Page 62 of The Slayer
“No. I was kidding.”
“It didn’t sound like you were kidding. Did you talk to him?”
“No, I avoided him.” Chuito looked up from his phone and asked, “You think I want to talk to your father?”
“I would have introduced you,” she whispered. “I couldn’t find you.”
“It’s fine. I don’t want to meet him. He’d hate me even if I wasn’t living next door to you. As it is, he’d probably smoke my ass if it wasn’t against his religion.”
“Why would he hate you?” Alaine asked, knowing it was wishful thinking on her part that her father would see all the wonderful things about Chuito like she did. “If he got to know you—”
Chuito gave her a look before she could finish, saying without words exactly why he thought her father would hate him.
“He’s getting better.” Alaine tried to convince herself of it too. “He gave me money for graduation. Actual, spendable money.”
“Yeah, how much?” Chuito asked as he cast her another look.
“A hundred dollars.”
“Carajo. A hundred dollars? That’s it?”
“That’s a lot for him.”
“He drives a brand-new BMW,” Chuito started as he held up his hand and clenched his fist. “He has money.”
“He hasn’t given me anything in four years. Not even on Christmas. He invited me back to church.”
“Nice of him.” Chuito rubbed a hand over his forehead and took a deep breath. “That’s great. I’m happy.”
“You don’t look happy,” she whispered, feeling suddenly melancholy. “It’s baby steps with him. Just him coming was something. It’s not easy for him. His world is small. He hasn’t gotten to see anything outside his bubble, but it’s a start.”
“Okay, mami,” Chuito said with a sigh.
“Maybe you should come to church with me. Let him get to know you.”
“No.” Chuito shook his head at that. “You go. I don’t need to go. They’re your people.”
She glared at him. “We’re the same people. Why does everything have to be divided? How are we that different?”
“When a Catholic church opens here, I’ll go.”
“Church is church.”
“No.” Chuito actually shuddered, as if the idea was so foreign he couldn’t bear thinking of it. “For all I know, they’re picking up snakes in that big, wooden building. Just looking at that church scares me.”
She gaped. “I’m from that church. That’s my father’s church.”
“I know,” he said with a pointed look. “That’s why it scares me. Wyatt hides from your father. I watched him sit outside and hide. Wyatt’s the biggest redneck in Garnet. If they hate him—” He snorted. “Coño. No.”
“It’s not scary.” She took a deep breath and remembered the card from Chuito in her purse. She didn’t want to fight tonight, so she walked up to him and whispered, “You think I handle snakes?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
Alaine reached out and touched his arm. She ran her fingers over his forearm, knowing the snake tattoo he had hiding under his shirt. “Maybe I do.”
“Mami, no.” He pulled his arm free of her grasp. “It’s late.”
“You said you’d dance with me until the sun came up,” she said as she arched an eyebrow at him.
