Of course, Sophia was warned as well, but her friends knew it all, and keeping them silent about it was not as easy. Up until now, Sophia had managed to keep them in tow, but I was always worried that one day, someone like Fani or Fani herself would step up beside me in the hallway and say, “So, I just heard you were raped, and that was what started all the trouble.”
It wasn’t any different here from anywhere else. The victim never stopped being a victim and never lost the stain on her image. That was another irony I didn’t understand. Boys would easily go out with girls
who were loose with their own bodies but would hesitate about going out with a girl who was raped. I had seen that in Mexico and knew the same was true here.
Wasn’t it enough that I carried the dark memory forever? Why did they have to add to the tragedy?
When the bell rang to go back to our classes, Christian walked with me.
“Any chance you might want to go to a movie with me this weekend?” he asked before we entered our social studies class.
He wasn’t the first boy to ask me out on a date. Most of the time, I said something that discouraged them. I did go to a movie with a boy who was a senior last year, Stevie Towers. It turned out to do me good, because he came away from the date believing I was too proper and religious to be any fun and spread the word. Few boys bothered to ask me out after that, which pleased Sophia. She did not know why it pleased me, but she thought she was annoying me whenever she flaunted her dates. She even went on a date with Stevie Towers herself and then spent the whole next day telling me how much fun they had. When he didn’t ask her out again, I asked her why, and she told me she had decided he was too immature.
“But I thought you said it was fun to be with him,” I reminded her.
“Only as a distraction,” she quipped. “I would never go steady. I can’t imagine anything as boring as being with the same boy every weekend.”
“How do you expect to get married, then?” I asked her.
“I don’t,” she said. “Well, maybe when I’m tired of playing the field and just want someone to take care of me, someone who worships me.”
“You’re right,” I said. “It might be a long time before you get married.”
She didn’t understand what I meant, that no one would ever worship her. She just nodded as if I had agreed with her philosophy of love.
Although I should have anticipated it, Christian’s invitation threw me. I couldn’t think of a good excuse not to go out. Edward and Jesse weren’t coming, and there was no other event taking place to compete with a date.
“What movie?” I asked, to delay my response, hoping I could think of something.
“Whatever you like,” he said. “I’m not just going to a movie. I’m going to a movie with you,” he added.
The late bell was going to ring any moment. Other students walked by, every girl and even some of the boys looking at us with interest.
“Can I tell you tomorrow?” I asked.
“How about tonight? I’ll call you,” he pursued.
“Okay.” I started into the classroom, and he grabbed my arm.
Laughing, he asked for my telephone number. I smiled and gave it to him.
Across the room, I could see Sophia glaring at us, her face twisted and as sour-looking as an overly ripe lemon. I slipped into my seat just as the bell rang. Christian sat two seats behind me in the row to my left. It took all of my self-control to keep from turning around, but I could feel his eyes on me. My heart was being challenged. It would be dishonest for me to say I was absolutely not interested in him. Every time his face, his smile, those eyes flashed in my mind, I drew up my memory of Ignacio’s face to stop it, especially the way he’d looked as the bus pulled away from the station in Mexico City and he stood there waving. It would surely break his heart to know I had even looked at another boy with such romantic interest.
When the class ended, I anticipated Christian waiting for me again, but this time he just looked at me, smiled, and went on to his physical education class. I couldn’t help but think that everything he did, every move, every look and word, was calculated. I tried to think of that as false so I could turn my heart against him, but it wasn’t working.
Sophia came up beside me as I walked out.
“What’s with you and Christian Taylor?” she asked—demanded was more like it. “Everyone’s buzzing.”
“Nothing,” I said.
“Don’t lie to me, Delia. You’re not good at it, so don’t try. And you shouldn’t be keeping secrets from me. Well?”
“He asked me to go with him to the movies this weekend,” I admitted. I was also curious about how she would react to the news.
“And what did you say?”
“I told him to call me. I would think about it.”