Page 46 of The Slayer
“Jesus.” Wyatt rolled his eyes and gave Chuito a look. “See what happens when you don’t learn how to celebrate? You’ll turn into this grouchy asshole.”
“I’ve done plenty of partying in my life,” Chuito assured him. “I think I’m good.”
“You’re coming out, Chuito,” Wyatt growled at him. “I ain’t giving ya a choice ’bout it.”
“Fine,” Chuito agreed, because Wyatt was riding high over this win, and just like he didn’t want to ruin Marcos’s day, Chuito didn’t want to ruin Wyatt’s either. “Let me make one phone call. Then we can go out.”
“Okay, then.” Wyatt hit his shoulder and gave him another smile. “Make it quick!”
Chuito walked to the bedroom and closed the door, hearing Wyatt snap at Jules. “Go now, Ju Ju. ’Cause I know it’ll take you an hour to get changed. Close the dang laptop and go get ready. It’s already late. The sun’ll be up before we get out of this room.”
Chuito fell down on the bed and looked at his phone. There were no messages from Alaine. No phone calls. So he texted her instead.
You up?
She wrote back almost instantly despite how late it was.
Yes.
He called her, and Alaine answered on the second ring. “I didn’t want to call you. I reckoned you were busy.”
“Yeah, it’s been crazy,” he agreed and then felt a flush of embarrassment on the back of his neck as he asked, “Did you watch?”
“Of course.” He could hear her excitement over the phone. “It was amazing, Chu. I cried.”
“Why’d you cry?”
“I’m just happy for you.” She sniffed, her voice choked with emotion. “Been crying all dang night.”
“Oh, mami, no crying,” he said with a laugh. “It’s not that big a deal.”
“I’m proud of you,” she went on. “You did it. You won. Was your mother proud?”
“Yeah.” He thought of Marcos again. “They were all proud. They want me to stay in Garnet. Win ten more titles.”
Alaine gasped on the other end of the line before she asked, “Are you gonna do it?”
He rolled on his side and propped his cheek in his hand, even if the action made his head hurt worse. “I told them I would.”
“Are you gonna move out of our place?”
“Why would I do that?” he asked with a frown. “I like our prison.”
She laughed despite the tears in her voice. “It’s not a prison.”
“I’d rather be in prison with you than partying with Wyatt, Jasper, and Jules,” Chuito admitted, feeling like he was having the first sane conversation of the night. Now Alaine was his normal, and the rest of the world felt intrusive and loco. He wasn’t real sure when that happened, but it had and he clung to it as he asked, “What’d you eat for dinner?”
“Frozen pizza.”
He laughed. “That’s not good. You need me to cook for you.”
“I still got black beans in the fridge from before. No rice, though.” She sighed. “I wonder what I could put it with instead of rice.”
“Go buy rice.” He frowned. “Go buy rice before it goes bad. Don’t waste food. You always waste food. Did you eat the pork?”
“I got a little left.”
“Ay Dios mio.” Chuito rolled his eyes. “Eating frozen pizza when you got a whole fridge full off leftovers. I love you, mami, but you aresowhite.”
