CHAPTER 8

Marcos and Sarah worked the entire hour. Marcos turned out to be a pretty decent tutor, and Sarah - to her credit - was really smart. Having been on the honor roll of her school (one of the most expensive private schools in the city) for as long as she could remember, academics were definitely something Sarah excelled at, and although she had 0 knowledge of Portuguese going into the lesson, by the end of the hour she had learned basic greetings and expressions. It was a lesson well done, and by the end, both were satisfied with how it had gone.

"Thank you so much." Sarah said, as the pair stood up after the lesson.

"No problem." Marcos replied. "So it's the same time next week, right?"

"Yup." Sarah replied. Marcos nodded at her, and then he turned to walk out the door. However, before he could, her voice stopped him.

"Hey, do you want to go grab a bite to eat with me? I'm starving." Sarah remarked. Marcos slowly turned back around to face her.

"Oh, I, um… I'm sorry. I can't." Marcos stammered, his face slightly red. This was embarrassing. How was he supposed to tell her that he didn't have the money to go out for a meal. He didn't even have his wallet anymore, after that old prick had stolen it the night before! People had tried to pickpocket or rob Marcos before back home, but he had always been able to fight them off. The fact that he had failed this time, and to a man so old, was utterly embarrassing.

"Come on! There's this really good Olive Garden down the street that everyone in my school always goes to! You've gotta come with me!"

Marcos shook his head, blushing furiously in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry. I, um… I don't think I can afford that." Marcos mumbled quietly, unable to make eye contact with her. Sarah internally kicked herself for her insensitivity. She felt horrible, but she quickly gathered herself.

"Don't worry about that. I'm paying." Sarah told him. Marcos raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure?" Marcos asked her. Sarah nodded.

"Sure. It's the least I can do to thank you for tutoring me. I know I'm hardly the easiest student. Come on, come with me. Please. I don't want to have to eat alone!"

Maybe a more old-fashioned man might've been offended or insulted by the fact that he couldn't afford even his own meal, so was having to have the girl pay for both of them. But if there was something he had learned in the past 17 years, it was that it didn't matter where your meal was coming from. Every meal was a blessing, not an expectation. There were times during his childhood when things were tough and Marcos had gone to bed hungry. If he was being offered a free meal right now, there was no reason not to accept it.

"Alright. That sounds great. Thank you."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Holy shit…" Marcos quietly remarked to himself in Portuguese as him and Sarah walked into the Olive Garden in Bel Air. This was an informal restaurant, Sarah had told him, and yet it was way fancier than any restaurant Marcos had eaten at or worked at in his life. This was the kind of place he walked by from the outside with his family, and they told him to walk on because there was no way they'd be able to afford to eat there.

As they walked further into the restaurant, Marcos noticed that he had never seen a larger collection of preppy private school teenagers in one place before. The number of blazers, collared shirts, ties, formal pants in the restaurant… Marcos felt thoroughly underdressed in his ratty old Muhammed Ali t-shirt that he had found lying on a beach back home, and his equal worn pair of shorts.

Sarah clearly knew most of the people in the restaurant, as she offered a nod and wave to several people as they walked further inside. Marcos felt very much like a fish out of water in here, and he knew that everyone else could feel it too. Every eye in the room seemed to be on him, many of them with seeming distaste and contempt, and he noticed.

"Why is everyone looking at me?" Marcos murmured to Sarah. She didn't tell him the honest answer. What was she supposed to say? Because she was the most popular girl in their school, and everyone was shocked to see her there with someone who looked like he lived on the other side of town? Besides, she didn't really care about the looks. As head cheerleader at her school, she was used to them at this point.

"Just ignore them." She told him. "They're like puppies. They get curious every time they see someone new. They'll stop sooner or later."

But they didn't, not even after Marcos and Sarah both sat down at a booth in the corner of the restaurant, purposefully away from everyone else. A waiter came around with water and two menus within seconds, and after he went away, the pair began to talk.

"So…" Sarah began.

"So…" Marcos echoed, neither of them really knowing how to start the conversation. It was eventually Sarah took the leap and spoke up.

"Whereabouts did you grow up?" Sarah asked.

"Brazil." Marcos replied. "Rio."

"That's so cool! My family has always wanted to go there for vacation!" Sarah remarked.

"Yeah, it's beautiful." Marcos said. "Beaches, mountains, festivals, parks… it's incredible."

"I'm sure. You get back home much?" She asked. Marcos chuckled.

"Nah, I um… I actually just moved here yesterday. We flew in from Brazil last night."

"Last night? And you're already working this job?" Sarah asked, surprised. Marcos nodded.

"Not all of us have the luxury of rich parents to dump money in our account." He responded. He didn't mean for it to sound catty or disrespectful, but it had definitely come across in that way. An offended look flashed across Sarah's face, but it quickly passed and was replaced by a look that was strangely glum.

"Right. I'm sorry." Sarah murmured, her eyes glancing downwards and staring intently at her glass of water, refusing to look him in the eye.

"No. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend." Marcos replied. She shook her head.

"You didn't offend me." She murmured, before looking him in the eye. "Can I tell you something? Having a lot of money… it's not all it's cracked up to be."

Marcos had to hold back a laugh.

"Yeah, I can imagine it's been a real struggle." He remarked sarcastically. Sarah shook her head again.

"Look, I know that this makes me sound like a spoiled little princess. Don't get me wrong, I recognize how blessed I've been, my whole life. That my family never really have to worry about food, or rent, or anything like that. But this type of life also comes with its downsides."

"What? The private pool's temperature occasionally dip too cold?" Marcos added. Sarah narrowed her eyes at him.

"You're really mouthy, you know?" She snapped. Marcos laughed, and he gestured for her to continue talking, sitting forward in his seat slightly. She took a deep breath and continued. "When you come from the type of family I do, where the money has been passed down from generation to generation, where the only people you mix with are other people, there is so much expectation on you to be a certain way. Look around this restaurant for example. All of the people are dressed the same. All of them speak in the same way. All of them are probably going to go to the same few colleges, and probably end up doing the same jobs. And if you do anything but what is expected by them… you're a disappointment. Simple as."

Marcos silently nodded. He had to admit, he realized that she had a point. Him and his friends had always dreamed of having more money than they knew what to do with, but they had never taken into account all of the negatives that come along with it.

"This neighborhood…" Sarah remarked. "Sometimes it feels less like a neighborhood and more like its a prison. Very few people here, and very few ever leave. We go to school here. All our friends are here. All of our activities are here. We rarely even get the chance to go to the rest of the city, unless it's while doing something with friends from this neighborhood."

"Still though. You've got friends here, so it can't be that bad, right?"

"Ah yes. Because there's nothing more enjoyable than discussing school grades, college, makeup and clothes 24/7 right?" Sarah commented. She sighed. "You know, I see the other kids in this city. In the mall. In the parks. Just hanging out with one another. They all look so happy. So free. Uninhibited. I can't even remember the last time I felt that way."

Marcos remained quiet as Sarah finished speaking, deep in thought. Sarah misinterpreted the meaning of the silence, and she quickly shook her head.

"I'm sorry. I know I sound really ungrateful and spoiled. It's just… sometimes it feels like I'm trapped in this "bubble-wrapped" life: private school, the activities my parents want me to do, the friends my parents want me to make. I have no freedom, no dreams for the future, no joy. I would give anything to break free of all of it."

Marcos nodded thoughtfully, before looking at her.

"How about this? I think it's safe to say that my life isn't exactly 'bubble-wrapped' as you call it. How about you come with me for the rest of today, and I show you what life is like outside the bubble wrap. If you hate it, then you can go back to your old life with no regrets. But if you love it… who knows? It could be a new beginning for you."

Sarah immediately beamed widely at him.

"That sounds amazing! Thank you! You don't have to do that."

"Come on. It'll be fun." Marcos replied. "Besides, it can be my way of thanking you for this meal."

A wide smile was etched across Sarah's face as the pair started eating their entrees, that had just arrived.

"Alright, so what's up first?" Sarah asked. Before Marcos could say anything, he felt a hand slap down onto his shoulder and squeeze him roughly. Marcos looked up to see 3 angry-looking teenagers standing over him. All 3 were wearing Varsity jackets, and by their beefy frames, they looked to all be football players. Almost completely ignoring their presence for a moment, Marcos turned back to Sarah. She clearly knew the three boys, as her facial expression had gone from excited to anxious in a matter of seconds.

"First…" Marcos told her. "We have a chat with Alvin and the Chipmunks over here."

Sarah had to hold back a snort of laughter as Marcos insulted the boys, three of the biggest bullies in Sarah's school, right to their face. They were all a lot bigger than Marcos - they probably all weighed 250 pounds at least, while Marcos was 200 at most - and were all built like trucks. Definitely not the types of people you wanted to piss off, and yet Marcos seemed thoroughly unfazed.

"Sarah, what the hell are you doing here?" The boy who grabbed Marcos' shoulder, presumably their leader, snapped at her.

"What does it look like I'm doing, genius?!"

"I don't know… I might be wrong here, but it kinda looks like you're on a date." He drawled. Even just the sound of his voice made Marcos' blood boil. He was the typical bully you saw in every single american movie. He walked around like he owned everything and everyone around him, and the rules didn't apply to him. All of Marcos' instincts wanted to punch the guy and his two friends into tomorrow morning, but he forced himself to stay seated and play nice. "And not just a date, but a date with one of them?!" He spat, his words dripping with disgust as he gestured to Marcos. Marcos wasn't sure whether he was referring to his skin color, or referring to the amount of money he had, or if he was referring to something else entirely, but whatever it was, he didn't appreciate it at all. He was about to say something, when Sarah spoke up instead.

"Once again… who I chose to date is none of your business! It stopped being any of your business when you cheated on me, remember?!"

Oh, so that's what the history was, Marcos thought to himself as he warily eyed the gang of three teenagers. Marcos and Sarah had remained seated at their booth as the three boys stood over them. The gesture was to make it perfectly clear that he had no interest in a fight with the boys.

"It was a mistake, Sarah. And I apologized, so…"

"So… what? You expect me to just get back together with you?"

The look on the boy's face, and the short silence implied that that was indeed what he thought. However, he didn't respond to the question. He instead turned to look at Marcos, who continued to look completely unfazed by the three guys' presence.

"Hey buddy, listen carefully because I'm only going to say this once." He snarled at Marcos. "I don't know what sidewalk she found you on, or how much she paid you to agree to go on a date with her, but you don't belong here. We don't want people like you in our neighborho…"

"David, stop!" Sarah shouted at him, and annoyance flashed in David's eyes as he briefly turned back to her.

"Shut up. This doesn't concern you, bitch." He snapped. Almost as soon as that last word had left his mouth, Marcos shot to his feet, finally standing face to face with the bully - David - for the first time. David was indeed a lot larger than him by weight, although the two boys were similar height, even if Marcos was an inch shorter. However, the weight disadvantage, and the numbers disadvantage in the 3 on 1, Marcos was not at all unfazed. Since he had walked into this neighborhood, he had felt a lot like a fish out of water. But now that he was about to exchange fists with someone, this was a lot more his comfort zone.

"Alright, 'buddy'. I'm going to give you three seconds to apologize." Marcos quietly but firmly growled at David, his hands slowly curling into fists at his sides, the other three boys already readying for a fight. They all scoffed at him, amazed at his stupidity that he was about to challenge 3 of the strongest guys on the football team to a fight. Even Sarah looked extremely nervous at this point. "One… Two… Three."

There was no response, and Marcos sighed, trying desperately to keep the smile off his face.

"Okay. I gave you your chance. Now we dance…"

With that, Marcos suddenly lunged at them…