at dead of night | a twilight fanfiction

at dead of night | 14

march 13, 2005

i sat at the dining room table, barely picking at my breakfast as yesterday played on repeat in my head. that... woman kissing me... and could've easily killed me if it weren't for isra.

'isra,' i thought to myself, recalling the reflection in mirror that had my face. 

"cheche, ¿estás bien? No has comido,¹" mami says, stepping behind juanita and cleaning her face despite the protest. (1: are you okay? you haven't eaten.)

"huh," i looked up from my food, seeing my mami glance at me whilst cleaning her youngest daughters face. "oh, i'm okay. i'm just not hungry," i lied, which made me feel guilty. i never liked lying, especially to my parents. they always preferred the truth, even if it was hurtful. the thing is, the truth i'm hiding is dangerous, and life threatening. 

"not hungry? you didn't eat last night either," papi's voice startled me some, and i looked over my other shoulder to see him fixing his uniform. "is it boy troubles?"

"mateo," mami sternly says her husband's name, shooting him a look as if to be quiet. she then went to the counter next to her husband and turned to me as well. "but your papi is right. first you didn't eat last night, and you're not eating now. did someone call you fat? i knew that mike boy was trouble," she muttered the last part to herself, getting a pat on the shoulder from her husband.

"what? no, it's nothing like that," i immediately shoot that thought down, rubbing a hand over my face. i haven't told them about what had happened at work yesterday, mainly because of the fact that the redhead was not human, so not only was it useless searching for her, but if she were to be caught, she's more dangerous than meets the eye. "i haven't had the best couple of days, that's all," i say firmly, looking down at my hand holding the fork to observe how my hand no longer looked like it was healing, but now completely back to normal. 

after a bit of silence from my parents, mami spoke up. "we trust your word, cheche. we're just worried, we know you're an adult now, but that doesn't mean you have to hide things from us," a hand was placed on my shoulder, making me stiffen and flinch backwards. 

with wide eyes, i looked back to see it was only mami, who looked startled by my recoil to her touch. 

we said nothing as we looked at each other, and i looked down to the floor with guilt. 

tell her, at least about what happened at the restaurant.

i ignored isra, clenching my jaw as i sat there, brewing in my own guilt. 

your parents deserve to know. tell them.

"cherie," papi's voice rang around my ears.

tell them.

"cherie," papi repeated, sounding stern. "you need to apologize to mami."

they need to know.

"che-"

"mateo," mami sternly says to her husband, placing a hand on his shoulder to make him take a step backwards.

i shot my eyes open to warm hands on my cheeks, looking to see it was mami cradling my face. i hadn't realized i had one hand clutching my shirt over my chest, the other gripping the fork tightly that it was bent in groove to my fingers. 

i looked at mami as she helped soothe my emotions. 

it helped quite a lot, my once racing heart now calming down and the sweat on my forehead cooling off. even isra calmed down as well.