“Did he pull it on you?” I asked her quickly.
She started to say yes and then realized and nearly spit out her answer. “I’m not stupid. Well, what did he say?”
“He asked me if I had changed my mind.”
“Changed your mind? What does that mean?”
“I had already told him no,” I said.
She was obviously quite taken aback. For a moment, she couldn’t think of anything clever or mean to say. “Why?”
“I listened to what you said,” I told her. “How he flits about ruining girls. I want nothing to do with such a boy.”
She stared for a moment, smiled, and then grew serious, actually looking to the doorway as if someone could overhear our conversation. “Don’t you dare tell my mother I said those things and that was why you turned him down,” she warned.
“Why not? You were only trying to protect me.”
“My mother won’t see it that way. She’s a social climber, always. She would go out with the devil if it got her picture on the social pages or in the magazines. Just…don’t blame me for your not going out with Christian, understand? If you make more trouble for me, I’ll find a way to get even, Delia,” she threatened.
I smiled. “Do not worry, Sophia. I make my own decisions for myself. By now, I think Tía Isabela understands that.”
“Yeah, well…okay.” She thought a moment and then smiled. “This is good. I’ll tease the hell out of him. Tomorrow will be a fun day at school, and there aren’t too many of those,” she said as she walked to the door. “Now I’m glad I decided to go to Danielle’s stupid party.”
She opened the door but paused and then turned and looked at me. Her eyes narrowed with suspicion.
“Why did you really say no?” she asked.
“I have already told you.”
“Did Edward have something to do with it?”
“How could he? I have not spoken with him today.”
She nodded, still smiling coolly. “Nevertheless, I bet he did,” she said. She looked very pleased with herself coming up with such an idea. I could almost see her brain twirling with possibilities, ideas, ways to deliver more pain and set more traps. “Nighty-night or, as we say, buenas noches.”
The air in the room seemed to follow her out.
Living here was like walking through a field with areas of quicksand and having her lead the way, I thought.
3
The Davilas
Christian was cold to me the following day at school. I was not surprised, but it did make me very nervous. He avoided looking my way or walking too closely to me. It did not take long for my friends and the other girls in the school to realize there was now a wall of ice between us where there had just been soft, warm sunshine. Their faces were full of questions. Unbeknownst to me was the stream of underlying ugly lies and innuendos Sophia and her girlfriends were generating through whispers all morning. By the time I went to lunch, I could see the seeds of rumors and suspicions planted in the faces of other students, and instinctively I feared it had something to do with my cousin Edward and his companion, Jesse.
Girls who wanted to win Christian’s attention surrounded him, but contrary to what they had hoped, he didn’t want their sympathy. I could easily see it in how he reacted to their remarks. How dare they think he needed sympathy? It wasn’t he who had lost out here. It was Delia Yebarra. I could practically hear him saying that to any girl who tried to comfort him about being turned down for a date. That, at least, brought a smile to my face.
My girlfriends agreed with me when I gave them my reasons for not going out with Christian Taylor.
“I do not trust his intentions,” I said. “He flits about from one girl to the next as if we were different pastries in a bakery.”
They laughed at my analogy, and those who thought Christian would never ask them out anyway really lavished compliments on me for being so strong-minded.
“Delia’s right,” Colleen said. “Christian is too much in love with himself to love anyone else. I don’t even think he loves his own dog.”
The girls laughed, but our small group was isolated for the most part. However, to my surprise, Fani couldn’t resist talking to me when lunch hour ended.
“You’re the big topic of conversation today, Delia. Tell me, do you have a boyfriend back in the public school? You once did, didn’t you?” she asked, fishing for some personal information. “Do you still see those Mexican boys?”