AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They were still over there talking. Now Jorge was nodding, and Cooper brushed rock dust off Jorge’s shirt and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. The fuck?
Finally, Cooper turned to Siena. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” she snapped. Then, remembering that he’d saved her from a certain beating, she calmed her tone and added, “Thank you.”
Cooper accepted her thanks with a curt nod, then gave Jorge a look Siena read asnow you have something to say, right?
Jorge faced Siena. Siena crossed her arms and stood where she was. Even when he took two steps toward her, she held. She would not show fear.
“I’m sorry,” Jorge said. “I shouldn’t have done that. I ... If Luis did what you say, I’m sorry. That was wrong, and I’ll handle it. You know, Jayce and Henry only got one day detention. They said it was Luis’s idea and they were just there. I guess you didn’t say otherwise, so the school believed them. I know those boys, and I know my boy, and I don’t think it’s true.”
“It’s not true,” Geneva said, emerging suddenly from the shadows between their house and Cooper’s. After an initial jolt of surprise, Siena understood—Geneva must have heard her fighting with Jorge, gone out the back and gone to Cooper for help. Part of Siena was pissed about that, part of her was guilty, but most of her was grateful.
“It wasn’t Luis’s idea,” Geneva said. “It was Henry’s. Jayce was the one who tried to make me do it. Luis was part of it, but it wasn’t his idea.” She turned to Siena but spoke so everybody could hear. “And I didn’t want to tell anybody.” Now she turned to Jorge. “I’m sorry I told my sister. I’m sorry Luis got suspended. I’ll talk to Dr. Granger tomorrow and try to take it back.”
“No, honey,” Jorge said. His demeanor changed entirely, and he became a dad. “It’s good you told your sister, and it’s good she told the school. It’s not good the school believed Jayce and Henry and not my boy, but Luis did wrong, too. You don’t have to do anything, but if you do talk to the counselor, I’d ask you to put her straight about the other boys. But it’s up to you.”
Well, that was certainly a different Jorge than the one who’d been waiting outside their door.
Now merely an observer to this chaotic scene, Siena didn’t know which emotion, of the dozens she was currently experiencing, was the right one.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Cooper turned to thebig dude—Jorge. Continuing in Spanish, he asked, “This is over for you now, right? I’m not gonna have watch out my window and come running over to save anymore damsels, right?”
Jorge managed a smirk. Also in Spanish, he said, “That there is no fucking damsel. Got attitude too big for her skinny shoulders.”
Cooper chuckled. “True. But this is over, right?”
“For me, yeah.” Turning to Siena again, Jorge asked in English, “You and me, are we good? Or should I expect a deputy at my door in about an hour?”
Siena crossed her arms, popped her hip, sucked her teeth, and generally looked like she was about to write a very stern Yelp review. Cooper took a step forward, ready to try to talk sense into her—though why he thought she’d listen to anything he had to say, he did not know.
But she said, “We’re notgood, but I’m not calling the cops and reporting you for assault. If you behave yourself, it’s over.”
Jorge put his hands up. “Consider me a boy scout.” Turning to Cooper, he offered a hand. As Cooper took it and they shook, he said in Spanish, “Thanks, man. You stopped me from fucking my whole family over tonight. You’re tough as shit, brother. Not many could take me down.”
“You didn’t go down easy,” Cooper chuckled. “I’m sorry your boy got caught up in white people bullshit.” While Cooper had been trying to put him down, and after he’d succeeded, Jorge had managed a sketch of an explanation. Enough for Cooper to understand why the fracas was happening, and where everybody stood. Brown kid getting blamed for white kid fuckery. Same shit, different generation.
“Yeah, thanks. I guess it’s a lesson he was gonna have to get one way or another. I shouldn’t’ve come here to settle things, though. That was stupid. All I could think was I wasn’t gonna let some white bitch brand my kid a pervert—but shit. It was the other boys, not her.”
“Sounds that way. If you want to fuck up their dads, well, for that I got your back.”
Jorge laughed. “Thanks. But I think I’ll take myself home, call myself lucky I didn’t just fuck my life to hell and gone, and not try to do it again right away. I’ll settle things with them another way.” He leaned in. “But I’ll keep you in mind, just in case.”
