“You’re crazy,” said Silvia as they made their way to Liz’s mother’s car. “And I can’t believe you convinced my mom to hand over the car keys!” Silvia was still shocked by that. Ever since she got her permit this summer, her mother never let her drive alone. But the moment Lucita asked, batting her eyes behind her cat eyeglasses, it was all yes, of course, have fun.

“What can I say, parents love me.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Well, duh, I think we established that last year. But shh, let’s try to keep it our secret.” Silvia rolled her eyes as Lucita winked her heavily lined eyes at her. Sometimes, she made it hard not to smile back at her.

“So anyway,” she said, skipping ahead, “Francis said he likes Liz.”

“I can’t believe it.” I don’t like it was what she really wanted to say. “I’m still not sure this is a good idea.” She hopped into the car’s driver’s seat, unlocking it for Luci to enter. Luci plopped down and buckled herself in.

Looking both ways, before she exited the parking lot, she paid close attention to the stop signs and the speed limit. Her mother may have said yes to this impromptu drive, but a single ticket and she wouldn’t be allowed to drive again.

“You’re sure you’re over him,” she asked, stopping at a red light.

Luci fiddled with the radio. Sighing, Silvia handed her her phone so she could connect to the car.

All grins, Luci took the phone and scrolled through Spotify. Finally landing on a song, Silvia drove on, waiting for Luci to answer the question.

“Luci, you still haven’t answered my question.”

She rolled her eyes. “I already told you, yes. I’m absolutely over Francis. I broke up with him because he was just too much. I can’t with him. Does that make me a bad person?”

“No. But, I mean, maybe you shouldn’t date anyone since you’re so in love with Cyrus.”

“Oh, you mean the guy who has a girlfriend? The guy who kisses me and has seen me naked but still can’t decide how he feels about me? Yes, I should definitely wait for him.”

“I’m not saying that. I’m saying, maybe work on getting over him by yourself instead of with another guy. It didn’t work last year with Lucas, and it clearly didn’t work with Francis.”

“It’s hard. I mean, I just…I know Cyrus feels something for me.”

Silvia made a left and sighed again. “Yeah, we all know Cyrus has feelings for you. We all saw that poolside kiss girl. But, I don’t know, don’t wait for him. Honestly, it’s his loss.”

“You say the sweetest things, Vee.” Silvia grinned at her. “But anyway, yeah, Francis can date his heart away. I think I just needed a fling to get me out of my dark mood. Cyrus leaving was depressing.”

“Well, it worked, you seem back to your cheerful self…mostly. And hey, you only managed to break a guy’s heart in the process.”

She saw Lucita roll her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic! It’s not like I meant for that to happen. I’m fifteen, he’s sixteen. Do you really believe that in the—was it two months?” Silvia nodded. “Right, okay. Now, do you really believe he actually fell in love with me in that short amount of time?”

“You never know. How long did it take you to fall in love with Cyrus?”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

“Did I touch a nerve, Lu?”

“Oh shut up. That’s different. And for the record, I fell in love with him a year after I met him. It was after the summer we spent talking.”

“Before he dropped you?” Silvia knew very little of their relationship before high school, but she knew that much. Cyrus was so embarrassed by her crush that he had let his friends, the same people who teased him about her, bully her. Thinking about that left a sour taste in her mouth.

“Yeah,” she mumbled, looking out the car window.

Silvia gripped the steering wheel tightly, picking up speed to match the increasing speed limit.

“You really love him, don’t you?”

“I don’t want to talk about Cyrus right now.”

Silvia let it go, letting the music fill the silence between them. She saw Lucita picking at the hem of her shirt.

“Does this mean you’ll date Jason once he eventually breaks up with Amelia? Does she know he sneaks into your room at night?” Silvia was still shocked by that little revelation.

“No! Jesus, that’s all I need. If Liz doesn’t already blame me, she sure will if that ever happens.”

“You know he has a crush on you.”

“Jason also has a girlfriend,” she said, giving her a side-eye glare.

“That is so not going to last!” Turning left onto Stirling Rd, she tried to contain her laughter. Lucita laughed alongside her, and together they cackled like witches.

“You’re so right! No, I don’t know. You just told me I shouldn’t date.”

“I think you dated for the wrong reasons. You date to distract yourself from he-who-must-not-be-named instead of dating because you like the guy. No one has a chance with you because you’re so hung up on Cy.”

Lucita’s small voice caught her off guard. “Did Liz ever think he had a crush on me?”

Silvia pulled to a stop at a yellow light, hands gripping the steering wheel. Lucita was staring at her now, holding her hands firmly in her lap.

“You can’t blame yourself for Jason.”

“That’s not answering the question.”

Silvia let out a deep breath. “Yeah, she knew how much he liked you.”

“Green go.”

Not the response she expected. “What?” A car honked behind them, and Silvia looked at the green traffic light.

“I did say green go.”

“Yeah,” said Silvia driving on, “but I thought you were calling me a gringo.”

“Naw, I wouldn’t insult you like that.” Both girls laughed, the earlier tension subsiding. “Hey Vee?”

“Yeah?”

“We shouldn’t have told Jason to ask out Liz last year.”

“You suspected, huh?”

“Yeah,” said Luci, nodding. “But I thought if he dated her, everything would fix itself. He liked her for so long, and initially, he couldn’t stand me.”

“You realize you’re doing it again, right? With Francis.”

“Yeah, but this time is going to be different.”

“Um, both guys like you and dated her as a consolation.” It was harsh but true.

“This time is going to be different. They’re both rebounding; they can rebound with each other, get over their heartache, and no one will be the wiser.”

“None of that makes any of this sound better, for the record.”

“Everything will be fine.”

Silvia shook her head. “You’re so smart in class, but when it comes to friendships, I’m beginning to think you’re a dumbass.”

“Ouch! That was mean!”

“But honest!” Silvia turned at the turn signal, entering Liz’s apartment complex. It was like a little suburbia, with cookie-cutter houses lined next to one another, each with a rust-red tile roof and off-white exterior.

“Just think positively, okay?”

“I wish Becca were here because when Liz blows up at you—”

“Liz will not blow up at me. Stop overreacting.”

Silvia pulled into one of the guest parking spots. “I’ll stop when you stop being delusional.”

Lucita sighed and kicked off her high-heeled wedge sandals before stepping out of the car. Silvia just stared at her aghast.

“What,” she said, stepping onto the sidewalk, sandals dangling from her hand.

“Why did you even bother wearing shoes if you were just going to take them off?”

“My mom makes me wear shoes. I much prefer being barefoot. But once, I cut myself, so ever since, shoes.”

“It’s a valid fear. Dude, put your shoes on.”

“Oh, I’ll be fine. The last time I cut my foot, I was, like, five, I think. And it was on a thorn in Texas outside her friend’s house. It sucked, but that’s when I discovered my love of Sailor Moon.”

Silvia rolled her eyes. This whole matching-making thing had but a bad taste in her mouth and soured her mood. She may have agreed to it, but she just had a bad feeling about it that she couldn’t put to rest. And it didn’t help that sometimes Lucita felt like a completely different person.

When school had started, she had barely smiled, eyes lined with heavier black eyeliner than the year before, her attitude brooding at best.

Now, she was practically skipping. It was like she was two different people sometimes. Sometimes, so dark Silvia couldn’t reach her, and other times, so happy it was blinding.

“Luce,” she said, stopping in her tracks, “you realize that even if this works, Jason still won’t be able to eat lunch with us.”

Lucita stopped walking, her shoulders sagging and her smile weak. “Yeah, I know. God, it’s barely October, and everything has been shot to hell. I just want a semblance of how things used to be. I don’t hate him—”

“Neither do I. And yo, honestly, I don’t blame Jason either.”

Lucita stared at her. “Neither do I, but I feel like everything is sort of my fault, and I just want to fix it.”

“One, it is not your fault. Two, you can’t fix it.”

It looked like a weight on her shoulders, threatening to beat her down. “Yeah, you’re right. But I can try to help her move on, can’t I? Sometimes, it feels like it’s eating her up inside, and I want to make it go away.”

This was precisely what Silvia was talking about. Happy and bright, then it was like a dark cloud took over her. “Oh, Luce…what happened to you this summer?”

The sudden change in Luci was instantaneous. Her eyes darkened, and her fingers flexed, the way cats do when they are about to strike. Lucita always reminded her of a cat with her eyeliner and cat-eye frames. Calm one minute, then lethal the next.

“I don’t want to talk about it. Can we just get going now…please and thank you.” There wasn’t a skip in her step anymore. Instead, her pace was quick, each step determined. Silvia wished she had kept her mouth shut and wished her friend would talk to her.

Trailing behind her friend, she stood behind her as she knocked on the brown wooden door. Silvia tensed when the door opened, forcing a smile as she looked at Liz.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” asked Liz in a pair of jeans and a tank top. That was a different look for her, and Silvia wondered why she didn’t dress like that more often.

“You should come hang out with us,” chirped Lucita, clapping her hands together.

Liz stepped outside, looking around them. “How did you guys even get here?”

“Luci convinced my mom to give me the keys to the car.”

“Yup. She’s driving like a smooth criminal.” Lucita started humming the song and dancing with her shoulders, drawing a smile from Liz and Silvia.

“Where would we go?”

“We can go to Young Circle. There’s a Starbucks there where we can chill.”

“Except I’m broke,” said Silvia.

Lucita rolled her eyes. “Okay, but we can still chill around the area. It’s a perfectly gloomy Sunday afternoon.”

“Only you would think a cloudy sky is beautiful,” joked Liz.

“I’m a vampire, duh.” Lucita gave a little hiss, fingers outstretched. “Now come on, get your shoes on, and let’s go.” Liz laughed some more before returning inside, agreeing to get her sneakers on. Lucita spun around, arms behind her back, a grin.

“You haven’t succeeded yet, chica.”

“Did you really just call me chica?”

“You’re Mexican.”

“And you’re Portuguese. You don’t see me calling you chica. Or whatever the equivalent would be. What would the equivalent be?”

Silvia laughed. “We use chica, Chiquita.” Lucita pouted, crossing her arms at being called a little girl. Silvia only laughed harder. Both girls were laughing together, and Liz opened the door, closing it behind her.

“What’s so funny?”

“She called me a chica, then a Chiquita, and I pouted about it.”

“Why?”

Lucita shrugged, and Silvia’s smile vanished. She didn’t like Liz’s tone, as if she was mad at them for laughing without her.

“I was trying to be cute.” She spun around, skipping back ahead of them towards the car.

Silvia’s bad feeling didn’t go away once they were in the car, all buckled in.

“It’s a girls’ day,” said Luci in a manic frenzy. There were times that Silvia worried about Luci and her moods. She seemed so down some days, as if the world was caving in around her. And then there were the days when she was burning so bright Vee thought she would blow up.

She wondered if anyone else saw these two sides of Luci and worried about her as much as she did.

“There’s no Becca,” said Liz, sitting in the middle of the back seat.

“She’s out surfing with Blake,” said Silvia, her tone souring.

“Come on, we said we would be supportive,” said Lucita. “If he hasn’t changed like Becca said he has, then we’ll need to be there for her when he unfortunately breaks her heart.”

“That will be a shitty day,” muttered Liz, arms crossed, staring out the window.

Silva spared Lucita glance. Not in the car, she mouthed, watching as Luci bit down on her thumbnail.

“Hey Liz, I have something I have to tell you.”

“What? Wait, does this involve Jason?”

Luci blinked. “No, not at all. It has to do with Francis.”

Even through the rearview mirror, she saw her shoulders relax. Did she really think Luci cheated with Jason?

“Oh, okay, what about Francis?”

“Well, I mean, the other day, he told me he had a bit of a crush on you.”

Silvia hung her head down on the steering wheel, foot slamming on the gas peddle.

“Silvia!” Silvia jerked her head up just in time to slam on the break and avoid a turning car.

“Jesus Christ, look for cops.” Each girl jerked around, checking the small street they were on. The car filled with a giant sigh of relief when they were clear.

“Man, that was close,” she said, trying desperately to change the subject. “If I got a ticket, my mom would kill me.”

“And probably make you work it off at the store,” added Liz.

“Right!” Silvia let out a shaky laugh. She did not want to spend the rest of the day suffering through this rising tension. She could already feel the tension becoming thicker in the small car.

“So, what were you telling me about Francis?”

Why did the universe hate her?

“Well, you two have been hanging out so much lately. I asked him about it and, well, I just thought you might like to know.”

“Why would you think that? Jealous Luci?”

Silvia did not like the tone of her voice. She looked over at Luci, at the doe-eyed expression on her face.

“What? No, I just—”

“Jason and I just broke up, Lu.”

“Well, I know it hasn’t been very long, but Francis said he liked you, so I thought I would pass it on. I mean, I just thought if you were over Jason—”

“I am over Jason. A guy who cheats is not worth thinking about.”

“Really?” said Silvia and Lucita in unison, sharing a look just as the rain began to fall.

“Yeah, besides, he tortures himself enough. All this means is that he wasn’t the one. Honestly, I’m over it. I don’t even hate him anymore.”

“Really?” asked Lucita again, biting down her smile.

“Yeah. Actually, I was thinking I would start talking to him again. What do you guys think?”

Again, Silvia and Lucita shared a look. This was tricky ground and a little too good to be true. You answer her, she mouthed to Luci. This was her stupid idea, after all.

“Well, um, ultimately, it’s all up to you, Liz. But I, mean, if you can get past everything, then I think you should at least give it a shot.”

“Yeah, I think so.” She paused for a moment. “Lucita?”

“Yeah?”

“Is Francis over you?”

“He said so.” Lucita gave Silvia a pointed look. They both knew she was lying, and it bothered Silvia that she was. Silvia wanted to object, to open her mouth and say it was wrong. But she kept her mouth shut.

“Okay, then I’ll think about it. I’ll let you know soon, probably by Halloween.”

“Really? Okay then!”

The rain pelted against the car as they drove and danced to the music in the car. But even amidst the laughter, the bad feeling in the pit of her stomach grew. She just wanted to be wrong.