The Fuentes Family

3

Alex

"I want to see him."

"For the last time, Alejandro. I do not want you near him."

"El es mi padre."

"He is a monster," Mamá corrects, the word hitting me like a punch in the gut.

"Por favor, Mamá. I need to see him – we all do."

She sets the iron on the ironing board and looks at me with her serious face. I shiver.

"I said no. Now go give this to Valentino and make sure Santiago is awake," she hands me the shirt she ironed and gestures for me to go. I want to stay and try to convince her to let me see him, but I know it won't get anywhere.

I aggressively push open the door to Val and Santiago's room, and throw the shirt at Val. Santiago is unsurprisingly still asleep. I start to shake him but all he does is moan.

"I tried that," Val comments, watching me but not helping. Instead, I yank the covers off of him. "Harsh."

"Te odio," Santiago hisses and pulls the covers back over him.

"Get the fuck up." 

He doesn't really hate me, and we'll be fine later. He probably knows that i'm just having a bad day, caused by my mother, who is stopping me from seeing the only person who understood me. Sure, maybe he was always out and was really suspicious, but he was doing it for us. I close my eyes and lean against their doorway. I can't keep making excuses for him. He has done something so unforgivable – I feel sick thinking about it. But he didn't have a choice.

"Alex?" My eyes snap open to see Ray standing in front of me. "You... alright?"

I stand back up straight and clear my throat. "Yeah, just got a headache."

"Can I ride with you today?"

"Fine, but i'm taking Marco to school too."

Ray nods and I walk back downstairs, but this time into the kitchen and away from mi madre and her make Alex pissed pills.

I freeze in my tracks when I see Amelia in the kitchen, reaching up to a cupboard and pulling out a bowl. She wears black leggings and a denim jacket, the leggings showing off her perfectly structured ass. The memory of her naked body pops into my mind – wet naked body. She's hot – there's no doubt about that. Everyone knows it. She knows it – or at least I thought she did until I saw her sitting with a couple of nerds and not pouncing around in front of the soccer team.

"You got back late last night," she says while I pour myself a glass of water.

"Thanks for telling me, I had no idea."

"What happened? You couldn't get the girl off?"

I scoff. "What makes you think I was with a girl? You don't know anything about me."

"I'd like to think I know enough."

"No, you've assumed enough. You know nada about me."