3 – Partner in Crime
That familiar giddy excitement course through her as she crossed the parking lot to the dingy side entrance of the shabby pizzeria. Like every other time she'd defied her parent's wishes, she knew she probably shouldn't be doing what she was doing, but she couldn't deny the sense of rightness to it. It was exhilarating. Just like when she was nine and pretending to be Wonder Woman on the roof of the neighbour's garage, there was a tiny thought in the back of her mind that what she was doing was less than safe, but her self-preservation hadn't grown up much since then, apparently, because instead of turning around and going home, Stephanie opened the door and stepped inside.
The cacophony that met her ears had her grinning from ear to ear before she'd even managed to seek Carlos's group out in the crowded restaurant. She'd had a feeling that the persona he presented to her wasn't his true self any more than the person she presented to the rest of the Burg was hers. Sure, he'd told her about when he got arrested, and nearly sent to Juvie, but there was something in his eyes that told her he was trying hard to fit in, even when he was with her. Today was her chance to see what he was like when he was around his people.
His people, she repeated in her head, frowning at the group of teens crowded into the back booths, laughing and calling to one another. Was that racist? Was she pigeonholing him the same way everyone else had? Assuming things about him because of his background? Or was she merely referring to the fact that his background was different, that his values didn't necessarily align with the rest of the town's? That was okay, wasn't it? Hers didn't either if she was honest with herself. She'd never agreed with the way everyone was always in everyone else's business, and she hated being told what to be and how to be it. Maybe that was why he'd been able to sway her so easily. She recognised a part of herself in Carlos and was hoping that she'd have a better chance fitting in with people that he fit in with.
She spotted him easily, not because he was the centre of attention, but because the exact opposite was true. Even in a group of his own relatives, Carlos stuck out like a sore thumb. His face was restrained, more serious, and while his peers were throwing arms and yelling across one another, Carlos sat there on the edge, seemingly content to just absorb the chaos around him.
Taking advantage of the fact that he hadn't noticed her arrival yet, Stephanie examined his features more closely than she'd been able to over the last fortnight of interactions. He seemed relaxed, comparatively to when they were at school, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips as a blonde kid practically flopped across his lap in an attempt to reach the girl on Carlos's other side.
Okay, so maybe he's not as much on the fringe as he first appeared.
He looked up then, their eyes meeting through the crowd and he immediately shoved his cousin off his lap, stepping over the boy's prone body when it landed on the floor in front of him.
"You came," Carlos breathed as he approached. He seemed surprised to see her despite the fact that she knew he'd read the note she gave him telling him she'd be there. "I'm glad."
Heat rose in her cheeks as he graced her with a full-on smile, the kind she had only seen on his face when he looked at her. It was naïve, but she liked to think he saved them just for her, that she was the only one that could make him smile like that. It made her feel special, even if it was only in her own mind. "It seemed important to you," she said, her attention sliding past him to the group of teens who had commenced cat calling the second they realised what had dragged Carlos away from them. "I don't like it when people disregard what's important to me, so I didn't want to do it to you. You're my friend, so I wanted to do this for you."
His eyebrows shot up at her words, just adding to his surprise. Stephanie thought he was going to say something. His lips parted, and a peculiar expression crossed his face, but then he just closed his mouth and nodded shortly. "I should introduce you," he said, changing the topic as he grabbed her hand and tugged her along behind him, striding purposefully back to the tables his cousins occupied. "Everyone, this is Stephanie Plum," he announced, gesturing to her with his free hand. "My friend from school." He paused, sending her a sidelong glance that held entire libraries of things he wasn't saying. "Steph, this is... everyone."
He'd barely gotten the words out before they were surrounded by three stunningly good-looking girls, all with dead straight, glossy chestnut hair, a guy who bore a striking resemblance to Carlos with the exception of being half a head taller, and the blond kid. They were all speaking so rapidly, and at the same time that it took Steph several moments before she realised that they were not, in fact, speaking Spanish. It was only when the blond kid attempted to sling an arm over her shoulder despite having to reach up on his tiptoes to do so, that Steph's brain started processing the words exiting their mouths.
"Hey, there, Beautiful," the kid said, the tell-tale voice-crack on the word 'there', along with the height and rate of acne letting her know that he was at least a couple years younger than her. The guys her age had mostly progressed passed that unfortunate stage of puberty. "How you doin'?"
One of the girls made an exasperated sound and grabbed his arm, dragging him away from her, but not before she was pulled slightly off balance in the process. "This is why we don't bring our friends to hang out, Lester," she admonished fairly tossing him away into the crowd. "You don't have to act like a braguetero with every girl you meet."
Lester used his momentum to swing around a support pole nearby and return to the circle they'd created, but didn't bother trying to get any closer to Steph. Whether it was the older girl's words, or the daggers Carlos was sending his way, she wasn't sure, but she was relieved to not have to fend off the kid's advances.
"I'm Celia, by the way," the girl who'd saved her added, a warm smile caressing her lips. "Carlos's sister. And this is Marisol, Lucia and Elias."
Stephane knew from their three-block conversations that these were Carlos's siblings, with the exception of Lester, who must be a cousin. Celia was the eldest, in her third year of college, while Marisol and Lucia had just started their first. What three gorgeous college students were doing hanging out with what appeared to be a bunch of high schoolers, she had no idea. Maybe it was one of those cultural differences. Elias was Carlos's only brother, a year older and in his senior year.
According to Carlos, he butted heads a lot with his family, but from the body language she was seeing now, Stephanie knew that all four of them were fiercely protective of their youngest sibling. She had to wonder if Carlos was blind to it, or if it came across differently to him, because she never would have guessed it from the way he'd described his family. As much as he valued his family - he didn't say it out loud, but the fact that they all got together so regularly, and that he'd wanted her to come spoke volumes - he hadn't made it sound like any of them liked him or even cared that much about him.
"It's nice to meet you all," Steph said, pulling her Burg manners out of her back pocket. "I hope I'm not intruding, Carlos invited me, and I-"
"The more the merrier!" Lester assured her enthusiastically, but snapped his mouth shut with a wide-eyed expression when Carlos took half a step toward him.
A tense moment passed around the gathered teens as everyone seemed to eye Calos warily, waiting for him to do something. What, Stephanie wasn't sure, but she decided she wasn't inclined to find out, and slipped another trick she'd learned from watching her mom at dinner parties out of her sleeve and into use. "Why don't we take a seat?" she suggested, nodding toward the table they'd come from. "We shouldn't be standing around like this, people will talk."
All four of the older Manoso siblings shrugged as if what other people thought about them didn't matter. "Let them," Elias said, driving the action home. Stephanie could hardly believe their ears. You'd never hear that coming from someone raised in the Burg. Even preschool children knew that keeping up appearances was of the utmost importance, and the gossip from a single wayward action could be absolutely damning. That these people didn't care what others would say about them was earth shattering. She'd barely even been aware that it was an option.
Part of her had wanted to stay standing there, just to see what it was like to not give in to societal expectations, but Carlos was already leading her to a pair of vacant seats at the table. "You don't have to do that," he murmured in her ear as the other five settled in around them, rejoining conversations with the other cousins while still maintaining half an eye on the newcomer.
Steph twisted her hands together in her lap, trying not to stare too openly at the Manoso clan. They were all absolutely god-like in appearance, radiant and perfect. She felt like a slice of ham beside them. Not to mention the fact that they were clearly intrigued by her presence. If Stephanie could have willed the ground to open up and swallow her whole, she would have done so. Anything to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling of being watched. You'd think she'd be used to it by now, given all the practice she got growing up in the Burg, but for some reason, the fact that she hadn't expected the same thing from Carlos's family just made it worse.
"Do what?" she asked, averting her gaze from where Celia was peering at her over Lester's shoulder as she appeared to be giving him a dressing down, and back to her friend. He looked disappointed.
"The Burg Drone thing," he explained. Handing her a clean glass and pouring her some of whatever soda was in the nearest pitcher. Her brow furrowed in confusion, and he sighed. "When you don't know how to act you do this thing where you straighten your spine and plaster this vaguely pleasant expression on your face," he explained, dragging one of the pizzas closer so he could lift two slices off the tray and hand her one. "Your voice changes and you say things like you're a bad actor reciting lines in a play, or a robot."
The pizza hung from her hand, forgotten as she stared at Carlos, wide eyed. This guy had a way of making her feel so thoroughly seen for the first time in her life that she was almost uncomfortable under his scrutiny. Her back started to straighten, another phrase her mother had forced her to repeat several thousand times lining up on her tongue before she realised that she was doing it again, the Burg Drone thing Carlos had just pointed out. "Sorry," she said, forcing her shoulders to relax. "I didn't -"
A frustrated sound left Carlos. "Don't apologise," he said, setting his pizza down on a plate and turning to face her. His brown eyes were flashing and he looked to be giving himself an internal version of the talking to Lester had just received. "I didn't point it out to make you feel uncomfortable, or to dictate how you should act around me and my family, I just want you to be yourself."
Easy for him to say. Carlos already had a handle on who he was and didn't let anyone lead him from the path he knew was his. Steph, on the other hand, only knew what she didn't want to become. The one thing she apparently defaulted to when she was at a loss for whatever the supposed proper social norm was. Just the fact that she unconsciously tried to fit to said norms annoyed the hell out of her. How was she supposed to act like herself when she didn't have a clue who she was?
"I'll try," she said quietly into her pizza.
Carlos shook his head, that same frustration rolling off him. "You shouldn't have to try," he muttered.
"Sor-"
Her attempt at apologising was cut off as Lester, having escaped Celia's lecture, appeared in the chair beside her and started asking her rapid-fire questions about everything under the sun, and before long, she appeared to be the central focus of an open mic Q and A session as all the cousins joined in. Remarkably, though, it didn't feel like she was under a microscope the way it did when her parents' friends asked questions of her at Burg gatherings. These people weren't looking to find fault in her answers, or report to her mother how underwhelming she was, they were just genuinely curious about the new friend Carlos had brought along.
Carlos, for what it's worth, sat stoically by her side the entire time, reminding her at intervals that she didn't owe them answers and that she could decline to respond at any time. He made sure her glass was kept topped up, though he made sure to switch to water between each glass of pop she consumed. Over the course of the afternoon, she managed to relax into the atmosphere and have a good time without worrying about what they all thought of her.
As Carlos walked her three blocks of the way home afterward, he was quiet. Quieter than usual. He'd grown pensive as she'd bid farewell to his relatives, which she figured was just him reflecting on the experience. When his mood and his silence continued for over half a block, though, Stephanie stopped in the middle of the street and turned to face him.
"What's wrong?" she demanded.
"Nothing," he said automatically.
Steph crossed her arms over her chest and attempted that raised eyebrow thing she'd seen him do, she wasn't entirely sure she'd managed it, but what she lacked in eyebrow control, she made up for in hip attitude, so she was confident she'd gotten her point across, especially when Carlos sighed anddragged her off the road.
"Thanks for coming today," he said quietly, avoiding looking at her once they were on the sidewalk once more.
"Of course," she replied easily, wondering whether that was her own personality coming through or a Burg Drone line shooting past her defences. "I had fun."
There was a long pause while Carlos seemed to debate something in his head before he squared his shoulders and turned to face her head on. His posture made her apprehensive. Carlos was normally so relaxed and sure of himself. "This is... I'm not good at these things," he explained in a clipped, unemotional tone. "The last couple of years I've been the new kid so often that I haven't bothered trying to make friends, so I-" He shook his head. "I'm sorry I made you feel self-conscious, and that my family grilled you so much. You don't need to- You can go back to- I'll-"
Steph smiled softly as she realised what he was trying to do. "Sounds like you're trying to un-friend me," she said. "But you should know that I'm hard to shake. I'm like a bulldog. Once I've got a hold of something important to me, I don't let go. So, you're just gonna have to get used to the whole friend thing again, 'cause from what I've seen you could really use one."
Carlos's face cleared somewhat of the clouded expression that had been shrouding his features. "You wanna be my partner in crime?" he teased, subtly reminding her that he was a felon, a fact he'd revealed after several cousins had made not-so-subtle hints to the fact in the stories they'd regaled Stephanie with over the course of the afternoon. She was ashamed to say that she wasn't exactly surprised. Between the Burg gossip and his own demeanour, she'd sort of assumed he'd had some kind of run in with the law. Why else would he have been shipped off to military school and then shuffled around his relatives?
Her stomach tightened at the thought of how her mother would react if she did something even a fraction as bad as stealing a car. "How about offsider in completely legal, but fun activities?" she countered.
A smirk cut across his face. "Babe."
"Well, if you don't want my friendship..." Steph said, turning away from him and recommencing the walk home. "I have to tell you, though, life is a whole lot more fulfilling when you have someone to share the view with."
He caught up to and passed her easily, walking backwards in front of her so that they could maintain eye contact. "If we're friends, do I get an increase in my three-block allowance?" he asked.
Her laugh caught her off guard as it burbled up her throat. "I suppose it's only fair," she said, bumping him with her shoulder. And because she'd spent the afternoon diligently not caring what the people around her thought, she wasn't even worried about what her mother would say when she saw her walking with Carlos. He was, after all, one of the only people who seemed capable of looking past her supposed flaws and seeing who she was - or at least, was supposed to be - underneath all the Burg conditioning.