away. Instead of taking my usual boxy sweaters and oversized hoodies for weekends, I open the forbidden drawer—that’s what Salma calls it—where I store all the clothes she’s bought me as birthday gifts or handed down to me over the years. I rarely wear any of them because Ma wouldn’t approve of the short skirts or plunging necklines or midriff-baring tops.
Since the car will be here soon, I can’t put off the last and most important task on my list any longer:What to do with William’s video?
I moved it to my laptop, and I erased it from my phone, my recently deleted folder, and the cloud. It now exists only on my hard drive.
I stick a fingernail-sized USB drive into one of the ports, and I drag the file over. Then I delete it from my desktop and the trash, and I tape the drive to the underside of the lowest plank in my bookshelf.
Knock, knock.
I don’t bother with “come in” because the door is already swinging open. Unlike Pa, Ma doesn’t knock to ask for permission but as a precursor to entry.
“The car is almost here,” she says, and I pretend to be scanning my book spines in search of something.
“Cool.”
“I can’t believe you’re already leaving again.” She perches at the edge of my bed. “It feels like you were barely here. And now I’m not going to hear from you again for weeks—”
I roll my eyes. “I said I was sorry about a million times—”
“This isn’t a guilt trip,” she says. “I’m genuinely trying to understand what’s going on.”
“Meaning?”
“You and Sal have been inseparable since the maternity wing, but I haven’t seen her all week. What happened? Are you on the outs?”
I shut my eyes, wishing I couldxout of the conversation. “It’s nothing,Ma. I’m sure we’ll talk it out on the way to the airport. Should we check if the car is here yet?”
“Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” When I hear her halting tone, my gut tightens.
“What?” I ask, already dreading whatever she’s about to say.
“Salma called me earlier.”
“She did?Why? Is she okay—?”
“She’s perfectly fine,” says Ma, “but she said she decided to head back to school earlier, so she moved up her flight. The plane was about to take off when she called, so we couldn’t speak for long.”
My heart drops to the pit of my stomach, like an anchor sinking to the seafloor. She cut off all communication with me. She left for school without me. She called Ma instead of me.
Did I just lose my best friend for good?
“You know, Tía Elena and I rarely fought, but when we were twenty, we had anepicfalling-out,” says Ma. “We didn’t speak for almost six months.”
I couldn’t care less about their fight. In six months high school will be practically over. What if Salma changes her mind about applying to the same colleges and choosing the same one to attend?
“It gets worse,” says Ma, either not realizing or not caring that I’m not interested. “The argument was over a guy.”
“I don’t want to hear this,” I say.
“The worst part?” she asks as I reach for the handle of my suitcase. “It was Salma’s dad.”
“Diego?”I stop moving, my voice dripping with disbelief.
Ma sits up now that she has my attention. “Elena and I met him at the same party, and we both fell for him. Only she had the misfortune of being the one he was interested in. But at the time, it seemed like she had won and I had lost, and I was so mad at her for it. I couldn’t stand seeing them together, so for months I ignored her. Then one night, I met your dad, and I realized how unfair I was being. I was lucky that my best friend was the most understanding person in the world, and she forgave me.”
“I can’t believe you never told me.”
“Not even your dad knows,” she warns me, her eyes wide. “It was not my most shining moment. I’m not proud of it.”
