The Anatomy of a Broken Heart //Completed//

61. Caleb

In a matter of days we hit the road in one of dad's shiny black SUVs. I shared the car with Ansel, who was fast asleep despite it being noon, Santana, and Sadie, who Santana was surprised to find out was my little sister.

"It's so nice to meet you, Santana. I've always wanted a sister, you know. Farrah never really bothered to hang out. She was always busy with something and—"

"Sadie..." I shook my head vigorously at her through the rearview mirror. Her eyes grew wide and her cheeks reddened with embarrassment, but Santana just smiled at her warmly.

"I have a sister," she said. "She's around your age. You remind me a lot of her."
"Maria, right?"

"Uh," Santana looked at me from the passenger seat. "Yeah. How did—"

"Ansel told me he was dating her. I thought she would be coming on this trip, too." Sadie sounded a little disappointed but masked it quickly enough. She was good at that.

Ansel hadn't actually told her. I had. She'd coerced me into telling her every detail about Santana and though I didn't know enough to satisfy her curiosity, she was going to have to take what she could get. At least until she got Santana alone.

"Maria wasn't allowed to come," Santana said.
"Oh, is she, like, a trouble maker?" Sadie lowered her voice to a whisper. "'Cause Ansel is sorta into those kinds of girls. There are a lot of girls like that at my school. They smoke in the bathroom and some of them even do drugs."

"Noooo," Santana said, feigning shock for Sadie's sake.

"Yeah! Isn't that crazy?"
"Oh, yeah. Some girls are just bad news." Santana nodded gravely.

"Sadie, Maria couldn't come because she's fifteen and her dad is smart enough not to let her go on a trip with Ansel. She's not a troublemaker so don't go making your wild assumptions, like you always do," I scolded.

"Well, he let Santana come with you." She pouted.

"I kinda snuck out without his permission," Santana admitted.

My head snapped to look at her, and immediately, I knew she wasn't lying.

Sadie's jaw dropped and she looked away. "That's awesome," I heard her whisper to herself and I glared at Santana.

She looked at me smugly and mouthed "Bad news," pointing at herself.

At last, we came upon the crooked road which led to what would be our home for the weekend. The summer house was around four hours outside of town. It was a giant version of the cabin we had back home, but it sat atop a hill in a clearing within a forest, with a stunning mountain background. I loved coming here, especially as the summer came to an end because the altitude always made for perfect weather. Though I'd seen the view dozens of times, driving onto the hidden dirt path into the green clearing, the cabin looming over us beneath the burning sunshine, it never failed to take my breath away. The beauty of it didn't make sense to me. The colors looked brighter and the air felt cleaner in my lungs.

I snuck a glance at Santana, hoping she felt the way I did. All traces of the disdain she'd shown earlier—when she'd given me her signature eye roll while I tried to describe where we'd be staying—was gone. Her eyes were alight and she'd straightened up in her seat to get a better look. I smiled at her wonder but turned around as soon as she caught me looking at her.

I parked the car behind dad's sedan and watched as my parents got out to stretch. Mom was dressed, as per the norm, completely inappropriately for the woods: in a dress and six-inch heels, and dad looked like a Cuban narco, with his fedora on crookedly. They were utterly ridiculous, and I was nervous as hell. It was no secret what they thought about Santana, but even dad couldn't dissuade Gramps into letting her off the hook this weekend. Apparently, he'd taken a liking to her when he met her at the fundraiser and was "looking forward to getting to know her better." Mom had been livid and hadn't bothered to hide it from Gramps.