eyes without a face

PARTE 19

MARCH 26, 1981
9:35am
I woke up, still half asleep. I got up and went to the bathroom. Getting out, I heard arguing in the kitchen. Not knowing who it was, I walked over to see Andrew and Juli fighting.

Andrew was slamming the table. "SHE CANT BE WITH HIM!"

"ITS NOT YOUR FUCKING CHOICE!" I heard my sister yell back. They both noticed my presence and looked at me.

Andrew scoffs as he leaves the kitchen, heading out the house. I ignore him as I walked over to my sister, the loud bang of the door closing making me look back. The fuck is his problem?

Soon as he left it got quiet and my sisters vinyl record player was on. Her favorite album, Malo was on and all I heard was Suavecito playing.

My sister finishes counting some money on the table, I look at her confused. "What happened?" She doesn't look at me. "Nothing." I grab her hand to stop her, I was concerned. "Tell me." She sighs, now looking at me but doesn't say anything. "Que?" I tell her. She turns her body to face me now. "That foo is still in love with you." I softly laugh. "Enserio? Porque?" She groans. "He doesn't like Richie because of..." She says as she points at my neck. I sigh. "He wanted to get back with me yesterday." I told her. She laughs. "Seriously?" She says. I nod. "He said he's leaving today. Something about his surfing." She says. "Of course.." I tell her back. She turns to look at me. "Is Ricardo coming back?" I look at her, trying not to smile. "Maybe.." She smiles. "Is he?" I nod. She screams. I look at her confused.

"Why are you excited to see him?" I ask her. She laughs as she puts down her money. "He owes me.. something." She says. I roll my eyes as I walk over to the fridge and take out a can of beer. "He owes me something too." I tell her, she groans in disgust. "Ewww.." I laugh. She grabs the money and goes walking to her room, hearing her voice fainting. "Is Richie good in bed?" She asks. I open the can of beer. "Why you wanna know?" I ask her as she comes back empty handed. She laughs. "Cuz if he's fucking you.. you don't seem satisfied." I look at her disgustingly. "Nooo.. it's just.." I sigh. "I've been throwing up and.. I don't know.." She looks at me surprised. "oh shit. How many times have y'all fucked already???" I look at her and shrugged. "I kind of forgot.. I think once or twice.." She looks at me shocked. "QUE? No usan protección o que?" She asks me and I shrugged again. "I don't remember." She starts laughing. "Damnnn..and he's over there fighting with a girl he supposedly got pregnant."

I finish drinking my beer. "I know.. that's the thing. I'm afraid he's not going to want to stay with me if I tell him." Juli sighs. "Foo honestly.. I think you should tell him. He knows better than to leave you alone. Que no que 'I love her so much.. Ella es mia y es perfecta para mi'?" She says in a mocking tone. I slightly laugh. "He said that?" She nods. "Yeah.. that vato is crazy in love with you." I sigh, hearing the front door open.

Beto comes in the house. He was on call with someone and was angrily talking. Me and Juli really didn't pay attention. Andrea was behind him as she closes the door. She walks over to us.

"Where's Andrew?" She asks. I don't respond back but my sister does. "He left." I walk away from their conversation to go over to my brother. He ends his call as he looks at me. His face expression was serious and still but with a hint of sadness. "What?" I ask him. He looks away as he tries speaking. "Kali.. just called me." I looked at him confused. "Que paso?" I tell him.He sighs. "Daniel was shot." He tells me. I get taken back. "Daniel? Kali's boyfriend?" I say. He nods. "He didn't.. make it." He says. I grab his telephone. "Is Kali okay? Where is she now?" I was saying as I panicked. He stops me. "Stop." I stop and look at him. "She's already on her way over.. in bus." He says. "I want to call her." I told him and he shakes his head. "Don't."

#####

1:00pm
I was on my way to the store with Juli. We were walking since it was a few blocks away.

We saw a group of people coming out of the store, laughing. I didn't pay attention as I was talking to Juli. We head to the store and she grabs two 40's. As soon as we go to pay, we see a guy who my sister recognized.

"That looks like Chicho, doesn't it?" Juli says, I turn to look and the guy was looking around, for something or someone. He looks my way and sees me and panics as he walks off the entrance of the store. "It is him." I say  to her. She passes me the 40's and walks off to where the guy headed. I yell at her, "Yo? Adonde vas?" She quickly turns as she lifts her sweatshirt and she had a pistol. Shit.

I quickly finish paying the drinks and head out to look for my sister. They were around the corner, both casually talking. My sister had her arms crossed and the guy had his hands behind his back. I sighed and stood still, just looking at them, until I heard a whistle. I turn to see Ricardo a bit far, but he was running towards me. Confused, I nod to see what was going on and like three guys were behind him, chasing him. I panic and yell at my sister, "Juli!! Let's go!!" She turns confused and I begin running, holding on real tight to the brown bag with the 40's. I hear my sister yell at me, "What??" She started running too and Richie was behind. We hear a gunshot and I make a hide for it. I run to an alleyway and hide beside a dumpster, Julie follows behind but she doesn't sit down. Instead, she grabs the pistol she has and checks for the bullets, making sure they were there. She sighs as she looks at me.

Before she could say anything, Ricardo passes us but stops as he almost trips but quickly comes over to us. He looks at Julie and is stunned as he sees her with a gun. "I know where we can hide." He says to me. Juli replies to him. "Where?" We hear another gunshot along with two more. "Near Downtown." He says. She groans. "Passing all those fucking buildings?" He nods. "Yeah" I kept quiet. Still stunned about how my sister acted right now. "Let's go." I said. They both look at me and we began running. I gave the bag of 40's to Ricardo. We were sprinting out of the alleyway, soon as we reached the street we walked. I don't know where he was taking us along as we were far from the gunshots. We walked for about 20 minutes. Juli had put the gun away. He had brought us to a hotel? Juli laughed as Ricardo was telling her something.
"The Cecil Hotel? Shit, I heard some weird shit goes around here." She says, Ricardo responds. "Been happening since when." I looked at the hotel, it was a tall building. "Is it safe to go in?" They both looked at me. "Nope." He says as we walked in from the back doors.