Page 43 of The Crush
“Stop this,” our mother warns, giving us both the evil eye. “We are inchurch.”
Despite her warning, Aarón turns to peer at me as if he’s just remembered I’m here, leaning down and lowering his voice so only I can hear. “You two really are so…protectiveof eachother. How cute.”
Panic pours over me, only this time I know it’s not paranoia, and he gives me a victorious smile while the church organ blares to life.Shit. Shit. Shit.
As mass starts, Gabe catches my eye from Eli’s left side and gives me a questioning look, and I try to scream it at him through eye contact alone.He knows. What do I do?
I switch to staring at the back of Daniel’s head, trying to think of ways I can pull him aside, slip him a note, give him a signal. Anything short of yelling his name. But he’s not looked back at me once. In fact, he’s doing a very good impression of someone who is attentively listening. On his best behavior, right when I need him not to be.
Why is Aarón holding this over my head like a new favorite toy? What could he want? What do I even have to offer?
My first opportunity to catch Daniel doesn’t come until everyone is filing back outside, and the second I start to make my way over to him, one of my mother’s friends steps in front of me. She pulls me to the side to ask if I’m interested in babysitting on Friday nights now that I’m home. Another woman overhears and turns to ask the same for Saturdays.
By the time I shake myself free again, Daniel’s already standing in the parking lot. Close enough to be within shouting distance. The only problem is that Aarón is already a lot closer.
Thirty-Four
Daniel
I had lingered but lost sight of Isabel as I left the church, the exiting swarm of people eventually carrying me right along until I was back on the sidewalk out front. Spotting my dad already standing with Isabel’s parents and Gabe across the lot, I decide to say a quick hello, smile, and be on my way. After all, I’m here. I’ve been seen. No need to try to cram everything into one go.
Instead, I stop dead when I see Aarón leaning up against his truck in the first row.
It’s the same one he’s had since high school, bright red and as big as his ego. But it’s not just his truck. It’sthetruck. The same one that I now realize I’d seen in my rearview mirror as I’d watched Isabel get on the bus. The same one that had nagged at my mind until I’d reassured myself that trucks were as common in Texas as cattle.
Maybe I’d just wanted to convince myself I had more time with her.
“Daniel, great to see you out and about so much this last week,” Aarón says coolly, his pace leisurely as he steps away from his truck and starts walking over. “First at the expo, then at Ag Hall, and now at mass. Nothing for eight years, and now you’reeverywhere.”
“Aarón…” I warn him, scanning the departing churchgoers for Isabel.Where is she?
Eventually, he comes to a stop right in front of me, close enough for an easy swing while Eli waits in the wings.
“I feel like I saw you another place, too. It’s on the tip of my tongue.” Aarón crosses his arms against his chest, kicks the toe of his boot into the ground like he’s thinking hard even while aggression fills out every inch of his frame.
There’s a weight at my hip again, and I feel like if I simply reached for it, I’d feel metal in my palm. The instinct only intensifies when a car starts nearby, an old engine backfiring.
“Aarón.” Gabe’s voice materializes at my right. “What are you doing?”
Aarón’s eyes narrow at his youngest brother. “Do you know what he’s been up to? Our town hero?”
Hero.The word wraps around me like barbed wire. When will people stop calling me that? Well…maybe today.
“Let’s take this somewhere else,” I try, extremely aware of all the eyes that could so easily turn our way. “We don’t need to do this here.”
“Oh, I remember the other place I saw you,” Aarón continues, snapping his fingers as he purposefully raises his voice. “You had my baby sister up against your truck in the middle of San Antonio last Sunday.”
As the crowd starts to gather, it’s clear to me now why he’s picked this moment, why he had waited for the perfect opportunity to knock me off a podium I never wanted to climb. The ultimate upperhand in a schoolyard game of gotcha playing out amongst grown men.
“Is that what brought you to church today, Daniel?” he taunts, stepping closer. “Asking forgiveness? For treating my little sister like your whore?”
There is the resounding crack of a fist connecting with a jaw, the sharp pain as the blow reverberates up my arm, the sight of Aarón hitting the ground. Then everything falls spectacularly to pieces.
The Call
There’s a DEA field office on the north side of Laredo, visible whenever you drive on Highway 35.
With a dark-red brick on the first floor and a warm creamy yellow on the four floors above, the building has always looked odd to me, like it’s trying to be both friendly and imposing at the same time.
