Blood & Water

Chapter 5

*Roughly 12 years before*

"You gotta light?"

Carrie looked over to see a tall Hispanic man looking at her expectantly. She nodded, "Oh
yeah," then proceeded to struggle to grab her Zippo from her jeans, and finally handed it over.

"Hope it was worth the wait," she joked, hoping to cover her embarrassment.

The man nodded and let out a little chuckle. "I'm Angel."

"Carrie," she smiled. "I went to high school with Ezekiel. You're his older brother, right?"

"Older and cooler," he laughed at his own joke. "You're here with Kevin?"

"I am," she said with a shrug.

"He's a little old for you," Angel remarked.

"Is he the older, cooler cousin?" She teased.

"Older but not cooler," Angel quipped.

"I'll be the judge of that." Carrie smiled, looking down at the ground, and continued to smoke her cigarette. "Do you guys do this a lot?" She gestured back to the house where the party continued without them.

"No," he laughed. "My mom is always trying to get everyone together, this one finally worked out."

"Well, I'm glad I could come."

Angel smiled and nodded, wanting to make a joke about the differences in their cultures but he didn't, he just smiled and kept his eyes on hers. "You and him doing anything after?"

"Me and Kevin?" She asked, slightly surprised.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "We're not super serious or anything, so it's all kind of casual."

"But you're meeting the family?" He said, sliding closer to her.

"He's persuasive," she laughed, eyeing him carefully.

"Guess bein' in law school will do that," he remarked.

"Oh my god," she gasped, "He lawyered me into dating him!" Carrie laughed.

"Only thing that makes sense," Angel winked at her.

"So what do you do Angel?"

Angel shrugged, "Little of this."

"Little of smoking in the backyard with random girls?"

"Something like that," he replied casually.

His attitude was tickling a part of Carrie she knew would get her in trouble. He was a bad boy, she could feel it, and bad boys were never a good idea.

"You asked what I'm doing after this, so is there anything going on?"

"An after party?"

She laughed and nodded. "Yeah, I guess you could call it that."

"No," he looked at her, "But I'm sure we could find something."

Carrie smirked and nodded, taking the last drag of her cigarette. "I'll ask Kevin, come grab us before you leave and we'll talk."

"Alright," he watched as he flicked her cigarette over the fence. "Won't be too long," Angel added as she opened the back door.

Carrie nodded and gave him a little wave before stepping into the house again. She wore a polite smile as she passed Kevin's family members while awkwardly looking for him.

"Hey," Kevin said to her from the steps, leaning over the banister. "I was looking for you."

"I went out back," she said apologetically. "I was talking to your cousin, we were thinking of meeting up after this. Interested?"