Signs Point to Yes

by Sandy Hall

  Traffic was light as they set off, and they got to the state line in no time. “We’re going to have to stop for gas sooner rather than later,” Teo said, looking at the gauge.

  “Yeah, and we can switch drivers because I can’t take any more of your old-lady slowness,” Margo said.

  “I don’t drive slow,” Ravi said.

  “I’m not letting you drive,” Jane said.

  “I’ll take over. I promise to be careful,” Margo said before Jane could object.

  Teo pulled the car up by the gas tanks. The rest stop was low on amenities—just restrooms and vending machines.

  Margo and Ravi were ready to go a few minutes later, but Teo was nowhere to be found. Jane came back out with her hands full of vending-machine snacks.

  “Where’s Teo?” Margo asked as Jane slid into the backseat and dumped her snacks in the middle.

  “He’s not out here?” Jane asked, worried enough by his disappearance that she didn’t even complain about Ravi’s stealing the front seat.

  “We thought he was with you,” Margo said.

  “Stay here and I’ll go look,” Jane said.

  She found Teo around the back of the rest stop, looking out over a ravine with a brook at the bottom.

  “Don’t jump,” Jane said.

  “I can’t believe you came to rescue me,” Teo said, ignoring Jane’s lame attempt at a joke. “You didn’t have to, but you did.”

  “Are we talking about right now?”

  “You know what I’m talking about.”

  “It wasn’t really a rescue.”

  “It was still amazing, and, I don’t know, it’s like you rescued me from myself.” He shook his head. “And you did it in a thunderstorm.”

  “It’s not a big deal.”

  He turned to face her. “How about you accept the compliment, Jane? You’re awesome and smart. There aren’t very many people in the world who would do something like this for me.”

  “Well, there are at least three.”

  “Yeah, I feel like we haven’t covered that properly. Why is Margo here?”

  “She’s the money.”

  “Makes sense.” Teo looked thoughtful. “So Ravi came because he’s Ravi, and Margo came because she’s the money, but why did you come, Jane?”

  Jane shrugged. “You know why I came.”

  “Your love for road trips?”

  “Yeah, let’s go with that.”

  “Come on. I need to hear you say it.”

  “Fine,” Jane said, shoulders slumping. “I couldn’t deal with the idea that you weren’t coming home. Even if you weren’t serious about it. Even if you were just blowing off steam. If I didn’t come see you and try to change your mind, I would always wonder if I could have made a difference.”

  “You could have called,” he said, grinning.

  “I did call! You had your phone off!” Jane said, throwing her hands in the air.

  “I know, I know.”

  “Have you turned it back on?”

  Teo slipped his hand into hers. “I’m not there yet. That would be facing reality.”

  Jane nodded.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Teo said.

  “Then I’m glad I’m here, too.”

  “What am I going to say to my mom?”

  “I don’t know,” Jane said.

  “What would the Magic 8 tell me?” Teo asked, pretending to hold it in his free hand.

  “Well, ignoring the fact that you haven’t asked a yes-or-no question, I don’t know. But I have it in the car.”

  “You brought it along?”

  “I didn’t know whether I might need a quick consultation on the road.”

  “And did you?”

  Jane shook her head. “I’ve needed it less and less lately. Things haven’t seemed as daunting for the past few weeks.”

  “Why do you think that is?”

  “I could hazard a guess.”

  Teo smiled, and Jane decided not to wait even one more minute. She stood on her tiptoes just wanting to peck his lips, but it quickly turned into more.

  Jane wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but she was surprised by Teo’s hunger. She was so wrapped up in his chin, his lips, his skin, and the way they were all working together and making her feel that she forgot to respond for a second.

  Teo was about to pull away because seconds felt like minutes when the person being kissed wasn’t responding. But then Jane put a hand on his cheek, feeling a little bit of stubble, and smiled into Teo’s mouth.

  It felt like all the tension, frustration, and attraction that had been building between them all summer was bursting out of their pores in a shower of sparks.

  Ravi chose that moment to come around the side of the building. “Ah! My eyes. Someone pass me the brain bleach.”

  “I’m sorry about him,” Teo said, pulling away with a sigh.

  “It’s okay. I think I’m starting to come to terms with his existence,” Jane said as they walked in Ravi’s direction. Teo took her hand and didn’t drop it until they got to the car and he was distracted by the three different varieties of Fritos she had purchased.

  She’d probably pick Fritos over Teo, too, she told herself.

  She also told herself that it was well worth sitting in the backseat of your own car if it meant you had the chance to lean your head on the shoulder of the boy you liked while you drove home from rescuing him from himself.

  It was a complicated thought, but one Jane stood by.

  She slept on and off, waking up and smiling at the feel of Teo’s arm around her. No matter how bad things might get at home, for either one of them, she was glad to have this time.

  Even the low hum of Margo and Ravi’s incessant arguing—about everything from gas mileage to politics to movies—felt right.

  Ravi’s phone rang.

  “Don’t answer it!” Jane cried, yanking herself out of her stupor and sitting up.

  Too late.

  “Hi, Mommy.”

  “He calls his mom ‘Mommy’ on the regular?” Jane asked Teo.

  Teo nodded.

  Jane could hear the murmur of Ravi’s mom’s voice on the other end.

  “I’ll be home soon. I’m at Teo’s.”

  His mom’s even tone turned up a notch.

  “Oh. Ah. Yeah. We’re—” Ravi didn’t finish that sentence because his mother started yelling.

  “Fine. We’re about two hours away.”

  More yelling.

  “Yes. I’ll meet you at the Connellys’.” Ravi hung up. “So everyone is at your house,” he said, turning to Jane. “And they know where we’ve been.”

  “How did they find out we were gone?” Jane asked.

  “They checked Margo’s credit card.”

  “Yeah, I figured that would happen,” Margo said. “I just didn’t want to ruin the fun.”

  The rest of the car ride was quiet as all of them prepared themselves for the inevitable shitstorm that awaited them.

  In what seemed like no time at all, they were parked in Jane’s driveway.

  “I guess we need to do this,” she said, getting out of the car along with Margo and Ravi.

  Teo got out, too, and hugged Ravi. “Thanks for coming, man,” he said.

  “Anytime. Except maybe next time we go on a road trip, Jane doesn’t have to be involved.”

  “Jane’s gonna be involved. You have to come to terms with Jane’s involvement.”

  “Fine. But I don’t like her.”

  “You don’t have to,” Teo said. “In fact, if you did, we’d probably have to have some words.”

  Jane took a deep breath.

  Teo squeezed her shoulder. “We got this.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Jane said.

  “I hate getting into trouble,” Margo said.

  “It’s okay—at least you get to go back to college,” Teo said. “I’ve been gone three days without talking to my mom even once. She’s probably going to kill me.”

&
nbsp; “We’re all definitely in trouble,” Jane said as the front door opened. First Ravi’s mom came out, and then Connie. Jane and Margo’s parents stood in the doorway.

  Ravi’s mom grabbed his ear. “What were you thinking?” she asked.

  “Teo needed my help!”

  She shook her head and dragged him to her car. Ravi waved sadly from the passenger seat as she drove away.

  “Teo! Oh my God, Teo,” Connie said. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

  “Yeah, Ma. I’m here,” he said.

  She kissed every inch of his face and then smacked him in the arm and started speaking Spanish so fast that not even Teo could keep up.

  “Yeah, I gotta go,” Teo said to Jane and Margo.

  “We’ll talk,” Jane said, wishing she could kiss him good-bye.

  “I’ll call you,” Teo said.

  “No, he won’t,” Connie said.

  But as Teo and his mom walked down the street, he looked back and held up his hand in an I’ll call gesture. Jane believed him. He’d find a way, no matter what Connie said.

  Chapter 26

  Connie and Teo went through the back door. Buck was leaning on the kitchen counter with a half-eaten sandwich next to him.

  “So how is everyone?” he asked. “Anything I can do to help?”

  Both Connie and Teo glared at him.

  “Okay, well, if anyone needs me, I’ll be upstairs,” Buck said, backing out of the kitchen so fast that he left his sandwich behind.

  “All right, let’s get this over with,” Connie said in Spanish.

  “Oh, now you want to speak Spanish?” Teo asked in English.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “We used to speak Spanish all the time, and then we stopped. You’re not even teaching the girls to speak it.”

  Her mouth dropped open, but she recovered. “That has nothing to do with this.”

  “Of course it does,” Teo said.

  “What were you thinking?” his mom asked, ignoring his previous remark.

  “I was thinking that you never told me the truth, and I need to know the truth,” Teo answered. “I was thinking that you don’t listen to me. And that you’re still not listening to me.”

  “You need to trust your mother is what you need to do,” she said, her voice rising.

  “Maybe you should be quieter unless you want the girls to wake up,” Teo said.

  “I will speak as loudly as I want in my own home!” she yelled. “I will not be reprimanded by my son, who has done nothing but lie to me.”

  “I had no choice!” Teo yelled back.

  “What am I going to do with you, Teo?” she asked, putting her hands up in surrender.

  He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, leaning against the kitchen island.

  “You must have something else to say for yourself. How did this happen?”

  “Jane found him for me. I’d been sort of idly looking for my dad for years, but I never found anything. Then Jane learned about my search, and the next thing I knew, she had all this information on Mateo Rodriguez.”

  “But why wouldn’t you ask me?”

  “Seriously?”

  “Of course.”

  “I would have asked you. I did ask you. But for so long you told me we were happy. You told me we didn’t need anyone else, just you and me. Every time I would ask you about my dad, you would say we were enough for each other. Me and you.”

  “We were happy—”

  “Mom, please,” Teo said. “I gotta get this out.”

  “Sorry.” She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and grabbed for a napkin.

  “And then you married Buck. All I could think was that if we were so happy, then why did we need Buck? It sort of festered for a few years. I didn’t understand it or even acknowledge it, but it was there—this weird feeling of anger mixed with rejection.”

  “I never meant to make you feel that way,” she whispered.

  “Well, you did.”

  “I am sorry, Teo, that you had to find out about Jose this way.”

  “Sure, now you’re sorry.” Teo’s anger flared like fire, as if he couldn’t contain it anymore. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

  She stepped up to him and put her hands on his arms, looking him straight in the eye.

  “I thought I was protecting you,” she said.

  And that was what sent Teo over the edge.

  “From what?” he asked, pulling himself out of her grasp. “You were keeping me from knowing my family. There’s a whole family for me there. Aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents. I wanted all that my whole life, and you kept them from me.”

  “I was protecting me, too,” she said.

  “How was that fair to me?” he asked, his voice growing louder, all pretense of civility forgotten.

  “I was trying to be fair to both of us. I was young. I didn’t have any money. I worried that they would want you, particularly after Jose passed away.”

  “But they couldn’t just do that.”

  “Maybe they could, and maybe they couldn’t. But the idea that they might was enough to frighten me.”

  “Is that why you weren’t with him before?”

  “I wasn’t with him because I knew he was the kind of man who would want to get married.”

  “And that would have been so terrible?” Teo bit out.

  “I wasn’t looking for a husband when I was nineteen. Jose and I were always tumultuous. I didn’t want to marry him. I liked his edge, but I didn’t want to be with him forever. And if he knew about you, he would have wanted to make it forever.”

  “It was selfish,” Teo said. His tone was even now, but his heart was racing.

  “It was.”

  “And then you were even more selfish when you married Buck and still kept me away from that part of my family.” Teo pounded his chest with his fist.

  “I thought Buck could be our family, yours and mine. His family loves you, his parents and his brother. The girls love you and I love you.”

  “I know, but—” Teo stood up and started pacing. “Maybe that’s not enough. Once you had what you wanted, why couldn’t I have what I wanted?”

  She looked ashamed. “I believed I would have less.”

  “Less what? Now you’ve ended up with so much more, and I have almost nothing.”

  “How do you have less? Do you hear yourself?”

  “I wanted aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. I wanted relatives. And they’re all there waiting for me on that side of the family. I look like them. I sound like them. We go to Buck’s family stuff, and all I can see is how other I am.”

  “I’m other, too.”

  “Yeah. But you’re Buck’s wife, the mother of Buck’s children. I’m this weird familial leech. Like, ‘Oh, look at Connie’s son. I hear he doesn’t even have a father.’”

  “No one is saying that.”

  “But they’re thinking it.”

  “No one is thinking that, Teo. No one is judging you.” Her face was soft and kind, making Teo feel even angrier.

  “It feels like they are,” he said, running his hands through his hair and pacing.

  “That’s something we’ll have to work on together. I wish I could change how you feel, but I can only promise to try to help you.”

  Teo nodded.

  “Unfortunately, we have more pressing things to deal with right now.”

  Teo narrowed his eyes at her.

  “We need to discuss your punishment.”

  “Why am I being punished for your mistakes?”

  “You’re being punished for lying and running away. This could have all been avoided if you’d just talked to me about it.”

  “Why aren’t you getting this? I used to try to talk to you about this all the time. You would shut me down.”

  “So what is it you want from me?”

  “I want to see my family.”

  “I never said you couldn’t.”

 
; “You sort of implied it by not telling me they exist,” he said.

  “I won’t stop you now. Not anymore.”

  “I’m sure you’ll think of ways to keep me from them.”

  “Give me a little bit of credit.”

  He stared at her. “No,” he said simply.

  Then he turned and ran out the back door. He didn’t stop running until he was around the corner.

  Chapter 27

  “Oh God, oh boy, I can’t handle this. We’re going to be in so much trouble,” Margo whispered hysterically in Jane’s ear as they approached the front door.

  “Chill out, Margo,” Jane snapped.

  “I can’t chill out,” Margo said. “I’m way beyond chilling out ever again.”

  Jane sighed.

  “Welcome home, girls,” their mom said in a scarily saccharine voice.

  “Come on,” their dad said, moving aside to let them into the house.

  Their parents escorted them into the dining room, where they took their usual seats at the table.

  “What on earth do you have to say for yourself?” their mother asked Jane.

  “Um, well, here’s the thing…” Jane said, trying to stall, trying to come up with an excuse that would lighten her sentence, even though she knew she would basically be grounded forever, no matter what. She was prepared to take it like an adult, whatever they threw at her. She’d known what she was getting herself into.

  “I’m bisexual,” Margo said.

  Jane turned to her sister, incredulous. “Now you decide to tell them?” Jane blurted out.

  Margo shook her head a little, trying to get Jane to shut up, hoping to spare her by taking the brunt of the explosion.

  “What?” their mom asked.

  “What does that have to do with driving halfway across the country?” their dad asked.

  “Well, nothing, but I wanted you to know that I like guys and girls.”

  “Okay, processing,” their dad said.

  “That’s nice, Margo. I’m glad you feel like you can be honest with us,” their mom said, turning to look at Jane. “Unlike your sister, who thought it was a good idea to drive to Indiana—”

  “Illinois, technically,” Jane said automatically.