HEATED // EGD

F I F T E E N

F i r e w k o r k s

"Where's Naomi and Ethan?" I heard my dad ask Dallas in the living room.

I quickly bent over the bed and grabbed the t-shirt that Ethan had taken off earlier and threw it at him so that he could out it on. Just as he caught it to put it on the door swung open and Dallas stood behind the door expecting to just find Ethan in the room.

Dallas' mouth fell agape as he froze up.

This looked so bad! Ethan and I both in the bed, Ethan still under the covers, and he was scrambling to throw a shirt on.

Tio Francisco stood right behind him with a red, angry face.

"Que es esta mierda?!" Tio Francisco began followed by a lecture in Spanish that was too rapid for me to understand. I knew Spanish, but my Spanish skills were not very strong at all.

"This isn't what it looks like!" I told them.

"Then what is it, huh?" my uncle asked, his accent becoming more obvious as it always did whenever he was really angry, "Did I not make it clear that sleeping in the same bed is completely inappropriate para una chica y un chico?" (for a girl and a boy)

"What would the difference make if he were a girl? Girls and boys could be friends. And who's to say I'm not a lesbian?"

"Are you?"

"No, but you wouldn't know that!"

"Don't you talk to me like that!"

"What she's trying to say is that we didn't do anything and nothing happened," Ethan spoke up.

"You! You think that just because I've allowed you to stay with Dallas that you're invited to corrupt my family!"

"That's not true, sir. My intentions are good."

"What makes you think you could slum around with my niece?! Especially after only a month of knowing her!"

"With all my respect, Sir, you're wrong. I haven't been 'slumming' around with her."

"Then how come you're both being so defensive right now?"

"Because you—" I began.

"Hija," my dad spoke lowly with disappointment laced through his voice, "what have you been doing with this boy?"

"You don't believe me?" My voice cracked. I knew my uncle wouldn't believe me and possibly Dallas too, but I thought at least my parents would.

"Aye, gringos." Tio Francisco rolled his eyes before turning around and leaving the room.

My parents and Dallas also left to room, leaving only Ethan and I in the room. Our eyes met and I gulped the air in mouth.

"I'm sorry," he mouthed.

"Not your fault," I mouthed back.

Indistinguishable talking could be heard coming from my family. I knew what they believed happened. It wasn't the truth, but they thought they saw 'proof' that it happened.

Without a doubt, tensions would rise between us.

As the day passed, I quickly realized that my family hadn't arrived early but we had slept in. That was my first time in months doing so. Just my luck, right? I finally got a good night's sleep but everyone else thinks I slept in for a different reason.

. . .

My mother wouldn't allow anything ruin one of her favorite holidays so she had made sure that we all went through with the plans my uncle had previously made for the day.