Page 61 of As the Rain Falls
“Bullshit.” I cross my arms over my chest. “What’s wrong with Cassandra?”
“It’s just…” He rolls his eyes, shoulders tensing. “It’s her father I can’t stand, you already know that.”
I do. I know all about Antony’s vendetta against Principal Rivera. They’ve never seen eye to eye, especially after he forced Tony to retake his third high school year. Never mind his results were really low and repeating is probably for the best if he ever wants to go to college, which I doubt Tony even does.
But I still disagree.
Cassandra isn’t her father, nor is she deserving of being disliked for a decision she had no say in.
“I mean, I get it. Principal Rivera is an asshole.” I wet my lips. “But what does Cass have to do with him? They’re two very different people,” I emphasize. “She’snothinglike him.”
“Oh, yeah? What is she like?”
“She’s good,” I answer immediately. “Cassandra is a good person. Her family is the problem, but they don’t even treat her fairly either. Her brother drinks all the time, and with that father of hers, I mean…”
Nathaniel would be more caring if he felt differently about his sister. Principal Rivera would do something about his son, instead of letting him run rampant like he does now. I’d do anything just to drive Lucia around again like I used to do.
“You have a soft spot,” Antony recognizes, considering what I’ve just told him. “And I get it, but she’s too quiet, dude. Like, what’s up with her? She’s always just staring at people. It’s weird.”
I know exactly what he’s talking about.
When I was a third year student, Cassandra was this quiet, fragile-looking girl. I don’t think any of it was done purposefully, but she was the kind of kid who instantly rubbed people the wrong way without meaning to. Worst of all, she wanted so badly to be liked, especially by the other girls.
Cassandra sometimes came across as a little desperate. I remember watching her having lunch with Kayla Saint-Louis a few times, waiting for the right time to tell a particular joke. Her words always seemed uncertain, eyes darting nervously until her friend finally laughed.
The relief on her face is something I still can’t forget.A look I could only translate asI’m not as terrible as they think I am.
I watched Cassandra change that year. She shed the last bit of the young little girl she’d once been to figure out her place in the world, trying to exist as a real teenager. I could… relate to her. I’d felt the same, trying to fit in two years before her.
The other kids weren’t kind to her by any means. They didn’t make any room for her to celebrate her own achievements. They watched instead, wary of every move she made, like she wasn’t one of them. Like something about her was wrong and they could just tell.
The thought that Antony might have been one of the people who hated her makes my skin crawl. I can’t stand it. I don’t like to pick on someone without reason.
“What’s wrong with being quiet?” I ask. “I am quiet.”
‘Well, for starters,” he sneers, as if remembering something funny. The tiny gap between his front teeth shows, and it gives him a goofy look. “You heard she’s messing with Caleb?”
I freeze, immediately recognizing the name. “Caleb? As in Caleb Monteiro?”
Part of Well’s extended family. I know the guy well enough.He is a bit of a loser.Attractive, smooth talker.Still a loser though.
“Isn’t he dating the girl who works at the nail salon next to L’Impasse?”
L’Impasseis a nightclub, three blocks away from Silvio’s. The bouncer looks tough, but he will let you in for ten bucks slipped into his palm, if you know what I mean.
I once had to deliver fresh fruits for cocktails recipes to their door and found Lucia passed out in one of their velvet couches. Angelina had been kneeling at her feet with a worried look on her face, shaking her shoulders, trying to wake her up.
“Maria, yeah. She helps her ma’ on the weekends.” Tony rolls his eyes, brushing it off as something unimportant. “That’s what I keep telling Mateo, but he swears to me they’ve broken up.”
I try to remember who Mateo is, but his name isn’t all that familiar to me.
“Isn’t he a loser?” I ask, talking about Caleb.
“A loser?” Antony laughs bitterly. “That guy sells drugs at parties, Beckett. I once caught him trying to dump a pill into Angelina’s cup. The tiny red heart-shaped pills.”
Le Port is dealing with drug problems. Because it’s such a touristic place, it’s hard to track what comes and goes through our borders. The heart-shaped pills have been an issue for at least half a decade. I’m not surprised Caleb is involved; a lot of boys his age also are.
Antony explains, “That shit melts into your drink so easily too, you don’t even notice it. And if Cassandra is dating him—”
