The Green (16 page)

We sat on a couch, watching the people in
front of us dancing. I wasted no time and took a few huge gulps of
the margarita. That felt better. I’d never had a margarita before,
but I decided that strawberry margaritas were my new favorite. I
was surprised at how quick and easy it went down and I decided to
go up for seconds.

I waved my cup at Javier and pointed at his,
trying to see if he needed a refill. He shook his head and I made
my way back to the bar. One more cup of delicious strawberry
delight. I stayed in the kitchen, gulping away. There was a nice
warm burning in my stomach. My head started to float slightly above
my body and my muscles relaxed. It was like someone had lifted a
huge weight off my shoulders. One more trip to the margarita
machine couldn’t hurt, right?

I filled it up again and squeezed through the
crowd, watching all the people moving with the music. It surged
through me and when I got back to where Javier was sitting on the
couch, I grabbed his hand and pulled him up next to me.

“Come on, let’s dance,” I shouted into his
ear. My mouth was so close to his ear, I could almost taste it. I
wanted him to want me. At least it meant someone did. We danced
like there was no one else in the room. I sipped my drink. Javier’s
face pushed closer to mine and there was a moment hanging in the
air in front of me where I could have moved, could have pushed away
and stopped what was going to happen.

But I didn’t.

His lips pressed against mine, eager and
hungry. I hadn’t paid attention last time, but this time I sunk
into them. And kissed him back. I didn’t pull away even when his
tongue slid into my mouth, running along my teeth. His hand slid
around my waist and he pulled me closer, pressing his body tight
against mine. I finally pulled away, gasping for air and chased the
kiss with another sip of margarita.

All of a sudden someone turned the music down
and somebody near us turned on the TV where they were counting down
to midnight. Everyone started counting along.

Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four.
Three. Two. One.

Happy New Year!

After a trip to the bathroom, I stumbled back
into the living room, but I didn’t see Javier. I wandered back down
the hall and heard some voices behind one of the doors. Something
smelled a little funny, but I decided to see if Javier was there.
Was he behind door number one? I giggled to myself. Okay. Maybe
that had been one margarita too many.

I pushed the door open and there were six
guys crammed in the room. A cloud of smoke surrounded me and I
coughed. I recognized the smell. It was often in my living room,
back when Nando lived there. God, that seemed like a million years
ago now. My eyes were darting all over the room but finally found
Javier in the back corner.

“There you are,” I said. I might just have
been slurring my words. “I thought I lost you!” I stumbled across
the room and tripped over something on the floor.

“Hey, watch out.” I saw Paco across the room
as he moved forward to pick up whatever I had knocked over.

“Oops!” I was too drunk to care at that
point. He held up the bong I’d knocked over. “Ooh, you were getting
high. Sweet! Show me how.” This wasn’t coming out of my mouth was
it? What would my mother say? Probably nothing. She wouldn’t even
notice. She never noticed Nando. I giggled again.

“Naw, girl, I’ve got something better for
you,” said Javier, sliding his arm around my waist and pulling me
onto his lap. “Let’s go.”

The other dudes in the room hooted and
hollered as we left.

“Give it to her, Javi!” One of them laughed
through a bong hit.

He dragged me down the hallway and into
another room and shut the door.

“What, you don’t want me to get high but you
wanna do something alone with me in here?” I said, holding onto the
dresser next to me because the room felt like it was spinning.

“It’s like you read my mind, Ariceli.” He sat
on a neatly made bed across the room and patted the spot next to
him.

The room stopped spinning.

Pictures from the night poured into my brain,
everything about James and Naomi rushing back. My heart contracted
in pain at the thought of James, but this, this is not what I
wanted. I needed to get out of here.

There was nothing to say. I lunged for the
doorknob and fell into the hallway, running for the front door. As
I got near, I saw him.

Punch. Kick. Choke. Pain. Breathe. The images
came rushing back.

Nando.

I flew the last few feet towards him, I don’t
think anyone saw it happen. Fists flying, connecting to his face. I
scratched and slapped. Everything I’d been saving for him over the
last couple of months.

“What the fuck are you doing Ariceli? Are you
fucking crazy?” He tried to push me away but the fury in me was
surprisingly stronger. I caught him in the eye.

I punctuated all my blows with a cuss.

“Fucker! Asshole! Stupid shit!”

Someone pulled me back but I broke away,
twisting until the person lost his grip. “Ariceli stop!” It was
Javier.

“I hate you Nando!” I screamed, launching
myself at him a second time.

I heard something odd. I didn’t register at
first.

POP POP POP POP POP POP

It was New Year’s—somebody had to be setting
off fireworks. Then everything went into slow motion. Nando stopped
fighting back. He looked really surprised for some reason and lost
his balance, falling forward onto me and throwing me to the
floor.

Screams surrounded me, bouncing off the
walls. Feet went flying by my head, out the front door.

POP POP POP POP POP POP

When would it stop? Minutes went by. It felt
like hours. Nando lay on top of me. I couldn’t breathe but I
couldn’t move him either.

“Nando, get up. Get off of me,” I tried to
say. Just raspy air passed my lips.

He didn’t answer. I tried shoving him again.
My head spun again, but this was different. Not margarita dizzy
this time. If I could just get him off me maybe I could breathe.
Maybe my chest wouldn’t hurt so bad. A girl ran back into the
house— she screamed into a cell phone.

“You gotta get someone here quick. 851 North
Wood Street. Please! They were shooting and there’s so much blood.”
Her voice was full of panic. She saw me on the floor and stopped
for a moment.

Our eyes met and I tried to say something,
but my voice didn’t want to work. My throat burned. I started
coughing, which was hard, because Nando was still on me. My face
felt wet and I wiped it with my hand. It was covered in blood. I
started to scream and everything faded to black, just like the time
Nando choked me. The edges of my vision got darker and darker until
everything was finally gone. Sounds swam around my head faster and
faster until I could finally understand them.

“We have one male, DOA.” I felt some relief
as the heavy weight on my chest was lifted. But for some reason it
felt worse. I couldn’t breathe and I felt so cold. I wanted to
move, to open my eyes, to say something but I couldn’t.

DOA. It sounded familiar. Why couldn’t I
figure out what it meant?

“If you can hear me, open your eyes.” I heard
a voice say.

My eyelids felt like they weighed a ton.

“Come on, look, she’s trying,” the voice
said. “Come on hon, stay with me.”

My eyes fluttered open and I tried to move my
head, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Whoa, relax. Don’t move. We’re here to help
you. Just stay with me,” said the voice, now attached to the young
man in a dark blue uniform who was floating in my sight. He smiled,
but it was a forced smile. “Do you know what happened?”

I didn’t know. I couldn’t answer even if I
wanted to. I tried to push my thoughts through my eyes.

“I’m a paramedic. You’ve sustained a gunshot
wound to your chest. We’re getting ready to transport you to the
hospital right now. Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you.” He
smiled that forced smile again, but I trusted him. I could see them
poking needles into my arm and felt some lightness as they lifted
me onto a white gurney. They covered me with a white sheet and
tucked it around me. Then they added a few heavy blankets.

“It’s cold outside,” Mr. Paramedic said,
smiling at me again. “You’re doing great. Hang in there, we’re
going to the hospital now.”

We passed through the front door and down the
steps, toward a bunch of flashing lights. There had to be more than
a dozen cop cars and quite a few ambulances. They loaded someone
else in one of the other ambulances. That’s funny, it looked like
Javier. Javier! Oh god! Didn’t they say I had been shot? Did
someone shoot Javier too? Why would someone do that?

As they spun the gurney around and loaded me
into the ambulance I had a view of the front of the house. In the
doorway I could see something lying under a white sheet. But they
weren’t loading it onto a gurney. Why weren’t they bringing Nando
out? DOA. DOA. Nando, get off me. Nando didn’t move.

Nando was dead.

“Nooooo!” My voice suddenly jumped out of my
mouth and my body tried to follow it. Pain shot through every inch
of my body, forcing me to lean back on the gurney again.

“Whoa there girl, calm down, we’ve got you!”
I could feel two sets of hands steadying me, checking all of the
lines running into my arm. “Look, you have to relax, it’ll be
okay.” Mr. Paramedic was looking a little concerned. They slammed
the doors of the ambulance and I could feel it start to move.

“No,” I whispered hoarsely. “My brother.”

Mr. Paramedic looked down on me with sad
eyes.

I fell into the darkness.

My eyes fluttered. More voices swirled around
me.

“…collapsed lung…”

“…she needs to go to surgery…”

“…remove the bullet…”

I was suddenly blind. I was looking at the
sun.

“Blink if you can hear what I am saying.”

I blinked my eyes. I tried to talk but there
was something in my throat. I felt like I was choking.

“You have a tube in your throat. Just relax
and let the machine help you breathe. You have a gunshot wound to
your chest, which has collapsed your lung. We are going to take you
into surgery to remove the bullet and stitch you up. You should
make a full recovery. You’re very lucky, you know.”

I blinked.

And then I blinked back tears. Nando wasn’t
so lucky. What was he doing there?

“Here, we’re putting a shot of anesthetic
into your line. You’ll feel a slight burning and then you’ll start
to feel woozy. I’ll see you when you wake up.”

I cringed. My arm burned slightly. The drugs
coursed through my veins, warm and soothing. Clouds formed in my
brain, big fluffy white ones…

$$$

This time when I opened my eyes they finally
felt clear. No more fuzz. I was in a bed and there was a curtain
pulled around it. Tubes hung from my arm and machines beeped in the
corner behind my head.

A petite nurse in blue scrubs walked through
the curtain, checking the monitors and making some notes on the
chart that hung from my bed.

“You’re awake,” she said brightly. “That’s
good. I’ll get the doctor. Would you like some ice water?”

“Yes,” I answered, surprised at the sound of
my voice. It was thick and full of gravel.

She disappeared for a second and swung back
into the room, handing me a small cup of icy water. My throat was
so dry. The water rushed down, soothing, quenching.

A man in a white coat walked in. Brown like
me, but different. Indian.

“Hi there Ariceli, I’m Dr. Patel. I’m happy
to see you are awake. You suffered a very serious injury. We were
able to repair it and your damaged lung should return to normal
function. We’ll have to keep you here a few days to make sure
everything is healing right.” He checked the chart. “Are you
feeling pain?”

“No. Just really sore, like someone beat me
up.” Gravel. I tried to clear my throat.

“Sore is okay. We’ll be moving you to a room
shortly. Some detectives would like to speak with you, but I told
them they would have to wait until you got settled. If you don’t
feel up to speaking to them, we can send them away,” he said.

“No, it’s okay. Is my mom here?” I asked,
suddenly realizing I hadn’t seen her yet. It felt like years since
I’d seen her.

“She’s out in the hallway with some of your
relatives. She’s…very upset at the moment. If she came in here I’m
afraid she would disturb the others. You can see her shortly when
they move you. But for now, just rest.”

“Thanks,” I said, not sure what else to
say.

I leaned back against the pillow and sighed.
I tried to remember the events of the last day and realized I
didn’t know what day it was. Was this still New Year’s Day? I’d
have to ask. I remembered being at Naomi’s. Oh god, James. They
kissed. I remembered. She was almost naked. I got sick. I left. I
called Javier. We went to the city. I got drunk. I kissed Javier. I
attacked Nando. And then someone shot us. Nando was dead. I guessed
my mom knew by now. That’s why she was too upset to come in here. I
wondered if Javier was here. Was he alive? Was anyone else
hurt?

Everything ached. I closed my eyes, and
hoping when I opened them it would be New Year’s Eve again and none
of this would have happened.

$$$

I was being wheeled down the hall on a bed. I
must have been going to my room. I shivered.

“Are you cold honey?” a nurse asked from
behind me.

“Yes,” I answered. Less gravel, but paper
thin.

She pulled me into my room and lined the
gurney up with a bed. Two other nurses came in and together the
three of them transported me from one bed to the other.

Sharp pains shot through my chest. I
gasped.