Chapter 8
The sun was high in the sky, warming the car when Esmie pulled up to Brookshire State University, located on the edge of downtown Andloor, a block away from the bridge, separating downtown from Las Afueras.
Mamá insisted driving her to school, stating Esmie couldn’t drive herself with only one eye.
Esmie stared at the old brick building towering over them, even from their position on the empty street.
A few students filed under the arched doorway leading to campus, but most were already inside in class.
Esmie didn’t think she would get to this point.
She had hoped she could just stay in bed, but here she was.
Esmie slumped lower in her seat pulling her hoodie lower over her face.
“Aye Esmie. Me odio ese hoodie.”
“Do you really have to start in on me today?”
“Sí. I don’t understand why you insist on wearing that unfeminine hoodie? You look like a hoodlum.”
“Leo gave it to me, that’s why.” Esmie slipped even lower in the seat and pushed her sunglasses further up the bridge of her nose to hide the ugly black eye patch.
She knew she was pushing her luck wearing the hoodie, especially after refusing Mamá entrance into the bathroom to help nurse her eye.
After Mamá had shoved the drops and patch under the door, Esmie locked herself inside for as long as she dared before it sounded like her mother was going to knock down the door.
She threw up a couple times, which Mamá chalked up to nerves.
Fortunately, Mamá’s soft spot for Leo would allow her to get away with the hoodie. For now.
“Fine. But you had better take it off when you go to the internship fair. Vete.” Mamá leaned over Esmie and opened the passenger car door.
Her prayers to Elohim for a miracle to save her from attending the fair vanished. Esmie unstrapped herself, before Mamá did it for her, and slouched out of the car. For effect, Esmie slammed the door, dragging her feet as she walked toward school.
“Stand up straight and walk with confidence! Slouching won’t get you an internship,” Mamá chastised through the open window.
Esmie straightened, speed walking up the steps as Mamá drove away.
Once her mother was out of sight, Esmie adjusted the sunglasses on her face, ducking through the arched doorway, and through the double doors of the Administration Building, making a beeline toward the bathrooms before the meager contents of her breakfast of pan sobado and café con leche came up.
“Miss Morales?”
Esmie jumped. “Yes?”
“There you are. We have been waiting for you.” It was Dean Worley. He gleamed his bright smile at her, but his gray mustache betrayed him by twitching nervously.
“Good morning, Dean Worley,” she mumbled, smothering a smirk at the fact even he was afraid of her mother.
“The Brookshire Internship Fair won’t start for another twenty minutes, but Mrs. Morales requested to have you head to the auditorium as soon as you came in.
She told me you weren’t feeling well this morning.
Are you feeling better?” He spoke in swift movements as if hurrying through the conversation to go to the next task.
“Kind of. Mamá insisted I be here for the fair, then go home.”
“Ah yes. We can’t have our star student missing such an important first step into adulthood.
Especially with you graduating this year.
You’ll need to have an internship squared away, but what am I saying?
You’ll have several companies begging for you to work for them.
Don’t worry about your classes. Your teachers stated you’re ahead anyway and won’t miss anything.
You’ve been excused.” His eyes gleamed with pride as he bounced on his toes, tugging on the lapels of his chocolate-colored corduroy sports jacket.
If only he had suspenders, it would complete his look.
Esmie coughed over her laughter. “Now run along. You have several recruiters already excited to meet you.” Esmie mumbled a thanks and started off toward the auditorium.
“Oh, and Miss Morales, don’t forget to remove those sunglasses when the fair starts,” he called after her.
Esmie slid the hoodie lower, if it could go any lower, as she sped toward the auditorium hoping with everything in her that she wouldn’t run into anyone else.
If only she could get to a bathroom before someone saw her.
Her stomach churned as she approached the bathroom, reaching for the doorhandle when the back of her hoodie was yanked off. Esmie yelped.
“Hey little runt. Why are you so jumpy?” Leo’s good-natured laugh filled her with a mix of joy and dread.
He wrapped her in a big bear hug, spun her around, then planted her back on the floor, steadying her from falling over, and punched her arm.
“It’s so good to see you, Quita. What’s up?
What’s new?” Leo, almost a foot taller than she was, towered over her, his green eyes lit up.
His hair was a little different from the last time.
The tousled thick black curls still framed his forehead, but his sides were shaved close now instead of grown out.
While they had the same complexion, his face was more chiseled while hers was rounder.
Still, people knew of the Morales siblings’ bond and many of the girls begged Esmie to put them on his radar.
“Oh, you know, same old. Nothing new.” Esmie shrugged, shoving her hands in the front pocket of her hoodie, her tenis, sneaker as her mother would correct her, toeing the floor.
Leo’s head cocked to the side. Esmie wanted to yank the hoodie back over her head but didn’t want to bring any suspicion from Leo.
Instead, she lowered her face, staring at the ground to avoid his penetrating gaze.
“Yo, what’s up?” He put his hands out, palms up.
“I thought you’d be a lot more excited to see me.
And why do you look like you’re going into hiding with those sunglasses and hoodie?
I’m surprised Mamá let you out the house with it, even if I did gift it to you.
You normally take these kinds of things more seriously. ”
The tone of his voice held a hurt that matched what Esmie felt. She didn’t want to shun him, because she was anxious to see him. Just not like this.
“I am excited to see you.” Esmie flared her elbows out, keeping her hands in her hoodie pocket.
“It’s been forever. I’ve missed you like crazy and we have so much to talk about.
I’m just nervous about this internship fair and of course Mamá was on me this morning, so I’m trying to decompress.
” Esmie hoped Leo accepted her excuse. It’s not like it wasn’t true. It was only a half truth.
“What do you have to be nervous about?” He playfully pushed her shoulder. “All I’ve heard is how great you’re doing. Top of your class, honor society, class president, and not to mention all the clubs you head, and the volunteer work you do.”
“You know how Mamá is. There’s so much pressure. It’s like it’s never good enough.” Esmie stared at her tenis, wondering if they would dig a hole into the glossy linoleum floor with how much she was toeing the ground.
Commotion behind Leo grabbed both their attention. He turned his head and Esmie jumped, staring at the recruiters filing into the auditorium to set up. Her sunglasses slid down the bridge of her nose, exposing her eye patch. Leo turned back. His eyes widened.
“Whoa, what happened to your eye?”
“It’s pink eye.” She blurted, shoving her glasses back up. Leo ripped them off her face, yanking off the eye patch in the process. He gaped at her.
“Pink eye? More like purple eye!”
Esmie clamped a hand over his mouth, her finger planted on her lips.
Her eyes flickered to the group of recruiters who were still engrossed in their conversation.
He brushed her hand away and placed a firm grip on her bicep.
His head swiveled around before he dragged her to a janitorial closet.
Leo pushed her inside, locked the door behind them, then flipped on the light.
When the small room brightened, his back was still to her, his other hand lingered on the door, palm flat.
“Leo?”
After several moments, with the only sound being Esmie’s pounding heart, Leo turned toward her, rubbing his eyes with his fingers.
He dropped them slowly, then gestured for her to remove her sunglasses.
She obeyed, reluctantly. His eyes scanned her face.
Tears pricked her eyes, and searing pain returned to her face. She covered her eye, wincing.
“What happened?” Leo asked, his tone flat.
“Leo, I messed up. I did something stupid.” Esmie’s voice squeaked out.
If he was disappointed it would be more than she could bear.
From Mamá and Papi, sure, but not from Leo.
She clasped her hands in front of her as she blurted out the whole story to him.
His face was impassive. Was he mad? Disappointed?
He crossed his arms as her story went on.
When she finished, he stared at the floor and rubbed his chin.
She hadn’t noticed the stubble he grew since the last time she saw him. He had always kept it clean shaven.
When he finally spoke, it was slow, almost calculated.
“So, you went to a club to see a band you weren’t supposed to see, ran from police, took a ride from a club manager who is shady, but I still don’t understand what caused that.
” He jabbed his finger in the air toward her puffy eye.
Esmie swallowed the lump in her throat. Cold sweat beaded on her forehead.
Leo didn’t move. He would stand there all day until she talked, just like their Mamá.
“Promise not to tell Mamá?” Leo blinked.
Esmie would have to take that as his consent.
“When I was running from the club, I slipped on glass and fell. I felt something prick my eye. It watered the rest of the night, and I couldn’t see out of it.
I had a splitting migraine when I went to bed, thinking it was just from the crazy night, but when I woke up my eye looked like this.
” She pointed at the infected eye, pulsing with every word she spoke.
Leo shook his head, his curls bounced like Esmie’s did when she shook her head.
“You fell and you bruised only your eye? Did you land on something? Maybe rip your cornea, but that wouldn’t explain the bruising on your face…
wait, did you say you slipped on glass? Did glass prick your eye?
” The words hung in the air as realization hit his face.
Esmie chewed on her lip, afraid to answer.
He paced the small space in front of her.
“You’re not talking about regular windowpane glass.
You’re talking about the glass? As in drugs?
” Her silence was the only answer he needed.
Leo stopped pacing and grabbed her shoulders giving her a small shake.
“Esmie, which colored glass did you touch?”
“I don’t know…I don’t remember,” Esmie wailed.
“You need to remember. Think!” He shook her harder.
Esmie wrapped her arms around her body trying to stop her teeth from chattering.
She shut her eyes trying to remember. “There were so many colors on the ground. They were glowing. I remember checking and I didn’t touch any of the glass with my skin.
” Her eyes popped open as she remembered the rest. “When I was in the alley trying to run away, Chad bumped into me as he ran out the door. He had a brown paper bag. He’s why I fell and pricked my eye.
My vision was blurry, but I remember seeing purple specs on the ground and Chad was shoving them back into his brown paper bag. ” Leo’s face paled.
“You touched purple glass?” His voice cracked.
“I-I don’t know.”
Leo tentatively stretched out his hand, touching the puffy skin underneath her eye. “I think it’s spread more.”
“What?” She searched her bag for a mirror.
Leo pulled out his phone and handed it to her.
Esmie yelped at her reflection. The deep purple now covered her whole eye lid, swiped out to the side almost reaching her hairline, and creeped up toward her eyebrow.
The patch wouldn’t cover it anymore. “This isn’t good.
What am I going to tell Mamá? I can’t hide this from her.
” She handed the phone back to her brother and paced the floor as he had earlier.
“We need to get you out of here.”
“What do you mean?” Esmie halted mid step.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood when she noticed Leo’s hands were shaking.
He swallowed. His eyes darted around the room, scanning it.
Esmie’s eyes mimicked his, but she wasn’t sure what he was searching for.
Leo placed a finger to his lips and leaned in close.
“I can’t explain it here but trust me. You’re not safe here. We need to go to my lab. Now.”