Page 41 of Through My Window
“Stop what?”
“Don’t say things like that, you’ll make me get my hopes up about him again.”
Dani puts two fingers together and slides them across her mouth like a zipper. “Well, I’ll shut up, then.”
I throw popcorn at her. “Don’t be angry.”
She makes signs with her hands as if she can’t speak.
“Are you serious, Dani?” I throw a piece of popcorn at her, and she catches it and eats it, but she still doesn’t reply. “Dani . . .Dani, talk to me.”
She puts her arms across her chest. “I’m just telling you the truth and that bothers you. Ares is hot. He’s got money. He’s smart, and he can have any girl at his feet. And, even so, you’re telling me that he would be with someone he doesn’t even like? So, maybe he doesn’t want anything serious, but hedoeslike you, Raquel.”
“Okay!”
Dani puts her hair over her shoulder with a smug grin. “Now let’s go to sleep. The last thing we want is to be tired on the first day of school. It’s our last year, we have to make an impact.”
“We’re always the same. We live in a small town, Dani.”
“You love to take the fun out of life.” Dani gets up and puts the popcorn bowl on the floor.
We settle into the bed and get under the covers. Turning off the lamp on the bedside table, we both sigh. After a brief silence, Ares’s beautiful, genuine smile invades my mind.
“Stop thinking about him, Raquel,” Dani says knowingly.
“No one has ever made me feel this way.”
“I know.”
“And it hurts. It hurts that he doesn’t want to take me seriously. It makes me feel like I’m not good enough.”
“But you are. Don’t let him make you doubt that. You were right to push him away, Raquel. It would have been much more painful later on.”
I take a lock of my hair and start playing with it. Dani rolls over, and we lie there, facing each other. “Dani, I like him a lot.”
“You don’t have to say it, I know you.”
“The way I feel about him makes me want to cling to any shred of hope.”
“Don’t complicate your life by thinking so much. If he doesn’t know how to value you, someone else will come along who will.”
“Do you really think so? It sounds so impossible to find someone like Ares.”
“Maybe not someone like him, but someone who makes you feel like he does.”
I doubt it so much. “Well, it’s time to sleep.”
“Good night, shorty.”
She has always called me that because she’s taller than me.
“Good night, crazy girl.”
FIFTEEN
The Gift
My first day as a senior in high school begins with bright sunshine and fresh breezes. I rub my eyes as I shuffle inside the building, and I realize it’s going to be hard getting used to waking up early every day again. I already miss summer vacation, and it’s only day one.
