Page 161 of Through My Window
She sighs and sits behind the table, defeated. She grimaces in frustration, and finally her face fills with sadness, and I don’t like it. It makes me uncomfortable to see her sad. I haven’t even spoken to her, and it already affects me this way.
You haven’t sold anything, curious eyes?
I look around for someone I know, and I find a boy who sometimes goes to our soccer field to practice with us. I give him money to buy all the bracelets she has on the table. I stand and watch from a distance as Raquel’s expression changes from pure sadness to disbelief to happiness and excitement. She thanks the guy a bunch of times and passes him a bag with the bracelets.
The boy brings me the bracelets and leaves while I stand there, bag in one hand, staring at the curious girl whose smile I enjoy watching.
“Ares?”
I return to the moment. Apolo furrows his brows, waiting for a response to something I didn’t hear. His eyes go from me to Raquel, and everything seems to click in his mind.
“She’s really got you bad.”
I don’t bother to deny it, and Dean shakes his head as he puts his hand on Apolo’s shoulder.
“We’ve lost him.”
“I know, and you still have me to thank. It’s all thanks to me.”
“Shhh!” I silence him because I don’t want him to tell Dean about the beginning of it all. My mind travels easily to another memory:
“You want to me to do what?” Apolo furrows his brows in confusion. I sigh uncomfortably.
“I’ve already explained.”
“But I don’t understand why you need me to do that.”
“Just do it.”
“And you think she’s going to believe me? Ares, she knows we’re wealthy. How can she believe that we don’t have internet, and that we’re stealing hers?”
“She’ll believe you.”
“If you want to talk to her, why don’t you just do it?”
“I don’t want to talk to her,” I say. Apolo raises an eyebrow.
“Really? Why don’t you go up to her and tell her you’re stealing her Wi-Fi?”
“Because I want to prolong this as long as possible, make her suffer a little, she deserves it for stalking me.”
Claudia walks in with a basket of freshly laundered clothes.
“Oh, sibling plotting,” she says, giving us a look. “This is new.”
Apolo doesn’t hesitate to bring her into the conversation even though I gesture at him to shut up.
“Ares wants to use me to talk to the girl next door,” he tells her. Claudia laughs a little.
“Oh really? Do you need new victims, Hidalgo?” she teases. I give them both a murderous look.
“It’s not about that,” I say defensively.
“So, what’s it all about?” she asks, putting the basket on the bed. I ignore her, looking at Apolo.
“Are you going to help me or not?”
Apolo stands up. “Okay, I’ll do it tonight.” And he leaves the room before I can say anything to him.
