Chapter 35 No More Lies #2
Could there be a worse phrase to start off with?
Very good, Coco. Fucking great. There’s no way to follow that up.
I go over to her, I try to forge some kind of connection, to stop her from looking at me like I’m not her enemy, but she pushes me away.
And she does it more violently than I pictured.
I mean, I get it—I do because in a way I’m having to battle irrational jealousy about Blanca and Gus.
I can imagine how she’s feeling. I just have to treat her how I hope they’ll treat me.
“Aroa, listen to me. Just listen to me for a second.”
“Don’t even think about touching me, you fake piece of shit. I don’t know how I never put it together. You’re both the worst, going around all holier than thou.”
“I’m not holier than thou at all, Aroa. Let’s all calm down and talk about it. I never wanted to hurt you.”
“‘I never wanted to hurt you,’” she mimics me. “Sure, but laying the groundwork so that my relationship with Marín went to shit, you had no problem doing that. How many times did you talk shit about your friend Aroa? How many times did you tell him—?”
“Never,” we both say.
“Am I talking to you?” Aroa asks Marín.
“You’re getting in my face,” he mutters angrily.
“I told you, Marín. I told you that if you kept going with this shit, I was gonna get tired of keeping your secrets.”
“Aroa, shut up.”
“I don’t feel like it!”
The door of the RV swings open, and Loren appears, disheveled and dumbfounded. “What’s with all the yelling?”
“Come on. Is this a talk show? Anyway, that’s your thing, isn’t it?”
Loren furrows his brow. “Sorry, are you talking to me?”
“The referee’s here now,” she says through gritted teeth. “Coco, your friend Loren, your great confidant, Loren, knew everything from the start. Remember that when the shit starts hitting the fan.”
“What does that mean?” I look at Marín and then at Loren. “What shit?”
“Coco, don’t listen to her. She’s going to take something out of context and make you believe it’s a problem. But it’s not,” Loren promises.
“It will all make sense, Coco,” Marín says. “I didn’t tell you something, but only because… Well, at first I thought it was too soon to worry you, and everything was up in the air and…then it became the reason Aroa and I broke up.”
“We broke up? That’s a cop-out, Marín. You dumped me. You dumped me because nothing, nobody, is ever going to mean more to you than your sister.”
“Well, no,” he agrees. “Nothing, nobody, and especially not you. And you know why you don’t understand that? Because you’re a psychotic, egocentric narcissist.”
“Wait, what’s going on?” I turn back to Marín.
“Hey.” Gus gets our attention from the door of the camper. He’s wearing a wrinkled T-shirt and black boxers. “What’s going on?”
“Come here, Gus,” Aroa says, feigning enthusiasm. “Come here. Then everyone’s here, and we can all go down together.”
“Look, Aroa,” Gus starts to say with a tone that I’ve never heard him use with her; it’s his I’m sick of this tone.
“Aroa, you’re making a mistake.” Loren seems really pissed off. “It’s not Marín you’re going to expose. It’s you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you,” he says very confidently.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Blanca appears behind Gus in a nightgown, combing her hair with her fingers.
“What about you? Where are you coming from? Loren’s bunk or Gus’s?”
“Whichever one I fucking feel like. That’s why it’s my life, not yours.”
Wow. I blink. Why do I get the feeling I’m the only one who has missed a bunch of chapters in this story?
“We’re getting carried away,” I mutter. “This isn’t a war, Aroa. I fell in love with Marín. That’s it. It doesn’t mean that I wanted to hurt you. I never interfered in your relationship. I never tried anything.”
“Now I see it. So what happened last night just fell from the sky? Give it up already, okay? Give it up. The hypocrite thing is a bad look for you.”
“He doesn’t love you anymore,” I say harshly. “What were you expecting? For him to spend his whole life waiting for you to get over your tantrums?”
“Tantrums? Look, Coco…you have no idea who the person you’re living with is. You fell in love with him? You fell in love with the Marín you have in your head.”
“That’s not true, Aroa, but I definitely had no idea that my friend”—I point at her—“was like this.”
“Marín is cold. He’s incapable of commitment or of ever really trusting anyone. At the first sign of trouble, he runs and hides. Is that the Marín you fell in love with?”
“That’s enough, Aroa. You’re making yourself look ridiculous,” Marín says brusquely.
“He wants Gema to move into your apartment. He wants her to live with him instead of with their aunt and uncle.”
“And?” I ask. “What’s the problem? He’s her brother.”
“You’re a dumbass, Coco,” she says exasperatedly.
“Of course he’s her brother, and of course you think that’s perfect, a story with a happy ending…
but have you ever thought about how you fit into that plan?
Because, as far as I know, it’s a two-bedroom apartment.
What do you think, that he was planning on falling in love with you so you can move into his room together and Gema can move into yours? ”
I side-eye Marín. “Marín?”
“Next year,” he says. “All these plans were for next year. For when she starts high school. I thought I would figure out a solution before that.”
“A solution?”
“How to kick you out of the apartment and still make you keep thinking Marín is God, basically.”
“That’s not true,” he says to me. “A solution so you wouldn’t have to move. And that’s exactly what pissed you off, right, Aroa? That’s why you told me I have to choose between you and Coco.”
“You had already made that decision a long time before. Sorry not sorry.”
“I made that decision the minute you made me choose because, look, I had no idea I even had feelings for her, but I knew that Coco never would’ve made me choose.”
“You did that?” I ask her. “You told him he had to choose between us? But you and I were…friends.”
“Such good friends that you wanted to fuck my boyfriend.”
I look around at everyone, not really knowing what to say.
It hurts that Marín left me out of his plans, but it’s not that deep.
I repeat that to myself a few times. My friend didn’t have any problem telling Marín he had to choose between us, hoping that he would cut me out of his life—that does seem pretty deep.
“We’ll move,” I say to Marín. “Problem solved.”
“Good luck. He’s already filled in the paperwork for the school…the one right next to the house.”
“That’s bullshit,” Marín says to me.
“We’ll move,” I say again. “It’s not a problem.”
“You’re stupid, girl,” Aroa snorts.
“I would have appreciated a heads-up, but it’s not some big drama. We’ll talk about it. And if you don’t want”—I look at Marín—“to move, it’s as easy as leaving my room…”
“We’ll talk about it later.” He cuts me off very somberly.
“Oh, big surprise,” Aroa says. “Welcome to the real side of Marín.”
“Talk about that when you two are alone,” Blanca suggests. “It’s nobody’s business but yours, especially not Aroa’s.”
“Hey, where are you two at?” Aroa asks her and Gus. “Because it’s been days since your last pathetic little poem.”
“Jesus, Aroa, you’re such an asshole.” We all look at Gus in surprise. “Why don’t you do us all a favor and get out of here already? You did your best to make us all argue, and it didn’t work. That’s it. Quit it already.”
“I wouldn’t talk so much if I were you,” she tosses out there. “You’re the one I have the most shit on.”
Gus and Blanca side-eye each other.
“You’re the one hiding the most shit here, Aroa. How long have you known about Blanca and Gus?” I ask her.
“I think you’re the only one who didn’t realize they’ve been fucking their way around Madrid, sweetie.”
“So then…why did you tell me Gus’s poems were for me?”
“If you have to steal someone’s boyfriend, better for it to be the cheating one, right?”
“Are you hearing yourself?” Marín jumps in. “Don’t you realize you sound like a crazy bitch?”
“Yeah, now you’re playing the crazy ex card, of course. You and I were gonna get back together, Marín.”
“What?” He looks at her, stunned. “What didn’t you get, Aroa?”
“We were going to fix it.”
“You waited outside my office, the gym, the soccer game on Saturdays, you followed my friends around, you showed up at my house…and every single time I told you the same thing: It’s over.”
“What about the last time we fucked?”
“That was months ago.”
“Months, Marín?” She raises one eyebrow.
I look at them, and they look at me. He looks worried; she’s smiling.
“I don’t care,” I say. “You’re not getting anywhere with this, Aroa.”
“You know what’s going on with you?” Marín shoots back.
“You’re obsessed. That’s why you’re jealous of my sister, of Coco, of when I went out with my friends, my colleagues from the label, the people I had to hang out with for work.
I had to go everywhere with you, the actress.
Do you know how fucking embarrassing I found it that you would always introduce yourself as ‘Aroa, his girlfriend, the actress?’”
“We can’t all sell paintings,” she snarls.
“The worst part is it didn’t even have anything to do with me or what we had.
You’re obsessed with yourself, with your career, with who can introduce you to someone important, and now with someone who didn’t choose you.
You, Aroa, the perfect one, how dare I? The one who does everything right, who everyone envies and adores. ”
“Look who’s talking, Marín the magnificent. Fucking coward piece of shit. Coco, start looking for a new apartment because—”
“Because what?” he challenges her. “Why can’t you leave her out of this? You have a problem with me, not her.”
“My problem is that this whole group is fake as shit.”
“Well, straight back at you,” Gus retorts.
“Go home, Aroa,” Marín adds. “Do yourself a favor.”
“There’s no way for you to cover your ass and make your girlfriend understand that you’re shitting yourself with fear, overwhelmed, and all you want to do is get out of here, run off with your sister, and find an excuse to get rid of her…but still keep looking like the good guy.”
“You have no idea,” I jump in.
“About what you feel, right? How beautiful…”
“I must be delirious,” I mutter through my teeth.
“Stop sticking your nose in stuff that’s none of your business,” Marín repeats.
“Couple things, right?” she says with an ironic smile. “Coco, it’s never gonna happen.”
Marín shifts uncomfortably. He stares at her.
“What?” Aroa says, looking more like a stranger every minute. “Does she know what you said about her?”
“Don’t do that,” Loren pleads.
“You heard it too. I’m not going to lie. Or is it a lie that Marín thought Coco was pathetic around Gus? Like she had no dignity.”
I look at him.
“It’s not like that,” he says.
“Of course. I’m sure you never said that you wish Coco would find a boyfriend because she’s always bugging you, clinging to you all the time either.”
“Shut up, Aroa.”
“And that you’re weird, Coco. He said you’re weird,” she repeats.
“And he said that after fucking me in his bed. I’m sure you were in the next room dreaming about your children and your wedding, but he was naked and still inside me, telling me that you were weird when I asked if you heard us.
‘She’s a weirdo, Aroa. She probably likes hearing us.
’ And the thing about you being a spoiled little girl playing house in Malasana?
Did he ever say that to your face or just to me? ”
I bite my lip. “You’re a bad person, Aroa,” I repeat.
Nobody adds anything else. She looks at all of us, maybe waiting for someone to say something, anything, that would make this better, to defend her or to… I don’t know. Or to make it worse.
“You’re both fucking cowards full of lies and guilt.
Coco, you made a bad choice. Chicks over dicks.
You’re going to end up dropped like a cigarette butt, like he did with me and…
who are you going to run and cry to? Her?
” She points at Blanca. “The one who was fucking your ex without telling you even though she thought you were still in love with him? If you’re going to excuse her saying you can’t fight against love, get it straight.
If these two have any real feelings, which I highly doubt, that was only after she sucked his dick all over Madrid like a fucking cat in heat. ”
“Shut up, Aroa,” Loren says. “Shut up already.”
“Didn’t you put bros before hos when you made him choose?” I ask her.
“Jesus, bitch, you only hear what you want to. Fantastic. You two have that in common.” She jumps up from her chair and grabs her stuff.
“You’re never going to look like me in your fucking life, Coco, as hard as you try.
And he won’t fulfill anyone. Deep down, he needs to have a woman by his side who makes him feel like someone. Is that you?”
“The best thing that ever happened to Marín was breaking up with you,” Blanca spits, full of rage. “And you wanna know something? When we thought you were perfect at everything, we were right. You’re really good at everything, even making everyone else feel like shit.”
“Too bad, Blanca…and it’s too bad that before I leave I’m gonna give you a little advice.
I don’t know what he’s convinced you of this time.
” She points at Gus. “That this was the last time, that he won’t do it anymore, that he’s going to leave you alone, that this time he’ll respect you and be your friend…
but don’t trust him. If he’s capable of fucking a friend of yours while he was doing your thing… ”
“You’re such a shit-stirrer, blondie,” she shoots back. “Coco and Gus didn’t have sex.”
“Who said anything about Coco? Go on, Gus, tell her. Marín, he didn’t hold a candle to you, but I have no regrets. Now it’s really all out there.”
Silence spills over the site. Marín looks like a wax statue. He’s not moving a muscle…just staring at Gus. Like Blanca, like Loren.
As if it were rehearsed choreography, all the movement kicks off when Aroa is out of our field of vision. And we have to move fast to separate them because in the blink of an eye, Marín has had enough time to knock Gus to the ground.