[ zehn ]

Lolita hurried out of the car with Elsa and Marco the moment in which her mother parked her car in front of the restaurant. Without waiting for Gabriella, she half-ran inside where she found Genavee towards the back. She had explained her situation to the owner who was a nice elderly woman, and she gave her a free meal. 

Genavee rose from her chair when she saw the seventeen year old. Lolita reached her and hugged her tight. "I'm glad you're okay." She said, adding quickly, "I told my mum that you're a friend from school, so I'm going to need you to play along."

When they pulled away, Genavee nodded in agreement. Gabriella walked into the restaurant, and she scolded her daughter, "Lolita, why didn't you wait for me?" She asked, stuffing her keys and cellphone into her purse. The green eyed woman with ebony black hair took one look at the blonde. Her clothes, her smeared make-up, her updo that was messy after days of being on the run. She didn't want to think negatively, but she thought the young woman looked much too...extravagant. A woman of the night, as they said in Spanish. "Is this your friend? She looks a bit older than you. There's no way you could have known her from middle school."

"Well..." Lolita began nervously.

Seeing this, Genavee interrupted. "I used to volunteer there when I was younger. That was where I met Lolita."

"Hm." Gabriella said. She wasn't too convinced, but she would let it go for the moment.

Marco and Elsa also hugged Gena, per request of Lolita, and pretended to be old friends of hers. All so that Gabriella wouldn't be suspicious. 

They were back home in the next hour and Genavee was given a room in the mansion to get settled in. The first thing she did was to get into the shower and wipe all the make-up off her face. When she got out of the shower, there was a pair of clean clothes waiting for her, which Lolita was letting her borrow since Genavee hadn't been able to take any of her clothes when she ran away. The blonde haired girl was grateful for Lolita and her mother, who were allowing her to stay with them as long as she wanted. With no formal education, she knew it would be difficult to find a job, but she would give it a try. 

In the afternoon, Lolita had Elsa bring their dinner to Gena's room and the three ate together. Finding this strange, Genavee asked, "Why don't we go have dinner with your mum? I don't want her to think I'm rude or anything."

Lolita shook her head. "I hate her husband Thomas. I'm honestly counting down the days so that I can go back to Spain this weekend." 

At that, Genavee frowned, "I thought you said you were going to help me."

"I am." Lolita nodded, "You can go to Spain with me."

But Genavee was hesitant. "I don't want to leave Deutschland. Please. Just stay here until I can find a job and a new place to live."

Lolita thought about it. She wanted to get out of the ranch and out of Germany as soon as possible. She didn't want to be around Thomas. But Genavee needed her help, and she figured she could always talk to Erik like she'd been doing for the past few days. He was a nice boy who could easily make her smile and Lolita found she was falling in love with him.

Sighing, Lolita finally agreed, "I guess I can stay until you're ready to move on."

But she dreaded having to see Thomas.

-

A few days later, Lolita was actually at the table to have breakfast with her mother, and Thomas. She had invited Geavee to join them as well, who in a few days had won over everyone and was like a part of the family. Lolita had arrived first after Genavee told her she would be taking a quick shower. The seventeen year old had already spoiled her breakfast by eating the clown pop Thomas left for her that morning. 

That was Thomas' routine in the mornings. He got up bright and early and picked a rose to give his beloved Gabriella. Then they would go horse riding around the ranch, making sure that everything was in order. After their ride, Gabriella would head back into the house for a shower and Thomas would go to his office where he grabbed a clown pop. Once back outside, he would leave the treat at her window and returned to the house to take a shower. 

Breakfast with his wife was one thing he could ever miss out on, and finally he would head to practice.

Normally, Thomas would be the first to arrive at the table. Gabriella was more likely in the kitchen, getting him a cup of coffee just the way he liked it, as she always did. And Thomas was pleasantly surprised to see Lolita there.

"Guten morgen, sonnenschein." He grinned at her.

She took one look at him and rolled her eyes. But for her mother's sake, she greeted him. Though it lacked enthusiasm. "Thomas." She said, and went back to typing on her phone. He noticed that when she went back to paying attention to her cellphone, she smiled.

His smiled dropped instantly.

"Who are you talking to?" He asked curiously, opting to take the seat closest to her.

She pushed the chair back and got up from her seat, only to sit two chairs away from him. With much venom in her words, she responded, "Erik."

"Who's Erik?" He asked another question. "Your boyfriend?"

He couldn't believe she had a boyfriend. How could this have happened? In his eyes, Lolits was far too young to have a boyfriend. And he was also upset over the fact that he hadn't known this. Lolita was like his daughter and he found he knew next to nothing about her.

"Stop trying to act like you're my father, Thomas." Lolita spat, her words laced with annoyance at him. She oly wanted him to go away. "My dad was Ernesto Gallegos. And before you continue pestering me...No, Erik is not my boyfriend. He's just this guy I met on the train in Dortmund."

"Giving your phone number to strangers is not safe." He began to scold her.

But Lolita didn't want to hear him. She got up from her seat and headed for the hallway. Gena was taking far too long and Lolita was no longer in the mood to have breakfast with the family, especially not the messed up family in which she thought she lived in. Just as she turned into the hallway, she ran into both her mother and Gena. They were both smiling, but their smiles dropped when they saw the bitter expression on Lolita's face.

In the few days that Genavee lived with them, she could not seem to understand why Lolita could not accept Thomas. He was a sweet guy who was always smiling and he was also funny. He treated Genavee as though she were his daughter even though they had just met and he was only five years older than her. He wanted to have the same father-daughter relationship with Lolita, but the seventeen year old would not allow it. Gena understood that it was upsetting for her mother to have moved on after Lolita's father died, but she also believed there was time for grief and there was time for moving on.

"What's wrong?" Gabriella placed her hands on Lolita's shoulders. Her green eyes were full of concern for her daughter. She feared that there had been another confrontation between Thomas and Lolita, which was more likely Lolita being rude to Thomas.

That was exactly what it was.

"Your husband was pestering me." Lolita sighed in frustration.

"Lolita..." Her mother began.

And her daughter's eyes were filled with anger. "You always take his side, mum! That's unfair."

"Gabriella hasn't even said anything yet." Gena reasoned, defending the woman she had quickly come to see as a mother figure.

"Gena, we all know she's going to do it." Lolita hissed. "Ever since she started dating Thomas, she doesn't give a shit about me."

"That's not true, Lolita." Gabriella said with a shake of her head. "Both Thomas and I love you very much."

"Yes it is!" Lolita accused. "He was trying to take dad's place and you allowed it. And you didn't care that I left because of him. You chose Thomas over me."

"You chose your grandparents over me!" Gabriella shouted, letting out the one thing that had caused her pain for so many years. "I wanted you here, by my side. Thomas saw you as his own daughter too, but you chose your grandparents. For five years not once did you visit me. And at your high school graduation did you think to invite your mother? No!"

Lolita bit her lip and steadied her voice before speaking. "Of vourse I wanted you there. But I knew that if I invited you, Thomas would tag along."

Gabriella shook her head. "He and I talked about it many times. If you had invited me, he agreed to stay here for your sake."

"How was I to know that?" Lolita asked. Without warning, she threw her arms around her mother and cried into her shoulder. "Don't think for a moment that I wouldn't chose you over anybody. I love my grandparents, but you'll always be first, you're my mum."

After they recovered from their moment, the three walked into the dining room together, where Thomas was waiting for them. The four ate in silence, and after breakfast, Lolita got a text from Erik. She was still at the table, but was already finished eating. She looked at the text on her cellphone screen and squealed joyfully at what Erik sent her. 

"Why so happy?" Gabriella asked, on her face was a warm smile.

Lolits said with excitement, "Erik is back from his vacation and is coming to visit me!"

"Erik?" Gabriella raised an eyebrow in question.

"This guy I met on the train in Dortmund." Lolita said with a wave of her hand. "He'll be here tomorrow. I suggested we could to the lake, deep in the woods on the property. But I told him Gena would have to come with us. He said it was fine and he'll bring a friend to keep her comapny." Trailing off into a mutter, she added, "Oh, maybe I should invite Elsa and Marco so they can get to talk more since she has a crush on him. Its going to be so much fun!"

Gabriella's lips came together to form a tight line. "I don't like the idea of you wandering off into the woods with a boy you've only met once."

"You're mother's right, Lolita." Thomas agreed, earning him a glare from the seventeen year old.

"But mum..." Lolita whined. "Gena will be there, Marco will be there, and Elsa will be there. We'll be fine."

Gena nodded with a smile. "I'll take good care of my little sister. Don't you worry, Gabriella."

"See?" Lolita said.

"Okay." Gabriella finally agreed.

Thomas mouth fell open in surprise. "Gabriella, what if those guys are killers or worse?"

"Not everyone is as bad as you." Lolita countered.

Right then, Thomas froze, but recovered quickly, just quickly enough for no one to notice it. 

Did Lolita know something about him?

-

update for this. i had been wanting to update, but i had a lot of shit to do for my job and a lot of football to watch. i am very upset bc so far four out of our seven selecciones have been a failure. 

mexico u20: loses to mali (FUCKING MALI), defeats uruguay, and loses to SERBIA (WTF?). thus their world cup ended in the group stages. i trusted that seleccion bc gutierrez and chucky lozano. but they let me down (except lozano my bby boy, he is perf).

mexico women's team: draws to colombia, loses to england (THE ONLY REDEEMED PERSON DURING THIS GAME WAS THE PERFECT MEXICAN GK. BC OF HER, Y'ALL DIDNT LOSE 10-1), and they lost to france (5-0). this was the biggest diaster of our national teams. conceeded 8 goals in three matches, and only scored 2. that's a gd of -6. 

mexico u22: i suppose these guys werent too bad. and THE BAE VAN RANKIN was captain. THEY DRAW TO COTE D'IVOIRE (wtf), defeat china, defeat england, and LOSE TO MOROCCO. that last match saw them out of the tournament with no trophies won. the fucking USA got third place. now they will never let this go. i know this sounds harsh, but as mexicans, we are used to winning tournaments like these. why can't we have a magical year like 2011 where we got trophies in ALL COMPETITIONS WE PARTICIPATED IN?

mexico squad b (copa america): they draw to bolivia (wtf), DRAW TO CHILE (in the most intense match of the tournament), and LOSE TO ECUADOR. mexico went in as favorites and with good chances of advancing. ALL THEY NEEDED WAS TO DRAW OR WIN. 66% of things were in our favor. BUT NO. they lost and are out of the competition.

all i have to put my faith in now are mexican panamerican games team, mexico squad A (gold cup), and u17 world cup (i am more confident with this one bc we have been champions twice and got second place once, this SELECCION ACTUALLY HAS BALLS).

but yeah, sorry for ranting. i hope you all like the update.

-clary xx