Babe.

47.

Blanca.

I shot my brother a warning look as we hid behind the surfboards down by the beach, "Emmanuel you can never tell anyone about this." 

"Why not?" He asked laughing, "who the fuck is going to care." 

"I care! I don't want people thinking I'm a stoner," I told him pointedly. 

"Smoking one joint doesn't qualify you as a stoner you drama queen. Besides everyone knows you could use the break, no one is going to hold it against you," my brother assured me, "now shut the fuck and smoke, your tenseness is freaking me out." 

"You're a bad influence," I muttered taking the joint and lighter from him, "but thanks." 

"You're welcome you little asshole." 

I'd started freaking out again so when my brother offered me a quick soloution for how to get rid of my stress I'd jumped at the chance. I wasn't a stoner or a druggie, I really wasn't that was where I drew the line, but today was an exception. 

I coughed and gagged at the same time when I inhaled, "ew E, you forgot to mention the part where this was gross as hell." 

"Induced happiness has a price BB," my brother teased, "if it didn't the whole world would be made up of potheads and crackheads." 

I paused as my head went into a delicious dizzy spin, and decided that maybe the taste was worth it afterall, "oh fuck, that's nice. I could get used to this." 

"Don't even think about it, this was a one time offer," Emmanuel was quick to add, "I'm just helping you out of a bit of a slump, you've been moping around like someone kicked your puppy and it's depressing me." 

I pushed him, "life kicked my puppy genius. If you hadn't noticed mine sucks." 

"Yeah it does but at least your not doing it alone," he pointed out slinging his arm around my shoulder, "your boyfriend who worships the ground you work on and all your best friends are here to help you through it. And so am I, and I seriously have nothing to lose so don't worry about being left alone because I have nothing to go back to either. I'll be here with you with you until you turn eighteen." 

I shot him a grateful smile, "thanks, that helps a lot actually. And for the record Benny doesn't worship the ground I walk on." 

"Yes he does, I know this because I worship the ground that Kya walks on and he looks at you the same way I look at her," my brother informed me taking a drag of the joint. 

"Aw, look at you being all cute," I teased reaching over so I could take it from him.

"Well when your girlfriend is a total babe you'd be an idiot not to," my brother replied shrugging, "and if you hadn't noticed, Kya is a total babe."

"Well duh I have eyes." 

"But that's not the important part, the important part is that she's literally the funniest, smartest, coolest person I've ever met  and I'd probably be dead without her," he admitted. 

I snorted, "you'd be dead without her?" 

"No joke, she's saved me and my loud fucking mouth from some seriously messy situations," he muttered grimacing. 

That sounded about right, Emmanuel could be such a little shit when he wanted to be and a lot of the time that did not go down well with people, especially not adults. So he needed Kya's sweetness to balance him out, she was a really good sweet talker which made her was the perfect candidate to save him from the people he'd pissed off. 

"Do you think you guys will be together forever?" I asked settling down in the sand. 

"Well I certainly hope so. She's it for me BBs there never was nor will there ever be another girl that even came close to Kya, so from my side I'm praying it's forever, but I obviously can't speak for Kya," my brother explained lying down beside me. 

I didn't think he had anything worry about, I'd known Kya her whole life and she'd never so much as had a crush on a boy who wasn't Emmanuel, I doubted that she ever would. "Well neither can I but based on the facts I'd say she's on the same track as you."

"The facts? My god you're a nerd," he muttered rolling his eyes, "you do know that you can't predict the course of a relationship using statistics don't you?" 

"Of course I know that," I snapped throwing some sand on him, it wasn't a very comforting thought but I knew it was true, "I'm just saying you're the only guy she's ever liked." 

Emmanuel smirked, "well I am the whole package, so I guess it would have been pretty hard for her to find someone better than me," my brother flexed his arms out behind him, "plus I'm not just a fantastic friend, I'm also a fantastic boyfriend so my compeitiion is really going to have to bring their A game to steal my girl from me." 

He wasn't wrong there, while my brother could be an idiot where a lot of things were concerned Kya had never been one of those things. Emmanuel did not play where she was concerned. "What do you think they're doing out there?" He asked suddenly, pointing over to a boat that was anchored a decent distance away from the beach down here. "They've been in that same position for days?" 

"They have?" I asked the anxiety that I'd finally manged to scare off coming racing back, "shit." 

"BBs I'm sure it's nothing, I was just asking because I was genuinely curious what people do on a boat for that long," Emmanuel hurried to say trying to halt the stress spiral I was going into in it's tracks. 

Too late, I thought as panic started wreaking havoc on my internal wiring, "we should go inside Emmanuel." 

"Blanca, don't be ridiculous," my brother tried to protest as I snatched the joint from him and put it out in the sand. 

"We should go inside now, who knows what kind of creeps are living on that boat!" I hissed dragging him to his feet. 

I raced into the house past all my friends and up into Ty's room, he had the pair of bioculars resting on his windowsill. I grabbed them before yanking the window open and holding them up near my face so I could see over to the boat. For the longest time there was nothing, no movement no people, nothing.

But then the door opened and a man walked out, but his back was to me so I couldn't see his face. Turn around, I willed him mentally, just turn the hell around!

My breath caught in my throat when I saw the face of the man on the boat, it was none other than the man who had caused these problems in the first place, my Uncle. 

Fuck. My. Life.