"What's wrong, mija?"

Snapping out of my daydream, I look up at Mom who stops cleaning up the living room to look at me with concern. "Nada. Just thinking."

"About anything in particular?"

"Just... homework," I lie.

"Mom!" Val yells and starts running downstairs. "Ray keeps stealing my twenty dollar socks!"

"Why the fuck would I want your stupid socks?"

"Language, Ray!" Mom yells.

"English, mother!"

"Can you believe that disrespect?" Val scoffs. "He owes me twenty bucks."

"I don't owe you shit."

"Ray, stop shouting from upstairs," Mom scolds, getting back to cleaning the coffee table.

"Fine." He comes down and gets in Val's face. "I don't owe you shit."

"Stop acting like a hardass," I say before Mom can go off her head at him.

"He actually believes he's a big scary dude," Val laughs but stops abruptly when Ray puts his hands on his chest and pushes him.

"Try not to cry," Ray teases as Val tries to recover.

"You are such an asshole," I say, disgusted by him. How could he do that to his own brother, knowing that he has a serous fear of being touched especially on his chest.

"You're grounded, Raymundo," Mom also looks at him with disgust.

"Whatever." He goes back upstairs and Val stands still, his hands gripping his shirt. It's moments like there where I can see he's distressed that I want to reach out and comfort him, but I can't because touching him would only make it worse.

"Did you take your medication?" Mom asks him.

"Not yet," Val mumbles before going upstairs also.

I sigh. "Ray needs a serous attitude adjustment."

"If you have homework, you better go do it."

Ugh. Great. Now I need to go upstairs to pretend i'm doing homework.

Max's bedroom door is open and as I'm walking past I slow to a stop when I see Wesley there, showing Marco something on his phone while they laugh. He glances up, meeting my eyes and I quickly walk out of sight. I can't believe how freaking awkward and weird and wrong our friendship is now. Any other day I would have went in there and hung out with him, but nope. That's not happening anymore.

Santiago, Alex, Diego and Carlos aren't here, and Val's door is closed which means he wants to be alone and I don't feel like talking to Ray right now, so I sit alone in my room bored out of my mind.

I might as well just do actual homework. Ugh. That's probably a good idea; my english teacher is getting sick of me handing in assignments and shit late. I'm scared if I do it one more time she might actually have a heart attack.

I'm only onto the second paragraph when I can't take it anymore and reach under my bed for my beautiful bottle of vodka. It's half done and I need to save some for tomorrow just in case, so Enrico's gonna be gettin' a call later.

The first shot is always the worst and it burns my throat, the painful sensation lingering for a few minutes. Just after the second, my door opens and Wes comes in.

"You really shouldn't drink that straight."

"What are you? An alcohol safety officer?" I close the lid on the bottle and get onto my knees. "What do you want?"

He stands in front of where I'm kneeling on my bed and puts his hands on either side of my face. "To do this."

He kisses me, his lips moving fast with desperation. We both run out of breath quickly but only take a short pause to breath while i'm being pushed down on my back and he rearranges himself on top of me.

Our breaths are heavy against each other and I pull on his hair while he lowers his bottom half onto mine. Feeling the vodka kick in, I decide to make a bold move without thinking about it.

"Get off," I demand, pushing him. He falls onto his back, looking at me with confusion until I get on top of him and start to grind on him. He grabs my thighs, his eyes closing and his head falling back.

"I should go... before Max gets suspicious," he says, his breathing heavy. However, when I try to get off, his grip on my thighs holds me secure.

"Good luck with blue balls," I raise an eyebrow, feeling his erection below me.

He groans, "You shouldn't have started that."

"Hey, you came into my room."

He sits up, looking down at my body for a second before kissing my cleavage that is popping out of my tank top that i've had for four years.

"What happened to leaving?" I say as he continues to kiss and suck on my skin and my nails dig into his shoulders.

"Holy fuck. Wes?"

Wesley pulls back and I jump off of him, turning around to see Ray at my door.

"Get out!" I hiss and lunge a pillow towards him which he blocks with his arm. Still with his shocked face, he leaves and closes the door.

"I swear if that prick tells anyone-"

"He won't," I stand up. "And don't call him that."

"He better not." Wes walks to the door.

"Am I that embarrassing?"

"I just don't want people to know because this is nothing."

"That didn't seem like nothing to me."

"Well it was."

He walks out and slams my door, the noise feeling like a hit in my gut. I sit down on my bed, shaking my head in disbelief. Why did he act like it was my fault Ray walked in? Why does he change mood so quickly? Why is he such a dickhead?

+++

"What's wrong?" Jace sits beside me on the grass.

"I'm sick of people asking me what's wrong."

"Sorry that i've noticed you seem down. Whats going on?"

"Fucking nothing."

He pulls my face to look at him and I grip the grass to stop myself swaying. "You're drunk."

"I'm not drunk."

"You're drunk."

"What's it to you?" I stand up, stumbling a bit but I manage not to fall back down.

"Where are you going?" He follows me into the building.

"No lo sé."

"I don't speak spanish," he huffs.

"No me importa."

"Just 'cause you're mad, doesn't mean you can take it out on people who are trying to help you."

I stop walking, turning around to see he has also stopped. It's not his fault that Wesley is driving me crazy. Actually, what Wes is doing to me is what i'm doing to Jace right now.

"You're right," I sigh. "But I don't need help, so," turning around, I take a step away but Jace grabs my arm and pulls me back. We end up too close and suddenly everything changes and all I can hear is the ringing in my ears and my blurry vision finds his blue eyes to focus on.

"You don't have to tell me what's wrong, but you don't need to be hidden away from the world either. I'm here... if you want to just not be alone. You know I care about you."

My lips part as I look up at him. Could he mean that? Could the heartless asshole actually mean what he just said?

Right now, looking at him and being this close and hearing my goddamn racing heart in my ears along with the ringing, I want to believe every word that comes out of his stupid mouth.

But I already promised myself I wouldn't listen to anything he said ever again.

He's a liar. He's a thief. He stole my heart and I still haven't gotten it back.

"What?" He questions me as I back away from him as if he's that monster from your childhood coming back to haunt you

"I just... need to go... somewhere." Turning around, I slam straight into Santiago.

"Ouch," he laughs. His smile slowly fades and he looks behind me. "What happened?"

"Nada, Santi." I rub my head, feeling a headache coming on.

"What did he say? Did he try to-"

"He was being nice... really nice," I duck my head. "And it made me feel... like..." I give up on trying to explain, but I think Santiago understands.

+++

"Yasminnnn, I wanted burgers."

"Too bad, we're having enchiladas. Can you set the table?"

Marco let's out an overdramatic sigh and grabs placemats, leaving the kitchen. While i'm taking food out of the oven, Ray stands beside me and I can already tell from the look he's giving me that he's going to talk about what he saw.

"So are you and Wesley a thing now?"

"No," I say a little too harshly. "You can't tell anyone – it was only a one time thing."

"I don't really care enough to tell anyone."

"Bueno." I lift the tray out then go back down to close the oven.

"You should probably put on a sweater if you don't want anyone asking questions."

"Huh?" I stand up again and Ray points to my cleavage. Looking down, I see the hickey that Wes gave me. I thought this shirt did a good job of covering that.

"Save me food for later," he walks to the door, pulling his hood up.

"Bye." Have fun wherever the heck you're going.

Marco and Mom help me bring food out no matter how many times I tell Mom just to rest. She's barely had any sleep in the last twenty four hours because of her work. Sitting beside Mom, I'm already putting food onto my plate and eating before everyone's downstairs which Mom repeatedly reminds me is rude. I almost choke when I see Wes come down the stairs with Max.

He's just a friend, Yasmin. It's normal. Don't be weird.

"Hey, Mrs. Fuentes," he smiles innocently and sits right beside me. "How are you?"

"Good, thanks for asking. Just tired. I don't know what I'd do without Yasmin."

"Yeah, she's great." Wes startles me by slinging his arm around my shoulders.

"How 'bout you keep all body parts away from her, hmm?" Alex suggests politely while pulling a chair out.

"Oh, Alex," Mom mumbles, shaking her head and cutting into her food. Wes laughs and takes his arm off me then looks the other way, talking to Max.

Everyone starts talking about something while I focus on eating, feeling very aware of Wes sitting so close to me. I'm even more aware when he drops his hand onto my leg, making me flinch from surprise. I shove his hand away, leaning forward and stabbing into my food more harshly.

He puts his hand on me again, his fingers slipping onto the inside of my thigh. I shove him harder this time and shoot him a glare.

"Yasmin?"

"What?" I snap at Val unintentionally. Alex furrows his eyebrows, suspiciously looking between Wes and I.

"Geez, I was just gonna ask if you could pass the sauce."

"Uh, yeah, sorry," I grab the bottle of sauce and give it to him. Alex continues to look at me weird. "What?" I question and he looks away.

Mom, Diego and – what a surprise – Wes help me clean up after dinner. As soon as they're out the kitchen, I turn to Wes.

"What the hell are you doing?"

His eyes bulge out, "Um-"

I cut him off, holding my finger up. "I'm talking. Why would you touch me like that after we haven't spoke in days?"

"I-"

"Like who do you think you are? I'm not a fucking toy. Don't act like a dick then start flirting again because you're horny."

"I was-"

"I'm sick of guys, I really am. Are you people even human? Are you some kind of dumb, deluded, fucked up mammal?"

"Can I-"

"Literally though, what is your problem? You must be really stupid or think i'm really stupid."

I take a deep breath and he just stands there, looking at me with a straight face.

"Really? You're not even gonna explain yourself?"

"Oh my god. You are fucking insane or something."

"You know what? Fuck you. Fuck you fuck you fuck you. Go fuck yourself and fuck you."

He laughs coldly. "Maybe I am dodging a bullet with you." He walks to the door, mumbling: "Fucking women."

Leaning back against the counter, I silently curse myself. This is what I do. I push people away then only end up hurting when they actually leave. I'm not allowed to feel sad right now because I did this to myself.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, distracting me. The hurt is lifted from my chest when I read it:

Jace I know we aren't talking rn but I found this meme that reminds me of u & I gotta show u

+++

teaser: Yasmin comes up with a way to torture Jace

vote, comment, follow

ly
-e