Street Love (An Interracial Love Story)

Chapter 15

Evie POV

"I can’t believe I’m about to do this."

Today’s the first day Tony is gonna go to an AA meeting and we’re walking down Hamilton to the Boys and Girls Club.

His mom offered to watch Emi and Donny for a few hours so it’s just Tony and I.

"I can." I take Tony’s hand in mine. "And I’m reeallllyyy proud of you."

"Yeah, yeah negrita." Tony falls quiet and we walk in silence.

We walk inside and start making our way down the hallway towards the AA room. Right before we reach the room I start hearing strange noises next to me.

I look over to see Tony borderline hyperventilating.

"Woah, woah! Tony are you okay?!"

He shakes his head no and I help him sit down against the wall and put his head between his knees.

"Breathe. Just breathe. You’re gonna be fine." I start rubbing his back in circles until his breath returns to normal.

"I can’t do this negrita. I can’t. Just thinking about it makes me want to drink.” Tony starts breathing harder and hiccuping.

"Okay, okay. Tony, look at me." I wait until he regains his breath and then tilt his head up a little.

"You are going to be fine. I know you can do this, and it’s gonna be so much better for you. Just think about Emi, if anything you’re doing this for her because you want her to have a better childhood. How can she do that if you’re drunk and hungover all the time?"

Tony nods and I continue.

"Not even just that, you’re gonna feel so much better. You are so strong Tony. You just have to trust yourself okay? I believe in you, and I’m so proud that you came today for me. It means so much." I slowly stand up and pull Tony to his feet.

He leans back against the wall and pulls me to him.

"I love you." He says this low and into my hair. I don’t think he knows I heard until I say it back.

"I love you too." I avoid looking at the shock on his face and I start pulling him towards the door. "Come on. You’ll be fine."

"Wait." I turn to look at Tony and see his signature smirk. "Does this mean we’re, like, official mamacita?”

I blush and look at the ground. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess so.” I smile up at him. He takes my hand and walks into the room ahead of me.

When we get inside, I take a look around the room. Surprisingly, there are a lot of young people. I see a girl with neon green hair, a bald boy who looks about 20, a Mexican guy holding an older woman’s hand—

"That’s Smiley," Tony murmurs besides me.

"Who?" The chairs in the room are in the shape of a huge circle and Tony and I take a seat across from this "Smiley."

"Smiley," Tony leans over and whispers in my ear. "He’s… This guy I know."

"From where?" I whisper back. "He looks kinda… scary."

Tony laughs and Smiley looks over at him. I see Smiley nod at Tony and Tony nods back. The lady holding his hand is shaking uncontrollably. She doesn’t look too old but her hair is streaked with grey.

"Okay!" An older guy stand up and walks to the center of the circle. "It’s about time to start tonight’s session. I see we have some new faces so why don’t we do our introductions?" The guy smiles at us. "I’ll start. My name is Ron. I’m 46. I started drinking when I was 21. One new interesting thing about me is that I moved out of my parents house last week. And I’ve been clean for three years."