16. Cori - Age 16
Chapter sixteen
TWELVE-AND-A-HALF YEARS AGO
T he cut on my foot would not stop bleeding. After less than an hour, I’d soaked through the hand towel. I needed to find something else to use, but I’d already wrecked this towel and the kitchen rag. Using a big bath towel was a last resort. It wasn’t like we had extras.
In my bedroom, I went into the stacked plastic bins I used as a dresser and dug around, pulling out my period underwear from the back. They were clean, and since they already had little bloodstains on them, it wasn’t too much of a sacrifice.
My hands were in better shape, so I peeled the socks off them.
Even in the dwindling light from outside, I could see that the big cut had scabbed over and the smaller cuts were no longer visible.
I didn’t dare turn any lamps on to check more carefully.
If Chi-chi or any of his guys stopped by, I wanted them to think no one was home.
I wrapped my foot in two pairs of my stained underwear.
Looping the elastic around my big toe, I stretched the material over my heel, which put some pressure on the wound.
The bleeding had slowed down, but I winced when I accidentally dragged my foot across the bedsheet, smearing blood on it. Awesome.
Something else to deal with in the morning.
After covering my foot, I checked on my mom again, relieved to find that her breathing appeared stronger and more regular.
I pulled the blanket over her. “What happened to you?” I whispered, running my thumb lightly over the purple bruise on her shoulder.
She looked almost peaceful, lying there, and I wondered what kind of life she'd dreamed about when she was my age. I’d asked her once, and all she did was cup my cheek and tell me that Johnny and I were the best things to ever happen to her, that we were all the dreams she needed.
I hoped that was true—that she took joy in being a mother—because, at least to my eyes, it seemed like her life pretty much sucked. Quickly, I banished the thought. She wouldn’t want my pity. Or more to the point, I wouldn’t want it if I was in her shoes.
The flash of headlights invaded through the blinds. Someone pulled their car up in front and killed the engine.
Quietly, I limped to my room. I thought about hiding in my mom’s closet or the bathroom, but if Chi-chi or one of his goons busted into our house, I wanted to have space to run. Or fight. Like I told Johnny, if I was forced to deal with Chi-chi, I’d figure out a way to handle him.
I lay down on my bed, clutching my phone to my chest. It buzzed with an incoming text. I didn’t dare turn it over. The light from the screen would reflect in the window like a beacon.
Three loud knocks sounded at the door. “Johnny!”
I held perfectly still. I didn’t know if the voice belonged to Chi-chi, but whoever it was, he was angry as fuck.
“Johnny!” This time, the shout came from directly outside my window, like he stood underneath it. His speech sounded slurred. “Johnny! Are you hiding in your house like a little bitch!?”
“Yo, Chi-chi. I don’t think anyone’s home.” A different voice this time, although just as close.
My phone shook again, muffled by my hand. I prayed they couldn’t hear it.
“Well, if he’s not here, we need to find him. I want to hang onto him until I’m sure Cruz finishes the job. I don’t trust that motherfucker.”
“He’s gonna be pissed when he finds out you gave the little guy to Bash.”
The one who was apparently Chi-chi chuckled evilly. “Let him. I already warned him what would happen. Told him to tell that pendejo, Deck, too. Three weeks they made me wait!”
The “little guy” must have been Eliazar. But who was Bash?
“I thought you liked Deck. All those guys,” the second man said. “Felt kinda fucked up tossing Johnny in the garbage. I’ve chilled with him before. Always thought he was alright.”
“I do like them. But not when they act like pussies. I want loyal soldiers, not little bitches.”
“You really think fucking up their friends is the way, jefe ?”
“Trust.”
There was shuffling before one of them pounded on the door again, violently enough to shake the wall.
“Johnny!” Chi-chi shouted.
“I don’t think he’s here,” Chi-chi’s far-more-sensible sidekick said a few seconds later.
I squeezed my eyes closed and willed them to go away.
But the banging and Chi-chi’s yelling were loud enough to wake the dead. Or, rather, to wake the half dead.
“Johnny?” My mom’s low moan echoed through the hallway. “Johnny? Baby?”
Fuck.
“I knew it!” Chi-chi screeched. “Someone’s in there.”
The knocking began on the door and didn’t let up. Two sets of hands this time. “Open up!”
I rolled over the options in my mind. Calling the cops was out of the question.
They never came anyway, and I didn’t want them to see my mom.
Maybe if they kept banging, neighbors would come out and help.
But that was a long shot. Besides, most folks knew Chi-chi by sight, and if they saw it was him at our door, they’d mind their own business real fast. I could text Rosa, but I worried Johnny might see and try to play hero.
Same with Deck. I thought about just opening the door and reasoning with Chi-chi.
If I let him search the place, maybe that would end it.
Since Johnny wasn’t here. Then again, the dude seemed real fucking crazy.
The decision was taken out of my hands a minute later when the door to the trailer was kicked in. The overhead light in the main room flicked on.
I scrambled up against the headboard, deciding it would be better to meet Chi-chi head-on rather than hide in my bedroom. Lurching to a standing position, intending to face him in the living room, I ignored the stabbing pain that shot up my leg when I put weight on my foot.
But I’d only made it to my bedroom door when Chi-chi appeared in front of me. He dragged his gaze up and down my body, making me feel sick.
He noticed and grinned. “ Hola, chica .”
From a foot away, I smelled the liquor on his breath and could see the wide dilation of his pupils.
“Johnny’s not home,” I said with as much force as I could muster. “It’s just me and my mom.” I gestured to the bedroom across from mine, and Chi-chi peered in.
“Hello, Johnny’s mom.” He leered at her. “How about you stay in your bedroom while your daughter and I discuss some things?”
“What?” My mom sat up on her bed, wobbly and disoriented. “Cori? What’s going on? Why was there shouting?”
I wasn’t sure if she’d registered Chi-chi’s presence or not, or how aware she was. “It’s okay, Mom,” I reassured her. “I’ll talk to you in a minute.”
“Yeah. She’ll talk to you in a minute, Mommy.” Chi-chi reached back to grab his friend by the arm and shoved him into my mom’s room. “My boy Aaron will keep you company while your daughter and I have a little chat.”
Blond and blue-eyed, Aaron did not look like any of the other guys I’d seen following Chi-chi around in the neighborhood. He hesitated, evidently having no clue what the script was here. “Are you sure?”
Chi-chi replied with a punishing glare. Aaron held up his hands in surrender before sitting next to my mom on her bed.
“Cori?”
“It’s okay, Mom.” I kept my eyes pinned on Chi-chi as I spoke. “Hang out with Aaron for a bit.”
“But—”
“I think you and I had better talk uninterrupted,” Chi-chi said, pushing me back into my room until my knees hit the side of the bed.
He shut the door. I waited for him to turn on the light, like he’d done in the main room, but he didn’t. No matter. It was bright enough for me to see the pattern in the plaid flannel he wore over his chinos, and to make out the old-school Sonics logo on his hat.
Chi-chi stepped toward me. I stood my ground, putting all my weight on my good foot.
“Will my mom be alright with him?”
“I imagine so.”
Vague, but I’d have to live with it.
“Sit,” Chi-chi ordered.
When I didn’t comply immediately, he pushed me down. I decided not to fight him. Yet.
“I already told you Johnny’s not here,” I said. “So you can go.”
His right cheek lifted. He sat down next to me, squishing his thigh against mine. “Where is he?”
I wanted to cross my arms over my chest, but I kept my hands in my lap as I answered, “I don’t know.”
“Am I supposed to believe you?”
I huffed. “You’re crazy if you think I’m in charge of my brother, or if I know where he is most of the time.” That part was the truth.
“Well, you’re crazy if you lie to me.” He reached out and ran a hand across my polo shirt, stopping when his palm fell over the Center logo on top of my collarbone. His touch made my skin crawl, and I could tell by the look in his eye that he knew it. Got off on it.
“I’m not lying.”
Chi-chi smiled. “I’ve seen you before, you know,” he said, smoothing a circle over my neck before pulling his hand away. “I know all about Johnny’s little sister, who gets straight A’s and volunteers at the Center.”
The reprieve from his touch didn’t last. I held perfectly still as he ran his right palm over my knee to the bottom of my baggy basketball shorts. His left hand came up to circle my throat, which he pressured gently.
“Stop.”
I moved my eyes around the room, searching for anything I could use as a weapon. My phone was sitting on the bed, but I figured my best bet was a tried-and-true knee to the balls. I just had to wait for the right moment.
“You want me to stop?” The hand on my leg began sliding up under my shorts, inching toward my inner thigh. “Then tell me where Johnny is.”
“I don’t know.” I gulped beneath his hand on my throat. “You’re hurting me,” I gritted out.
Chi-chi pulled his hands away and stood abruptly. “Fuck.” Looking down at me, he spat, “I believe you.”
Check me out, being an effective liar! Now I had to get him away from my house.
My phone buzzed again.
Chi-chi snatched it off my bedspread before I had a chance to. His eyes went wide at the preview. When he looked back at me, there was pure malevolence in his gaze.
Shit! Had Johnny been dumb enough to text from someone else’s phone?