Fate (19 page)

Glad school was over Vince pulled his phone out of his pocket to check his texts as he walked through campus on his way to the parking lot. Someone or something nicked the backpack on his shoulder
,
and he turned to see it was a guy on a bike that had just flown by him through the crowd. He was showing off
,
and it was too crowded for that shit. Vince kept walking but kept his eye on the idiot as he nearly hit
a few more people.

Vince knew the guy from having a few classes
with him
throughout the years
,
but he’d never hung out with his type
:
t
he punk type, with black fingernails and piercings on their faces. Vince remembered the guy from back when he actually looked normal. He’d gotten worse and worse every year.

As Vince scrolled through his texts
,
he kept looking up
at
the guy who’d already made it to the other side and was on his way back. He was still swerving
at the
last second to miss hitting people. Vince was about to look down when he saw the guy skid and swerve out of the way just before hitting Anita, but he got her arm with his handlebar. Vince saw her flinch
as she held
he
r
arm in reaction. The guy didn’t even stop to see if she was okay. He just kept going.

Vince’s eyes went from Anita
,
who was still rubbing her arm
,
to the guy who was
heading
his way again. Vince almost didn’t do it
,
but when the guy sped up
,
missing another group of kids by only inches
,
it pissed him off. As the guy flew by him
,
Vince kicked his tire.
“Slow the fuck down, asshole.”

To his surprise the guy stopped and jumped off his bike. “You have a problem?”

Vince slid his phone in his pocket and walked toward the guy. “Yeah, I do. You hit someone back t
here. Did you even notice?”

Ignoring his question
,
the guy got in Vince’s face. “Don’t you ever touch my bike
,
you hear me?”

Vince had to laugh. “Oh, you must be high. Get the
fuck
out of my face.” Vince shoved him back
,
hoping the idiot would have enough sense to stop now an
d not keep going on with this.

A crowd was already gathering
,
and there was some chuckling. “Randy, you’re gonna get your ass kicked
,
”
o
ne guy said.

“Yeah, I’d jump on my little bike and get the hell out of here if I were you.” Another one laughed.

“He’s not worth it
,
Vince
,
” Anita said as she pushed her way to the front of the crowd. “Don’t
waste your time on this loser.”

“Shut up, bitch,” Randy yelled at Anita.

“Watch yo
ur mouth, Randy,” Vince warned.

The heckling from the crowd and the sniggering was getting to Randy. Vince could see it in his eyes. They obviously knew what the outcome of this would be if Randy didn’t back down. Randy’s nostrils flared now
,
and he glared at Vince. The taunting of the crowd still telling him he was going to get his ass kicked was really riling him up. The thought of missing out on seeing Rose next week was the only thing keeping Vince from ending this now. One or two swings at Randy
were
all it would take.

Vince recognized one of Randy’s friends as he cautiously made his way to the front of the crowd. But unlike Randy
,
he didn’t look ready to fight. Randy’s chest puffed a little in reaction to seeing his friend. Vince rolled his eyes. One slug at the three piercings on his friend’s brow would have him bleeding all over the place.

Lorenzo and Alfonso were suddenly at Vince’s side. “I got this
,
guys.”

Both of them laughed. “Yeah, you do. We’re just here to watch.”

“Oh you got this?” Randy pulled out a blade waving it in front of him
,
and suddenly the heckling crowd was gasping and dispersed just as fast as it had gathered.

“Run away
,
Vince!” Anita yelled as she rushed away from Randy who was stil
l waving the blade in front him.

Was she kidding?
This wasn’t the first blade he’d ever faced
,
but it was the first with his brother present. He slid his backpack down his arm until he had a good grip on the strap and swung it at Randy’s hand. The blade flew out of his hand
,
and the second it took Vince to glance at the blade hitting the ground Randy took advantage, landing what almost felt like a soft blow to Vince’s jaw. It was soft compared to the ones Vince pummeled on Randy next
:
f
irst
,
one that instantly had his overly pierced lips bleeding then another that knocked Rand
y off his feet onto the ground.

Scrambling fast
,
Randy reached for the blade
,
but Vince picked up the bike and
threw
it at him. That tossed the blade out of Randy’s hand again
,
and Lorenzo reached for it. In the next instant a school security guard had Lorenzo’s arm twisted behind
him. “Drop the knife, boy.”

Enraged
,
Vince charged at him. “Get your fucking hands off my brother. That’s not his knife!”

Before he could take another step
,
there was an arm wrapped tightly around Vince’s neck. Between another security guard and the dean
,
he was brought down to the pavement where they held his arms behind him
,
and one of them dug their knee into his back. “Ga damn it, Moreno!”
t
he dean growled.
“You were almost out of here.”

The dean
’
s words echoed his own sentiments
,
and he knew
,
once again
,
his mother would blame him if Lorenzo got in trouble. But
the
most frustrating of all and
what
made him angrier than anything else
was
he knew he’d just blown seeing Rose next week
and p
ossibly the whole summer, depending
on how much trouble he was in.

~*~

Rose

“You’re being completely unreasonable, Sal.” The tears s
treamed down Rose’s cheeks now.

“Rose, lower your voice,” Grace warned. “It wasn’t Sal’s decision. Vincent’s parents were the ones who made
it. Sal is just supporting it.”

“But
why
? It wasn’t his fault!”

Sal shook his head. “He needs to start thinking things through and not just reacting, Rose. He’s gonna be an adult next month. He was this close to making it to the end of the year without getting suspended.”

Rose brought her hands to her face
,
holding in a sob. “But he hasn’t been in any trouble in so long.”

“And that’s why he’s still coming, Rose.” Grace reminded her as if that was
supposed to be any consolation.

They were delaying his coming to La Jolla a whole month as punishment for getting suspended. Since they started seeing each other, they hadn’t gone an entire month without seeing each other even when they were in school. He’d made sure to come down at least twice a month if not more. “Don’t you see you’re punishing me, too
?

If there’d been any doubt about how Rose really felt for Vincent
,
there wasn’t any now
,
and she didn’t care. She’d been looking forward to this so much. This summer was going to be better than the last. And not just because they’d decided to take their relationship to the next level
,
but because this summer they’d be working side by side at Sal and Grace’s restaurant. They’d be inseparable
,
and now here Sal was telling her their time together would be cut a month short because that’s how long his pare
nts decided to punish him for.

Realizing
that her pleading wasn’t going to get her anywhere, she gave up trying. “This sucks so bad,” she said through her tears as she spun around
and stormed out of the kitchen.

“R
osie, honey,” Grace called out.

“Let her go,” sh
e heard Sal’s hushed voice say.

Once in her room
,
she plopped on her bed and continued to cry. She didn’t want to be mad at Vincent
, but she was.
It really wasn’t his fault
.
Right now she was mad at the whole world. Days ago when
he
told
her
about the fight
,
she was sympathetic
,
until he mentioned Anita. This wasn’t the first time she’d heard of Anita. Rose trusted Vincent
,
and he’d told her she was just his neighbor
,
but the fact that he’d taken a chance and kicked the guy’s bike because of Anita irrita
ted her. She couldn’t help it.

Vincent defending or being set off because of another girl had cost them an entire month apart. Rose was trying so hard not to be petty
,
but the more she thought about it the angrier it made h
er.

They’d waited for days until his parents finally told him how long they’d be grounding him for. The moment she got the text
,
she’d stormed straight into the kitchen to plead with Sal whose opinion weighed heavy with Vincent’s dad. She’d hoped somehow she could convince
Sal
to talk
Vince’s
dad
into seeing
that this was completely unfair
,
but he’d refused to go against Vincent’s parent’s decision.

Now that she knew it was hopeless—that it would be at least a month until she saw him again
,
she was fuming. She sat up on her bed and grabbed her phone off her nightstand. She had a couple of unread texts from Vincent. She read the first one:

Please don’t be mad at me. I’m going down tomorrow to get my own cell phone plan
,
so we can talk without me having to worry about using my mom’s minutes. I’ll call you every day. I promise
.

Since she hadn’t responded to him
right away,
he texted her again ten minutes later.

So you’re not gonna respond to me now? You’ll kill me, Rosie. You really want that on your conscience?

Normally something like that would make her smile
,
but she could barely manage not to frown now. She almost didn’t send it
,
but she reread the sentence and decided it wasn’t an unreasonable request given the circumstances
,
so she hit send.

Tell me about Anita.

His response was immediate:

??? What about her?

She took a deep breath still not certain she wanted to take this there
,
but it was bothering her so much she had to
.

Why did it upset you so much that he bumped her that you were willing to chance getting in trouble?

She waited and flinched
,
startled when her phone rang. Surprised to see it was him calling, she almost regretted
asking
because the only times he ever called
had been
when it was real important. But this
was
important. So taking an
other deep breath she answered.

“Hello?”

“Rosie
,
please
,
please
don’t get anything in your head about Anita. It could’ve been anyone he hit. I was already pissed because he’d bumped me first
,
and he was driving around like an asshole. I fucked up
,
okay? I shouldn’t have kicked his bike
,
but it had
nothing
to do with the fact that it was her. I swear.”