Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina

Author:Meg Medina [Medina, Meg]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6354-4
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2013-04-23T07:00:00+00:00

The ride home late that night is quiet. Ma and I are in the back. Lila is sitting close to Raúl. The radio is playing a nice bolero, the kind you’d dance to slowly with someone you love. And maybe that’s just what they’ll do later up in her apartment. The night air is cold, but those two look toasty warm. I want to hold on to this ride forever.

“You ever been married, Raúl?” Ma’s question seems to come out of nowhere to shatter the quiet.

I can see his handsome eyes in the rearview mirror. Ma, however, is still staring outside, like she’s a million miles away.

“What?”

“Clara —” Lila starts to say.

“Married. Ca-sa-do. Have you ever been married?”

Raúl’s smile doesn’t fade, even as his eyes flit to Lila’s.

“Yes. In fact, I was married — a long time ago.”

“Where’s your wife now?”

“Ma,” I mumble. How is this her business?

“Ex-wife,” he says. “She lived in Bayside last time I knew. Why?”

Lila is blushing, and it feels like the air is going to explode into a ball of fire.

“No reason,” Lila says firmly as she cranes her neck to look at Ma severely. “Clara is my best friend. She’s just being nosy.”

Ma finally turns from the window to meet Lila’s gaze, but she doesn’t say anything else. She looks so sad; the little lines around her mouth are showing.

The rest of the ride home is quiet except for the music on the radio, the magic ruined by a poison no one names.

“Thanks for the lechón,” I tell Raúl when he drops us off at the curb a little while later. I lean in the window to say good-bye. “It was delicious.”

“No problem. Thanks for the dance,” Raúl says.

Lila looks past me at Ma, who has already climbed out. Then she pulls me toward her and gives me a big kiss.

“Te quiero mucho,” she says.

I hurry for the door, but Lila calls to me just before I step inside behind Ma. “Happy sixteenth, Piddy.”

I turn and wave as their headlights disappear down the road, their private bolero fading on the air.

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