At the end of detention, I was fixing my things in my locker when Delcan walked up to me, some type of smirk on his face. Whenever he was giving me the smirk he was right now, I could see that he’d done something he probably has done something wrong - and was proud of it.
“What now?” I asked.
He shrugged, still smiling slightly. “I got a senior’s number.”
I stopped everything I was doing and looked at him.
“Dude,” I said, hoping that my voice would stay at level. Of course, it didn’t, and it came out like I was shocked - which I shouldn’t be. “Isn’t that cheating?”
Delcan crossed his arms over his chest, looking up at me. “So...you dating Haven while you’re dating me is called what, Ezra?”
I didn’t respond to him.
Because both of us knew the answer by now.
As I was walking outside with Delcan a few feet away from me, he’d reached my side before I had time to even notice one of my dad’s cars in the parking lot.
“Hey,” he said.
“You can cheat on me if you want,” I told him, not truthfully meaning it. “It’s fair game.”
Delcan stopped. “Why would I do that?”686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH7vuLDUWRj
“It’s fair.”
“Life’s not fair.”
I looked at him for a while before responding. Delcan didn’t have to tell me the senior’s name, because I knew who it was (it only gave me two options, especially if we’re considering sports). I didn’t care too much though, because that senior flirts with everyone. Seriously, I’ve caught him trying to ask Evelyn and me out before.
But Delcan did have rights to cheat on me. Of course, I didn’t want him to, but I knew there was nothing I could do when it came to controlling him. “Do what you want,” I said to him, Delcan’s smile appeared slowly on his face before he started talking.
“I will,” he said. “But Ethan Gonzales really isn’t my type. Plus, I kinda like hating your girlfriend.”
My smile appeared before I could stop it. “She really isn’t that bad,” I told him.
“Still hate her.”
“Why?”
He paused before responding to his answer. I saw this look of hesitation in his face like he was holding back some type of feelings, but he was good at putting another emotion over it. “She’s just bratty, and stereotypical, and needy, and obsessed with herself and all-”
“I get it,” I interrupted.
Delcan raised his eyebrows. “Tell me you’ve never wanted to break up with her before,” he said.
I have, several times. But not because Haven is as needy as she appears to others, but because my feelings for her aren’t real. Then again, she’d probably kill me after what happened at that Halloween party.
“What makes you think I will?” I asked, making sure my voice sounded like it was a challenge.
Delcan shrugged. “At least she-”
“EZRA.” A voice loud and clear, and booming interrupted me looking at Delcan. I turned to look at the expensive car that my dad just had to pick me up with, meaning that Eric actually did sell me out.
That ⟴.
My dad wasn’t really giving me eye contact like I was with him, but he was looking at Delcan, watching him as if he was some type of rodent that snuck into the house. I blinked back the idea to turn and looked to Delcan, and just walked to the car, not able to tell him goodbye. Dad gave me a dirty look before unlocking the car door and letting me inside.
He drove off, but not before giving Delcan one last evil glare.
In return, I bit back the smile as Delcan flipped him off.
“I told you not to talk to the Oakwood rodents,” Dad said, making a sharp turn that was unnecessary.
Rodents. “I don’t really have a choice,” I said, making sure I sounded annoyed. “Our principal made sure we got the new students comfortable before anything else. I was just one of the lucky ones.”
Dad scrunched up his nose in disgust. “Nasty school,” he spat. “And that boy, he’s probably the worst one.”
“Why?” I asked, not able to catch myself from sounding defensive.
There was a red light up ahead, and Dad stopped the car before looking over to me. “He’s the result of a teenage pregnancy,” he told me. I didn’t pretend to be shocked at all, because I was. Delcan never told me that. “That kid gets away with whatever he wants because his parents own money, and his choices with others are dumb.”
Choices. I knew what that meant.
“That’s horrible,” I said, trying to sound mean.
Why didn’t he ever tell me?
“Ya know, Ezra.” The light turned green, and I tried to act relaxed in my seat. “Your mom and that Mexican-” Cuban. “Child’s older sister used to be close friends. Theresa was always such a slut.”
I looked at him, my eyes widened. He didn’t see it luckily, but I knew he was happy with his words. “She-yeah, I guess so.”
“Dating a man who was older than her the second she turned eighteen,” he paused before talking again. “It’s dumb. They don’t even know how to raise their own children.”
Not like you’re doing any better, I thought to myself. Living in constant fear is a lot worse than living with parents who are younger than others. But I couldn’t defend Delcan’s mom, because it wasn’t my place, she wasn’t my mother, and I’m sure she knew what people said about her.
Then again, Haven’s mom wasn’t even twenty when she gave birth to Angelica.
“Yeah,” I said.
When I noticed that Dad had driven past our house, I sat up in my seat and looked at him.
“Hey, Dad?”
Dad smirked. “Son,” he said. “Since you decided to sneak around and come home late, you understand the punishment you’ll get.”
The gym. We were going to the gym.
I was fortunate out of all of the people in my family, because my punishment would usually be extra hours at the gym my family owned (not really owned, but sort of did. My parents had enough money to share the ownership to allow us to go in whenever we wanted) that we would always go to. My punishments there were usually a few runs around the gym, and then running at my full speed for thirty minutes straight, and then making 50 free-throws, ending with 100 push ups and sit ups.
The first ten times, the punishment was painful and impossible to complete, but I’ve gotten used to it over the years, especially because unlike Eric and Emmanuel, my punishment never changes.
“But let’s add something,” Dad challenged.
I looked over to him. “What do you mean?”
“Tell me where you were and what you were doing, and you don’t even have to worry about the extra punishment,” he said.
Crap. I made up a quick lie on the spot, feeling myself blush for bringing Haven into it. “Haven and I were, um...spending some time together. And I guess that I lost track of time or something, but I didn’t notice. I’m sorry.”
The whole point of that lie was to make my voice sounded like I was doing more than spending time with Haven, and my dad bought it. He laughed, slapping his thigh from apparently laughing so hard. “⟴ Ezra,” he laughed. “Getting your game on, huh?”
I nodded, turning to the window. “Yeah,” I muttered.
Dad chuckled to himself, but I knew that he’d dropped that extra punishment I could’ve gotten. But the entire mood changed (for me, at least) whenever he’d brought Delcan back into the conversation. “Just don’t hang around that fag anymore,” he said to me. “Nothing comes out of teen pregnancies.”
My mind went back to when he’d first called Delcan that, and I felt the anger burn up inside of me. He never cared about others opinions, and he didn’t care to tell me that those words were wrong and offensive. He didn’t care that Delcan was actually Cuban, or that the words he was saying were offensive - he never would.
But what made me even more outraged - surprisingly - was that he’d say all of the same things to me.
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