Being True (30 page)

That made the misery flow from me ever more. Because I understood what it meant. I’d seen Mr. Castillo do that often enough with Javi. It was how they reassured each other. It was how he expressed his love.

When I stopped shuddering and my cries quieted, Mrs. Castillo placed her thumb under my chin and lifted my head. Whatever she had to say was not only serious but true. “You have nothing to be sorry about,” she said. “This wasn’t your fault. Not any of it.”

“Maricela’s right, Tru,” Mr. Castillo said with one final rub. He moved to stand next to his wife so he could gaze into my red-rimmed eyes. “You didn’t cause this, and you aren’t the reason he’s here now. Our Javi got hurt, yes. And the reason he did it was to protect you. But Javi wouldn’t have had it any other way, and you know that. You’ve brought such happiness into my son’s life. True happiness. How could he not protect someone who is obviously so dear to him? If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be the young man we all love so much, would he?”

I shook my head. “No, he wouldn’t.”

“So dry your tears,” Mr. Castillo said. “Rejoice that Javi is with us, and he will
continue
to be with us. We must all have faith in that.”

I wiped the tears from my face and smiled at them. How wonderful were these two? Their son was hurt and unconscious, and they were the ones trying to make me feel better. “I do have faith in that,” I said with a sniffle.

Mrs. Castillo smiled and patted me on the back. “Good. Faith is what is needed right now,” she said as she eyed her son. “And love.”

Mr. Castillo nodded in agreement.

“I have that too,” I said. “I love your son very much.”

“I know you do,” Mr. Castillo replied. “And together, we will make Javi strong again.”

“How about a group hug?” a voice from the bed asked.

The three of us turned our attention to Javi. His big, beautiful, bleary eyes were open and staring at us.

“Mijo!” his mother screeched. She rushed to his side and placed her hands on his arm. “Thank God!”

Mr. Castillo stood next to his wife, wiping a stray tear from the corner of his eye. “I knew you’d wake up. That’s my boy.”

I walked around the bed and took his hand in mine. The tears that had just stopped once again poured down my cheeks. “You’re a sight for sore eyes,” I said as I quickly wiped my tears away.

“Why are you crying?” he asked. His words were thick, and he sounded groggy. “I was bound to wake up with as much noise as the three of you were making. Sheesh!”

I laughed as he wiggled his bushy eyebrows at me.

“I’m going to go get the doctor,” I said. “And tell Claudia and my mom you’re awake.”

“Not yet,” Javi said. His eyelids were growing heavy. “I have to tell you something first.”

“What’s that?” I asked as I held his hand to my chest.

A huge happy grin spread across his lips. “I love you too.”

And dammit, if I didn’t start crying all over again.

Chapter 12

J
AVI
WAS
perhaps the worst patient ever.

It had only been two days since that awful mess at school, and he’d spent the last forty-eight hours complaining to anyone who would listen that he wanted to go home. Never mind that he had a serious concussion and a head wound or that the doctors kept him for observation. All he heard was blah, blah, blah.

“Are they here yet?” he asked from the bed. He’d shed the hospital gown I’d grown to love, mostly because I caught glimpses of his cute butt every time he got up to pee. And with Javi’s insanely small bladder, that happened more often than not.

But instead of his peek-a-boo outfit, he was appropriately, and aggravatingly, covered. He had on jeans and a white T-shirt. Even fully clothed and with gauze hanging on the side of his head, he took my breath away.

He was being discharged today, and his parents were on their way to bring him home. Claudia had picked me up early and driven me over so we could be here for Javi’s grand escape and help him get ready. He sometimes got a little dizzy still, but the doctors said that would soon pass.

“Do you see them in the room?” Claudia asked. She’d grown annoyed with Javi’s whining. “Because unless they’ve become invisible, I’d say they’re not here yet.”

“Hey, don’t be so rude to me,” he said, pouting. “I just suffered a head wound, you know?”

Claudia groaned. If Javi wasn’t careful, he was likely to experience another knock upside his head.

“They’ll be here in a few minutes,” I said. I rose from the chair beside his bed and sat on the mattress next to him. “Then you can go home and drive your parents crazy there instead of all the doctors and nurses here.”

He gazed at me out of the corners of his eyes. “Everyone here loves me. I’ve been an absolute delight.”

Claudia snorted. “Only if this was opposite day.”

Javi shot Claudia a mock grimace. “I don’t like
you
very much, though.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” she replied before sticking out her tongue.

These two were going to drive
me
crazy!

“How about we talk about something else?” I asked. “To make the time pass.”

Javi nodded. He grabbed my hand and beamed. His touch sent shivers traveling up and down my body. It was like placing my hand on one of the static electricity balls, where the lines of blue flame arced to meet me. That was what Javi’s touch did to me. It sent waves of endless energy shooting through me, giving me the charge I needed to keep going on.

“So why haven’t you told me you outed us to the entire school
and
told them off on the same day?”

I hadn’t wanted Javi to know all that. He’d had enough to deal with than to fret about the possible fallout of my outburst. I turned my attention to Claudia, who stood by the window, pretending to find something of complete interest outside. “Claudia Zamora!” I said. “You weren’t supposed to say anything.”

She turned to me, her eyes wide and innocent. “What do you mean?”

I glared at her. I wasn’t buying her act. One thing Claudia was not was innocent.

“Fine,” she said. “I told him, but you know how it is when Javi wiggles those caterpillar eyebrows at you.”

“Hey!” Javi said, clearly not appreciative of the comment.

I nodded. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

“
Hey
!” he said again, this time poking me in my side. “I do
not
have caterpillar eyebrows.”

“Yes, you do.” I turned to him and kissed each fuzzy eyebrow. “And I love them.”

Javi grinned. “Well okay, then. I guess I do.”

Claudia made retching noises.

“You’re just jealous because you don’t have adorable caterpillar eyebrows like me.”

“Yeah, that’s it,” she replied with a roll of her eyes.

“Now answer my question,” Javi said as he leaned against my shoulder.

I lay back on the mattress and pulled him closer into me. “You had enough going on,” I answered. “I didn’t want you to worry.”

“Worry?” he asked, turning his killer smile up to me. “I think it’s fucking great!”

“You do?”

“Of course, silly. I’m glad you told those jerks off. Someone had to. I’d been taking them all on one by one, but you swooped on in and took them all down at the same time. Talk about a power move!” I’d likely have to cure cancer to make Javi any prouder of me than he was right now. “Besides, telling everyone was what we wanted to do in the first place. It was our parents’ bright idea to keep everything hush-hush. In order to keep us safe.” He scrunched up his face. “Obviously that didn’t work out. But who cares now? We are out, and it doesn’t bother me one bit. Hell, I’m glad they know. It means we can stop pretending we don’t mean everything to each other.” He ran his fingers along my jaw. “I can look at you in the halls again. And even brush up against you if I want to. Maybe even hold your hand.”

I craned my head down and pressed my lips against his. “I’d love that.”

“Me too,” he said before kissing me back.

“I hate to interrupt such a nauseating moment,” Claudia said. We turned to where she leaned against the window. She studied us as if we’d gone insane. “But you do realize the world hasn’t changed these past few days. Sure, everyone knows, but there are still jerks like Rance roaming the halls of our Neanderthal high school. Just because everyone knows doesn’t mean you should flaunt it in their faces.”

“So what are you saying? That Tru and I should willingly go back in the closet?”

“Of course not. But I think being careful is smart, considering everything you’ve been through. You do realize you were both attacked by a homophobic, self-loathing fuckhead, right?”

Javi tensed. Even after what had happened, he didn’t like people talking badly about Rance. “Don’t say that,” he uttered. “He’s got demons. It’s not his fault. Besides, I’m sure he’s beating himself up about this.”

Claudia sneered. “He can jump off a bridge for all I fucking care.”

“That’s not nice,” Javi said. The severity in his tone was clear. This was a subject on which they’d never agree. Honestly, it was one Javi and I would not totally agree on either. Sure, I felt for the guy. It had to be difficult hating everything about yourself the way Rance obviously did, but that didn’t mean he had go around beating on people or almost killing them. He needed psychiatric help, and hopefully he’d get shipped off somewhere to get just that. If I never saw Rance Parker again, that would be one day too soon.

“And Rance is nice?” Claudia asked. She was in full rant now. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Javi. He’s so screwed up, he practically killed you. And Tru.”

“I realize that—”

Before Javi could continue, Claudia rolled on. “And he claimed to do all that out of love? That’s just sick. He’s sick. And he deserves whatever happens to him. I hope they throw his ass into juvie. Let him get pushed around for a while in there and made some guy’s bitch. That’ll serve him right for everything he’s done.”

I patted Javi’s hand, trying to calm him down. Though Claudia’s anger was justified, as was Javi’s inherently protective nature. It was what I loved about them both. “I think we get it, Claudia,” I said. “You don’t like him.”

“No shit!”

“But Javi does. And even though we both understand where you’re coming from, it’s not going to do any good to punish someone who’s already been put through the wringer.”

Her black-penciled eyebrows wrinkled. “What the hell are you talking about?”

I turned to Javi, who nodded. It was time to tell Claudia what we’d already discussed together and with our parents. They were proud of our decision. It made us men in their eyes. “Don’t get us wrong. We aren’t happy with what Rance has done. He’s facing some serious consequences because of it.” Like being expelled from school and facing two counts of aggravated assault charges. “But doing hard time isn’t what he needs. He needs serious psychological help.”

“You’ll get no argument from me there,” she added with a snuff.

“Which is why Javi and I plan on going to the judge to ask for leniency.”

Her mouth fell open, and her eyes went wide. Even though her lips moved, she made no sound.

“It’s the right thing to do,” I said. “I, more than anyone, know what Rance is capable of. I was there when he snapped. But I was also there when he realized what he’d done. All the anger was gone. It was like he was truly looking at himself for the first time. And he didn’t like what he saw. That’s why we feel he needs help, not revenge.”

“You two are unbelievable,” she whispered. “How the hell can you be so forgiving? After everything.”

Javi shrugged. His half grin snaked across his soft lips. “What can I say? I’m too good to be true.”

“That’s right,” I said. “He’s too good to be true, and I am Tru.”

She threw up her hands in surrender. “Fine,” she said. “You two go on with your angel routine. Do whatever you have to do. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it or him.”

“Fair enough,” Javi said with a nod. “Now I just have one question.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“When the hell are my parents going to get here?”

J
AVI
’
S
PARENTS
arrived in time to save him from Claudia, who’d been ready to smother him with his pillow. Javi was discharged, and an hour later, we were turning onto his street.

I rode in the car with the Castillos since Claudia had gone home to crawl back into bed. After the last few days, I could certainly have used more sleep. Spending most of the last forty-eight hours in the most uncomfortable chair known to man wasn’t exactly helping the wounds on my back heal. But there was no other place I’d rather have been than in the backseat holding my boyfriend’s hand as we brought him home.

“What’s going on?” Javi asked. Cars were lined up and down the street.

“Someone must be having a garage sale,” I said.

“I hope not,” Mr. Castillo said from the driver’s seat. “Because I don’t remember putting anything up for sale on our lawn.”

“Dad, what are you talking about?”

“Take a look for yourself,” he answered with a nod out the windshield.