Being True (7 page)

She was being difficult, but that wasn’t so unusual these days. She’d become a tougher, harder woman since Bart. What other choice did she have?

“And you don’t see anything else?” I asked, making my smile as broad and obvious as possible.

She wiped the tears from her vision. “Well, I also see that fake smile of yours. But you’re just trying to make me feel better.”

“Fake?” I asked. How on earth did she think the smile was fake? My fake smiles stretched flatter and thinner than a pancake. When was the last time she could actually count my teeth?

That realization slowly dawned on her as she truly observed the smile. She dropped her hands from her hips and plopped down at the table. “Okay. Tell me what happened.”

And when I opened my mouth, I told her about falling off my bike. But mostly, I talked about Javi.

A
FTER
I’
D
finished filling in my mother on yesterday’s events, she sat up in her chair. Her droopy, tired shoulders no longer slumped, and a hint of hope glinted in her eyes. “You made a friend?” The question almost brought her back to tears.

“Yes,” I answered as I patted the hands that clutched desperately onto mine. I hadn’t seen my mother this encouraged about anything in so long. It only verified I’d made the right decision not to tell her about Rance or the boy’s locker room.

It just didn’t seem important any longer.

“I need you to get me the Castillo’s phone number. I must thank them for being there for you yesterday.” She surveyed the kitchen. “Maybe I can bake them a cake.”

“I thought you wanted to thank them,” I said with a grin. “Isn’t that more like punishment?”

She looked at me with eyes which were a far richer golden brown than I’d seen in some time. “Well, well. Someone makes one friend, and all of a sudden he’s a smarty-pants.”

“I am my father’s son,” I added with a grin. My mother had told me many stories about how much of a tease my father had been. He used to rag her endlessly about her horrid cooking.

A nostalgic grin lit upon her lips. It was the same smile that brightened her face whenever she thought about my father. I hoped to someday find a love like that. “That you are,” she finally agreed with a nod.

Someone knocked on the front door.

“It’s Javi!” I sprinted out of the kitchen. I was so excited my heart practically burst from my chest, and my feet couldn’t get me to the door fast enough. When I finally swung the front door open, Javi stood on the petite front stoop. His long black hair was wet from his morning shower, and it was slicked back instead of dangling in wavy locks across his forehead. Instead of his baseball T-shirt, he wore a green-and-brown-striped collared polo and jeans that clung to his lower half quite nicely. The half grin that seemed to constantly dangle from his lips was still there, though, as bright and entrancing as it had been yesterday.

“Good morning,” he said. The half grin grew broader till it stretched across his face. “Glad to see you don’t look as awful as you did yesterday.”

I stuck out my tongue at him. When was the last time I’d done that? “Yeah, well, skidding on your face does that to a person.”

He shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I have the grace of a gazelle.”

With anyone else, I’d likely roll my eyes. But Javi was probably right. He seemed just about perfect to me. And to my cock, which had once again awoken.

“So you must be the Javi I’ve heard so much about.”

Flames of embarrassment licked at my cheeks because of my mother’s comment. Her presence also immediately deflated my erection. Nothing was better at killing a boner than the sound of Mom’s voice. But why did she have to go and say that? She made it sound as if I was some teenager crushing on the high school jock. Which I probably was. But she didn’t need to let Javi know that.

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Cobbler,” Javi said without any indication he’d caught on to what my mother had unknowingly revealed. Thank God! He extended his hand to my mom, and they shook.

“I can’t thank you and your family enough for taking care of Tru yesterday after he fell from his bike.”

“No biggie,” he said, waving away her thanks as if it was nothing. And to Javi, it probably was. To me, it meant the world. “I’m always there to help out after someone realizes their face is a poor substitute for their feet.” He grinned broadly at me. I’d most likely be teased about this for the rest of my life, and I’d never been happier. But I wasn’t going to let Javi in on that.

“Jerk!” I said, pretending anger.

Javi’s smile practically extended from ear to ear.

“Well, you’re always welcome around here,” my mother interjected. “For dinner or a sleepover.”

“Mom!” I’d never been more mortified. A sleepover? Really? Had she mistaken me for a ten-year-old girl? I was seventeen, for crying out loud.

“What?” she asked. The look of surprise on her face told me she had no clue what she’d done. Javi, however, did. He was trying hard to suppress his laughter but failing miserably. It was escaping him in measured snorts.

“Okay,” she said, raising her hands in surrender. “I’ve obviously made some parental faux pas, even though I have no clue what I did wrong. I was just trying to say you’re always welcome here, Javi.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Cobbler,” he managed after one final snort. “I appreciate it.”

“We better head to school or we’re gonna be late.” I had to get us out of there before my mother said or did something even more embarrassing.

Javi nodded. “Yeah, you don’t want to be late for precalc. Mr. Rodriguez hates tardiness.”

I eyed Javi. This from the boy who’d been late most of the week for that class?

“What?” he asked, pretending he had no clue what my expression meant.

I shook my head in reply and unlocked my bike from the front porch rail. “Let’s go.”

“Forgetting something?” my mother asked.

Oh Lord. Was she really going to make me kiss her in front of Javi?

From the hand she’d just placed on her hip, she obviously was. I dismounted and crossed to her. Thankfully, Javi had suspected what was up and respectfully faced the street on his bike to save me from more awkwardness.

I delivered a quick peck to my mother’s cheek and then bounded down the steps back to my bike. “While that was very sweet and much appreciated,” she said, “I was referring to this.” She held the camera Claudia had given me yesterday. I’d completely forgotten about it, and the picture and quote I was supposed to get from Javi for my first assignment.

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed as I hopped off my bike and let it fall onto the grass. “Claudia would’ve killed me!”

“You’re welcome,” she said, handing me the camera. She glanced at Javi with wet eyes. She appeared to be more pleased about me meeting him than I was. “Have a good day.”

“Thanks, Mom. You too.” I strung the camera over my neck by the strap.

“You working for the paper?” Javi asked as he prepared to mount his bike.

I nodded. “I was actually supposed to get a picture and a quote from you.”

Javi looked around. “Where do you want me?”

“Really?” I asked. “Claudia said you were difficult to pin down for photos and quotes.”

“I hate doing that stuff,” he admitted. “Seems silly to me. I play for a team, yet the newspaper only seems to ever want to talk to me and not the other guys. It’s not really fair, if you ask me.”

I got off my bike, checked to make sure the camera was ready to shoot, and said, “Well, Claudia says you’re the star.”

Javi chuffed. “I’m not a star. I’m just me.”

And that sounded like the perfect quote to me. “Okay, then,” I said as I framed the shot. “You ready?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “What do you want me to do?”

“Just be you.”

Javi thought about that for a minute. If he’d had his dad’s moustache, he’d be twirling the edges right now. An idea must have struck because a devilish grin danced across his lips. “Come here,” he said.

“What? Why?”

“Do you want a pic or not? And before you answer, don’t forget about Claudia. She’s a nice girl, but when it comes to the paper, she’s a real ballbuster.” Grinning sheepishly, he glanced over his shoulder to see my mother still standing by the front door. She shook her head in response to his assessment of Claudia. “Sorry about that, Mrs. Cobbler.”

My mother smiled and closed the swollen front door.

I walked over to Javi. “Okay, so what’s your big idea for the shot?”

He wrapped his arm around my neck. “Now take it.”

My cock snapped to attention. It was obviously ready for its close-up. “You want me in the shot?” I asked, hoping he didn’t find a reason to look down. “The write-up is about the team. I’m in no way involved with the team.”

“Are we friends?” he asked.

His dark eyes, which reminded me of a clear night sky, locked onto mine and threatened to sweep me away. I swallowed hard and nodded.

“Then you are involved with the team. As my friend.”

How could I argue with that? So I turned the camera around, doing my best to make sure Javi and I, minus my erection, were in the shot. “You ready?”

“Just take it already,” he said.

So I did.

W
E
LOCKED
our bikes at the rack in front of the school as teachers and other students slowly filled up the parking lot in their cars. Since I’d left all my stuff in my locker before I ran home yesterday, I needed to get my book bag before heading to class. The idea of not being with Javi for even a few minutes caused my skin to crawl.

What would I do if I ran into Rance?

It wasn’t like Javi and I had any other class together besides precalc, while Rance and I had practically the same schedule. Maybe I could get Ms. Garcia to do a schedule change. If she wasn’t too busy applying lip gloss.

“You coming?” Javi asked as he stood at the top of the steps leading to the front door.

“Sorry. Just thinking.”

“About what?”

What could I say? That I was worried Rance would try to attack me again today? Javi still didn’t know all the details, but maybe I should tell him. That was the advice Mr. Castillo had practically given me after dinner last night. But my fear of Rance wasn’t the whole truth. I craved being around Javi.

“Am I talking to myself or something?”

“I was just wondering why you ride a bike and don’t drive a car to school,” I lied.

Javi’s knitted eyebrows indicated he didn’t believe me. What else could I expect? I wasn’t exactly good at misdirection. “For one, my parents can’t really afford the expense. But the real reason is my dad. He doesn’t believe in giving me responsibilities that should be earned. If I want a car, I have to pay for it. And the insurance.”

“But how can you do that and play baseball all the time?”

He grinned at me. “And now you know why I ride a bike.”

“Tru Cobbler, tell me you haven’t disappointed me,” Claudia said from a few steps behind us.

She ascended the steps toward us. Today, she wore black denim and a gray T-shirt with Stewie from
Family Guy
on the front. He was dressed in black emo garb with a red streak cutting a swath down his pitch-black hair. A dialogue bubble above his head read “Damn Emo Kids.”

“I have not,” I proudly announced as I pointed to the camera, which still hung around my neck. “Got both the photo and the quote.”

The light of her smile outshone her dreary wardrobe. “I’m pleased to hear that,” she said, grinning. But as she drew closer, her smile waned. “What the hell happened to you?”

How many times was I going to be answering that question today? “I fell off my bike.”

The suspicion in her eyes couldn’t have been more apparent. “And what? Landed on someone’s fist?”

“How are you today, Claudia?” Javi asked, holding the door open for her. His question derailed Claudia’s inquisitive and distrustful nature, no doubt just as he intended.

She hugged her books to her chest, smothering Stewie, and gazed at Javi with stars in her eyes. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who had a crush on Javi Castillo. “I’m great,” she said with a little too much enthusiasm.

As soon as we crossed the threshold, the stench of rotting wood and farts filled my nostrils. Ah, how I’d missed the smell of education! The three of us walked into the hallway, which was already packed with students rushing back and forth. When they saw Javi with us, most of them paused as if they couldn’t believe their eyes. How could Javi not notice? If he did, he certainly didn’t care. He waved and smiled at everyone as we walked through the sea of disbelief.

“Claudia, would you do me a favor?” Javi asked once we made it to the foot of the stairs that would take me up to my locker.

She practically beamed. “Of course.”

“I’ve got to run and see coach before class. Would you mind escorting my new friend, Tru, to class?”

What the hell? Even though the gesture was appreciated, I didn’t need a babysitter. I’d gotten through many days all by myself before meeting Javi. Why would today be any different?

But before I opened my mouth to say something I’d regret, I remembered Mr. Castillo’s words from last night. Sometimes a man did need to lean on others. Javi was just trying to be a good friend. After all, he hadn’t pushed me for details about the fight yesterday even though he could have. He was just making sure that I’d be trouble-free today.

Still, I couldn’t shake the need to resist at least a little bit. “I don’t think that’s really necessary.”

Javi switched his gaze from me to Claudia, who nodded in agreement. “I can do that,” she said. “We don’t want Tru falling off his bike anymore, do we?”

Javi laughed while I stared blankly at them both.

Claudia hooked her arm in mine and tugged me up the stairs. “Let’s get going,” she said. “And I want you to tell me about the quote and the photo.”

As I ascended the stairs with Claudia, I glanced over my shoulder to see Javi salute me a good-bye before being swept away by a wave of friends who had been waiting for me and Claudia to depart.