We brought her to the house. We were in the backyard sitting on concrete stairs. We had our backs facing the door less doorway. My left arm was behind Sara. Me and her were looking out into the forest in front of us, drinking and smoking. Estaban was drawing in his sketchbook again.
"Shit! This place reminds me of a dream I had when I was really little," Sara had said dreamily, "It was like the end of civilization. No one left. And suddenly, all my old toys appeared." Sara looks at us to see if she should stop but when she sees the smile on our faces she smiles also and continues. "The ones my Mom threw out when I was little. But it was nice."
Taking a puff of her cigarette she looks at Estaban sketchbook. "Let me see." Erasing some final details, brushing it off, he hands it to her. She giggles a bit. "Is this me?" I look over her shoulder to see the pencil sketch, it looks really good but it doesn't really capture the life of Sara. "It doesn't look anything like me." I think for once in my life I say the right thing, "Yes, it does. It looks like a beautiful girl. But it could be worked on a bit more." She looks at me with a another smile. "Okay," Estaban said taking back the sketchbook and tears out the page, crumbling it up. "Fuck it. I'll do it later at home, okay?" Digging in his back he pulls out a digital camera. Sara picked up the sketchbook again asking, "Who's this?"Estaban looked back at the sketchbook panicked. "Give me that, please." Moving the sketchbook away to show me she said, "She's very pretty." And the girl was but somehow about her mad me not really want to date her, could be just my preference but her face is really long. I also having realized Sara had a low self esteem so I said, "Not prettier than you, for sure." Snatching the sketchbook away from Sara, Estaban puts it away. "Thank you, Artiz, but you might be a fuckin' fag the way you laugh when they hit you," chuckled out. Not liking the way she said that I said, "We can't all be as macho as you. Right, Macho Man? Sorry, Macho Ma'am." Turning away she huffed out, "Fuckin' drop it, man. Why the fuck do they call me that?" Stopping myself from saying anything more damaging I said, "Maybe because they're idiots that think all girls should wear makeup and skanky clothes. Personally I think your big brothers clothes look nice on you." At that I laugh a little and Estaban laughs as well making me laugh more. Instead of getting angrier like I thought she would, she actually started to laugh, too. When Sara started to laugh Estaban took his picture. "Fuck you both! Assholes," she said hitting us both on the shoulders. At that she gets up and walks away.
We could tell she was really angry so we both called out "WAIT! We're sorry." When we finally caught up with her she started talking again. " What's wrong with guy's clothes? The girls' clothes I like are expensive and I can't afford them." After hearing that I said, "What is it you're after?" Smiling at my obvious regret of my comment she answered, "Why do you ask? You gonna buy me it?" "Who know's? You ask for it, I'll get it." Her grin even wider she asked, "Anything I want?" "Yeah, what ever you want." We had just reach the shopping area so she looks around and points. "I want that dress." Confused I looked at where she was pointing and it was a beautiful red dress with a black heart neckline, four black heart buttons, and a simple black belt. Sara smiled at me like she knew she had me. I had to steel myself so nodding at her to make sure, I just said, "Okay. If you want." I looked back one more time at them to make sure. I don't know what they were doing while after I'd left but I entered the store.
I was thinking of stealing it but I knew there was no way I'd pull that off. I noticed that one of the older clerk was married. Walking up to the store's clerk I pointed at the dress and said, "My girlfriend saw this earlier and I was hoping to buy it. Could you get it?" The store clerk moved to get the dress and brought it back to me. Looking at the price tag that was way out of my price range I said, "Umm.. is there any way I could haggle down the price. My girlfriend would be angry at me for not getting it for her just cause I didn't have any money. It's our anniversary in a couple of days and she's been eyeing this dress for a while now." Taking pity on me she allowed me to get it down to 10 dollars. Saying thank you I left the shop. I knew she would've taken pity on me because most women in this area above a certain age appreciate young men that do things for their girlfriends. So I took advantage of this tidbit
I had ran up to them and pretended that I stole it. "Okay I got it," I whispered. Estaban looked super panicked, "What? You've got it?" Sara was probably even more shocked, "How did you get it?" Still whispering I said, "Don't ask questions." Sara took it out of my bag to look at it. "Don't take it out here!" Estaban whisper shouted. Sara was so happy, "Holy shit!" Estaban tried to move Sara's hands back to my bag and said, "Put it away, put it away, don't take it out here-" Not moving Sara said, "This dress is fucking awesome!" Putting the dress in my bag I said, "Let's go. People can be fucking stupid. We can get whatever we want." Moving the two towards a corner I had started to run and they ran with me.
The rest of the time was spent messing with eachother and stealing items for ourselves and eachother. The next few days we spent a lot of time together, buying furniture and decorations, making the Room in the house unique and special to us. We got a couch, moved the magazines, swept up the floor. Slowly we made the place ours and we just had fun together.
On the afternoon after we finished, I had decided I tell them how I got the dress. I knew at if I was serious about being their friends I can't lie about the stupid shit. We were hanging out on the couch not really talking just enjoying each other's company. Sara was lying across me and Estaban's laps; her feet resting on mine and her head resting on his. She was messing with ball just throwing the thing in the sir and catching it. Estaban was messing with Sara's short hair, not doing much just messing with it. I said, "Guys I gotta to tell you something. It's nothing bad but I thought you'd like to know."
They both had looked really concerned. Estaban was the first to ask a question, "Aritz? What is it?" Sara chose to nod at his question instead of asking herself now sitting up. "I didn't steal the dress." Sara spoke up, "What do you mean you didn't steal the dress? How'd the you get it then?" So I told them. "I knew I wouldn't be able to steal a dress that was in the window so I bought it." "Wasn't the dress like a hundred dollars?" Estaban asked clearly confused. "It was but I'd gotten the clerk to take pity on me and got it down to 10 dollars."
"How did you do that?" Sara asked looking more interested instead of confused. " I was so happy they weren't mad at me. "I had told one of the married clerks that my girlfriend would be angry if didn't get the dress she wanted for our anniversary." Estaban grinned and lightly punched my shoulder saying, "You're a fuckin' genius, man." Sara had a contemplative look on her face. "You know if we did this we'd easily be able to get the larger stuff, like a tv or some shit." Astonished by her thinking we both pulled her into a hug. Not caring that it looked really awkward. We just needed to show our gratitude.
On some random day, me and Estaban skipped class and found the class Sarita was in. We threw pebbles at the window, she was next to, to trying to get her attention. At first she just looked at us and ignored us, but when we about continued we saw her raise her hand. She got up and moved away from the window. I was about to throw a broken brick but then Sara came out of the building. Realize that the brick probably wasn't the best idea I set it down. Sara looked at us like she was bored, "What do you two assholes want?"
"Nothing," both me and Estaban choruses. "We just wanted to see you," I finished. "Okay, I'm here now. What do you want to do?" Sarita asked. "First, aren't you gonna give us a hug? Didn't you miss us?" Estaban asked somehow managed to look like a kicked puppy. Sara huffed and pulled us both in a hug that was supposed to be quick but we made it longer.
After we let go Sara said, "Okay before you go anywhere I need to go to the ladies' room wait for me." We followed her to one of the building that held the restroom and waited. Me and Estaban were roughhousing again just having a great time. At some point the bell must have rang because Raúl and his boys showed up out of nowhere.
"It looks like the schools faggots are about to fuck," he said sneering at us. Angry Estaban said, "What's your fucking problem. We're not doing anything." One of the guys said, "Looks like faggot got a pair of balls on him." The jackass punched Esteban in the nose making it bleed. I tried to take the high round for once. I had tried to push my way through them pushing Esteban with me so I could look at his nose, but they stopped me pushing to the ground hard. "Where the fuck do you think your going?" One of them said. My mouth had hit a rock when I tried to get up Raúl had grabbed my hair. "This is the don't be faggots rock. Do you see it?" Before I could do anything he slammed my face into it. For each slam was a syllable he said, "Fuck you, you fucki-" Estaban tried to grab Raúl to get him off me but the guy from earlier pulled him back. "Easy! Don't you move!" Raúl stopped and stood up and pushed me towards Estaban. "Tell us! Tell us! Tell us you aren't faggots."
Before we could do anything Sara came storming up. "What the fuck are you doing, asshole? Why fuck would a fuckin' faggot like you care about this?" "Their gaying up the school. Annoying the shit out of everyone." "Your fucking idiots. All of you fucking assholes." One of the girls of the group said, "What gives you the right to say that, Macho Man?" Sara still steaming said, "Because only an asshole would beat someone up because they think they're gay!" Raúl was shouting as well. "Watch it, Macho Man. You're full if shit." "Sure, kid, I fucked your girlfriend, Yolanda was it. And the Sarge also, if you can believe that." Looking back at us who were still standing there like idiots she said, "Get the fuck out of here, are you retarded?" While hitting the back of Esteban's head. "Fuck," me and Esteban whispered. "Watch out you two! I've got your number, both of you. I don't want faggots in my school!" Sara yelled back not stopping for a second, "Get lost Assholes!"
Sara had lead us to some random bench. She was sitting in between us. We had gotten tissue from the restroom and were nursing our wounds. It hurt so God Damn much that tears couldn't help but fall from our eyes. Sara had just lite a cigarette. "Those guys are fucking stupid pieces of shit. They don't matter," Sara said trying to console us. "I don't give a shit. We're gonna kill him. He's the fucking flag, we're gonna destroy him," Esteban said the anger in his voice loud. "We're gonna kill him," I growled out. "You know why they beat you up? Because they are a bunch of insecure ducks that question their sexuality anytime someone brings it up. They don't matter." Just as Sara was about to smoke her cigarette I took it from her. I pushed the lit end into my skin. "What the hell are you doing? Aritz!," Sara panicked. I was crying again I didn't know from what: my physical or my emotional pain. "Letting the pain out." I was still holding the cigarette to my hand. Sara slapped it out of my hand shouting, "Jesus!"
I remember standing up so quick it scared the others. I threw the tissues on the floor and grabbed a bottle that was next to Sara. Shouting, "Fuck," I threw the bottle at a nearby wall breaking it against it. Estaban just looked confused, "Are you fucking stupid? Haven't you had enough for one day?" I answered as honestly as I could. "I don't know. Okay!" I sank to the floor, tears still flowing.
Sara tried to remedy the situation. "Okay, that's it. Let's go shopping."