Travis’s tone had dropped low.
“So why don’t you tell me just what the fuck is going on here?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean your family has lived in this town as long as I can remember. I’m pretty sure you’ve been in Matthew’s class since kindergarten. Why the interest now? And don’t you even tell me you’re not interested, because I’ll call bullshit.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, then blinked a couple of times. My eyes were all blurry and itchy, but I could still see the image of my uncle and Mayra sitting across from each other at the dining room table.
“What are you insinuating?” Mayra’s voice sounded like a snarl. “That I want something from Matthew? What do you think I’m trying to do, steal his virtue or something?”
“You’re gonna wake him up,” Travis said in a deadpan tone.
I wanted to respond, but Valium always made my tongue feel weird. I couldn’t manage to get any words out. Mayra dropped her voice down.
“You’re implying that I’m out to get him.”
“I have no idea what you’re doing,” Travis said. I could see his blurry shape lean forward with his elbows on the table. “But he’s like a son to me, and I’m all he’s got. Don’t fucking mess with him. He can’t take it, and between both parents and his sister being taken from him in the past year, he’s been through enough.”
“I wouldn’t,” Mayra said.
“So you tell me why”—Travis’s voice dropped again and almost sounded like a growl—“after all the years you’ve been in the same class, why are you suddenly coming to his house to check on him?”
Mayra went silent for a minute, and then she finally let out a sigh before answering.
“I never paid any attention to him before,” she said. “I remember trying to say hello to him when we were younger, but he never answered, so I stopped. When Jones said he had to sit next to me, he actually said ‘hi’ back when I greeted him. He’d never done that before. Of course, I heard about his parents—”
“It’s a small town,” Travis said.
“Yeah, exactly,” Mayra said. “But I didn’t even know he had a sister.”
“She doesn’t get out much.”
“Yeah, he told me,” Mayra replied. “I just started watching him a little then. I could tell certain things bothered him, but I wasn’t sure exactly what or why. I was…curious at first.”
“Curious? What, he’s your science project now?”
“No!” Mayra said. “Not at all! I just…wanted to figure him out. We connected yesterday. I know we did.”
“Connected to the point where he had to hit the bag,” Travis said with a snort. “That’s some connection.”
“It was after that,” she said.
“After you saw him naked.”
“He wasn’t naked!”
“Half, then.” Travis let out a long sigh. “And what are you planning now?”
“I’m planning,” Mayra said through clenched teeth, “to get our project finished and maybe see if we can’t be friends or something. Are you going to be a total dick about it the whole time?”
“Maybe.” Travis laughed. “I’m protective of him, so you better just get used to that.”
“Fabulous.” Mayra sneered back at him.
“And here’s where I have to go against my instincts,” Travis said, “because my instincts tell me to throw you the fuck out. There is no way in hell this shit is going to work even if you are sincere about it. Matthew’s fucking awesome, and I love him, but he’s about as high-maintenance as it gets. I just don’t see some seventeen-year-old—”
“I’m eighteen,” she said.