“So what’s her name?” Marti asked.
“Who?”
“The girl you’ve been seeing. Sharon says she heard you doing it in here with someone.”
Diego rolled his eyes. Sharon was his mother’s best friend, which is the only reason she’d gotten the job as the shop’s receptionist. The woman was nosey as hell. Diego wasn’t fond of her. “She needs to mind her own damn business.”
“No kidding,” Marti said with a snort. “But I can’t imagine any other reason you’d want to be in a school play.”
She wasn’t wrong. Ricky had been the reason the first time around. Sure, he’d also wanted to avoid coming home to endless work, but he’d known that a school play wouldn’t change anything. Diego shrugged. “Maybe I just like to dance.”
Marti made a face. “You’re dancing? Like in a musical?”
“Yup.”
“Now I know it has to be a girl. Fess up! What’s her name?”
“Mindy,” he replied, since she was the one who had roped him into auditioning again. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell his mom about Ricky. She would have questions that he didn’t have the answers to, because he didn’t get it either. Diego only knew that he liked the little guy. A lot.
“Is she the redhead?” Marti asked.
Diego tensed. “Yeah. How’d you know?”
“I saw her photo in your room.”
“Oh. Right.”
“She’s pretty,” Marti said, as if he should be proud, when in truth he felt embarrassed about how often he looked at her photo. “Are you really going to be dancing in the play?”
“Come see for yourself.”
Marti shook her head dismissively. “That’s all right.”
“Would it kill you or something?”
“No, but we both know you don’t really want me there.”
“What if I did?”
She eyed him a moment. “When is it?”
“Friday. Seven o’clock.”
She didn’t make any promises, which was fine with him, because he wouldn’t have believed her anyway. He watched Marti stand up and glance around the room, her features tightening. He stood as she walked to the door and paused there.
“Your father liked to dance,” she said.
“Really?”
Marti nodded. “He was good too.”
“Did you dance with him?” Diego asked.
“Sometimes. I wish I hadn’t been so shy about it.” He watched her hands clench into fists, picturing how her manicured nails must be cutting into the palms, until they went slack again. “I was thinking of ordering a pizza,” she said.
“Works for me,” he replied.
“Okay.”
She closed the door behind her when leaving the office. Diego walked around the desk and sat in his dad’s old chair, the seat still warm. He noticed the brass knobs of the drawers, how the top one on the right and the bottom-most on the left were the most shiny, like they got the most use. Then his eyes moved to the framed photo on the desk, which he always left face down so it wouldn’t surprise him. His mother must have righted it, because three people were smiling at him now. They might as well have been from another planet, despite looking just like his parents and a younger version of himself. That’s how alien they felt. Usually. At the moment, he could remember his mother making him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crusts cut off, how he’d clung to his dad’s back when riding a motorcycle for the first time, and diving into the middle of his parents’ bed to show them a bug in a jar.
Diego reached for the photo, intending to turn it face down again. Then he hesitated and sighed before leaning back, deciding to leave it where it was. But only for today.
CHAPTER 24
May 12th, 1993
Cameron had a wooden cutout of a fire hydrant pinned beneath one arm so his hands were free to carry a two-dimensional mailbox. He was walking through the backstage area of the school auditorium when he spotted Ricky, who was peeking around a brick load-bearing column. He was focusing so hard on whatever he was watching that Cameron walked right up to him before being noticed.
“Yaargh!” Ricky exclaimed, his eyes bugging out. “Don’t do that!”
“I’ll make sure to stomp next time,” Cameron said with a chuckle. “What are you doing?”
“See for yourself!” Ricky said, peeking around the column again.
Cameron leaned to the left to get a better view. Deeper in the auditorium, next to the racks of wardrobe clothes, Mindy sat in a chair while reading a book aloud. Diego was perched on the table next to her with a scowl of concentration.
“Can you believe that?” Ricky demanded.
“No,” Cameron admitted. “I’m surprised the table can hold his weight.”
“Seriously!” Ricky hissed. “It looks like she’s reading to him.”
Cameron nodded. “Yeah. They’ve been doing that ever since he got out of suspension.” He blinked and laughed. “Hey, that makes it sound like Diego was cryogenically frozen, doesn’t it? Could you imagine if that was a real punishment? Like when Han Solo got sealed inside that weird stuff.”
“Carbonite,” Ricky said absentmindedly, before turning a panicked expression on him. “So she’s been reading to him for weeks now? Does he actually like it? Is that what he’s getting from her that he’s not getting from me?”
Cameron took in his drawn face. Then he looked at the wardrobe area again. Mindy had stood and was putting the book away. Diego was heading toward the stage.
“Now where are they going?” Ricky demanded. “And how long have you known about this?”
“Tell you what,” Cameron said, angling his torso so the wooden fire hydrant stuck out more. “Why don’t you help me put these away and then we’ll go for a walk. I need some sun.”
“Yeah but—” Ricky’s attention was still locked on Diego.
“Seriously,” Cameron said. “These things aren’t heavy, but they’re unwieldy. Here.”
Ricky finally complied. Cameron’s workshop corner wasn’t far. They stashed the props there, where they’d remain, since people kept tripping over them on stage or knocking them over. They were leftovers from some other production and hadn’t been built by him anyway.
Ricky was quiet as they navigated their way outside, a crinkle of worry on his brow. Across a mowed lawn was a plot of forested land that Cameron had always been curious about, so he walked in that direction.
“Have you ever seen them kiss?” Ricky asked. “Or hold hands? Or sneak off to be alone somewhere?”
Cameron shook his head in confusion. “Maybe you should start from the beginning.”
Ricky sighed, as if all hope was lost. “Diego has been spending a lot of time with Mindy lately.”
“And you suspect that he’s having an affair?”
Ricky thought about it. “No, because he hates fake people, so he would just tell me upfront.”
“Okay. Crisis averted?”
“Maybe,” Ricky said with another sigh. “My therapist wants me to look ahead more often and try to see the bad stuff before it happens. I know you’re friends with Mindy. Maybe she’s told you about secret feelings that she has for him or something?”