Page 9 of Sleeping with the Frenemy

That was why he couldn’t be completely happy about Sofi’s return. He’d been doing his best to get over her and now here she was back in his life. He had too many things going on to add her into the mix. All of his best-laid plans and good intentions went right out the window the minute Sofi was around. It had always been that way. From the moment she’d shown up in this very office and blew his fifteen-year-old mind.

“Yo no sé qué te pasa, Leo.” His father shook the history test in his face.

Leo could see the bright red F scrawled at the top all too clearly. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Sorry isn’t enough. You’re always sorry, but you keep doing it. We took you to the doctor’s. We got you medicine for your ADHD. We help you with your homework, but we can’t take tests for you too.”

“I know,” Leo told his father. He stared at the table in front of him. His shoulders tried to push against the guilt weighing him down, but the guilt was stronger and heavier. “I tried my best,” Leo said and it was the honest truth.

“Leo, you’re a smart kid. You really are. There’s no reason for you to be bringing home grades like this.”

“I know,” he said again, but this time it was a lie. Everyone tried to tell him that he was smart, but if his grades didn’t reflect that then they were obviously wrong. Leo couldn’t be smart when he struggled so much to focus in school and couldn’t remember the things he did learn.

“I don’t know what to do for you. I don’t know how else to help you, but we can’t go through this again this year. You’re in high school now. These grades are too important. You need to qualify for scholarships and with these grades you can’t play on any teams. They won’t even let you stay in band or choir.”

The hopeless frustration in his father’s voice was the worst. Leo only heard that particular tone when Papi spoke to him. None of his other siblings caused it to make an appearance, only him. He hated disappointing his parents. He’d prayed so many times that he could be as smart as Eddie, as confident as Cristian, as capable as Junior, or that his sweet and innocent personality made everyone overlook his failures like with Kamilah. But no. He was just Leo, the stupid Vega sibling who drove everyone crazy with his endless energy and was always getting in trouble for something or other.

But that was going to change now. Leo was going to change. He was going to do whatever it took to make his dad proud of him and not ashamed. Leo opened his mouth to tell him so.

Suddenly, a wave of girly giggles poured into the back office where he sat in front of Papi’s desk.

Leo raised his head as his sister stepped into the office. He couldn’t see her since he had his back to the open doorway, but he heard her steps.

“I’m home, Papi,” his sister announced unnecessarily.

His dad’s face changed immediately from a frown to a smile. “Hola, mi vida. How was school?”

“Good, I made a new friend in French class.”

“So I see.”

“This is Sofia. Her family is from Puerto Rico too, but she just moved here from Florida because her uncle was traded to the Cubs.”

At that Leo’s curiosity was peaked. Sports were the one thing he excelled at, besides music, and baseball was his favorite, especially the Cubs. He turned in his seat to see this niece of a professional baseball player.

The first thing he noticed was her height. The girl stood a few inches taller than his sister and, at thirteen, Kamilah was already about half a head taller than their five-two mother.

The second thing he noticed were her eyes. They were so dark they appeared black. He couldn’t tell the iris from the pupil, but somehow they shined and sparkled. Until that moment he’d thought the termbright-eyedmeant someone with light eyes, but she proved differently. Just looking at her, he could tell that her brain was working a mile a minute, just like his. He would’ve bet a hundred dollars that the simple quantity of thoughts in her brain could overwhelm her just like his did.

Finally, his brain said.Someone who gets us.

“What are you looking at, pretty boy?”

He felt such an immediate connection to her that it took him a minute to realize she was talking to him. “What?” Leo asked trying to catch up, like always.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that? Have you never seen a Black girl before?”

The question was so off-putting that he struggled to answer. Of course she wasn’t the first Black girl he’d ever seen. There were plenty of Black Americans and Afro-Latinos in his neighborhood not to mention in his own family. Why would she even ask him that? Leo’s brow furrowed.

“I don’t know what your problem is, but you need to fix your face before I fix it for you,” she said.

“Leo, stop being a jerk to my friend,” Kamilah demanded.

Leo opened his mouth to defend himself, but his dad cut him off before he could.

“Leo, go clean the walk-in.”

Leo’s jaw dropped. “But—”

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