My Schizophrenic Lover (Under Slight Construction)

Chapter One

Chapter One

Fighting With Myself

I was awakened by Izabelle, who was tugging on my toes in an attempt to wake me up. "Buenos días!" she giggled as she skipped through the living room. It was hard living with a family that didn’t know much English. But on the bright side they didn’t try to me because they knew I couldn’t understand them. So I pretty much just kept to myself and left my ear-buds in all day.

I had been living out of a suitcase since the Barros’s didn’t have a spare bedroom. This was supposed to be a temporary placement while social services found me a new home. I had been here three months longer than expected.

 I pulled myself up from the couch and staggered into the bathroom nearby. I avoided eye contact with the mirror as long as possible. Removing the black t-shirt I had slept in I wadded it up and stuffed it in the pocket of my basketball shorts. When I finally looked up at my reflection I started to examine the swelling around my eye. I had earned my black eye after being jumped by some kids after school yesterday. I was hoping the swelling would go down so it wouldn’t be noticeable on Monday for school.

I was quietly going through the cabinets looking for anything to cover this up, when Jasmine knocked. I hit my head on the way out from under the sink “Morning…?” She looked at me confused and a pony tail off the counter before going back to her room. I gave up on this idea, considering I wouldn’t be seeing anyone today anyways. Returning to the living room to get dressed I put the dirty black shirt in my dirty clothes stack and pulled on a dark green hoodie. After putting on my dark denim skinny jeans.

I went to sit in the kitchen. Mrs. Barros walked in and smiled at me before gasping in shock at my eye. I didn’t think it looked that bad, but she thought otherwise. “¡Oh Dios mío!” She exclaimed cupping me under the chin. She was examining my eye with great concern, it was when she pressed her finger to it that I flinched slightly.

I smiled trying to let her know I was okay. “I’m all right, Mrs. B, really it’s nothing.” That was a big fat lie, each blink was unforgiving.

“No,” she shook her head. I running a clean dishtowel under some water. She pressed the wet cloth to my eye, it was warm and damn did it feel good. “Hold,” was her demand as she left the room.

I followed her instructions as I waiting in the kitchen. When I saw her return she was carrying a small canister with a blue lid. I saw her mixing some things together in a small bowl and then wash her hands. She motioned me to come over to the sink. “Remedio casero”

At first I was a bit hesitant, but I mean who wouldn’t be? Before I could ask her what her “home remedy” contained she began rubbing the clear gooey substance all over my eye. “No open eye, it’s spicy. Very hot. Pepper.” Her Spanish accent flowed thick through her poor English. I nodded with my healthy eye still open. I was assuming that she had confused pepper with Vaseline, and spicy with burn; considering if I got that in my eye it would burn like hell. “Uno hora,” she instructed pointing me back towards the couch. “You rest now,”

I wasn’t one to even turn down a nap, so doing as she said I laid back down on the couch. I laid there for a while before Jasmine came into the living room. “Black eye?” She asked sitting down on the coffee table across from me. I nodded and remained with my black eye closed. “My grandma’s secret, cayenne pepper and Vaseline. Takes the swelling down in just a few hours.”

“Cayenne pepper?” I asked confused and in shock. I guess that’s why Mrs. B said it was spicy.

“I don’t know, old family secret.” She shrugged before standing back up. “I’m off though, going over to Rosco’s house. So good luck here.” With a flash of a smile she ran out the front door. It seemed Jasmine was always in a hurry to get out of here the second she woke up, then she wouldn’t come home until dinner time. She wasn’t the party type of girl, I guess she just didn’t like being at home. Rosco was her boyfriend, he was two years older than her, so she would tell her parents she was with a friend named Rachel when they went out. Jasmine older brother Salvador was the complete opposite. He never left his room. You would think any eighteen year old would be eager to get out of the house but not him. I didn’t see much of him.