Fate (8 page)

Rose:
What are you thinking?

Vince:
How glad I am now that my parents dragged my ass to that shower. I’m almost glad I screwed up and was forced to go
;
otherwise
,
I know I wouldn’t have. I would’ve never met you, Rose. Imagine what a damn shame that would’ve been
.

Rose tried so hard not to read too much into the things he said
,
but how couldn’t she? Her insides were a mess with this weird excitement
,
and her heart was now palpitating wildly. Grace
,
who was lying next to her
,
was looking at her again
with
concern all too apparent in her face.

“Last text
,
I promise,” she said as she began to text back to him.

It would’ve been a shame to not have met you either, Vincent. I’m almost glad too that you did mess up
,
but I’m even happier and so very proud of you that you say you’re staying out of trouble now. My sister is staring at me. I gotta go to bed now. But I look forward to tomorrow’s morning text. Goodnight. =)

Rose gave Grace a smug look. As promised
,
she put her phone on the nightstand and made herself comfortable. She didn’t have to worry about Vincent texting her back
;
he was usually very respectful about not texting her once she said goodnight. And earlier
,
she hadn’t said
goodnight,
so even tonight’s out of the blue text hadn’t crossed the line. Thoughts of him would keep her up no doubt
,
and she couldn’t stop smiling. He’d been sweet to her since day one
,
but it seemed to be happening more often now.
He seemed to enjoy doing things like this:
making her feel
like she was
so incredibly special
.
She couldn’t decide if
his
being so far away w
as a good thing or a bad thing.

Being near him would surely have her falling hard. Via text she felt safe
,
but in person she still wasn’t sure she could handle a guy like Vincent. He seemed so complex. There was so much to him unlike the simple guys her age at her school.

The next day his morning text had her stomach in knots
,
and she couldn’t decide once again if this was a good or bad.

Vince:
Good morning, Rose. Guess what?

Rose
:
Good morning, Vincent. And I’m no good at guessing so just tell me.

Vince:
It’s not a for sure thing
,
but my uncle said he’d get back to my dad about me coming out and staying with them for the summer. My dad says it sounds promising. We may get
to spend the summer together.
=)

Holy Moses!
Rose reread the text again. It appeared this was good news to him. Here
,
once again
,
she was torn between being excited and being scared to death about spending time with him—in person.

Vince

Rose:
I’m crying as I write this, but I don’t think we can be friends anymore.

Vince shot up to his feet
,
walk
ing
away from the stairs where he’d been sitting with his friends and Lorenzo after reading the text from Rose.

“Where you going?” Lorenzo asked. “You’re up next.

“Take my turn for me,” Vince said already texting Rose back.

Vince:
Why? What did I do?

They’d been playing dice against the stairs of his apartment building. Normally
,
Vince would never let anyone take his turn when they were playing for money
,
l
east of all Lorenzo who sucked at it
.
R
ight now
,
he didn’t give a shit about
anything except Rose’s text.

For weeks
,
he’d been doing his best to stay out of trouble and in his parents
’
good graces. He wanted to prove to them that he’d changed and make up for the whole tagging incident. But mostly because once his uncle told his dad he’d get back to him about Vince going out to stay and work
ing
for him over the summer, Vince knew he had to be smart about this. He understood why they were apprehensive about him
,
but now he had
a
real good reason to behave. He wasn’t about to give his uncle or parents
any
reason to not allow him to go.

Rose had grown on him. Even though their communication consisted of only texts and emails
,
there was something so sweet about her. Unlike his cousins
,
she hadn’t judged him when he’d emailed her to explain about the tagging incident and some of the other trouble he’d been in
during
the past
few
years. He was sure she’d hear about it eventually
,
and he wanted her to get it straight from him—no one else.

Even though Rose had never been in trouble in her life, she’d had nothing but positive things to say. She even praised his efforts to straighten out. She was funny, had a good head on her shoulders
, and
was a good girl
.
S
urprisingly
,
what made him try even harder to be good was that she was proud of him, damn it. He could hardly wait to spend time talking to her again in person
,
not just texting and emailing. Now that they were so close to summer
,
she was telling him this? He couldn’t imagine what he’d done or what she’d heard that would have her crying about not being able to be his friend.

He took a deep breath when his phone dinged and her message appeared.

Grace and Sal broke up
,
and she is so devastated it’s killing me. I can’t be reminding her of him by talking about you. I’m sorry.

Even though it was a relief to know it had nothing to do with something he’d done
,
it still stung that Rose could so easily dismiss their friendship like that. To him what had been building between them for weeks was like no friendship he’d ever experienced with anyone
,
let alone a girl. He wasn’t even sure if he should respond or if her sorry meant she was cutting him off just like that
,
b
ut he had to.

I’m sorry to hear about your sister
,
but I really wish you’d reconsider. Your friendship means
a lot
to me now. I don’t think I can let it go as easily as you can.

Again he held his breath and waited. Her response was immediate and an enormous relief.

You think this is easy for me? It’s not!

Feeling a little guilty about the auto
matic
smile that instantly spread
on
his lips, he took a moment to think about a proper response to that. She was already upset
;
he didn’t want to say anything to make her feel worse. Before he could, she promptly followed up with another text.

Taylor and I just got to his apartment. I haven’t talked to her yet
,
but Taylor said she was so upset he had to give her a pill that would knock her out. I’ve never seen my sister as upset as he described her. I’m almost afraid to. And on top of that
,
the guilt is eating me up alive. How could I have secretly wished for this? I’m such a terrible person! I’ll text you after I talk to her.

In the past few weeks
,
Rose had mentioned Taylor and Joey
,
her sister’s two best friends. At first
,
it burned him up the way Rose gushed about them until she explained they were gay and a couple.

Vince muttered
,
fisting his hand. It was times like this he wished to hell he could call her. He wanted to talk to her—console her, even if it meant listening to sweet Rosie cry. But it was bad enough his parents had to pay the fine for the tagging. His mother had warned him enough about using her precious minutes. He’d finally finished up all the community work the judge piled on. He wouldn’t take a chance screwing up his hopes for summer
,
n
ot even with this. He sent off his final text before leaving her to be there for her sister.

You have nothing to feel guilty about, Rosie. Okay? NOTHING. Don’t do this to yourself. Go be with her now. I’ll be right here
,
waiting for your text.

Blowing out a harsh breath
,
he started walking
in
the opposite direction of his friends. He needed to think.

“So you’re out? Alfonso called after him.

Vince nodded without looking back and turned the corner of the building. He was just getting his thoughts together when he saw
his neighbor
Anita and her two little brothers walking toward him.

Smiling as they got closer, Vince put up his hands in a kung
-
fu stance as her little brother Pepe
,
the older of the two
,
gave him the usual stink eye and lifted his right fist shaking it at him. “You wanna go to the hospital?” Pepe wound up his other fist lifting it behind and over his head. “Or the cemetery? Your choice.”

Vince laughed. “Easy, tough guy. I don’t want any trouble.”

“That’s what I thought.” Pepe said still holding the stink
-
eye stare.

Anita rolled her eyes. She was younger than Rose
,
but you wouldn’t know it by looking at her. Like most of the girls in this neighborhood
,
she wore way too much makeup
,
but Vince knew it wasn’t just that. Anita
was
truly a victim of the environment
,
a
nd he didn’t mean the neighborhood either. He meant her home life. Most of the kids in this area didn’t have it easy
,
but Anita had it rougher than most. She lived with her two little brothers and her usually drunk
-
ass dad. Things weren’t easy for her
,
and since she lived in the building right next to his, Vince had been witness to her family drama too many times.

“What are you up to?” she asked
,
placing her hand on her other brother Beto’s head
as he
wrapped his arms around her leg.

Vince shook his head, thoughts of Rose’s text coming back to him again.

“Something wrong?”

“Nah,” he smiled
.
H
e hadn’t told anyone
,
not even Lorenzo
,
about Rose and how often they texted. He wasn’t about to start now. “I was just going for a walk. You guys coming from the playground?”

“Yeah.” She looked down at Beto messing his hair. “But this guy is getting cranky
;
I think it’s nap time.”

Beto was only four
,
and since their mother died two years ago when he was only two
,
he’d been glued to Anita just like now. He grabbed his crotch and began to whine against her leg.

“Oh, and that, too. He’s gotta go potty. So we’re done with the playground for the day.”

“Just let him go against the wall.” Vince laughed. “It’s what we all do. When you gotta go
,
you gotta go.”

“I will not!” She laughed. “These boys are gonna have
some
manners if it kills me. C’mon.” She tugged Pepe gently. “Your brother
’
s gotta go bad.” Looking up at Vince
,
she smiled again. “I gotta go.”