Hector (2 page)

“I’ll miss you,” she whispered in his ear.

Hector didn’t want to let go. “I’ll miss you too,” he whispered
back.

She began to pull away, forcing him to loosen his hold on her until
they were facing each other. Damn. He wanted to kiss her now. Why the hell had
he taken so long to get to know her?
This sucked big time.

“When do you leave?”

“Tonight.”

“How come,” he paused, knowing he really didn’t have any right to
be
upset.
It was his own damn fault he’d been so slow
to get things going with her and they’d barely gotten to the talking-often-and-texting
stage. But damn it, he wanted to know now. “How come you hadn’t mentioned this
before?”

“I just found out a few days ago, and, even then, it was iffy.
But it’s a done deal now.”

She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.
To
hell with it.
Hector turned his face and pecked her on the lips. He knew
he’d stunned her, but he’d at least get that much out of this. For weeks, he’d
been taking it slow and was really beginning to think he wanted so much more
with her. Now this may very well be his last chance. To his surprise, she
pecked him back. It took him a second to get his thoughts together, but he
brought his arm around her waist, pulling her in and really kissed her this
time. It was soft and sweet but enough to warm his insides and
begin
to ignite other parts of his body, and then she pulled
away a bit breathless.

“I’m,” she looked away, licking her lips, “I’m sorry we didn’t
get more time together, Hector. I thought I regretted it before, but now I
really do. Maybe someday we’ll meet again.”

Feeling an unexpected ache in his heart, he forced a smile.
“Yeah, I’m sorry too, but
never say never
. It’s a
small world. We may just meet again someday.”

She smiled and nodded. “You have my number. Text me or call me
whenever you want.”

“I will.” He stood there, his jaw tightly clenched as she walked
away, thinking back to the day he’d finally
really
noticed her—the day he’d gotten back to school after being suspended.

He thought he’d noticed her before she got a boyfriend, but that
was the first day she’d actually spoken to him, and that was to thank him for
what he’d done. Even though she didn’t have to, she’d also explained about the
skype
chat
Jairo
had been so
pissed about. After chatting with a friend from her old school, her friend
thanked her for the chat by posting an image of a bouquet of flowers on her
Facebook wall. When
Jairo’s
stupid friends saw the
post, it went viral.

Admittedly, though Hector dare not tell her, he probably would’ve
been a little pissed himself had he been her boyfriend. But no way would he
have acted the way
Jairo
did, and he certainly
wouldn’t have made a public stink out of it.

The warning bell rang, pulling Hector out of his Lisa thoughts,
and he remembered Walter. Suddenly feeling a little worried, he hurried to the
front doors of the school building they’d all gone into. There was no way those
idiots realized they were messing with the science project that would be
representing their school in the national contest.

With no sign of any of them as he entered the main building, he
hoped that was a good thing. Hector got to his Advanced Stats class just in
time but noticed immediately that Walter wasn’t there yet. Not only was Walter
never late but they had a final today. Feeling the smallest bit of guilt sink
in that he’d lost all interest in helping Walter out when Lisa had showed up, he
wondered now if something bad went down after he left.

By the time class was over and Walter never made it in, Hector
was really feeling like crap about not having done anything to help him out. He
ran into A.J. and Theo on his way to his next class. “Hey, what happened with
Walt? He never made it to class.”

A.J. brought his hands to his mouth, trying to stifle a laugh and
pointed at Theo.

“Nah,” Theo laughed, shaking his head. “That was
all
you!”

“What?” Hector asked, the concern weighing even heavier now.

A.J. lifted his arm to flex his muscle. “It’s not my fault these
guns can throw so hard.” Then he turned to Theo. “And it’s not my fault you
can’t catch for shit.”

Theo busted out laughing heartedly now. “Man! That guy is
probably still trying to put his toy together.”

Feeling his insides go hollow, Hector looked at A.J. disgusted.
“You broke the robot?” Without thinking, he grabbed his stupid friend by the
shirt. “Why would you do that?”

A.J. laughed a little nervous now and brought his hand over
Hector’s. “Hey! I told him I was sorry. I didn’t mean to.” A.J’s attempt to
loosen Hector’s grip on his shirt was a weak one, and it only made Hector grip
it tighter. “What the hell, man?” A.J. asked his words a little shaky.

“You really are an asshole,” Hector said, releasing him with a
shove then turned to Theo who looked a little nervous himself now too. “You are
too, Theo—assholes—both of you.” He walked away, shaking his head, feeling like
an asshole now himself for not having stepped in and taken the damn robot from
them.

Hector was just glad he was almost done with high school. He only
ever hung around these jerks at school. Outside of school, he hung out at 5
^th
Street, the boxing gym he was now part owner of, with his brother and his older
partners and much more mature friends.

He couldn’t even believe now that he’d spent all this time with
these guys and never stood up for Walter and all the other people they’d picked
on and messed with over the years.

Just before getting to his next class, he saw Walter. Feeling the
sting of guilt even deeper when he noticed Walter’s red-rimmed eyes, he was
almost afraid to ask, but he had to. “Hey, Walt, did you fix your robot?”
Walter walked past him, the contempt in his eyes nearly burning a hole through
Hector, but he didn’t say a word.

“Listen, Walt, I’m sorry I didn’t stop them. I got sidetracked,
but if there is anything I can do to help you fix it—”

“Are you kidding me?” Walter snapped so loudly a few heads turned
their way. “You or your sorry-ass friends wouldn’t know the first thing about
building something like that! Why don’t you and those other jerks just go fuck
yourselves!
”

The moment his words were out, Hector saw something flick in Walter’s
eyes—fear. Fear that in a moment of anger he’d said something he would’ve never
said before because under normal circumstances it might’ve gotten his ass kicked.
Walter glanced around, a little pale-faced now at the other students standing
around looking just as stunned.

Hector decided he’d let the guy off the hook this time. Walter
had every right to be pissed. “I’m sorry, man. I hope you get it fixed.”

Walter stared at him for a moment wide-eyed, apparently just as
stunned as everyone around them that he hadn’t gotten Hector’s fist to his
face. Without saying another word, Walter spun around and stalked away. Yep, Hector
deserved that. He only hoped the outburst had made Walter feel a tiny bit
better. Knowing Walter, and from what Hector had heard about the things that
robot could do, it probably took him years to perfect it.

Hector walked away in the opposite direction, leaving a very
confused audience standing around behind him whispering. He knew they were all
wondering why he hadn’t at the very least given Walter a fat lip. Today was
different. He didn’t think he could feel any worse after hearing Lisa’s news, but
now he did. He should’ve done something to stop his dumb-ass friends. But it
wasn’t like Hector always stood back and didn’t say anything. Lisa’s
ex-boyfriend wasn’t the only one who’d ever had to answer to him for
threatening or trying to hurt someone weaker.

Besides, this was different, he tried to convince himself. The
guys he hung out with might be jerks sometimes, but they never hurt anyone. Mostly
they just messed around and poked fun at people. The only thing they ever bruised
was maybe a few egos.

Hector tried to appease his guilty conscience by reasoning that,
just like all the other times, Walter would get over it. And he insisted the
guy was going to have to stand up for himself sooner or later or this kind of
crap would keep happening to him.

The next day, Walter didn’t show up to school, nor did he show up
at all for the rest of the semester. Since he wasn’t popular and didn’t have many
friends, no one really knew what happened to him. He just never came back. The
only news they’d gotten was that his science project hadn’t been entered in the
national competition.

As much as Hector wanted to believe Walter not coming back had
nothing to do with the robot incident, that maybe Walter had moved or something
completely unrelated was the cause of his absence, his conscience kept reminding
him of all the other times Walter had been the recipient of his friends’
taunting. This may’ve been the last straw that just drove Walter over the brink.

Now standing here in the school’s crowded football field while
his mom and brother and the rest of the gang from 5
^th
Street happily
snapped pictures of him in his cap and gown, he still couldn’t shake the guilt
from not having done the right thing.

A weakling had been picked on in front of him, not just this one
time but time after time, and for years, he’d watched and done nothing about
it. His only hope now was that dropping out of school was the only thing his
idiot friends had driven Walter to do.

Chapter 1

The laughter and loud screeching from other students
happily making their way through the campus of East Side University was just
another reminder of why Charlee was so out of place here. Her best friend, Drew,
assured her that after a few weeks she’d begin to enjoy college life. That was
easy for Drew to say. She’d attended public school her whole life. Charlee had
been homeschooled after a disastrous two-month stint in the first grade that proved
she had the social capacity of skunk.

Although she later attempted public school a few times, each time,
she’d had the same basic outcome. Even what would’ve been her senior year in
high school, when Drew had just about convinced her to her to enroll that one
final year so they could do prom and all the other fun senior things together,
had been a no can do.

For three weeks now, Charlee had managed to not make a single
friend. She was just as much a friendless hermit as she’d been most of her
young life. If it hadn’t been because Drew lived next door to her since they
were both babies and because Drew was a social butterfly, Charlee was sure she
wouldn’t have even attended the few parties and school dances her friend had
dragged her to over the years. This, too, was Drew’s idea. Charlee would’ve
been perfectly happy attending online and keeping any need to actually be on
campus to a minimum. But no, Drew insisted, and she somehow convinced Charlee
that moving clear across the country to attend college full time would be
fun!

Charlee glanced around, careful not to make any eye contact with the
group of guys not too far from where she sat. The whole time she’d been sitting
there waiting for her ride, they’d been teasing and taunting just about every
girl that walked by them. They seemed harmless enough. Some girls even appeared
to be flattered by their remarks, but there had been a few times they’d crossed
the line and gotten a little rude. Charlee would die of embarrassment if they
said anything to her, even if they kept it nice. As they’d inched closer in her
direction, she’d actually considered getting up and moving to another spot. But
they were already too close, and walking away might call more attention to her
than if she just sat there and hoped she could remain as invisible as she
usually felt.

She pretended to be immersed in her phone as so many other
students seemed to be
all
the time. Only
she wasn’t using Facebook or Tweeting or even texting like she knew most were.
She was reading—one of her favorite pastimes—although right now she was having
a hard time concentrating on the latest steamy novel she’d downloaded and was
supposed to be engrossed in. The guys’ voices were getting closer, and she’d
heard the dreaded phrase, “Check out red over there.”

Charlee froze, her palms becoming instantly moist, and her heart
began doing that pounding it always did when she got nervous. Shaking off the
incredible urge to grab her things and run, she stared at her phone screen,
praying Drew would miraculously drive up before they reached her bench.

Why the hell did her car have to break down? It was the one thing
that she’d been counting on when she decided to take the plunge and move here.
She bought the thing first thing when she got here so she could just drive
herself to school, go straight to class, and leave as soon as classes were
over. Now she was forced to hang around campus longer after classes until Drew or
Drew’s dad could pick her up. And Drew said this was a good thing?

“Hey, Red!”
One of the guys called out
to her.

Though there was no doubt he was talking to Charlee, she
pretended not to realize and continued staring at her phone.

“Don’t act like you didn’t hear me, Ginger. Because I know you did.”

Forced to, Charlee glanced up at him but couldn’t help frowning.
Of course, it would be the loudest, most obnoxious one of the group who’d taken
an interest in her. It took all but a second to recognize the familiar and
undeniable smell as they all got close enough. She knew the stench all too well
since her own step-dad been smoking marijuana for years for his “glaucoma.”

“What?” he
smirked.
“Why you looking at
me like that? I just wanna say hello and find out what your name is.”