Page 51 of Chula
The doctor orders some kinds of tests to be run and medicines to be given, but I don’t care what he’s talking about right now.
“Can I … I have my phone?” They stripped me out of my clothes to check me over, and my phone was in the pocket of my hoodie. The nurse nods and walks over, pulling it out and passing it to me. I dial the only person I can think of. Damion.
“Luna? Marco called me. Where do they have you?”
“At the hospital,” I whisper.
“Are you okay?” Am I okay? I don’t really know. I don’t feel okay. I’m sure I don’t look okay either. I start to cry, and the nurse takes the phone from me and talks to Damion. She tells him where we are and that he needs to come down to pick me up because I’m going to be released once this is over.
I don’t remember when she passed the phone back to me. I don’t remember shit after I lie down on the bed and curl into a fucking ball.
Chapter 22
Marco
These motherfuckers have dragged me around this damn precinct, and the more they do it, the more I want to snap their fucking necks. Talking to the fucking detectives and shit only serves to piss me off. I want to know how Luna is. I want to know that she’s okay, and until they fucking tell me, or I can hear her voice, I’m not telling them shit.
“This is for your own good, Mr. Vasquez.”
“And letting me talk to my girl is for yours,” I snap at the last one they have me in front of.
“You’re going to tell us what happened if I call her?” I nod my head and watch as he picks up the phone, and I rattle off her number. It isn’t her who answers the phone because I hear him ask for her before he says just a second. He holds the phone out to me, and I grab it with my cuffed hands and bring it to my ear.
“Chula?”
“Marco?” she whispers through her tears. I can hear her crying.
“It’s okay, Chula. Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
“I had to get stitches, but I’m okay. Are you?”
“I’m fine. I’m about to tell them what happened, but I needed to know you were okay first. Is Damion there?” I ask her.
“Yeah, he’s here.”
“Good. He’s going to take care of you, okay? Don’t give him any shit until we clear this up,” I tell her.
“You’re … you’re coming back, right?”
“I’m always coming back, Chula. Always.”
“Okay. I love you, Marco.”
“I love you too. I need to go,” I tell her, even though I don’t want to hang up the phone. I want to stay on this phone forever and just listen to her voice. The line goes dead, and I pass the phone back to the cop before I start talking. He flips on his little recorder and records everything I say. I start from the beginning when we pulled up at the apartment and tell them everything that happened until I woke up to that bastard almost raping her.
“So you shot him?”
“He was about to rape my girl. Yeah, I shot his ass,” I tell him.
“This doesn’t look good, you know that, right? We have five bodies and only you as the shooter.”
“I didn’t shoot them all.”
“Then who did?”
“That’s your job, isn’t it? I told you what I did.”
“And you expect me to believe that you didn’t shoot the others?”
