Francisco takes a seat on the school bus and looks out the window as the snow falls to the ground. He misses the lazy days of Christmas break, but he is happy to have a reason to leave the house without one of his parents asking where he is going and when he'll be back. It isn't new behavior, his parents, particularly his mom, has always been overly cautious about her sons, but that caution is always shifted into overdrive this time of year.
He always assumed that since he and his brothers learned to drive on snow, there wouldn't be as much to worry about when it came to driving, unfortunately for Francisco, his brothers and dad have caused some damage to the family truck. Whether it was in the dark of night or rainy storms, both parents have become paranoid that their youngest son will follow in his elder brothers' footsteps and get into an accident that will cause damage to the shared vehicle.
It was also made worse by Valentine's Day last year; his parents haven't been as trusting in their youngest son, especially when he's behind the wheel. He assumed that they would have let it go eventually, but nearly every time that he brings up driving, they pretend to think about it after the 'incident', but he's sure that winter and snow is the true reason of keep the truck's keys from him.
He doesn't notice when Lynn takes a seat in front of him, and playfully mocks him, "Hey! What's the cool driving guy doing on the bus?"
Francisco looks over at her, and with a smile, responds, "Keeping the girl who still doesn't have her license company."
Lynn punches him in the arm, "Ha ha," she laughs sarcastically, "Are your parents still not letting you drive in the snow? What's up with that?"
He holds onto where she punched him, and nods his head, "The curse of being the youngest – my brothers screw up and now my parents think that I'm going to crash if I drive in the snow like they did."
"I know that life," Lynn complains. "But it's daytime, you can still see the road. What kind of accident could you get into in this weather?"
"My brothers found a way. It was never anything serious, but my parents were sick of their insurance rates going through the roof because one of them lost control on a patch of ice or someone screwed up the truck because they fell into a pothole."
After hearing the complaints, begins to Lynn contemplate, "Maybe I should be happy that Vanzilla is probably going to be my first car – no one will care if something breaks," she jokes. "But it still doesn't make much sense; they let you drive on Valentine's Day last year, what's the difference now?"
"They didn't know that I went as far as I did," Francisco admits. "They thought that I was only going to hockey practice and back. Then my dad saw the odometer and realized how far I was driving."
"And you're still being punished?!"
He nods his head, "It's amazing when my dad is capable of paying attention to things like that."
Realizing that he probably lied about the first reason, Lynn asks, "So is it true about your brothers, or are you trying to save face?"
"No, that really is true. They didn't mind me driving to hockey practice because they hate waiting or being inside. Since I know the route so well, they trusted me."
"And you broke their trust by driving to the city," Lynn shakes her head, "For shame."
"Don't pretend that you didn't have fun," he teases.
Lynn blushes and turns her head to the window as the bus begins to move, refusing to acknowledge that their little outing last year was entertaining.
Kiké opens the fridge to put away an aluminum-wrapped treat when he notices that his beer is missing, "What the hell?" he moves the food in the fridge, but he can't find a single can. "Where the hell is my beer?!"
"I don't know, it was there before I left to get something to eat," Lynn responds.
He closes the fridge, "Well beer cans don't just roll away while you go get a pack of smokes," Kiké complains. "Call Pancho and ask him where he put them."
"You do it. It's your beer," Lynn says, ignoring the unwanted guest in favor of the television screen.
He pulls out his phone and notices the message that Francisco left him, "What the hell?! The bastard put them in his truck, and he drove off with them!"
Lynn raises the volume on the tv in an effort to ignore Kiké's whining. She doesn't see why he cares so much, Francisco will probably be back in a few minutes and then he can go back to drinking that crisp…robust…Lynn shakes her head and stops thinking about the alcohol that was once in the fridge.
'I've been good. I'm not gonna let that bastard screw up my sobriety.'
She hasn't been tempted by alcohol in a long time, but having Francisco's brother around was pushing her. She can't drink, her family isn't always free to have an unexpected houseguest and she can only punch the punching bag at the gym for so long before she remembers that Kiké is still in her home.
Lynn pulls out her phone and texts Lisa in hopes that she might have heard from Francisco, but the younger sister quickly responds to let her know that she has not seen him. Lisa was the most likely to see or hear from him, since the scientist has no information on him, Lynn decides to text some pleasantries to her siblings on the group text.
She waits for a response, but after what seems like forever, Lynn decides that they are too busy. It's already dinner time, so she assumes that they're busy eating or getting home from work and thus, not able to chat at the moment, but she's bored and she wants to have an excuse to ignore the whining man.
"Stop staring at your phone," Kiké tells her, "You look like a desperate loser who can't wait more than a few damn minutes."
"It's been longer than that."
"It's been less than five minutes," he informs her. "I know that you don't look that smart, but I doubt you're that incapable of knowing how much time passes."
Lynn ignores him and puts her phone away. She looks up at the clock and realizes in less than an hour since getting off of work, she and the unwanted houseguest have gotten into another fight and run Francisco out of his own home. She's told herself that she's going to make an attempt at stopping these needless fights, but it's easy to forget in the heat of the moment.
Kiké takes a seat near Lynn, "Look, I know you and I haven't gotten along so well, but is there any chance that you have a secret stash of booze lying around?"
"What? No, I don't drink."
"At all?"
Lynn shakes her head.
Kiké groans, "You and Pancho alike," he sighs.
Francisco opens his textbook. It isn't his ideal way to spend his night, but he didn't understand his teacher's lesson and he needed to make an effort to keep his grades up. Come next school year, he's hoping that his skills on the diamond or the rink can get him a scholarship to go to college, but there's no way the school is going to let him play if his grades stink.
At the moment, the teen is grateful that the house is quiet – his brothers don't live at home, his dad is napping on the couch, and mom is spending the evening relaxing. Meanwhile, Francisco is stuck reading a chemistry book, which he has little interest in, "This is no more interesting than it was in class," he complains, "Well at least there aren't any distractions."
After waking up from a nap, Juan notices the silence in the house and the grumbling in his stomach. He looks over at Alicia, who is wrapped under a blanket, listening to the tv and playing a game on her phone, and he mumbles, "Tengo hambre," he tells his wife.
Alicia is surprised that he's hungry, considering that he ate before his nap, "Acabas de comer," she reminds him.
"¿No hay algo para comer?" he asks.
She sighs and turns off her game to go see if there are any snacks in the kitchen. This has been a more common occurrence over the years, but she can rarely keep snacks at home without either the boys or her husband eating everything. Luckily, she can keep her sons away, especially with two out of the house, but her husband almost reminded her of a child, especially when he's been drinking.
She looks through the cupboards and the pantry, but as expected, there are no snacks, unless Juan wants to eat cereal, and she knows that he doesn't.
Alicia returns to the living room. She takes a seat and covers herself back up under her blankets, "No hay nada para comer," she tells him.
"¿Ni siquiera una galleta?"
"Nada."
"¿Puedes hacer unas galletas de chispas de chocolate? Me gusta mucho la receta que le dio la amiga de Pancho, ¿y quizás también un atole?"
Alicia sighs and gets up from the couch. She isn't in the mood to make cookies, but at least she can turn on the oven and it can heat the house up a little.
She looks through the pantry once again, but realizes that she's missing ingredients to make the cookies. Alicia thinks about sending Juan to get the remaining ingredients, while also getting some peace and quiet, but he's also hopeless at buying anything from the store.
Alicia calls out to her son, "¡Pancho!"
The teen looks up from his textbook and sighs at the interruption. He gets up from his seat and walks to the kitchen.
Francisco walks in and sees his mom looking through the pantry, she turns to her son and asks "¿Estás ocupado?"
He is, but he knows that unless he helps, his parents are going to check on him until he's available to help, "No, ¿que paso?"
"Voy a hacer unas galletas con chispas de chocolate, pero me faltan algunos ingredientes. ¿Puedes ir con tu papá a la tienda?"
He doesn't want to go the store, but he knows why his mom wants him to go – his dad is a hopeless shopper and will buy the wrong variety of the missing ingredients on the list. Francisco figures that it shouldn't take too long to go to the store and back, so he agrees.
Alicia tells him what she's missing and the seventeen-year-old makes a list on his phone before he and his dad head out to the store.
Francisco tosses the empty beer can towards the passenger side. The snow is continuing to pile onto the windshield and he watches as he tries to make an effort of forgetting why he is in his truck drinking beer.
He isn't going to be able to see his daughter, he can't get peace anywhere he goes, and he knows what Lisa was thinking when she talked with him at the restaurant.
"What is wrong with me?" he slurred. He looks around, but the darkness of the park isn't making it easy.
Nearly twenty years since it all started, and he still is helpless. There was a time that Francisco could remember where he could walk around and even run without the help of addictive medicine, a time when his things were going good and he didn't feel as helpless as he is right now. However, time has slowly begun to steal that from him.
"I'm such a liar…"
He pulls out his medicine and stares at the bottle – the names on the bottle are probably fake, the pills were probably attained dishonestly, and he's sure that the bottle is tempting him to pull out another pill and wash it down with a can of beer.
Francisco grips the bottle of pills and rolls down the window; cold air hits his face and he throws the pill bottle out into the darkness.
He can feel blood about to drip from his nose and he sighs, "Stupid nosebleeds…" he shakes his head, as he recalls other members of his family who also suffer with unfortunate bleeding after breathing in cold air.
Getting rid of the pills, while sitting in his car is one thing, but at some point he's going to get up, go home, and be reminded that he has more pills waiting for him and he isn't going to be able to ignore it forever.
"Stupid back…stupid knees…" he complains.
As the years go on, his pain is beginning to include his knees and he's sure that at some point, he's going to be in so much pain, he won't be able to move or want to keep going.
He shakes his head, "That's just the beer talking," he convinces himself. "I'm…" he doesn't finish, he wants to stop feeling sorry for himself and to stop worrying about everything that is going on, but without something to numb the pain, it is still hitting him at full force.
Francisco turns on his truck. The windshield begins to fog up, but Francisco waits until it clears up before driving. He looks down at the empty beer cans and rather than be deterred, he decides that he wants to get home before it gets too late.
He closes his eyes and tells himself, "I can do it…I'll be fine…dad did it all the time…"
When he told himself that last part, Francisco opens his eyes and looks out at the snowy road; his hands are shaking and his heart is racing, but he tries to calm down so that he can make it home.
He looks at the truck's clock, it's getting late, and he knows that he's going to hear Lynn or Kiké as soon as he walks through the door, "Maybe they'll…maybe they'll…maybe they'll be…asleep," he convinces himself.
He takes a deep breath, and pulls out into the street.
Blue and red lights grab his attention as he pulls out of the parking lot. Francisco pulls over and an officer approaches him. He knows that he's going to be in trouble – there are empty beer cans in the truck, he was parked in a park after hours, and he knows that if he is tested with a breathalyzer, he's going to fail.
Francisco takes a deep breath and tries his best to keep the officer from getting suspicious.
The officer pulls out his flashlight and shines it at Francisco. The officer spots a stream of dry blood from Francisco's nose and begins to wonder what he was doing in the park, "Sir, do you know why I pulled you over?"
Francisco stays quiet. He can think of a few possible reasons, but rather than give the officer an idea of what he's been doing this evening, he shakes his head and quietly says, "No."
"We've had a few illegal activities going on after hours in park."
Francisco's heart beats out of control in his chest. He's sure that the officer knows about the beer, but he hasn't driven far enough or fast enough to be suspicious, but pulling out of a dark park after midnight is not going to look good regardless of what he was doing.
"May I see your license and registration?" the officer asks.
Francisco complies and provides the documents to the officer, who heads back to his squad car to run the plates. When he's alone, Francisco lets out a sigh of relief, he knows that he doesn't have a record and if the officer decides to let him off with a warning, he'll be okay.
The officer returns with Francisco's license and registration. He flashes the light into the truck as he returns the documents, "Alright, now I'm going to let you off with a warning, but next time–" a reflection catches the officer's attention and he shines the flashlight onto the pile of beer cans on the floor of the passenger's seat.
"Sir, I'm going to need you to step out of the vehicle."
Francisco sighs. There is nothing that he could say that would make this any better – the officer sees empty beer cans and will assume that Francisco has been drinking, he'll get tested, and likely be hauled off to jail for driving under the influence.
'What a perfect way to end the day.'
Francisco quietly sits in the truck. Neither one has much to say to the other, but that was expected considering that Juan rarely interacts with Francisco individually and Francisco is busy with school and sports.
Juan turns on the radio to remedy the silence. One of his favorite songs begins to play on the radio, and Juan begins to sing along, adding extra emotion at random parts of the song as he occasionally looks over at his son; hoping to get a response.
Francisco tries to humor his dad, but silently watches as his dad sings.
In his merriment, Juan begins to swerve into a different lane, and a car in said lane honks in response.
The teen panics at the potential collision and tells his dad, "¡Ten cuidado!"
This isn't the first time that his dad has gotten into near misses with other drivers on the road, normally it's a result of sleep deprivation or drinking, but like always, the family isn't fond of Juan's stubbornness to let someone else take the wheel.
"Déjame manejar," Francisco says, hoping to get his dad off the road.
"Está bien," Juan tries to reassure his son as he gets back in his own lane.
Francisco scowls and then glances over at his dad, who currently has bloodshot eyes, "¿Estas borracho?"
Juan shakes his head, "Solo era poquito cerveza."
That doesn't calm Francisco down; it doesn't take much alcohol to inebriate his dad and while the boy has had experience before with his dad driving under the influence, it doesn't take away the occasional fear that something bad will happen.
Francisco sighs at his dad's stubbornness. Rather than continuing to cause strife, he grips the handle over the door as his dad continues to sing down the road.
Lynn stares at the hands on the clock; it's midnight, and Francisco still hasn't come home. She understands that he was frustrated with her and his brother fighting again, but she didn't think that he would take off for hours.
She pulls out her phone and makes another phone call, but like the last twenty-seven calls, he doesn't answer, "Hey…I know that I've left you a buncha voicemails, but I was hoping that you get back with me or home or at least text me back to let me know that you're okay. Any time would be appreciated, you know."
Lynn hastily hangs up. It isn't the best message but after so many, she's losing both patience and running out of things to say to get him to answer her calls. Luckily, the man that was driving her nuts has decided to go outside to smoke, but she's still annoyed at his presence in the house.
She paces back and forth by the front door until the sound of a car grabs her attention, and like a dog happy for his master's return, she looks through an opening to see if Francisco is home – he isn't.
"Where the heck are you?! I get it! We're annoying, but you seriously aren't coming home?!" she yells at the door.
She takes a seat by her favorite chair and turns on the tv in hopes of finding something to take her mind off of Francisco. She quickly flips through the channels, ignoring the content, until she settles on an infomercial selling 'official' NFL jackets.
Lynn taps her fingers as she ignores the hosts. She checks on her phone again, but Francisco has yet to call her back. It has only been a few short minutes since she left her voicemail, but she can't help being worried about him as the snow continues to fall.
"How did you even leave in this weather?" she asks out loud.
She knows that Francisco hates driving at night in any stormy weather that impedes his vision, especially snow, but she can imagine that with enough hate or anger anyone can power through fears to get out of the house.
"Call now folks, we only have a few of these limited edition jackets left," the host tells the viewers, as she posts the number of sales in the last couple of minutes. "You don't want to miss out on this amazing deal."
Lynn scoffs, she knows that it isn't true, not to mention that she can get better gear online and not whatever junk that this.
"Although it is tempting," she tells herself as she looks at the Lions jacket. "Maybe one for me and one for…dang it, back to thinking about Francisco."
She goes back to channel surfing, but she isn't in the mood to watch tv; she wants to know to make sure that Francisco is safe in this weather.
"He's probably over it, he should be over it…then again, he wasn't over it during that camping trip or when I tried to go home all those years ago."
Lynn recalls when it all started years ago – how he was afraid of driving for a while, how he was afraid of losing the ability to move, and how he would get angry out nowhere. She never did figure out the whole story from their family and after a couple of years, it seemed weird to ask again, but now Elena would ask her about what happened and has begun to pique her curiosity. After being separated for eleven years, it seemed as though he was able to get over most of his issues, but she's sure that something other than driving in the snow is still lingering on him.
As the hands on the clock continue to move, Lynn decides that instead of waiting for Francisco to come home, she'll go look for him instead. She grabs her keys and heads to the garage, but when she tries to turn on the ignition, Dutch stalls out.
She rests her head on the steering wheel, "Dang it…"
As Juan pays at the register, Francisco watches as the snow falls from inside the store. In the short time that the two were in the store grabbing the missing ingredients for the chocolate chip cookies, snow has begun to fall onto the roads. The teen is a bit worried with his inebriated father behind the wheel, but he figures that he'll have a good reason to tell his dad to let him drive instead.
As the two approach the truck, Juan calls out to his son and pulls out the keys to the truck; tossing them to his son. Francisco catches them, and is happy that his dad is going to be smart and let him drive in the snow. Normally, other winters have had Juan speed down the road as if nothing is wrong, it has probably scared a few years off of everyone's lives, but at least he is being smart tonight and letting someone who is not impaired drive.
When Francisco gets into the driver's seat, he can see why his dad gave him the keys – a police car is parked in front of the two of them with an officer looking over at the two, particularly Juan. The officer can probably tell that Juan is a little drunk, and rather than risk losing the truck or his license, the older man decides to let his son drive them home.
"Mira tus espejos," Juan reminds Francisco.
The teen sighs. He wouldn't have minded the advice, but he isn't a new driver, and it isn't as if his dad taught him much to begin with. Like Kiké, Francisco learned to drive from Chuy, but it never stopped his dad from making an attempt at squeezing in a lesson that he already learned from his brother.
Rather than question anything, the teen pulls out of the parking spot and heads down home. Unlike his dad, who had no issue driving down the road at speed limit, Francisco decides to be more cautious, especially since he doesn't know how slick the roads are.
"Puedes ir más rápido. Estarás bien," Juan tells his son, in hopes of getting him to drive faster.
"Hay hielo en la calle," Francisco tells him.
"Eres joven…puedes hacerlo," Juan assures his son.
Rather than argue, Francisco speeds up a little, but slips on a patch of ice. Francisco remains calm, but he decides to slow back down and remain vigilant to prevent it from happening again.
"¡Ten cuidado!" Juan loudly warns his son.
Francisco sighs. He was fine driving at the speed that he was, but his dad insisted that he could handle it. He knows that his dad wants to get home so that his mom can start on the cookies, but he can't imagine that he isn't patient enough to go at a reasonable speed.
Snow begins falling faster and is blocking Francisco's vision. Even when he turns on the windshield wipers, the falling snow in front of him only allows him to see a few feet ahead.
"Sólo un poco más…ya casi llegamos," Juan tells him.
"Yeah, I know," Francisco says in a huff, frustrated by the terrible weather conditions.
Juan looks over at his son, as if waiting for him to do something, and the teen can sense it. When Francisco sees a bright red light, he comes to a stop and waits. He's a little frazzled, but he doesn't want to show his dad, especially since it's his fault that they're out in this weather.
'I should have stayed home…'
"No es tan malo ahora mismo," Juan tells his son.
"¿Cómo que no es tan mal? ¡No puedo ver nada por toda esta nieve!" Francisco complains.
He knows that a few days ago he would have loved to have been allowed to drive, but he's not mindless enough to go out in this sort of weather.
Francisco mutters under his breath, "All because you had to be drunk and all because you wanted cookies."
He didn't want to say anything bad, but Francisco felt like was going to let out years' worth of frustrations on his dad – broken promises, stressful evenings, and having to defend his mom whenever his dad got a crazy idea in his head.
Juan stays quiet. He didn't understand everything his son said, but he did understand 'drunk' and 'cookies'. He knows that his son is frustrated with leaving to go on an errand, but rather than say something that he's sure to regret, he stares out the window.
The light turns green and Francisco slowly drives forward, 'I swear, sometimes I wonder how much easier our lives will–'
Francisco doesn't finish his thought when a truck crashes into them.
Lynn walks outside to the backyard and sees Kiké stare at her as she walks toward the fence to see if Jackson would be willing to let her borrow his car.
"Jackson!" she yells, but is met with silence. "Jackson!"
When he doesn't respond, Lynn grabs some snow from the ground and forms a snowball to toss at her neighbor's window, but again, Lynn is met with silence.
"You're wasting your time. The old man is probably at some weird festival around here," Kiké tells her.
She turns towards him, "At this hour?"
"You know that he's a weirdo with the interests to match, right?"
For as long as she's known Jackson, Lynn has noticed that he seems to be out and about at random times of the day and has some weird hobbies to match the items in his home. To date, he doesn't give much explanation other than being a teacher, but she finds it hard to believe her neighbor since he is called to do odd jobs that she would never expect a teacher to do.
She takes a seat next to Kiké, "You know this is your fault," she tells him.
"Like I haven't heard that before. Try again, maybe be a little more original. Here, I'll tell you what not to say – 'Why can't you be like your brother?', 'Why are you always getting in trouble?', 'How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?', 'When are you going to grow up', and blah blah blah. It's all the same crap by different people."
Hearing that almost reminded Lynn of herself growing up. The thought of being like Kiké makes her shudder, but she can't deny that someone has probably felt frustration towards her for some reason or another.
An idea pops into Lynn's head, "Can I take your car to go look for Francisco? I'm getting worried."
"The car doesn't have valid plates, and I doubt you want to drive it," he tells her as he lights up his cigarette. "Besides, why are you so worried about him? It's not like he's going to do something stupid."
"That's not the point! Jeez, don't you care about anyone else, but yourself?"
"That's another one!" he mockingly tells her. "Look, it's not like he's going to be an idiot and drive as the snow keeps piling on out there. Chances are he went to mom or Chuy's and he's ignoring you because he knows that he'll have to come home."
"It wouldn't be an issue if you'd just leave."
Kiké rolls his eyes, "Calm the fuck down. I'll be gone in a few days and then you and Pancho can go back to screwing around on the couch."
Lynn tackles him to the ground and before she is able to land the first punch, she stops herself and gets up.
'This is why Francisco left, he's sick of our crap…'
Lynn knows that she isn't going to change her feelings about the smoking man overnight, especially after so many years of arguing with one another, but she promised Francisco that she would try and she hasn't kept her word.
She gets off of him and takes a seat, while Kiké sits back down to light up another cigarette. He hands her his pack and offers her one to take the edge off, "You want one?"
"I don't smoke."
"Let me get this straight, you don't smoke, you don't drink, would you like my brownie to have some fun?"
"I'm plenty fun, you–" she immediately catches herself and calms down, "Just because you're so boring that you need that stuff to have fun, doesn't mean I am," she remarks. "Besides, I've seen my sisters on magic brownies; it hasn't really caught my interest."
Kiké has enough of an idea about her interests – sports; that's all he knows. She cooks and she plays nearly every damn sport under the sun, but that's all he knows about her. The two rarely interacted, and it was mostly them fighting one another, but with them stuck in the house, it wouldn't hurt to try, unless they both wanted to sit in silence all night.
"So you've never drank? Never smoked?"
Lynn scoffs, "I did enough of that in my twenties. I don't need to ruin my thirties by going backwards."
That piques his interests, "What did you do?"
"It's not important, although we can say that my twenties are mostly lost in a fog of alcohol and bad decisions."
"Stripping?"
"No."
"Drug dealing?"
"No."
"Bank robbery?"
"No!"
"Then you're still boring," he complains. "I was hoping for something to make me think that you were interesting, but you're still my bratty brother's boring girlfriend."
She tosses a snowball at his face, "Maybe don't worry about my life and focus on why yours is such a failure."
'Back to insults…' Lynn chastises.
Kiké blows smoke out into the air, "I wanted to travel. See more than just the same boring village like I did every year growing up. I found an opportunity and then the rest just came. Besides, money and a loose definition of work got me what I wanted in life, so I went with it. Don't think that just because Pancho has a house, that he's doing better, he still needs my help, all I do is play the part of the idiot that only cares about himself."
Francisco slowly opens his eyes and is met with the dark night sky. He can't remember what happened, but he takes some snow between his fingers. He closes his hand tightly and he feels something sharp piercing his skin.
The last thing that the teenager can remember is driving and going home from the store, but everything else seems to be a blank.
"What am I doing outside?" he asks himself. "Why does my body hurt?"
Francisco makes an attempt to get up and look at his surroundings, but he feels a sharp pain as he makes an attempt to move. A loud siren grabs his attention as it approaches him and he lies down as snowflakes fall on his body.
The paramedics get out of the ambulance and spot Francisco, who is bleeding and surrounded by debris. Francisco is carefully placed in the gurney as he looks over and sees another pair of paramedics tend to his dad in the snow before he closes his eyes.
Hours pass, and Francisco wakes up in a white room attached to monitors. He can see a cast and bandages on his body, but he can't recall how he ended up in them. Being in the hospital isn't anything new to him, usually, doctors would examine him, take a few x-rays, and then send him on his merry way, although he's never been as injured as he is now.
'Dang…what the heck happened to me?' he thinks to himself as he looks to see if there are any injuries that he might have missed.
The sound of the curtain drawing grabs the teen's attention and he sees Chuy, who is surprised to see his brother awake.
"How are you doing, Pancho?"
The younger brother isn't sure; the medicine that the nurses gave him are numbing everything at the moment, but he also can't recall how he got to the hospital; his usual visits have been while he's conscious, which leaves him with questions for his brother.
Francisco looks around for his parents, "Where is everyone?" he asks.
Chuy takes a seat, "You know Kiké, he shows up whenever he wants. Honestly, sometimes, I wish that he would grow up and stop being so selfish, but that's not the brother we know" he tells his youngest brother in an effort to keep him from asking about their parents.
Francisco slowly nods his head, "And what about mom and dad?"
The older brother takes a deep breath; clearly Francisco has no recollection of what happened, maybe he'll remember eventually, but he can't hide the truth from his brother for long.
"Mom is with the doctor and dad…Pancho, um…dad didn't make it. When the paramedics checked on him…"
Francisco doesn't hear the rest of what his brother is explaining. He can't believe that his dad is gone, he's almost hoping that his brother is lying, but Chuy wouldn't lie about something so serious.
'He can't be gone,' Francisco thinks to himself, 'He isn't gone…he's in…'
Chuy can tell that it isn't easy to hear. Heck, their mom is still shocked after hearing the news, meanwhile, Pancho is the last one to hear, and he was the one in the truck when the incident happened.
The older brother tries to think of what to say, but everything is so fresh at the moment; a few days ago, he and his dad were at work, now he's gone. He looks over at his younger brother, who looks shocked to hear the news, but like him, Pancho isn't saying anything.
Both brothers silently stare out, neither one looking towards the other, as they try to process the information. Chuy can feel tears forming in his eyes, but his brother continues to stare out, almost void any emotion.
At some point, Chuy knows that his younger brother will let out his grief, but he knows that he has a lot to process – he survived the accident that killed their father and from what the doctor told their mom, he might not be able to play sports or move properly ever again.
Lynn lays in bed. She stares at the red lights of the digital clock; waiting for the sound of the front door or a garage or the truck to let her know that Francisco has come home. A few hours ago, she went along with Kiké's suggestion and called Chuy to see if Francisco was hiding out there, but like his younger brother, Chuy didn't answer the phone.
"Probably shouldn't have called at two in the morning on a work night…"
She picks up her phone again to look at the various messages that she has left Francisco, "Dang, did I really leave that many text messages?" she scrolls through her call log, "and a lot of calls…No wonder he doesn't call back."
However, despite knowing that she's annoying him, she wishes that he would at least let her know that he was okay and not in some ditch or buried under a pile of snow because he was too paralyzed to drive in this weather.
"He's with his brother," she tells herself. "He's with his mom…he's with Caroline and Elena…he's not in the hospital…"
She can't think of a reason that he would be at Caroline's house, but anywhere is better than being in the house of screams.
Lynn pulls out her phone. She's tempted to text Andrew and see if maybe Francisco is with their family, but she knows that she's being ridiculous.
"Why can't time go faster? Or why can't I sleep?!"
From the spare room, Kiké yells, "Shut up! I'm trying to sleep!"
"You shut up!" she yells back.
The phone rings, and on the first ring, Lynn picks it up; not caring about who it could be, "Hello."
"Hey Lynn," Francisco mutters into the phone.
"Francisco," she says relieved that he's okay. "Where are you?"
"Um…I'm in jail…"
"What? Why?"
"I got pulled over and…"
Before he can begin to properly explain himself, Lynn grabs her jacket. She knows that Dutch isn't being reliable, but maybe by some miracle, he'll work long enough to pick Francisco up and get back home, "I'll be right there before you know it. Just give me the address and I'll see if I can get Dutch running and we'll be home in no time."
"Just so you know…" Francisco starts, "It's not my fault …"
"What?" she asks, confused by what he's talking about.
"I had a lot going on, and I couldn't stop thinking about my pills…I had the beer and…I think that he was just trying to fill his quota or something…I mean, I didn't even drive that far…"
Lynn doesn't say a word. She's heard that excuse before, she used it with her friends when she spent a night in jail, "I think…I'll go pick you up in the morning," she tells him.
"What? Lynn, are you–"
She hangs up the phone and lies back in bed. She can feel a headache coming on as she fights back tears about what just happened; Lynn doesn't feel right for leaving Francisco behind to sit in jail cell, but if she goes back for him, then she's only going to perpetuate the problem – a problem that she knew very well.
Lynn wraps herself in the blankets, but as hard as she tries to sleep, all she can think of is how he's in a jail cell, hopefully alone, but hopefully okay.
"It's just one night," she mutters to herself, "just one night."
There it is - Juan's fate and the cause of Francisco's pain, although you probably figured that out based on some clues chapters ago. When I first wrote the story, Francisco's injury was supposed to just be his knee, and caused by sports injuries, and Juan was supposed to be alive but there was no pill addiction. The story needed a little heft, so it was added at the expense of an OC. Trust me, the first version of the story was going to be too nice or happy and that's not an entertaining read
I'm also glad that I was able to work in Francisco going to jail for the night, it was supposed to happen back when he and Lynn broke up way back in the early chapters, but I thought that it wouldn't really make sense, but now it can work a little better, and force Lynn work towards confronting her own alcoholism and the problems caused by it...eventually
Thank you all for reading, and see you next time
