Lucita practically jumped out of Matthew’s car.

He knew.

Cyrus knew.

No. Oh no, no, no, no.

“Luce, wait up!” Called Matthew, following her up the driveway. Whose car was that? Whose car was that in the driveway? She knew whose car, but she was trying to believe otherwise. It couldn’t be. No.

She ran to the door, knocking and banging.

He knew.

No one answered. But there was a car in the driveway.

Lucita banged again. “Cyrus! Please open up!” She kept on banging.

“Luce! I have a key,” said Matthew, fishing the keys out of his pocket. She watched him open the door, wringing her hands together, trying not to pull her own hair out.

He knew.

She followed him in. There was talking. Who was talking?

How did he know?

Lucita had only told one person. But even though Liz wasn’t her friend anymore, she wouldn’t do this. Liz may hate her, but she wouldn’t go this far.

“Cy?” called Matthew, leading the way to the living room. Lucita trailed behind him. Matthew stopped at the threshold, holding his hand out to stop Luci. “Why the fuck are you still here?”

No.

Luci pressed forward, but Matthew snatched her wrist, pulling her back. He wasn’t fast enough.

Lucita almost collapsed. Tiffany was sitting on the coffee table in a cute green spring dress. No. She sat there, legs crossed, with a slight sly smile.

“Hey there, Luci.”

“Get the fuck out of here.”

Lucita jerked her head, looking over at Cyrus standing at the edge of the sofa, just out of reach. The anger, god, she hadn’t seen him that angry since middle school. But there was more. She saw it, she saw the pain, always saw the pain.

Lucita tried to take a step forward, but Matthew held her back. She looked back at him and saw her fear replicated in his face. His hazel eyes seemed to stare back at Cyrus’s, a message passing between them.

“I want both of you fucking gone.”

“No!” Lucita jerked her wrist from Matthew. “No, Cyrus, listen to me. Please do not listen to her.”

“So what, is she lying? Tell me she’s lying! Tell me you didn’t fuck my best friend!” He was fuming, she could tell. But if there was one thing she could never do, it was lie to him.

“She’s not,” she said, her voice small. She could feel the tears now. “I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry. But, Cyrus, please, it wasn’t like that—” She reached for him, but he jerked away. He was looking at her now differently. It hurt. It made her heart ache just looking at him like that, staring at her like she was a stranger.

“Do not fucking touch me.”

“Cyrus—”

“Dude, it just happened. It wasn’t—”

“I don’t even want to look at you! You knew! You knew how I felt about her and did it anyway.”

“Don’t forget,” started Tiffany in a too-chipper voice, “he’s the reason you got kicked out.”

Matthew glared at her. “You don’t get to talk.”

“No, don’t get pissed at her. She’s the only one being honest with me!”

“She cheated on you! She lied to you!” screamed Lucita. “Honest? She’s manipulating everything!”

“And you didn’t? You didn’t lie to me?”

“You never asked. Cyrus, please, you…I love you. Please, don’t cut me out. Please, please, I’m sorry.”

“It just happened, Cyrus,” said Matthew, shoving his hands into his pocket.

“You fucking called the school and got me kicked out!”

“And I would do it again to get you away from her. Look at what she’s doing! She came here for Spring Break to what, to say sorry? It’s bullshit. You know she’s not sorry. Look at her! She’s happy she’s messing with everything. And you know something? She was only dating you to drive a wedge between you and Luce. She wanted me to participate in it!”

Cyrus stared at his friend. “Luce? You’re calling her Luce now?”

“Jesus Christ, is that all you heard? Okay, yes, Lucita and I had sex. Once we did it once. But you know what, that girl,” he said, pointing to Tiffany, “she lied to you about who she was. She then cheated on you when you got kicked out. She only wanted you because Lucita loves you.”

“Cyrus, please—” she finally reached him and grabbed his hand. But he jerked again, this time shoving her back. She hit the floor, her side connecting with the wood floor.

“Don’t fucking touch her like that.” Matthew helped her up. She wanted to shove him away. She knew this wasn’t helping, but why should she. She was so angry now. Angry at Tiffany. Liz, how could you? Angry at Cyrus. You knew how I felt about her.

“I love you. I’ve always loved you. But you, you want to talk about honesty? What do I mean to you? You’ve never told me I mean anything to you! You string me along and then act like I’m supposed to wait for you. Wait for what! Come on, tell me, what am I waiting for? Tell me how you feel about me! Do you even feel anything for me?” She was sobbing now. She didn’t want to hear the answer. “I know you feel nothing for me, Cyrus, so don’t act like it’s some great betrayal.” She couldn’t see past the tears that began to stain her glasses.

Matthew held her and helped her up.

“We fucked up, yeah, okay. But you know what? We actually care about you. She doesn’t. And the worst part is you know it. You know all this drama is just to hurt Luci.” Matthew led her out of the house, and Luci let him.

They went next door to his house, where Maria was unloading the groceries.

“¿Qué es esto? ¿Por qué ella está llorando?”

“Esta es mi amiga Lucita.  She and Cyrus got into a fight. La llevaré a mi habitación un rato.”

Lucita knew enough Spanish to understand. So she let Matt take her up to his room. His room overlooked the pool. She sat in his arms crying, crying over the same boy she always cried over, the same boy she loved who she was never sure would ever love her back.

“He does care about you, Luci.”

“Not enough. He doesn’t care enough.” She wiped away her snot on her hand. He gave her a t-shirt to wipe it on.

“Sorry, I don’t have any tissues.”

“It’s fine.” She took a deep breath, counting to four. A little technique her therapist taught her. “I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me.”

“He will. He cares about you, so he’ll forgive you. Cy….he just has to get out of his head and stop listening to Tiffany.”

“God, I hate her! I didn’t do anything. And Liz, God, I trusted her. I trusted her, and, ugh, it was Evie. Always Evie. She told Tiffany what we did because Liz told her. I trusted her, Matt.”

“Right, but right now, Liz thinks you slept with your ex while he was dating her.”

“But I didn’t! It was one kiss. One stupid kiss that I regretted instantly. I wish it had never happened.”

“But it did, so the brokenhearted boy started rumors, and the already brokenhearted girl lashed out. It’s not fair, but it happens.”

“I just wish…I wish he felt something for me.”

“Luce…he does. Come on, you can tell he does. He wouldn’t be so upset if he didn’t.”

Lucita sighed. “He can be upset for many reasons, but until he says something, I’m not gonna get my hopes up.” She pulled her legs up to her chest. “Can I stay here for a bit?” Matt nodded. “Yeah. I’ll get some popcorn. We can watch a movie.”

Cyrus watched them leave together. When he saw Lucita, it was like everything had slammed into him all at once.

Why had he let Tiffany into his house?

He knew, God dammit, he knew what she was up to. The moment he has seen her on his doorstep. There has been a malicious glint in her green eyes.

Why had he ever liked her?

Because Matt was right, she had manipulated everything right from the beginning. Right from the beginning, she had made herself into someone different. She had lied about her past and twisted the facts to fit her narrative.

And he had fallen for it.

But he had never stopped thinking about Luci.

And now…

“Well, that was dramatic.”

Cyrus stared at her, forgetting she was even there.

“Get the fuck out of my house Tiffany.”

She stared at him, shocked that he had spoken to her like that.

“Excuse me?”

“I want you out of my house. I never want to hear from you again. I never want to see you again.”

He couldn’t believe she had the audacity to look hurt. “Cyrus, I —”

“Get the fuck out!” He threw a chair on the ground, wondering how the hell he was supposed to explain that to his mother, but he didn’t care. It had the intended effect. Tiffany flinched, jumping up and grabbing her purse.

He stood there alone, eyes burning, and waited until the door clicked shut before he fell to the ground.

Cyrus wanted to run next door. He wanted to say sorry to Lucita.

I know you feel nothing for me, Cyrus…

Did she really think that? How could she think that? Even if that were true, Matthew was his best friend, his best friend. Matthew used to hate her, and now, now he had held Luci—Luce—protectively against him.

He shouldn’t have shoved her. He shouldn’t have done that. God, why did he do that? What was wrong with him? Why did he mess everything up?

When his family got home, he still sat on the floor in the dark.

“Cyrus? ¿Qué pasó?” asked his mother, leaning down. His older sister knelt down as well.

“Luci and I got into a fight.” He pulled at his hair. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Fuck, Luci, he wanted to hold her, he wanted to say sorry.

But she slept with his best friend.

He heard his sister say something to their mom and help him up. She led the way up the stairs to his room.

Collapsing on the bed, he screamed into his pillow. His sister closed the bedroom door and sat patiently at his desk.

“You wanna talk about it?”

Cyrus sighed. “Not really.”

“Too bad.” She kicked at his leg, getting him to sit up. “What happened?”

He stared at his sister, tongue feeling heavy in his mouth. “My ex came by.”

“The girl from school? The one you told me cheated on you? Is that the reason you wanted to stay home?”

“She sent me a text asking to talk.”

“Why would you even give her the time of day?”

“I don’t know, okay! ¡Fue una estupidez!”

“What happened?”

Cyrus sighed. “She told me Luci lost her virginity to Matt.” Saying the words made him want to vomit.

“And you believed her?”

“Luci and Matt barged in here and admitted to it. I mean, I told Matt that Tiffany was coming, I guess he went to get Luci?” He shook his head. “I don’t know. I didn’t…I hadn’t realized how close they had gotten.”

They were silent for a moment. “Was that all?”

“No. I didn’t want to tell you guys earlier, but Matt got me kicked out of school. He’s the one who told the school about my pot. He said he did it to get me away from Tiffany.”

“Mierda.”

 “I thought I was over it. But then they were here, and now I knew the whole truth, and I was angry about it. I…I was supposed to be her first.”

He was surprised when his sister smacked him upside the head.

“¡Qué demonios!”

“First off: yes, it’s shitty they got you kicked out, but you know what, sooner or later, it would have happened. I’m not saying it was good, and sometimes people do bad things for good reasons.”

“Doesn’t make it good.”

“Not condoning hermanito. But they did it to get you away from that girl. Now, as for the sex…you are not dating her. In fact, this girl loves you, and you…do you even like her, or is this an ego thing?”

“Karina, yeah, I have feelings for her.”

I know you feel nothing for me, Cyrus…

“Have you ever told her that? What is she supposed to do, just wait around for you? Come on, you can’t expect that of her.”

“I don’t…it’s complicated.”

“So uncomplicate it.”

Cyrus sighed. “I don’t know how!”

His sister just sat there, arms crossed. “Figure your shit out, hermanito. Take some space and get your head in order before you say or do something stupid. That girl…Luci really cares about you, and you care about her. Figure out what you want to do about that, resolve your feelings. Be upfront with her because you’re stringing her along and then to make her feel like crap because she had sex with your friend—”

“My best friend,” he interrupted.

She put up her hand to silence him. “Don’t interrupt. That doesn’t matter. You don’t have a claim to her. She can do whatever she wants. If you want to make a claim to her, then ask her out. Otherwise, apologize and move on.” She left him there, but not before giving him a kiss on the top of his head.

Pre-Order ‘New Girl,’ the first in my YA Romance series.