Leti
Despite Julian’s promise that my brother won’t be there, I run into Andrew in the hallway. Fucking great. I’m getting ready to gear up for round two when he raises his hands as I approach.
“I don’t want to fight anymore.” He lets out a sigh as he drops his duffel bag. “Please. I’m already in for another earful when I go back to Kayla’s.”
“Since when are you fighting with Kayla?”
“Since I made the stupid, life-altering decision to tackle my best friend at my birthday party.” He glares at me as if this is my fault. “Mom and Dad know, by the way. I just told them.”
“You did?” I blink at him, stunned.
“Yeah, I did,” he says. “I told them Julian and I got into a fight over something or other. They really didn’t appreciate not being told a reason, but I kept you out of it as much as I could.”
“Okay.” I nod at him. “Thank you.”
“And I really am sorry,” he says. “For calling you pathetic and fighting with Julian. Mom and Dad taught us better than that. They taught me better than that. I never should’ve laid my hands on Julian, even if he did throw the first punch.
There was a better way to handle the situation, and I didn’t do what I should have. ”
“I appreciate you saying that,” I tell him, and it’s the truth. “I’m sorry I made Julian keep our friendship a secret from you. I…” I take a breath. “I thought it’d be easier being friends with him if you weren’t involved in it in any way.”
“Because you hate me that much?” He sounds pained.
“I don’t hate you, Andrew.” Though that’s not exactly the truth, is it? There has certainly been more than one occasion where I told him as much. “Well, not right now at least. How about that? Miracles do exist.”
He smiles sadly, and I nearly return it.
“Why the hell did Julian punch you?”
He blinks at me. “You really don’t know?”
“He’s not a violent person.” I shake my head. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“Well, maybe you should ask him.” He bends down to pick up his bag. He seems to contemplate something, a frown marring his face as he stares at me.
“Spit it out already.” I roll my eyes. “What is it?”
“Don’t hurt him,” he says, a reminder from earlier this morning.
That anvil-on-the-chest feeling comes roaring back, crushing my lungs.
“I mean it, Leti. If things don’t work out, it’s going to be your fault.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“Because I know him.” His eyes move from the front door to my face. “And I know you.”
“You really couldn’t keep the peace for more than five minutes, could you?” I scoff. “As nice as this conversation was, you should probably get going.”
“Prove me wrong,” he says. “Please. There isn’t anyone more deserving of all the happiness in this world than Julian. I’d love nothing more than to see him get everything he wants.”
“I want that for him too.”
“We agree on that much, at least.” He sighs. “Okay, I’m going. Good luck.”
As I watch him leave, I can’t decide if his tone was derisive or not. Like there should’ve been a you’re gonna need it tacked on to the end.
Julian startles as I walk through the door, jumping away from the window. Oh lord. Another eavesdropper. Between him and Elena, they should start a club. “Should we have talked louder, or could you hear everything clearly?”
“These walls are paper thin.” His hand forms a fist and knocks against the plaster. “They can barely hold in their residents, let alone any secrets they may have.”
“Funny.”
He reaches for my hands, intertwining our fingers, and all I can think is, We’re really doing this. I can handle one scary conversation, can’t I?
“So, here we are,” he says.
The door behind him cracks open, and he drops my hands like they’re on fire. An older woman emerges from his bedroom with a man in a white coat. She meets my eyes and her mouth spreads into a wide grin.
“Mijo, who’s this?”
“Mom, this is Leticia.” I give a wave, but she spreads her arms and envelops me in a hug once she’s close enough. Over her shoulder, the man smiles politely. “Leticia, this is my mom and her boyfriend.”
“You can call me Soledad,” she says once she pulls away. “This is Santiago. When I heard my son was hurt, I rushed over with him so he could look Julian over. He’s a doctor.”
“I figured,” I say, looking over his white coat and leather bag. “He’s very official.”
“I tried to leave the coat at home. She wouldn’t let me,” he says, eyes softening as he looks down at her fondly.
“But look how handsome it makes you, mi amor.” She smooths a hand down his chest as they make moon eyes at each other, and I exchange a glance with Julian, who looks as uncomfortable as me.
When his mouth lifts at the side in a crooked grin, I can’t help but return it.
To their credit, his mom and Santiago look very happy together.
“Okay, that’s enough PDA for one day. You’re making Leticia uncomfortable.”
I nudge Julian with an elbow and assure them that’s not the case. They laugh good-naturedly, and his mom reaches for my hand.
“How do you know my son?”
“Oh, we, uh—” I fidget in place as I rack my brain for an acceptable response.
No way am I explaining to Julian’s mom that not only did we date twice, but I also rejected him twice before we became friends, crossed the line three times, and still have no idea what we are to each other because we haven’t had a chance to talk about what it all means yet.
I meet Julian’s eyes over her shoulder, hoping mine signal a cry for help.
“She lives right upstairs,” he explains, and I would breathe a sigh of relief if her knowing eyes weren’t locked on me. “We bumped into each other a time or two before we decided to hang out more.”
“I see,” she says, eyes glittering like she doesn’t quite believe Julian’s explanation. “Well, we’ll get out of your hair. I just needed to be sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine, Mom,” he says as she cups his cheek, leaning into her touch. “Promise.”
“I’ll look after him,” I tell her. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t work too hard and gets some much needed rest.”
“Thank you, Leticia,” she says. “It was lovely meeting you.”
Once they’re gone, I let out a breath that deflates the tension in my shoulders. “Guess I should’ve given them a few more minutes. How awkward from a scale of one to ten was I?”
“A solid four, but I’m pretty sure they were too sickeningly in love to notice.” He fakes a gag. “I’m sorry you had to see them go full-on PDA on each other.”
“I thought we might have to leave the room when she brought up the white coat.”
He gags again, and I let out a belly laugh.
“It’s not hard on you to see your mom move on? I mean, I know you didn’t have the best relationship with your dad, but still.”
“No,” he says. “I’m happy for her, and it’s surprisingly not as weird as I thought it’d be.”
“That’s good,” I say. “Do you still talk to your dad?” I know it’s the wrong question to ask as soon as it’s out.
His jaw locks as he turns away from me.
“Sorry. Dumb question. We don’t have to talk about this.”
“Family is a tricky subject for both of us.” He smiles wryly. “Let’s not talk about my father right now.” He inches closer, brown eyes molten as his hands skate down my arms to squeeze my hands. “Let’s talk about last night.”
“Okay.” I nod, only because this conversation is long overdue.
“Last night was…”
“Oh, you want me to answer that?” I ask when he trails off. There are far too many ways to fill in the blank. Amazing. An absolute nightmare. Fucking incredible. Unbelievably stupid. “Unexpected.”
“That’s one word for it,” he agrees. “Any others come to mind?”
“Why did you hit my brother?”
His expression stills, but to his credit he doesn’t break eye contact.
“That’s so unlike you, Julian. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen you angry, let alone enough to hit someone. Why’d you do it?”
“It was stupid,” he says. “I already explained to Andrew—”
“That’s not what I asked.” I shake my head. “I know you guys are cool now, which we can talk about later. I’m asking why you did it.”
“I don’t know.” He gusts out a breath. “He’d been talking down to you all night, and you were just taking it. It drove me mad hearing him talk to you that way, Leti.”
“He’s Andrew.” I shrug. “We’ve been talking to each other that way our whole lives.”
“Not anymore.” He kisses the top of my head. “I’ll promise not to hit him again, but that doesn’t mean he’s off the hook.”
“You’re why he apologized to me,” I realize. “And the reason he told our parents what really happened, aren’t you?”
My chest aches the longer I look at him.
The longer I try to convince myself I’m a fool for daring to hope I’m the one Andrew meant when he said Julian was in love with someone.
But, my god. Love? I’m not ready for that.
But I’m not ready for Julian to be in love with someone else either. What does that make me?
“I know you have a rocky relationship with your brother,” he says.
“And I get it. No one understands complicated families more than me. But I don’t want to be a wedge between you two, and I won’t promise to never meddle in your relationship if I can help make things better.
Even a little bit. Every solution to a problem has to start somewhere. ”
“Maybe.” I sigh. “So, last night was unexpected. And also…” I trail off the way he did, waiting for him to fill in the blank next.
“Everything,” he says.
There’s that word again.
“It was everything, Leticia.”
“Do you really mean that?” I let out a laugh, but it’s sad too. “Because I want you to know I’m not holding you to anything you said or anything we did last night. It would be wrong, like I’m taking advantage of you or something.”
“You think you took advantage of me?” The smirk he’s struggling to hide wobbles when I shove his arm. “Because I can assure you right now, I was of sound mind and body for every minute of—”
“Okay, I get it.” I cut him off before my face has the chance to turn tomato red. “I just mean I’m not holding you to anything you said about me, or what this means for us. Before things heated up between us, you were having trouble waking up and answering questions—”