Page 39 of Remember Me?

He rears his head back to his mom, waiting for her to explain herself.

"Let her live her life, Mijo. You are going to confuse her. She has had a rough few months." Rosa tisks, slapping the dish towel over her shoulder.

He wanted to tell his mom that he, too, had been through a few hard months with Physical Therapy and his injury.

After all that, being with Melody was like being able to breathe for the first time in years.

He wanted to tell her that he and Melody had, in fact, had an amazing few weeks together.

He had never seen Melody smile as much as she had, and knowing he was the reason behind her smile was… everything.

But he can't say any of that, especially with his mom looking at him like he was just caught taking a cookie from the baking sheet before dinner.

"I know you have always liked Melody, Mijo, but she is an adult now and needs to have adult friends and do adult things. It's not about you anymore." She says, absolutely gutting him.

"I don't know what to say to that, Ma." He grunts. "I just wanted to get some ice cream." Avoiding the question in her eyes as he sits on the barstool, dejected.

He stares at the crumbs on the counter, moving them around with his hand. He can feel his mom's heavy stare, questioning his thoughts and his actions. He really doesn't know what to tell her or what she wants to hear.

"I already told Jen not to come." He admits, still not looking at his mom. She will see too much.

"But why? She is a good girl, and she likes you! And if you go without her, you will be the third wheel."

Marisol pipes in, "Nope.” She pops her p a little too aggressively. “I don't think Graham will be the one who’s the third wheel." She takes a huge chunk of apple into her mouth.

Turning their heads quickly, both stared at Marisol expectantly.

"What are you talking about, Marisol." His eyes assessed her shrewdly. What does she know? Did Melody tell her anything? Maybe she wants people to know. Maybe this is their chance. If Melody had told Marisol, then maybe they can actualy stop this pretense.

"Oh, would you look at the time? I have to go get Theo. I guess you will be the third wheel, after all. Let's go." Marisol gathered her belongings and quickly pulled Graham out of the house before his mom could ask any questions.

Once they are in the car, Marisol is behind the wheel.

"Ok, spill. What the fuck is going on, Graham." She asks. Tapping on the wheel, waiting for an answer. "You're chasing Melody around like a puppy who wants to play catch. And I am going to be super honest here, it looks like Melody is enjoying the chase. But what the hell is happening right now?"

His shoulders fall. It looks like Melody is still hiding their relationship. It was stupid of him to assume she would be the one to admit it to the world. But damn, he thought they were doing a great job with discretion.

It was probably his fault, though. He can't seem to leave her alone in public. He is failing miserably. Choosing to stay silent, he slides down the seat, legs splayed open, head leaning back, trying to relax his body and thoughts.

"You're seriously not gonna say anything?" She probes again.

"What do you want me to say? I have had a crush on Melody since I first realized girls didn't have cooties. It’s the summer, I’m bored. She's hot; of course, I'm gonna chase her."

She looks at him then, scrutinizing his words.

"Who knows, maybe one day she will let me catch her. Then we can really start to play, " he says with a smirk.

"Ugh, you're so gross." She scoffs.

"You asked. I answered"

She huffs out in frustration, "Boys are so annoying." Turning up her playlist, she lets it go and sings completely off-key at the top of her lungs.

Theo lives on the other side of town, in a shadier part of town. Their friendship has always been weird, but we no longer question it. When Marisol pretty much adopted him in second grade, we didn't say anything either. He was a scraggly kid, bruised up, dirty clothes, always hungry. We knew there were problems at home.

Marisol would bring him with her every day after school, and Mami would feed him dinner and give him hand-me-downs so he always had clean clothes. His mom left their family when he was really young, so he was pretty much raising himself.

Right at the edge of the trailer park, Marisol slows down. Theo is already waiting for her. He doesn't even remember seeing her pick up the phone to tell him she was there. He silently gets into the back seat, with a head nod for him and a touch on the shoulder for Marisol, and then they are off to the movies.

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