I ducked into my room and grabbed a long sleeve shirt, socks, and a hoodie from my dresser.
“Here,” I handed them to her. “Bathroom is just there. I’ll wait in my room, and we can walk down together.”
She nodded, and I returned to my room to quickly change into a dry hoodie as well. For some bizarre reason, I had butterflies in my stomach. Which didn’t make any sense, because why would I be nervous to introduce Shiloh to myfamily. It wasn’t like we were dating or even friends. And still, my palms were sweaty, and I found myself pacing my room.
Cheese and rice, pull yourself together, Nox.
???
October 5, Tuesday
Shiloh
Iwalked out of the bathroom feeling awkward in a stranger’s clothes, not to mention his house, and looked up to find Nox staring at me across the hall with a smile.
“Hey, Nox.”
We both turned our heads at the voice down the hall.
“¿Güerita?”
My stomach churned at the now-tainted nickname only my brother and his best friend had ever called me.
Sebastian’s brown eyes lit up as a smile stretched across his face. He had stubble, something he didn’t have the last time I saw him, and looked to have grown at least three inches taller.
“Seb?” I whispered, unsure if I was hallucinating.
He stopped between Nox and I, and I couldn’t resist the urge to wrap my arms tightly around his waist, holding on like he was the last breath of oxygen in my lungs.Is this real? Fuck, am I dead? I’m dead. I must be. I must’ve actually slit my wrists in the library like I had been daydreaming about.
“Ehi, tranquila, güerita. Estoy aquí,” he said as he rubbed his hand across my back soothingly.
Fuck, Shiloh. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t fucking cry you weak fucking puta.
I couldn’t stop the bitter taste of nostalgia as memories of Javi and Seb from my childhood flooded my mind. I took several shaky breaths as I tried to pull myself together before I had to leave his embrace.
He held me at arm’s length, adjusting so that his shadow was no longer casting over me, and took a moment to really scan me over. I watched his face fall.
“¿Qué te pasó en la cara? Tu papá?” He hissed with a broken expression that made my eyes prickle with the onset of tears.
I shook my head, afraid if I choked the words out, they wouldn’t be the lie I knew I needed to tell. He pulled a diaper out of his back pocket and began fanning my face, which only made me want to cry even harder because he remembered my allergy. Instead, I pushed the urge as deep into my soul as possible and attempted a smile.
“¿Qué carajo?” I laughed, eyeing the diaper.
“Oye, responde la pregunta, Shy.”
I rolled my eyes, clearing the lump from my throat.
“Aplácate, pendejo. Un choque, pero estoy bien.”
He gave me a familiar look of disbelief. “¿Javi estaba manejando?”
“No, no. Un amigo.”
“Hi, yeah,” Nox interrupted from beside us, making me jump. I looked over to see his hand raised. “Person over here who only took a year of Spanish. What’s going on? How do you know each other?” Nox asked, gesturing between the two of us.
“Oh,” Seb chuckled, putting the diaper back in his pocket after silently asking if I still needed it. He stepped back, breakingour intimate moment to allow Nox into the conversation. “Sorry, Nox. Shiloh and I grew up together. Wait…how do you two…”
Seb paused to look at me with a smirk, “¿Tu novio?”
