Hector (21 page)

Of course, each time she’d fall too deeply
into it, Drew had caught her, and each time she seemed a little more concerned
about Charlee getting her hopes up too high. Drew’s subtle reminders that
Hector hadn’t asked for
Charlee’s
number and that
he’d shown up with two girls, began to get annoying.

Charlee didn’t even bother trying to explain
what he’d said about how the girls had just so happened to show up at the same
time he’d been ready to walk in. She knew it would only further Drew’s worrying
because it would sound as if Charlee were making excuses for him already. The
fact remained, whether he’d showed up with them or not, that it didn’t take
from what they’d seen him do with those same two girls last week: the very
thing he’d done with Charlee last night at the gym, except he’d clearly done
much more with them since those girls had gone home with him.

The whole day had been a roller coaster of
emotions. Charlee would begin to scold herself for getting so carried away when
it could very well have been just a onetime thing for him, something he
probably did all the time. She was sure he wasn’t obsessing about it today like
she was. More than likely, he had plenty of plans with other girls this weekend
already.

With that thought in mind, she’d move on to
convincing herself that if that was the case she’d be fine and would not freak
out. She’d be stupid to fall apart again when she should be thankful like Drew
said to have gotten her first onetime make out with a guy out of the away. And
of all guys to have gotten it out of the way with, it had been Hector. She’d be
happy that she got to at least experience what it felt like to be kissed by
him, especially after fantasizing about it for so long.

Remembering his kisses would only take her
full circle again, replaying the way he’d stared at her all night, the
possessive way he’d held her on the dance floor, how he’d held her face in his
hands, and those kisses. How in the world could she just shrug away such an
amazing experience? The most amazing experience she’d had with a guy
ever
. And she’d be back to square one,
worrying that there’d be no way she’d get over this as easily as Drew thought
she could or should.

As much as she tried to convince herself it was
just an infatuation with him, that she didn’t know him well enough or even
remotely enough to be so hung up on him this soon, she knew better. She’d been
in tears after what happened on Thursday at their chess meeting, and he hadn’t
even touched her.

By the end of the day, she was spent. She’d
gone full circle with this whole thing more times than she cared to think about
anymore. All she could do now is
wait
and hope that,
worst case scenario, she’d be strong enough to deal with it and get over it
faster than the last time she’d been crushed.

~*~

Friday night, Hector stayed out in
front of the gym for as long as he could with Walter and the guys. He kept
hoping he’d see Leticia and Miriam walk out and leave, preferably with guys so
they might not be too pissed at him. Not that he cared one way or another if
they were, he just didn’t want to deal with any drama in case they’d gone in
and kept drinking, which he knew was probably the case.

His new chess buddies busted his balls about
being quite the ladies’ man. Hector laughed mostly because he thought only
people over fifty used that term anymore. They were all under the impression
that Hector would be leaving with two girls that night, and for some reason,
this delighted them. Apparently, Walter had filled them in on last weekend when
he’d seen Hector actually leave with them.

Not wanting to disappoint them, he neither
confirmed nor denied it would be happening again that night. Obviously, a topic
of that nature was not one any of those guys had ever had the pleasure of
discussing. Usually, he would’ve cut it short. He wasn’t one to kiss and tell.
But that night he stood out there and let them have their fun, bouncing their
brows, making stupid faces, and coming to their own conclusions about what
Hector would be doing with the two girls that night.

Hector cringed the few times Walter made
reference to what a lucky guy he was to be able to have any girl he wanted.

By the time they finally left, he’d been out
there with them for nearly an hour. His plan had worked. When he got back to
the party, Leticia and Miriam were both on the dance floor with two different
guys. And judging by the way they were dancing, they’d had plenty more to
drink. Hector took advantage of their distraction and snuck out.

The next morning, he went into 5th Street to
cover for Gio since he’d be at that marathon—just another thing that brought
continual thoughts of Charlee. He’d actually been tempted to ask Abel to take
over the youth-training class so that Hector might take a little drive to Long
Beach. He was still kicking himself about forgetting to ask for her number.
He’d been that close to doing it too, and he was sure Abel wouldn’t have minded,
but then Walter walked in. He was there to work out and all gung ho about it.

Walter hadn’t actually discussed a schedule for his workouts.
Hector just assumed they’d start out slow—a few days a week, especially after
that brutal first workout Hector had given him. But apparently Walter was going
to work out daily. He told Hector he’d be back again on Sunday, and he seemed
pretty damned determined.

Another thing Walter let Hector know he was
also more determined now to do was whatever it took to impress and get to know
Charlee better. He said after seeing how beautiful she looked at the party
Friday night he was even more motivated now.

Annoyed, Hector reminded him what a
contradiction that statement was to how hard Walter actually tried at the
party. With the most pathetic expression Hector had seen on Walter, and he’d
seen quite a few on him already, he told Hector all about the insecurity issues
he’d faced all his life. As if that weren’t enough of a guilt grenade, he then
added how being harassed all through school only made things worse.

Sunday, Hector had to once again hear about
Charlee the whole time Walter worked out. She was the typical main topic of
conversation for Walter, but after what happened Friday night, Hector could
hardly stand it anymore. A few times he told Walter to shut up and concentrate
on his workout. It was killing him. How the hell was Hector supposed to do anything
more with Charlee when she was all Walter talked about? He felt like a total
asshole all over again for not having been able to hold back kissing her.

It was still hands down totally worth it,
even if he was drowning in guilt all over again. He just had no idea how this
was going to work. Walter was going to hate him again and for good reason. He’d
trusted Hector.

When Walter was finished with his workout, he
approached Hector before he left. “You have a minute? I wanna show you
something.”

Hector looked at him curiously. “Sure. What
is it?”

“It’s in my car. I don’t want to bring it in
here.”

They walked out into the parking lot where it
was already getting dark. Beverly, a girl he’d hung out with in the past,
walked in and smiled at Hector knowingly.

Walter smirked as she walked past them,
shaking his head. When she was far enough away, Walter glanced back. “I can’t
even imagine what it must be like to be you.”

Gritting his teeth because he already felt
like a big enough
dick
, Hector pushed the thoughts of
being with Charlee on Friday away. “It’s not as glamorous as you may think.”

“Shit!” Walter laughed. “Glamorous or not,
I’d trade places with you any day.” He stopped and pointed his finger in the
air just as they reached his trunk. “But only for a day at most. I think I’m
finally gonna start liking my life.”

He opened the trunk, and Hector froze,
feeling every hair on his body stand. Staring at it for a moment, he wasn’t
sure what to say or why Walter would bring it to him now. Could he possibly know
about Friday? Had he maybe talked to Charlee?

Finally able to put a few words together,
Hector began to speak. “Is that . . .”

Walter picked up the robot and held it with a
smile. “Can you believe Charlee read about this thing before she even knew me?
She had no idea it was me who built it but said she remembered reading about it
online.” Walter slugged Hector’s arm with the biggest goofiest smile. “I
fucking impressed her, man!” The laugh he let out next was too happy, too
genuine for him to know anything about Friday night. “And get this; she said
she’d love to see it. So I brought it down from my garage this week for the
first time since . . .”

Walter paused, meeting Hector’s eyes, his
expression falling but only momentarily before he was smiling again. Hector
tried to match Walter’s enthusiasm, but all he felt was the same suffocating
guilt he felt when he heard Walter’s robot hadn’t been entered in the national
event, even though Mr.
Sifuentes
, their Science
teacher, was certain Walter was a clear front-runner to win the whole thing.
Hector remembered feeling horrified, his first thoughts being that Walter
must’ve taken his own life.

The one thing that had given him hope was
that when Hector had
Googled
Walter’s name, the only
things that ever came up were stories about his chemical-detecting robot.

“Anyway,” Walter continued with his story, “I
wanted to work on it a little before showing it to her, so I did. I’m thinking
of asking her to come over this week.” His uppity mood suddenly swayed and he
looked nervous. “You think it would be too much if I order pizza or something
then maybe ask if she wants to hang out and watch a movie?”

Hector stared at him, suddenly knowing all
the bullshit mental lists he’d made up this whole weekend of reasons why it had
been okay for him to move in on Charlee had just blown up in his face. It
wasn’t okay. It would never be okay, no matter how much he tried to justify it.
No matter how unlikely it was that Charlee would ever be interested in anything
more than a friendship with Walter, Hector owed him that much: the decency and
respect of staying away from the one girl that could make Walter this excited.

I think
I’m finally gonna start liking my life.

“Too much, huh?”

Hector didn’t even realize he’d been shaking
his head until Walter’s question brought him back to earth. “What?”

“Asking her to hang out and watch a movie.”
Walter winced.
“Maybe just the pizza?”

“Nah,” Hector finally responded with a weak
smile. “The pizza’s cool, and it wouldn’t hurt to ask if she wants to hang out.
Worst thing she can say is no, right?”

Hector couldn’t stand to even look at the
robot anymore, so he was glad when Walter set it down in his trunk again and
closed it. But he had to ask. He wasn’t sure why. He just had to. “So how come
you never entered it in the national event?
Sifuentes
said you were a front-runner.”

Walter’s cheerful expression went flat again,
and he shrugged. “I just lost interest in it. That was a real bad time for me,
and I stopped caring about everything.”

Feeling like total shit because it’s what
he’d suspected all along, Hector did what he said he wouldn’t do anymore.
“Listen, Walter, I am so fucking sorry about—”

“Nah, nah!”
Walter shook his head adamantly. “It wasn’t just what happened
that day, man. There was a lot of other stuff going on. My parents were talking
about getting divorced. I pretty much knew it was coming, and it was hard and
all, but I still had this stupid robot to keep my mind off things. Then my
uncle, the one who helped me built it,” he frowned now, looking more irritated
than dejected like he had a moment ago, “he was a science teacher over at Union
High. He got arrested for getting involved with one of his underage students.
It was just one of those times when everything happened all at once, you know?
So the day that happened at school, I just said screw everything.”

Once again, Hector felt numb. Even with the
shitty hand Walter had been dealt, especially in comparison to Hector’s, here
he was trying to make Hector feel better. But he’d done just the opposite.
Hector didn’t think it was possible, but, unbelievably, he felt even worse now.

Chapter 13

Most days Drew and Charlee tried to carpool to school
together to save on gas. So on Monday mornings, Charlee either left later, taking
her own car, or she rode with Drew and hung out on campus for an hour, killing
time because Drew’s first class was earlier than
Charlee’s
first.

Unable to sleep much again with the anticipation of seeing Hector
today, Charlee was up early, so she had ridden in with Drew. She’d been trying
to concentrate on the novel she started weeks ago. It was actually pretty good,
but her mind kept wandering off to the usual—Hector.

Startled by the sudden body that sat down way too close next to
her, she jerked away and gasped when she saw it was Ross. Since the time he’d
approached her the morning she was walking through campus with Drew, she hadn’t
run into him again. She’d seen him a few times from afar and made sure she
steered clear from him. Now he sat here next to her, the faint smell of
marijuana not as penetrating as her first few encounters with him but still
there.