Ride Home To Me

Chapter 1

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...

I count the numbers in my head as I try to calm myself down.

1, 2, 3, 4...

All I can feel is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 punches in my gut, 6, 7 kicks in my side, 8...

It won't be like that here. Nobody needs to know, and nobody will. I just need to survive one more year of stupid high school where stupid people make life a living hell. Suddenly my ma opens the door.

"Gabi, are you- oh mija come here," I take her outstretched hands and she counts up to ten and back down from ten with me over and over again until my breathing slows down a bit and I can hold myself enough to wipe the tears from my eyes.

"Am I okay to hug you now mi amor?"

I nod and bury my face in her chest.

"It's going to be okay Gabi," she says. "We're not in Miami anymore okay? You're going to make new friends, friends who will back you up and fight for you, not against you mija, I know it."

She helps me stand and clean myself up, and within fifteen minutes I've eaten breakfast and we're headed out the door on our way to my new school.

When we get there I barely listen to the administrator's instructions before grabbing my information sheet and rushing to my locker. I just want to start getting this over with. I throw the locker door open a little bit too hard, though, and it crashes into a girl trying to squeeze between the line of lockers and the crowd that's filling the hallway.

"¡Carajo! I'm so sorry are you okay?" I yelp, reaching a hand down to help the girl up. She grabs it and stands, spotting my printed schedule and school info packet.

"Uber excited for your first day, huh?" she smirks.

"More like uber excited for the last," I groan. "This is the last place I wanna be right now."

"Tell me about it. All but one of my best friends have already graduated, but the one that's here is a sophomore so I don't even get to see her."

"Damn that's rough sorry," I say awkwardly.

"Aight well have a good one," the girl says, before starting in the other direction.

I look at my schedule and the almost empty hall and realize I have no idea where I am or where I'm going.

"Uh, hey wait!" I call out, shutting the locker and running over to meet her. "You happen to know where any of these rooms are? I'm totally lost."

She grins, looking at my schedule. "Yeah man, I think this is mostly the same as me. Come on, I'll take you to first."

I smile the first genuine smile I've done for a long time and follow her down the hall.

"I'm Gabi, by the way," I say quickly as we approach our english classroom.

"Letty."

•-•-•-•-•

I scribble one last note before snapping my notebook shut at the sound of the lunch bell. School today became much more bearable once I started talking to Letty. We sat through first and second period together before splitting at third and then meeting up again at lunch. I wave at her from across the quad and she motions for me to follow her. We end up in the woodshop classroom, where another girl is waiting for us with her nose buried in a book.

"What's up Mia," Letty says, dropping her lunch on the table with a loud thud.

"Hey Let," Mia says dismissively.

Letty slaps the book down away from her face and gestures to me. "This is Gabi."

"Hey," I say. I notice the pale blue dress with white flowers that she's wearing. "Uh, I like your dress."

Her eyes brighten and she grins, "Thanks! My dad got it for me."

"He spoils you," Letty teases.

"He spoils you too Letty so shut up," Mia retorts. I chuckle.

"Gabi lives down the street from us now," Letty says.

"Wait really? That's awesome! Maybe we can carpool in the mornings, my brother drives us before heading into the shop every day."

"I gotta talk to my ma," I say. I clear my throat, changing the subject. "Letty I thought you said Mia was your best friend, not your sister..." I trail off.

They start laughing and Mia pipes up as my cheeks flush with embarrassment.

"She lives on our street too, farther down, but she's practically family. My dad's basically adopted her at this point and she spends more time at our house than hers anyway."

Letty clears her throat and Mia quickly stops talking. I glance at them for a moment before moving on. Mia starts asking me lots of questions, all the stuff I'd have expected on the first day. Where am I from, what grade am I in, when did I get here, what was it like, etc. Miami, 12th, Tuesday, nice beaches but other than that nothing special. That last response was a lie. I loved Miami. The music, the people, the beaches, the vibe. I loved everything about it up until I loved the wrong person in it last year. But they don't need to know about that.

My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the bell, signaling the end of lunch and the return to class. Letty and I head in one direction while Mia heads in the other, and as much as I try to, I can't shake the connection I feel with the girly, talkative sophomore and her tomboyish best friend who I introduced myself to by hitting her in the face with a locker door. Before moving I promised myself that as soon as I survived senior year I could move away to a good place and then try finding some real friends. But maybe, just maybe, someday I can learn to like LA too.