Читать книгу Gabi, a Girl in Pieces - Isabel Quintero - Страница 34

October 13

I dropped Beto off at school and told him he better not tell Mom about me ditching first period or else I’d tell her about the girl going out of his window the night before. Then me, Sebastian and Cindy went to Starbucks so we could have some time to speak privately. I couldn’t wait to tell them about what had happened. At first it didn’t go as planned.

“Wait. You kissed him?” asked Cindy.

“Yes!” I said, super excited.

But then she went on and on about how that made me seem desperate and easy and blah blah blah. I wanted to say, “Let’s not talk about desperate and easy,” but that would have made her cry, and I would have felt like shit afterwards.

Sebastian, however, thought it was pretty brave of me to go after what I wanted. He said that that’s what love is all about, not being afraid. Though secretly I know he’s afraid. There was a boy from our rival school, JFK High, who had recently gotten the shit kicked out of him because he had been seen holding hands with his boyfriend last week at the mall. The two boys were arrested but released right away. What is this? 1955? But I didn’t bring that up either.

“Well, it’s not like I planned it. It just happened. It was spur of the moment.” I felt like I had to defend myself. “And where is it written that girls have to wait for boys to kiss them?”

None of us knew how to answer that question because it wasn’t really written anywhere, but we know it’s part of the unspoken set of girl/boy rules.

Cindy said, “Well, I don’t know if it was brave or stupid, but I’m glad you had your first kiss.” I could tell that she was just trying to cover for what she had said earlier but, since she was my best friend, I forgave her.

I didn’t see Eric until our first break. He said, “Where were you this morning? I was looking everywhere for you.” I told him that we had been a little late for school. “Oh. Well, I’m glad I found you.”

“Por cua?” I asked.

“Ummm…we…like…I know you know now that I like you.” At this point, we both got super duper red, and I made some sort of affirmative noise, but no real words would come out of my mouth.

“Weeeellll…I wanted to know…if you…wanted…ummmm…to be…my…you know…girlfriend?”

“What?”

That’s how smooth my response was: “What?” I can’t believe that was the first word to come out of my mouth. But I couldn’t explain to him that I couldn’t believe that he, Eric Ramirez—closet history nerd, watcher of stupid television singing competitions, smoker of marijuana, runner of marathons and super hot guy—would actually like me, Gabriela Hernandez—irresponsible daughter, bad girl in the making (according to my mother), semi-decent to possibly good writer, watcher of marathon runners, eater of carne asada tacos (even on Good Friday), and kinda fat girl.

He looked a little surprised—again. He looked uber-embarrassed and said something like, “Oh…I thought…”

I had to interrupt him. “No! I mean, yes! I do want to be your girlfriend. I was just…I don’t know…but yes. Affirmative. I will be your girlfriend.” And, for some reason, I felt that I had to say that last part in a robot voice. “Sorry, I get nervous and do robot voices.”

I lied! I lied about my robot voice! I just did it because it felt like the most natural thing to do at that moment, and if I admitted to him that I felt that way, it probably would have been weirder. I have so much to learn about relationships and being a (normal) girlfriend.

The rest of the day was great (except for Algebra II of course). I have a boyfriend for the first time ever and all of Santa Maria High School knows it. I am happy. Good night.