I could feel my face burning as I quickly walked towards the girl’s bathroom but Aracely’s giggling wouldn’t stop following me. Mina and Stephanie were right at her heels with their own grins plastered on their faces. I felt like crying but I was too proud to do it.
“Why is he following you?” Stephanie asked with a knowing look in her eyes. We had just walked across the lunch tables, crossed through the gym to the field and ran across it when we spotted them. We came to a dead-end near the girl’s locker room but we expertly jumped over the fence but had to turn back when we heard Mina’s cries that she couldn’t make it over. “Just throw me your back pack and swing your leg over, we’ll catch you.” I caught her bag just as she toppled over and managed to cushion her fall with my arms.
The bell rang and my stomach felt as though it could churn butter. “Just ignore him, anyway we lost him.”
I walked to my Algebra class by myself and slowly walked up the stairs each step getting lighter as I started to believe that I had lost him. “Hey I heard you’re dating Mario. Why are you with him?” Mike was the smartest kid in school and I had huge crush on him. “I’m not anyone’s girlfriend.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I was confronted by a visibly angry Mario. “Where were you during lunch? And why were you running away from me?!” He grabbed my arm and continued to yell at me until Mike pushed him off and told him to leave me alone. He walked me inside the classroom and closed the door behind us. Great, now I really wanted to cry.
It all started with a stupid Nike wrist band. Aracely was flirting with Mario and asked to borrow the wrist band and when he came over to collect it he looked at me. I didn’t like the way his eyes kept lingering on me or the way he leaned in to talk to me. Stupid Aracely and her damn flirting- she was always dumping her angry leftovers on me to handle for her.
After days of saying I couldn’t date, didn’t want to date, and ignoring him- the rumors started. “Are you a lesbian? I’ve never seen you with a boy. Is that why you won’t be with me?”
Then as I went home I decided to take the bus so I could avoid the stupid boys that would follow me home, I looked up and saw him. “So are you going to be my girlfriend?” It was April fool’s Day. What the hell did he want with me anyway? Why was he bothering me? “Yes.” “Really? Nice!” Before he could put his arm around me I jumped out of the bus and ran all the way home.
As I walked up the steps and walked through the door, the phone rang. “Hello?” “Hey babe, it’s me.”
What the fu-
“I just wanted to make sure you got home okay.”
“How did you get my number?”
“Aracely gave it to me.”
“Don’t call me; I can’t talk on the phone.” I hung up just as my father walked in through the side door.
“Quien era?”
“No se, no contestaron.”
I walked away before he could ask anything else and closed my bedroom door behind me. Shoot. What the hell had I done? This moron was going to get me in trouble. I’m not a fucking lesbian and even if I was what the hell was it to him? Stupid Aracely! Why did she give him my number, she knew the way my dad was. Great best friend she was. Before I could sink into any more self-pity I heard my mother yelling my name from the kitchen.
“Looooreeeeenaaaaaa!”
I walked over and started the routine over again.
–
He called 21 times over the weekend and with each incessant ring I wanted to rip the phone off the jack and smash it on his stubborn head. “I don’t want to be your girlfriend!” “But you said yes.” “I lied, it was April Fools. Stop calling me, I can’t talk on the phone.”
As soon as I hung up the ringing would start again until I turned off the ringer. Then my mom picked up the phone to call my Tia Sandra but she was already on the line. “I was about to call- the phone didn’t even ring! Pray you’re not dying – or pregnant!” Good at least my mom didn’t pay for call waiting and she could be on that phone for hours.
–
After Algebra class I walked over to my PE class and there was that stubborn egg head again. I caved in and told him I’d be his girlfriend. Why was I always saying yes when my brain kept screaming NO!!? Fucking coward, why couldn’t I just tell him to leave me the fuck alone?
Susana Benavidez 