her; Alex Alvarez [discontinued]

[chapter nine]

[her; Alex Alvarez]

Elena, Alex, and I were sitting around the table. Elena and Alex were barely eating their breakfast, and Abuelita came over to give us our drinks. She gave Elena and Alex some OJ, and I got my Cuban coffee. Elena was surprised at how happy Abuelita is, so she asked, "Abuelita, how are you so happy in the morning?" Abuelita acted like it was the easiest thing in the world, "Ay, it's easy, mamita. Every night I dream of your Abuelo and were playing bingo, and I win... over and over and-" Before Abuelita could finish her sentence I interrupted her and said, "Ok! We get it." We were all either sitting or standing near the table, and then we heard a knock. I could tell it was dad by the way his knuckles his the hardwood door. Pen opened the door and Dad walked right in. "Hey guys, you're in luck. I finally found a vintage store that has a chair that matches your dining set." Pen asked him, "Why do we need an extra chair?" And dad nonchalantly said, "Well it's not really extra, there's six of us." I hadn't realized it, but the family consists of four people, but I guess since I had come to their apartment so often when I was young, they had bought five chairs instead of just four. It's really sweet. 

We all looked up at Dad as soon as he set the chair down, and I took one look at his shirt and I almost threw up. I can't believe he would wear that comemierdas shit into a Cuban household! Or even around me! Does he not know what this jackass did? Dumb Dad thought that everyone gasped about the chair. Pen knew what he was talking about and said, "Not the chair! What the hell are you wearing???" Dad looked down and saw nothing wrong, "Oh, Che Guevara? Yeah! Viva la revolucion, am I right?" No no dad you are so wrong right now!! I'm gonna friggin kill this dude. Abuelita lived through that war, and you're wearing a symbol for her enemy? That's just messed up. Abuelita said, "You are wrong." I put my knife down, stood up and said, "Do you have any idea-" but I was cut off by Alex saying, "I got this," he stood up and said, "Do you have any idea-" Then he was cut off by Elena saying, "I got this. Do you have any idea-" then SHE was cut off by PEN saying, "Kids, relax." Then she turned to Dad and said, "Do you have any idea what this comemierda did??" Dad was never good at history, I know that. But he's surrounded by Abuelita talking about history every day!! How has he not caught on?? Dad made a witty comment, and Abuelita responded with, "He was Castro's, right-hand man!" Elena backed her up and said, "He burned books, he banned music, he personally oversaw execution squads! He was a mass murder!!" Dad obviously still didn't understand and said, "But...he has a cool hat.." Pen put it in words that she thought Schneider would understand. But what she didn't know was that it was about WW2, which just made it even easier for Dad not to understand. But Alex and I were supposedly thinking the same thing, and at the same time we said, "It's like if you walked into Taylor Swift's house wearing a Kanye shirt!" Dad immediately apologized and ripped his shirt off. I didn't need to have that aight again, so I buried my face in Alex's shoulder, and he looked down too. We're twelve! We don't need to see that... grossness. But honestly, I just kept picturing Abuelita running her hands over dad's chest, and it being what was happening right now made it even worse. We sat down and eventually walked out of the apartment and to school.