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“You get any?” I asked, referring to the situation with a sophomore girl he had been telling me about.
He must’ve been with her after school.
Mateo tried to hide a grin. “We didn’t go all the way.”
My lips curled into a smirk as I clicked through the main menu screen for the Raid of Durnbone video game. We played for fifteen minutes before Vera’s mother came home, immediately spotting me on the couch. Mateo paused the game.
“Oh, Blaise … Vera told me what happened,” Ms. Rodriguez said, brows knitted together. She dropped her ripping faux leather purse and hurried over to me. Before I knew what was happening, she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a hug. “I can’t believe they’re trying to pin Skylar’s murder on you.”
Gently, I patted her back in an attempt to not seem like a dick. I didn’t know what to do.
Vera had hugged me many times before, but a parental figure? Nearly fucking never.
In all my life, Mom had only ever hugged me during photo shoots with her arm lightly draped around my shoulders and her grasp weak. When I was a boy, I’d thought she was just being gentle, but somehow, Ms. Rodriguez’s hug was gentle, strong, and inviting.
I almost didn’t … I almost couldn’t … fathom how a mom could care for someone who wasn’t their own child so much. Mom had fucking pushed me out of her vagina and still didn’t give a shit about me.
“How are your parents taking it?” she asked.
Vera scowled from the kitchen doorway and turned away, muttering something under her breath. And I didn’t blame her either. Mom had gone way fucking out of line this morning by screaming and yelling at Vera for no good reason at all. The least she could’ve done was not mention Dad and Vera’s mother being together—if that even had any truth to it.
I hoped it didn’t. I highly doubted it did.
“They’re doing what they can to keep their names out of the news.” I sighed and sat back on the couch, picking up the controller and staring emptily at the TV. Mateo was watching me now too. “Anything to keep us as Redwood’s perfect family.” I ground my teeth together, anger rushing through me. “It’s fucking bullshit.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I snapped my lips shut and widened my eyes, realizing I had sworn in front of them and Ana.
“Yeah, it is bullshit,” Vera added, crossing her arms.
“Sorry, Ms. Rodriguez,” I started. “I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s okay, sweetheart.” She tapped my knee. “We get it.”
“I’m going to get a hotel tonight. I can’t stand them.”
“Why don’t you stay with us?” Ms. Rodriguez offered, looking around at Vera and Mateo. “We don’t have much to offer but the couch. I’ll make you breakfast tomorrow morning too. My shift doesn’t start until eleven anyway.”
My chest tightened as I stared at her blankly for a few moments. I didn’t know if she was serious or not, if she’d take back everything she had just said because of what the public thought of me—that I was a murderer.
The more time that passed, the longer she waited without saying a word.
“You don’t care about … about what everyone thinks of me?” I asked, confused.
“Why would I care about that?” she asked. “You need a place to stay.”
“B-but …” I stuttered. I fucking stuttered.
She was … she was serious.
They had barely known me for more than a month, and now, they wanted me to stay with them because I had nowhere else to go. My family would never do something like that. They would never even let it cross their minds.
I glanced from her to Vera, then back. “You serious?”
“As long as you’re not sleeping in Vera’s room, then—”
“Don’t worry, Mom,” Mateo started. “They’re way past that poin—”
Vera stormed to Mateo and hit him hard on the back of his head. “Shut it.”
Warmth shot throughout my tightening chest, heart hammering inside it. I never thought that I’d ever find people who’d do anything for me, who’d want to be around me, who didn’t care what everyone else thought. I never thought that I’d find a family like this.
