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I’d taken an inebriated Cruz home after the party, shoving him through his open bedroom window so his folks wouldn’t be mad at seeing him in his condition. I made sure he got to bed, and I could have stayed the night too. But I’d headed home.
The shot with Mia’s lips on mine still messed with me. I didn’t want to take the chance of running into her in the morning, eating cereal at the Reyes’ breakfast table and pretending she hadn’t made me hard as a rock over a body shot the night before. So I left back out the window and I walked down the street, trying to forget that Cruz’s little sister apparently had a thing for me.
A couple of houses away from the motel, a car with steamed-up windows took my attention. A girl was on top of a guy in the backseat, and a flash of light blue stopped me in my tracks. Suddenly, there was a commotion. I heard a yelp, and the door flung open with Mia exiting, holding her nose. Blood dripped down her shirt.
“Ow, you brute. You hit my nose,” she cried.
I didn’t need to question or have a conversation about what was going on and why. I saw red, Mia was hurt, and the guy would pay. With no further thought, I rushed forward, reached in, and grabbed the guy by the collar, pulling him to the ground.
My fists were flying, landing punches one after the other. “You don’t hit women, especially that one. You want someone to hit on, here give me a shot.” I stepped back, arms wide, inviting this scrawny kid to take me on.
Mia yelled. “No. What are you doing, Teddy? It’s not what you think.”
“Are you okay? You’re bleeding.”
“Of course I’m okay. Nothing’s broken.”
“Come on, asshole.” I kicked him in the ribs.
The kid scrambled to his feet, wiping blood off the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. “You’re the fucking asshole, and you’re screwed. You don’t know who you’re messing with.”
I lurched toward him again, my fist and arm poised midair, ready to slam this guy back to the ground, but Mia put herself between us.
“Stop it. We were only kissing. His hands went under my shirt, feeling my breasts. It surprised me, that was all. We shifted around, moving in the same direction at the same time, and his head happened to butt into my nose. It was an accident.”
Accident or not, my fists squeezed tight again upon hearing his hands were anywhere near her chest. She shouldn’t be here. “Go home, Mia. I doubt your parents or brothers would be pleased to hear you were making out in a car in front of the motel, for Christ’s sake.”
“What gives you the right to tell me what to do?”
“Mia, I’m warning you, go home.”
“Ooh, big Teddy Delfino, not letting me have any fun at the party doing body shots, and now protecting me from losing my virginity.”
My eyes almost fell out of my head. “You wanted to lose your virginity to him in the car?”
The guy spoke up then, with a nasal tone in his voice because there was a possibility I’d really broken his nose. “You know what? You’re not worth this. I didn’t bring you here to get my ass kicked by some psycho.”
Mia and I watched the guy run around to his driver’s side. As he peeled out, I peeked over at her. Her hair was all disheveled, and her makeup ran down her face from tears. Her light blue blouse now appeared blackened from blood and mascara.
I released the tension from my shoulders. Poor girl was probably scared, probably mostly due to me. But this guy she wanted to lose her virginity to—over my dead body. “Good thing I showed up when I did. That could have been the biggest mistake of your life if you’d have gone all the way with—”
“Shut up, Teddy,” she blubbered. Her tears fell faster, and she pulled the edge of her blouse up to wipe her face. I badly wanted to reach for her, bring her in for a hug. But that was dangerous territory, as the earlier body shot had proven.
“Why do you gotta grow up so fast, huh? Body shots and virginity all in one night? Pace yourself, Mia. You have the rest of your life to experience things.”
She turned toward me then, defiance all in her face, and one hand on her hip. “You interrupted me twice tonight. You helped me experience the body shot. So?”
I eyed her through slits. “What are you getting at?”
“My virginity. You owe me.”
“Fuck. No.”
“The way I see it, no one would ever be good enough for me with you and Cruz constantly protecting me.” She air quoted with her fingers around the word protecting. “So, you should be the one to take my flower.”
“Take your flow—? Oh. Fuck. No. You’re like a sister to me. I couldn’t do that.”
She pushed past me and ran home. And I took off too, in the opposite direction, running as fast as my legs would take me all the way to my house, attempting to release the rest of my adrenaline.
