Forget me lots (Completed)

16. River 🐝

I'm suspended for two days because of the fight with Thaddeus. I have to confess; I saw it coming like a shock wave the second my fist collided with his foul mouth.

Dad comes back from his business trip to this mess. Mom is so pissed at the whole my-son-has-turned-gangster breaking news, she hasn't talked to me at all.

She's five foot two, but she compensates with an anger worthy of a Balrog. Sprinkle it with sneaking out on my bike without permission, and you get a full monster Mom scenario—worth it, though. I needed time with Dawn.

"River, son, your mom is hitting the damn roof over these incidents. She's crying to your poor Abuela as we speak." His head is hanging low, as if he was the one being punished. It makes me want to apologise all over again, but I decide not to since everything I say or do stirs Mom's anger pot. If there's something my father is good at, is being the anchor of this Hispanic family. He's taken all of us overseas and still keeps us afloat. We all love him for it, unless Mom is cranky, and boy is she irked now!

Dad is right. When I came back from my date with Dawn, she was incoherent. She'd taken me by the shoulders in the garage while I was parking my bike, looking at my face and shaking her head.

"Fighting at school and not telling me about it?" Her Spanish accent is so adorable I had to bite my lip to avoid grinning. She stabbed her index finger into my chest. "Then going out on your bike as if nothing happened?" This is when she wept, and it broke my heart.

I'd seen her this mad with my brother before over getting detention at school for cheating on a test. She's thrown a full set of deck cards at him—only thing within reach at the moment—but never at me. It turns out the Principal called my house, leaving a message on the machine. Mom heard it and came after me, only to realise I'd taken off.

"I can't believe my son would do this. We haven't raised you to be a rebel, River," and with that said, she stopped talking to me.

Dad tried to put out the fire but came up empty-handed. Abuela was the diplomat. If she couldn't make it right, no one could.

"I'm sorry, Dad. I messed up big time, but I had my reasons." I'm unable to meet his gaze, so I look down at my boots and remember the moment I was kicking stones by the fountain before holding her hand. Then another moment—our last together—seeps into my memory, brimming my senses. Her lips were so full, so sweet. She was so nervous, and I was spinning. My head in a daze, all I craved was more time with her.

"Get the boy some ice for that nasty eyebrow cut." Abuela enters the kitchen with Mom beside her.

Dad puts a hand on Mom's shoulder as he passes by her on his way to the fridge. She squeezes it and reciprocates with a nudge—progress.

"Can you see well, mijo?" Abuela asks me, and I think she winked at me.

"Yes, Abu. All is well. Just a little swollen, that's it," I shrug, trying to downplay that I'm bleeding.

"Your dad broke his nose once over a school fight. He can only breathe through one nostril. That's why he snores like a freight train!" Abu chuckles, and my dad grows crimson.

"Mamá! Don't you give River more ideas, por favor." He's grinning though, as he hands me the icepack.

"So, why were you in a fight? Was it over a girl, son?" Dad hits the target with razor-sharp accuracy. I wonder how, though.

"He was defending his girlfriend," Josh says, entering the kitchen and my blood boils.

I have all eyes set on me and my swollen eyebrow, proof of my insanity, and all I can do is gasp and gurgle a few nonsensical sounds at such a comment.