“Midnight.”
I snorted. “Let me rephrase. How late are you willing to stay out past curfew?” I made air quotes around the ridiculous word.
“Curfew is in place for a reason.”
“Rya.”
“I don’t know, Romeo. I’ve never broken curfew before.”
“Never?”
“Nope.”
I sat back, feeling my rebellious side take over. “Break it with me tonight.”
“Why?” She bit her lip.
“Because the idea of breaking the rules with you sounds so much more fun than it does normally.”
“You’re a bad influence.”
“There are worse ones out there.” But she wasn’t wrong. I didn’t have things like curfew. I had no rules. Mama worked too much, and Diego was too busy on the streets. I’d been my own boss for years. “It’ll be fun. Let me show you the good parts of living in Kings River. Maybe it won’t suck so much knowing you can have a good time.” With me.
“Will Rosa be there?”
“Probably,” I realized, instantly deflated. No way was she going to want to go now. “We don’t have to go to the party. We can hang out, just us.” Now that I thought about it, that was a much better idea. Just her. Just me. I was a genius.
Her smile was slow, until eventually it overtook her entire face. Excitement brightened her eyes.
The girl was beautiful.
“I’d like that,” she admitted softly.
She would? Of course, she would. I cleared my throat. “Cool. Then it’s a plan. Did you eat? Say no, even if you did. First place we’re going is Loco Bueno. The best taco stand in the entire city.”
“Crazy Good?” she translated, amused. “And I didn’t eat, actually. I was too nervous about tonight.”
“Nervous about what?” I studied her, probably too intently. Wanting to see the truth in her eyes before she said it.
She looked down at her hands. “A lot of things.”
“Like?”
“Like… not fitting in at the party. Or worse, getting completely ignored. Running into your crazy ex. And…”
I held my breath.
“Hanging out alone with you,” she breathed, looking up at me from under her long, golden lashes.
“I make you nervous?” Letting my breath out slowly, I knew I should let her off the hook. But I didn’t. I also knew it probably wasn’t in her or my best interest to keep pushing her for answers to questions I hadn’t even asked myself yet.
“No? Yes? I don’t know.” She blew her breath out, giving me a small smile. “It’s a good nervous I think, though.”
A good nervous. It had been a long time since I’d felt the desire to launch myself at someone. Maul her pretty pink lips and kiss them raw. In my head, things made no sense. But they hadn’t for a long time. Maybe that’s why I found her so… appealing. She made this weird kind of sense in my life right now. I’d never have to pick right or wrong with her. She was always right.
She shifted uncomfortably and then sighed shakily. Either in preparation or defeat, I wasn’t sure. “Want to drive?”
We switched seats. I crawled over her and she crawled under me, our sides brushing during the exchange. The drive to the taco stand was spent in complete silence. I didn’t look at her. Mainly because I wanted to look at her.
I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel.
I wasn’t normally antsy.
I didn’t typically feel this out of control.
A good nervous.
The street the taco stand was on was buzzing with life. There was a bar at the end of the road; half-dressed women and overdressed men stumbled in and out of the double main doors. There were offices across the street that were blacked out since it was Saturday and cars pulled off to the side of the road creating a makeshift parking lot around the taco cart.
This was Kings territory.
Most of the people eating and talking around the stand were people I knew. Grew up with. Respected and feared. Some had guns in their waistbands. Some had diaper bags beside them. The scent of spiced meat and limes floated in the air and the deep beat of traditional Mexicano music seeped into the streets.
And then there was the new girl beside me. I saw my life through my eyes the way I always did. But I couldn’t help wondering how she saw it through hers.
She sniffed out her open window. “What is that smell?”
“True Mexican food,” I told her in Spanish.
She blinked at me. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Speak Spanish to me. It’s not fair.”
“What’s it got to do with being fair?”
She groaned. “It’s sexy, okay? Don’t do it again.”
A slow grin tugged at my lips. “Sexy, huh?”
A blush brightened her cheeks. “Just for that, you’re paying for dinner.” She reached for her door handle and got out.
“For the record,” I called, following her, “I know it’s sexy. I just assume it is at all times.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You should learn it.” I said the next part in Spanish. “Now that would be sexy.”
Her eyes narrowed on me. “You’re doing it again.”
I slung my arm over her shoulder, pulling her close as we walked to the decent line that had formed out front. “How familiar are you with Mexican food?”
She shrugged. “I love Taco Bell.”
I gaped, shaking my head in horror. “Let me order for you. You have to taste my mama’s food. Incredible. Not as good as Abuela, but we only see her maybe once every couple years. It’s a big thing.” I shrugged, tapering off when I realized she was staring up at me, actually listening.
“Where is she?”
“She lives in Mexico with Abuelo, my grandfather. They have a hard time, so they can’t travel often. We send what we can but there’s a lot of us to take care of, and the twins come first. At least to me.” I hated talking about this, mostly because once I did, I couldn’t stop. No one ever asked; everyone was already living it. I changed the subject. “Spicy or mild?”
“Mild. Definitely mild.”
I felt something heavy on my left, the side facing the eating area. I followed the gaze to find Sergio and a few of the other Kings eating in the back corner. Rosa was with them. Raf too. He was the only one not looking at me. That couldn’t be a coincidence. The largest indicator that something was off was the fact that Diego wasn’t there.
Wiping my face clean of emotion, I handled them the way they handled everyone. With nothing inside.
“Romeo. We’re next.” Rya patted my stomach.
I shook my unease off and cleared my throat, stepping to the counter. My appetite was gone now, but Rya stared bright-eyed at the menu, licking her lips as she read the options. Her interest stirred some of mine back to life.
But I ordered it to go.
Not interested in being out in the open any longer.
I kept Rya tucked close by as we waited for our order, trying hard to focus on two things at once. Sergio and her.
I knew what was coming. I sensed it. Got the hint every time I felt my heart constrict.
My stomach felt like it was being eaten alive with acid. I all but dragged her out of there, pulling out and taking a U-turn so I wouldn’t have to risk giving Sergio a clue as to where we were going.
“Why the rush?” she griped.
“I’m hungry.” I eyed the rearview mirror, trying to see if we were being followed. I didn’t see anyone, but there were eyes everywhere in this city. Which was probably why I hadn’t made the basketball team. The coach’s brother worked for the car shop Sergio oversaw. My job wasn’t a good enough excuse to stay away. Basketball was no longer an option. My brother’s standing must be slipping. They’d gotten to Raf, and Rosa was a lost cause.
My defenses were lessening. Out of everyone, I was the only one left.
“Mmm,” came a long, drawn out moan from the passenger seat.
/> My control was slipping. My ability to work through the twisted, tangled mess of my situation and my emotions were starting to compound. What I needed was escape. Something to take the edge off, to tamper with oblivion. But Rya didn’t want oblivion. She wanted to exist, to have fun.
“Have you ever heard of the Rush Ruins?”
She licked her finger, sniffing the rest of the food in the take-out bag. “No. What is it?”
“It’s an hour away, in the desert. It’s a ghost town. They used to mine mercury out there in the sixties, and then when the demand for it stopped everyone abandoned the city. I go out there sometimes. To… clear my head.”
She was quiet for a moment. And then she put the bag between our seats and rolled her window down, letting the wind blow her hair around her face. “I could use a clearer head.”
She fiddled with the radio until it began playing some awful, pop song atrocity. She bobbed her head, tapping to the beat on her thighs. I forced myself to focus on driving. The turn off for the ruined city of Rush was cloaked by rocky crag. Most people didn’t even know the road was there, let alone the city.
When we turned down the long stretch of dark desert highway, the only light available came from the moon and our headlights. When the road got bumpier, I knew we were there; the streets hadn’t been repaved since the sixties. I pulled off into what used to be a gas station and parked on the edge of the lot.
“Ready?” I asked her.
She had her face pressed to the passenger window. “What is that thing over there? The big circular thing?”
“That’s the Rush Park. It used to be an amusement park.”
“No way,” she breathed. “They just left everything here? Houses, schools, and cars? That’s crazy. It looks like the wild west. Can we go explore?” She whipped her head around. “After we climb to the top of that Ferris wheel and eat our dinner, of course.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You want to climb up a derelict, abandoned, probably poorly crafted to begin with Ferris wheel, while the closest help is hundreds of miles away?”
She nodded seriously.
I grinned. “Let’s go.”
She giggled, clutching the food bag to her chest. I grabbed my backpack and she carefully placed the food inside. “We’ll need our hands free.”
The sandy, rough ground kicked up dust as we slid down the hill. I had to admit I was shocked she was into this stuff. Most girls wouldn’t be willing to trudge through the desert at night for the sake of clearing their heads. They wanted flowers and fake promises. I didn’t think Rya wanted those same things.
When we came upon the amusement park entrance, there was a sign out front. Five dollars a ticket. Kids under two are free. The rusted turnstiles wouldn’t budge when we tried to nudge them with our hips. We both climbed over, the moon shining light on discarded items.
Rya crouched down, picking something up off the ground and read it out loud. “Look at this. It’s a flyer for the traveling circus. They were set to perform on June sixth, 1960. There was a bearded lady, dare devil twins who did stunts, trained giraffes, a knife juggler who could sing, drink, and do flips all at the same time, and the grand finale, the amazing woman. She could read futures and palms. Cool.” She folded the paper and tucked it in her back pocket, something else right away catching her attention.
I’d been there a dozen times, but only ever at night. Everything I saw was through this dark, unsure lens. I found her reactions to everything far more interesting.
“Where does that go?” She pointed to a gaping dark arch overrun with tumble weeds and rust.
“It goes to the zoo. Kind of depressing.”
“Why?”
“It’s just a bunch of small metal cages where animals spent their entire lives. Stuck and rotting in the Texas heat. All so some snot-nosed kid could see a tiger. Just seems messed up to me.” I shrugged.
She didn’t comment, but she did turn away from the zoo. We climbed over the corroded gates that led to the Ferris wheel. It was in the middle of the desert now, surrounded by nothing but the rust-colored mountains in the distance. Sun scorched, lifeless plants overtook the walking panes and the control tower. Our footsteps made hollow echoes in the night, and a warm breeze whipped through the structure.
We stopped at the bottom of the Ferris wheel and looked up at the twisting, eroded hunk of metal. It amazed me that at one time, this brought people joy. Took them to great heights only to be forgotten.
I grabbed the bars in front of me and hoisted myself up onto the small metal ladder built into the middle pole holding the entire ride together. “We can’t get all the way to the top, but we can get to the middle of the spoke. It looks like there’s a platform up there.”
Below me, I heard her shoe scuff on the metal. “Have you ever been up here?”
“No.”
“What do you think the amazing woman would say about tonight?”
“She’d probably predict a great grounding in your immediate future.”
She huffed out a laugh. “You’re probably right. Which isn’t fair. This was your idea.”
“Want me to tell your parents that?”
“No,” she gasped, as if the idea of me meeting her parents was horrible. “No way.”
I peeked down at her, catching her eyes when they caught the moon. “Why not?”
She bit her lip staring up at me, her fingers gripping the bars so tight her knuckles were white. “I don’t think my parents would like the idea of me breaking curfew to hang out with a boy.”
I continued climbing. “They do know that you’re a lame virgin, right?”
She swatted at my ankle. “Hey! I’m not lame. I’m smart. I’m waiting for quality. Not just any psycho. Like you,” she tacked on.
“Good one,” I chuckled, reaching the platform.
The wind was stronger that high up in the air and the metal flaked away under my fingers as I hoisted myself the rest of the way. I gave Rya my hand and pulled her up after me, tucking her in beside me.
It was too dark to see beyond the mountains but being there was enough. I took a deep breath and held it in, until my brain was fuzzy, and the moon played tricks on me. Like making me think I could ever get out of Kings River.
When I let my breath out, the wind blew it away. As if I hadn’t hoped at all.
“I think we deserve a taco break.” I dug the food out, and she helped me spread it out between us.
“Cheers.” She held out a chicken taco.
“For what?”
“For no longer having to ignore each other.”
I bumped my taco against hers. “Cheers.”
What she hadn’t known was that the entire time she was ignoring me, I’d seen only her.
CHAPTER FIVE
RYA
The wind howled, cutting through the ratty, decomposed Ferris wheel. It had long taken Romeo’s scent with it. And what the wind couldn’t eradicate, the taco’s eclipsed the small platform with the scent of spiced meat and fresh cilantro.
My stomach ached from eating too much and I leaned against the thick bar at my back, dangling my feet over the edge. Romeo did the same, stretching his long legs into the darkness below us. He looked different out here, younger maybe. His features were softer and there was none of that bravado that clung to every single male at school.
In the ruins of Rush, he was just a seventeen-year-old boy. When inside, I knew he was so much more than that. He was a big brother to his siblings, working a job to help take care of them. I couldn’t imagine all of that on top of going to school and maintaining his grades.
My eyes, much like they’d done all night, strayed to his face. He had such a lovely face. So many unique slopes and features. I traced the straight line of his nose, down to the pillow of his full lips. His messy hair flapped in the wind, so many times in his eyes I’d given up hope of pushing it aside.
But the most telling of all was the fact that Romeo needed to breathe in a city where there were no other pe
ople. I’d never related to something so much until I took my first breath of the hot, desert air.
I felt full where I had been empty.
I felt weightless where I had been weighed down.
And I was also fairly certain you could not have a crush on a guy you barely knew. It was impossible. Unheard of. And oh, so worrisome.
I couldn’t remember the last time I did in fact have a crush. Not since middle school, and that hardly counted. I wasn’t sure if it happened over time, like a slow build of attraction until boom, you’re in love. Or if it happened in a moment. You were fine, living your life, and then suddenly there was a boy beside you who took you to abandoned cities just to catch his breath.
Beside me, Romeo laughed lightly. “What are you thinking about so hard over there?”
I blinked, realizing my face was all screwed up, thinking about him. Heat spread through my cheeks and I snorted out a laugh. “Nothing.”
“Didn’t look like nothing.”
I refused to look at him. “I think it’s nothing.”
“Hmm,” he mumbled. “Might be something.”
“You never know.” I peeked at him through the curtain in my hair. I swore, out here, he looked like a different boy.
Tender. Open. Beautiful.
Crap.
I shook my head and then tried on a smile. “Thank you for taking me here. I guess I needed to breathe too.”
“You hate it in Kings River,” he said. It wasn’t a question, but an educated statement.
I blew out a breath of sadness. “Hate’s a strong word, but I do highly dislike it.”
“No one likes it there, Rya. Mostly because we’re all stuck.”
“We don’t have to be.”
“You’re right. We don’t have to be. But we are.” He shifted, running his fingers through his hair. “Are you going to college?”
I kicked my legs in the dark. Speaking of highly disliking things… that question was my least favorite so far. “Okay, I get it. You’re right. We’re all stuck.”
“Hey, I didn’t mean to pop your bubble. Why does talking about college bother you?”
Romeo and the Angel: Impossible Crush Chronicles Page 6
