Everything Fragile✔

Chapter Twenty-Eight - In The Eyes Of A Doppelganger

   It doesn't take me long to shower and get dressed, but Willow blows up my phone the whole time. She's impatient and so am I, which is why I don't bother answering to explain why ten minutes is starting to turn into thirty.

   I missed Derek again. He had left for work hours ago while I was asleep. Too bad. I wanted to talk to him about the whole thing with Ethan. Why were they together and what were they talking about? I want to know more about…everything, but the more I know, the harder it'll be to untangle myself from Mateo and the hold that his uncle has on me. Still, I can't help myself.

   In the passenger seat of his car, I turn down the radio so I can hear my own thoughts more clearly. Mateo frowns. He's been doing that a lot lately.

   "Come on, Quin." He groans. "That was the best part."

   He's trying to be playful; to offer light conversation contrary to earlier. I think he feels guilty for snapping at me. There isn't an ounce of animosity in my bones directed at him. Still, I don't play along. I need answers.

   "I heard you and Derek talking last night."

   Mateo sucks his teeth. "Can we just not do this right now?"

   "Oh, so you can kiss me, but you can't tell me what's going on?" He doesn't say anything. Though, I suppose his blushed face is already enough of an answer of its own. "You can't expect to have me after…everything. You lied to me, Mateo."

   "I was protecting you."

   "I never asked you to!" The words come out more forceful than I intended. Guilt pangs through my gut at his solemn expression. "Sorry. I'm being a bitch."

   "No." He says, shaking his head. "No, you're not. Your anger is justified because, at the end of the day, you're right. I have lied and I have been keeping secrets, but only because I'm afraid."

   "Afraid?" I question. "Of what?

   "You." He gulps. "You're someone who I consider a friend. Actually, you're my only friend. Everyone at school tends to stay clear of me for…obvious reasons. Well, everyone except for you. Even before the whole thing with your mom, you were one of the few people who were actually nice to me."

   "Really? I was nice to you?" That's hard to believe. "Everyone used to call me a bitch back then."

   "Only because you were Willow's friend. But, that's besides the point. What I'm trying to say is that I'm afraid that if you know the truth, you won't like me anymore."

   God, what a stupid thing to say. Or even think! Mateo Dela Cruz is the absolute last person on Earth who I'd ever think was insecure of how people viewed him. He protrudes an attitude of indifference in any social settings; face controlled and steady, eyes never giving anything away, but always analyzing, and mouth ready to charm. He erects confidence. Yet, he's afraid.

   "You keeping things from me makes me not like you." I admit. "It feels like you're playing me for your own gain."

   "Oh God, Quince, that's never…that's just so…I-I wouldn't do that to you. Like ever." He takes his eyes off the road to look at me, pleading for me to understand the honesty of his statement. "You happened upon us unexpectedly. Actually, the whole shooting was unexpected."

   "It was unexpected for me too."

   We're a block away from the hospital at this point, but Mateo pulls over to the side of the road and parks the car. He wants to finish this conversation and, frankly, so do I.

   "I was supposed to be there that night with Ethan," he explains, recalling the events from the past. "But we were an hour away and traffic wouldn't budge. Andrew had found something and he wanted us all to be there to hear it. When he died, I knew that it was about my dad. Andrew's house was ransacked literal hours after the shooting. The cops say that it was a home invasion and that there was no correlation with his murder at Marina's. But, get this, the intruder took nothing valuable. They only ransacked his whole house. Like they were looking for something."