"What are you doing in here?"

Ray sits relaxed in Dad's desk chair, looking like he belongs there. He fiddles with Dad's lighter that's been sitting there on the desk since he got arrested.

"Thinking."

I notice Dad's laptop open in front of Ray, something up on the screen. "How'd you get into that?"

"Val's hacking skills."

Walking to the other side of the desk, I try to look at what's on it but Ray closes it.

"Better you don't know anything," he says.

"I already know the shit he did in that sketchy business. Nothing will scare me away." I go to open it but he grabs my hand.

"Trust me, you don't wanna know anything."

Well now I need to know.

He looks at my hand that's half covered with my hoodie sleeve and let's me go, looking back up at my face.

"Don't you have dance class right now?"

"You're taking notice of my life?" I joke with a dead voice then sigh. "I've gone to it like once in two months. With everything going on, I don't want to right now." I sit on top of the desk and swing my legs.

"Wanna go a run with me?"

"You're only asking that so i'll say I'm too scared to go outside."

"You're admitting you're scared?" He gasps.

"Glad you're amused. Maybe one day you can ask me to do something with you cause you actually want to."

"Just because I wanna be alone sometimes doesn't mean I don't wanna be with you."

I fake laugh, "It's fine, Ray. I'm not being serious. I get it if you don't wanna be around me – I know i'm annoying."

He stares at me with a blank face. "Are you done?"

I nod slightly and slide off the desk onto my feet.

"Yeah, you're annoying sometimes." He stands up, "But you're also someone that no one could live without. I mean, what the fuck would we have done if that dude got you."

I shrug, "Nada."

He roles his eyes, "Come here," he holds out his arms.

"What are you doing?"

"Hugging you. Now hurry up before I change my mind."

I smile, stepping towards him and he embraces me. He's two years younger than me but he's still much taller than me. I rest my head against his shoulder comfortably, but the whole situation is unusual. Ray and I never do this kind of thing. He never does this kind of thing with anyone.

"This is weird," I state.

"Yep." He pulls back. "Let's not do that again."

The doorbell rings and I take that as my cue to get out of here. I'm surprised to find Wes, knocking for once instead of just coming in.

"Is Max home?" He winks.

"Nope, he's not."

"Is anyone?" He smirks and walks in, pushing the door closed behind him.

"Am I ever home alone?"

"Nevertheless," he mumbles and pushes me up against the wall, placing his lips on mine. "How are you, anyway? Has everything been okay?" He asks when our lips part.

"Sí, it's okay." I told him about what happened because I needed some comfort, and he would have asked a lot of questions anyway about why I haven't been at school for the past few days or outside at all.

"Good." His thumb runs over my chin before he kisses me again, in a way that tells me he has the intention of taking this further. I could really use a distraction and a little fun right now since all i've been doing is moping around my house for days, so I pull him to the stairs an we go to my bedroom.

He pulls my shirt off straight away and spreads kisses down my neck onto my chest while walking forwards and pushing me backwards, until my legs collide with the bed and we both fall down.

"We need to be quiet," I tell him when he laughs loud.

"Tell that to yourself." He pulls off my sweatpants then stands up and unbuttons his jeans. I watch him before I get down on my knees in front of him.

+++

"Ugh, my tongue hurts," I moan.

"Well, I tried to warn you that the coffee was still hot as truck, but no you jumped straight in," Val says from beside me.

"I didn't sleep," I rub my eyes

"You should of took another day off. Who wants to go to school?" Santiago says disapprovingly.

"People who want a good education," Val clarifies. "Or people who want to be around hot chicks." He looks at a girls ass who walks in front of us and I cringe.

I stop at my locker and they both stop too. My locker is a mess and tired, angry me only gets angrier while i'm searching for my english shit.

"I can't wait 'til that bitch graduates," Val says and I curiously look to where he's looking, interested to see who's pissed him off enough for him to say something like that. Val's a really gentle person who rarely gets angry. Someone would have had to done something really fucked up to piss him off.

It's Chelsea walking through the corridor with her voluminous hair bouncing on her shoulders that he's looking at. She approaches us and Val straightens.

"Hey, guys. Where have you been, Yasmin?" She places her hand on Val's shoulder and he closes his eyes. Hell to the fucking no.

"Don't touch him," I push her backwards and her hand slips off of him. "Why are you so obsessed with him? Can't you find someone else who actually likes you?"

"Take your own advice, whore. You're crazy about Wes and everyone knows that he doesn't even like you."

"And you'd know, wouldn't you? Because you're so involved in everyone else's business cause you don't have a life of your own."

"It's common knowledge," she scoffs. "You're an alcoholic whore and your Dad's a murderer."

I cant stop myself from punching her in the face. My hand burns from the impact but all I focus on is her head swinging backwards and those dumb hair extensions almost flying off of her head.

Before she has time to even acknowledge what just happened, I grab her shoulders and push her backwards until she hits the wall. Arms wrap around my stomach and my feet are lifted off the ground before I manage to hit her again.

"Let go!" I yell while thrashing around.

"Yasmin, enough!" I hear Principal Harris shout and the full corridor falls silent. Santiago puts me down but still holds onto my arm.

A teacher goes to Chelsea who's covering her eye with a terrified look on her face – probably fake to get sympathy.

"Come with me," Harris says although he doesn't look angry. Probably because he likes Mom. What makes him think he has a chance? Mom's married to Dad. Dad's a good person and Mom loves him.

"No," I say.

"Yasmin," Santi says harshly. He's the one who looks angry and the way he looks down on me makes me feel like i'm shrinking to a little kid.

"Fine."

"She hit her in the face and was stopped before she could do anything else," Harris says to Mom.

"She's never been violent like this," Mom looks at me but I stare down at my feet, sitting in the chair in front of Harris's desk with my arms folded across my chest.

"Maybe she's been influenced by her bothers, i'm not sure." Are they really just gonna talk about me as if i'm not even here?

"She wouldn't have done it for no reason. What did that girl say, Yasmin?"

I don't answer, still not looking at them.

"Listen, Yasmin. I'm going to try to keep you out of any serious trouble, but you need to tell us what she did that pushed you to hit her."

Mom waits for my reply, then looks back at Harris. "She's gone through a lot lately. I'm not surprised that she's acting out."

Harris nods. "I understand. I'll see what I can do."

Great, so now I don't have any punishment and rumours will spread about Mom banging the principal.

"Yasmin, could you step outside for a minute while I talk to your Mom?"

I finally look at him, then stand up and walk out the door. Do they really think i'm gonna wait here?

People are in the corridors, getting stuff from their lockers for next period. I walk through, avoiding the stares and whispers. Jeez, you punch someone once and everyone looks at you like you're Donald fucking Trump.

When I turn a corner, there's less people so I stop when my phone buzzes in my pocket.

Jace Heard you bitch slapped Chelsea. Someone had to do it.

Me your word choice pisses me off.

I smile anyway. I wonder who he heard that from. I wonder what he thought when he found out.

I hear a familiar voice from around the corner – Wesley. I'm about to go round and see him but first I wait to hear what he's saying – just being nose- curious.

"Dude, she gives the best blowjobs," Wes says.

A couple of guys laugh. "We've gotta try it out. When you gonna dump her ass so she can go back to being easy?" One of them says.

"I don't know, man. I'm enjoying myself. I mean, last night was awesome."

My heart beats out of my chest. This is not happening.

I step out from behind the wall, seeing Wes with four other guys, some of them I recognise from the party when Wes and I got in a fight. Wesley's smile drops from his face when he sees me.

"You're such a fucking piece of shit."

"Fuck," he mumbles under his breath. I walk past him, feeling disgusting as the other boys look at me. "Wait," he calls, following me.

"Stay away from me."

"How much did you hear?"

"Enough to fucking hate you."

"I didn't mean what I said, you know how much I like you-"

I reach the exit and turn around, stopping in my tracks. "I don't ever want to see your face again." My voice cracks and I walk out the door before he can see the tears in my eyes. I will never show that dumbass that he hurt me.

+++

Mom calls me again, then Alex, then Santi, then Mom again, then Jax. I ignore every one of them. I told Mom I was going to Brooke's – the poor girls always my backup – and I guess they'll have figured out that i'm not there when Alex goes crazy at the fact that Mom actually let me go outside.

I'd be lying to myself if I said i'm not absolutely terrified right now, but there's so many people on the beach right now, taking romantic nighttime walks with their boyfriend or girlfriend. If the creep is watching me, he's not gonna jump out and kill me with all these people around.

I just wanna be alone to think. I understand Ray, needing a break from our family. Sometimes it gets too much.

I watch the waves hitting the sand and the moons reflection on the water. I love the sea, but I haven't been down here since the thing on the pier.

"Why do you always have everyone running around worried about you?"

I snap my head round to look at Jace. "How did you find me?"

He sits down beside me on the sun lounger. "Snapchat map. You should really turn that off."

"I definitely should."

"What are you doing? Why are you out here, ignoring your family?"

"Because i'm selfish," I shrug.

He sighs and takes out his phone, probably texting Alex, then puts it back in his pocket. "What's wrong, Yasmin? Is it cause of what happened? Is coming out here and putting yourself in danger supposed to make you feel better?"

"It's Wesley. I was so stupid. I thought I could actually date a guy and it would be real."

Jace takes a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket and lights one of them, inhaling before he speaks. "You two will be fine in a few days."

"No, we're done, for real. I wish I never went near him."

"What did he do?"

"He was telling people about us – about what we do."

Jace frowns as he takes another couple draws. "What a dickhead."

I lie back on the lounger and look up at the stars. There's so many tonight – they're so beautiful. Life would be so easy if I were a star.

"I knew he was an ass from the start," Jace says.

"Well done. Do you want a pat on the back?"

He lays back on the lounger as well, his shoulder against mine. Neither of us say anything for a few minutes and I just stare out at the sea.

"One day I want to just sail away on a boat and live out at sea."

"You'd get tired of being alone."

"I wouldn't be alone – I'd bring a dog. Maybe Valentino too, if he's good."

"You'd miss me."

"Nah," I lie.

"Yah."

"Nope."

"Yep."

"No."

"Sí."

"I'd miss mcdonalds, but I could stop at some country and grab a mcdonalds."

"You deserve better."

"Than mcdonalds? Nah, I'm not into fancy restaurants and shit-"

"Than Wes."

I close my eyes, clenching my jaw. "Everything we did... he told people. It makes me feel so... dirty. I looked at myself in the mirror today, and I felt physically sick, like I was about to puke. It's not fair that I feel like that and he just gets street cred."

"He's the dirty one. A dirty little fucking rat. Most people probably don't believe half the shit he told them anyway."

"You think?"

"People make up lies about screwing you all the time and no one believes it."

"Nice to know." I sigh, looking at the cigarette in his hand. Why do people smoke? How does tobacco help relieve stress? How's it fun? Why does my Dad and brothers put their health at risk to do it? I wanna know what's so fucking amazing. "Can I try it?"

Jace looks at it and furrows his eyebrows. "No."

"Why?"

"Cause." He leans down and my puts it out in the sand.

"Why, Jace? Doing it once won't hurt me. You do it so you can't say it's bad."

"It is bad. I'd stop it if I could, and i'm not gonna be the one who lets you smoke and get addicted."

"I won't get addicted."

"Did you say that when you first tried alcohol?" He raises an eyebrow.

I cross my arms over my chest and pout, staring straight ahead.

"Don't go in a mood."

"Shhh."

"Why?"

"Cause your voice is annoying."

"Damn, wish I cared." He stands up and grabs my arms, lifting me onto my feet.

"What on earth do you think you're doing?"

"We're leaving."

"There is no we."

He sighs, "We don't have to go to your place. Mcdonalds?"

I almost smile but I'm too stubborn so I don't. Instead I just start walking, not knowing where he's parked and he follows. I like the feeling of having Jace follow me wherever I decide to go. I could go to a movie and watch something he'd hate, and he'd just need to come.

Power. I like having power over him.

+++

I posted the trailer to the Fuentes Family!! it's on the first chapter (of the first book).

here's a little clip at the top from
the trailer of our favesss ☝🏼

teaser: jace takes yasmin on an educational outing and there is tension of the sexual kind hehe (things get hot and spicyyy)

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