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“That we what?” Mom asked, as if she didn’t know where I was going with this.
But I knew that she knew.
“That when you used to work for the Harleens, Blaise’s father and you were …together.”
“Vera!” Mom scolded harsher than she ever had and released her grip around me. Eyes wide with anger, hurt, and disappointment, she stared at me and shook her head. “Do you really think that I would do something like that to you, Mateo, and your father?”
I sat on her bed without her arms around me anymore and stared at the ground. Tears clouded my vision. She sounded so hurt that I would ask her such a thing, that I would think she’d do that to our family.
My chest tightened, and I grasped the blankets on her bed, pulling them to my chest. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, trying to hold back a cry. I shouldn’t have brought it up, but I couldn’t have kept my mouth closed. “I just needed to know.”
Before she could yell at me even more, I quickly stood up and hurried to the door. I didn’t want her to see my tears because this was my fault. I’d turned a quiet night into one of stress and anger and sadness for her. She didn’t get many nights off like this, and I’d ruined it for her.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated again before slipping out the door. “I’m so sorry.”
ChapterSeventy-Three
BLAISE
After Vera’s talk with her mother—she hadn’t told me what they’d chatted about, but I could tell that it hadn’t gone well—Vera basically locked herself in her room and refused to let me in. Through the door, it sounded like she was sobbing into her pillow. So, I grabbed my board and headed outside to let her cool off.
I closed the door behind me and tossed the board onto the ground, vowing that I’d go buy myself some new headphones tomorrow. I hated riding without them. Everything was so quiet that I got lost in my loud thoughts.
Skating down the sidewalk, I spotted João sitting outside on his front step and taking a long pull from a cigarette.
“What’re you out here so late for?” he called.
I flipped up the board and walked toward his house. “Could ask you the same thing.”
“None of your fucking business, Harleen.” He blew a puff of smoke from his nose and flicked the cigarette, some ash falling on the ground at his feet. “What’s a pretty boy like you spending so much time in the slums for? Mommy and Daddy kick you out?”
Pressing my lips together, I leaned against the side of his house. “None of your fucking business,Rocha,” I said, spitting his words back at him.
João gestured to Vera’s house with his cigarette. “You living with Vera now?”
“Yeah, so keep your fucking hands off her.”
“She’s like a sister to me,” he said, taking another long drag. “Plus, I got a girl.”
“Yougot a girl?” I snorted. “Who is dumb enough to date you?”
“Why don’t you ask your fucking mom? She’ll tell you how good I give it.”
“My mom wouldn’t fuck you. You don’t have any money.”
João chuckled. “That’s fucking depressing.”
I shoved my hands into my pockets and laughed. “You’re telling me.”
An easy silence fell over us, and then João pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket with a lighter for me.
I sat on the edge of his front step, one foot on my skateboard, sliding it back and forth. “Nah, I’m good.”
“Suit yourself.” He shoved them back into his jeans. “For real, you living in the slums?”
After leaning back on my hands and looking across the street at the blinds in Vera’s room, I blew out a breath. “Yeah, I’m living with them now. My parents are annoying fucking pricks. And I don’t want Vera around them.”
Whistling, João shook his head. “Didn’t pin you as the type of guy who’d actually leave the ritzy side of Redwood for some straight-A student who works at the library and doesn’t have much of a social life.”
