I knew something was wrong before I even made it into my house. While walking home, I saw papa standing outside our house with his arms crossed and an expression on his face that I've learned to mean he doesn't want any questions from you. He already has his lined up. Julio noticed this too and gripped my hand tighter.
As soon as we came into his line of sight, I knew immediately I waited too late to avoid eye contact with him. As soon as we saw each other he held out his hand and gestured for us to come closer. I made a quick glance down at Julio and he was now walking closer to me more than ever, almost to the point of grabbing onto my skirt. As we walked closer to the house, it seemed at times I was only walking in place and wasn't getting any closer to the house at all. But this wasn't a problem to me at all as the look on my papa's face told me the longer I took to get there, the better.
Finally, Julio and I were standing in front of our father, waiting for him to say something first. But he didn't say anything at all at first. All he did was look at me and my brother before pointing towards the house and stepping aside to let us go in with a short "Rosa, chair. Julio, room."
"Rosa…" Julio whispered. I quickly shushed him before walking him towards the stairs and giving him a gentle push up them. Once I saw him disappear down the hall towards his room, I walked over to the chair in our front room. A little after I sat down, I heard the front door slam and my father's footsteps on the hard tiled floor. His shadow seemed to wash over the whole room as he stood in front of the windows and blocked out most of the sun. As he stood there, my throat seemed to go dry and my eyes seemed to go everywhere except where he was. There was silence between us before he slowly walked closer to me.
"Rosa," he said slowly. "Where have you been?"
"I," I started, trying to keep my voice as steady as possible "I've been out with Julio shopping."
"Ah." Papa nodded his head. "Where did you two go?"
"Fruit stalls. Get prices, looked for him clothes." I tried to look my papa in the eye, but the stern look he was giving me was making this especially difficult.
"Interesting." He smiled. "And if I asked Julio where you two went, would he say the same thing?"
I felt my lips thin as my throat seemed to get dryer and dryer. "I…I can't say papa. He ra-ran around while I looked."
"So, you took your brother out, but didn't keep an eye on-" Papa asked before I quickly stopped him.
"No! No. I watched him. He never left my sight. I just shop-shopped and let him have fun."
Papa gave me another smile and pulled up a chair to sit in front of me. "So, you and Julio went out shopping, and nothing else. Is this that all, Rosa?" I nodded my head as I felt my heart start to speed up. "Interesting." Papa continued. "Then why did someone tell me they saw you talking to Bruno Madrigal?"
At this, I thought I had somehow just swallowed a million rocks considering how fast I felt my stomach drop. My mind seemed to speed through a million thoughts and yet somehow also went completely blank other then a scream that now filled my brain. "Who-" was all I managed to get out before papa interrupted.
"I don't want questions." He scowled, once again crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. "I want to know why someone would say that about my daughter who knows she is not allowed near the Madrigals."
I started trying to fight through the scream still going on in my head to come up with a reasonable lie. "Because they like seeing you mad? NO-didn't know you listened to gossip-NO, I would like to keep living. Slow news-"
"Rosa!" papa boomed, making me jump slightly. "I'm going to ask one more time. Why would someone tell me that my daughter-"
"I-I don't k-know." I quickly stuttered out. "Why w-wo-would I talk to so-someone I hate?"
Papa continued to stare at me, almost asking me to continue telling him what he wanted to hear. Which I did.
"Last-last time I saw Bru-Bruno, was when the Madrigals rebuilt the-their home. Last time. I-I want nothing to do with them. And you know I-I'd never bring Julio around them."
Papa's expression seemed to soften slightly the more I talked. I started racking my brain for anything I thought would make him happy. "Papa, would I be around something that left not only you, but our whole family in shame? Someone that made your daughter cry? Your favorite daughter."
I saw papa's mouth twitch into a smile at my joke, seemingly satisfied with this answer. He looked away from me as his arms dropped and he stopped leaning in his chair.
"I'm sorry Rosa." He said, reaching over to grab my hand. "I know you know better. I just got worried and didn't want to see my little girl hurt again." He lightly patted my hand before giving me a light laugh and standing up. "I always tell you to ignore rumors and look at me. I guess we know where Gloria gets it from. Now go get your brother ready for dinner. We're having guests over."
Before papa could walk out the room, I quickly stood up to grab onto his sleeve as a thought crossed my mind. "Papa, I'm curious. What was happened at the Madrigals 10 years ago?"
Papa chuckled and sat back down on the couch. "Well, first off I need you to know Rosa it's not my proudest moment, but I did it for you and my family. You were the only thing on my mind and why someone would do this to my daughter. But, I knocked on their door. At first, no one knocked on the door, but I could hear them inside. I knocked again, nothing. Third knock, finally Alma opened the door. I'll never forget the shock on her face, like she didn't expect to see me at her door. Of course, she was supposed to be at mine 2 hours ago but you know this. She tried to close the door on me but I wasn't having it. I had questions. Well," papa chuckled again and started shaking his head. "I walked in and saw Alma's daughters and their husbands staring at me. I asked what they were doing here, we were waiting for them. Again, shock. Like they didn't know what I was talking about. I asked them where's Bruno. They look around like no Bruno ever existed. I asked them again, this time my patience getting thinner and thinner. The red head-"
"Pepa." I quickly interrupted, but papa waved it off and continued.
"-Stood up and told me to leave. I stood my ground and told her not until I know where my daughter's fiancé is. Then I started hearing rumbles in the air and all the lights in their house went out. Everyone starts trying to calm her down, but next thing I know there's hail pounding down on me. I'm an old man, Rosa and this could have likely killed me. But Felix got her and the hail stopped. Then Alma started telling me he's not here and I had to go. All but pushed me out their house that woman did. I told them all a few things I'd rather not repeat around you and came back home."
There was another silence between us before he stood up again and took me by my hands to stand up to. "But while I'm not proud of everything I said that night, I know I did it all for you, Rosa. No one hurts my daughter. Now get Julio ready for dinner."
While papa walked out of the room, my legs seemed to walk by themselves as I went to get my brother. "That was not what I expected." I thought as I walked up the steps. "I would think papa would have lost his temper as he usually does. More yelling, shouting…unless he wasn't telling the whole truth."
When I reached Julio's room, I saw it was slightly cracked open. I pushed it open fully and saw Julio sitting on his bed with his arms wrapped around one of his pillows.
"Hey big man, papa wants me to get you washed up and ready for dinner." As I walked closer, I could hear Julio sniffling slightly and my first thought was his hand was starting to hurt again. "How's your hand doing? Need a bandage before we get ready?" I sat down on the edge of his bed and I saw him peeking his eyes out from behind the pillow. I heard him say something, but I could hardly hear it from him being muffled by his pillow.
"What did you say, Julio?" I asked, slightly poking his arm. He pushed the pillow down a little and looked back at me.
"I'm sorry I got you in trouble." He sniffled.
"Oh no, no, no Julio." I quickly said, grabbing onto him and pulling him into a hug. "You didn't do that in the slightest."
"But papa was angry and yelling at you because he saw you with Bruno." Julio said and I started stroking his hair. "And Bruno wouldn't have been there if I didn't want to play with Antonio."
"No, that wasn't your fault at all. You wanted to see a friend. There's wrong with wanting to see your friends."
"But papa doesn't want you to see your friend."
After Julio said this, I let out a long sigh and pulled him in closer. "Julio…papa is just angry at my friend and his family over something that happened before you came along and he doesn't want us talking to them. He's angry because something happened that was out of his control and he doesn't like that. So he wants something he can control, and that's making sure we're safe. But, like many other things, this will pass and soon he'll let us see all our friends again. But until then, we need to be careful and not let him know where we go. Do you understand?"
A couple seconds passed before Julio nodded his head and I kissed his forehead. "Good. Now go wash your face and rub some cold water around your eyes. I'll set some clothes out for you. Papa said we're having guests for dinner tonight so he wants us looking nice."
With this, Julio gave me a quick hug and ran out his room towards the bathroom. I started sorting through his clothes (which were a mix of hanging nicely in his closet or crumbled in the floor to be wrinkled) trying to find something that would both look nice and hide any spills I know will happen.
"I feel bad for Julio." Came a voice from the hallway. I looked up and saw my sister, Gloria, standing in the doorframe. "He finally has a best friend that can keep up with his energy but has to play with him in secret."
At this, I quickly pulled my sister into Julio's room and shut the door behind her. "How do you know Julio is friends with Antonio?"
Gloria raised her eyebrow and gave me a look like this was common knowledge. "A five-year-old and a seven-year-old playing with a jaguar is going to be kept out of gossip circles. Plus they're kids, being quiet isn't exactly what they're known for."
I rolled my eyes at my sister and shook my head. "So what am I supposed to do, Gloria? Tell Julio he can't play with Antonio anymore and crush our little brother's heart?"
"No," Gloria said, shrugging her shoulders. "You just need to learn to be sneakier and out of sight more. And have a sister that can start a few rumors of her own to keep the attention away from her siblings." Gloria smiled at me and I couldn't help but laugh at her.
"You're not that deep in the rumor mill."
Gloria giggled and slowly walked over to me. "Just like you weren't deep into staring at Bruno's eyes?"
At this, I dropped Julio's clothes and quickly turned my head towards my sister. "Were you the one-"
"No, no!" Gloria quickly defended herself. "I'd never do that. I just couldn't stop the rumor before it got to papa. But I did hear about it. Which is why I have an offer for you."
"Go on." I sighed.
"How often does Julio have playdates?" Gloria asked and I shrugged.
"Every few days. I don't know until the day of usually."
"Well, these next few I'm taking him. I'm going to show him a few spots that will keep him out of sight and out of people's gossip so papa won't suspect a thing and then she'll show you. And for me to do this, I only ask one thing." I cocked my head slightly waiting for her to continue. "Can you ask Antonio to bring Mirabel with him?" I felt something in me warm up when Gloria said this. "I haven't talked to her in years, and I miss my best friend."
I didn't have the heart to tell Gloria that from talking to Mirabel, her and my sister are now almost completely opposite personalities. Gloria likes to be in the know on everything and everyone that she can while Mirabel couldn't care less about gossiping and would prefer to talk about her hobbies and own family than someone else's. But the look on my sister's face told me I could never let her know this.
"Of course, Gloria." I smiled at my sister before she gave me a tight hug.
"Thank you, Rosa! Thank you!" she laughed. "Just let me know when and I'll clear my whole schedule."
"No problem." I said, going back to picking out Julio's clothes for dinner and Gloria ran out the room to look for her clothes. However, while I did, a thought entered my head. "How does Gloria know those hiding places?"
