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"No…why?"
"Because I'm sick of the way he treats you. It's fucked up, and he's right. You need to stop whatever this is."
"The way you stopped for Ezekiel?"
She drops her hand and looks away. "That's fucked up."
I feel like shit for bringing up Ezekiel. He broke her heart in the eleventh grade when she caught him fucking some chick from dance in his car at a race. She lost it and keyed his BMW while the girl rode him in the driver's seat. She busted his windows while screaming...PENDEJAat the top of her lungs, followed by a bunch of Spanish expletives.
"The difference between you and me is that I don't go anywhere near Ezekiel. We hardly talk. Not after…"
"I know I'm being a bitch bringing it up. I'm sorry, Mia." I pull the hairband from my wrist and tie my long hair in a messy bun.
"You're flustered," she says, "he hurt your feelings. I can tell when you put up your hair like that. You do that every time."
I don't care if I have a giant bird's nest on my head. She is right, though. What he said hurt me, and it sucked.
"It did," I admit.
I follow her to the math section so she can pick out the books she needs.
"I hope one day, he realizes what an idiot he is for treating you like that. I know you don't want to hear this, and it's because you only see a future with Santiago. I blame our parents for wanting us to marry their best friend's kids, but I'm with Xavier. Maya and Xena also agree. We don't want you to marry Santiago. You don't have to, Elena." She lowers her voice. "We don't have to marry who our parents think we should. Except Xena and Niko. They don't have a choice and don't want to."
"It has caused us to resent each other, but I don't see it that way. I love Santi."
"He’s going to keep breaking your heart, and then what? You will end up miserable for the rest of your life. We aren't lucky like Maxim."
"That is because Maxim is older than us and chose to be like his dad was when he was his age. Besides, we hardly know him."
"Moving to the east of Hillside beats the hell of having to marry people because of who your parents are and what they represent."
"Have you seen Maxim around?" I ask, curiously.
"I don’t know. I should be asking you. You hang with his mom every week."
“I know but he doesn't come around their house much. He still has his room but prefers to live with other Kings in the east. Alina says his dad was the same way.''
Santi and his brother don't get along. They hardly say two words to each other.
"He's fine as hell."
I shove her playfully. "Don't let the guys hear you say that. Or… you know who."
She knows I'm talking about Ezekiel.
She grins and picks up a workbook and a scientific calculator. "Shut up, you know it's true. Don't tell me you haven't checked him out when he shows up at family dinner."
"I haven't," I say defensively telling her the truth.
"Mentirosa.Every girl that has a vagina and likes dick can appreciate how fine thatVatois. It's too bad we're distant cousins because of my father. Santi is good-looking, but Maxim has both...looks and swag."
I agree. The one time I saw him with a girl was when I was fifteen and he turned twenty-one. He treated her right. He opened the door for her and held out her chair like his dad still does for his mom––as my dad does for mine.
The girl was pretty, too. I overheard his mom, Alina, say she was fromEl barrioin the east. She didn't come from money, but he didn't treat her any less because of it. I could tell by how he looked at her that he didn't love her. He didn't look at her like his father looked at his mother. But he treated her right.
I laugh because it must be hard for Mia to admit that being his distant cousin. "Orale," I agree. "He is fine. Maxim looks like his mom, and Santi looks like his dad, but the two have different personalities."
"Santi has the evil side of his dad, and Maxim has the good side plus his mother's personality."
