Saturday

I didn't know what to do in that moment; I just wanted to be locked up in my room and cry but I didn't. I couldn't let Ricardo's insecurities affect me, if he didn't trust me that was his problem and not mine. I should not upset over a guy who is not worth it.

Ricardo arrived home that night in a bad mood, he immediately open the fridge and grab a beer,"Hey." Karla called him but he just passed her and went to the living room.
       "What the hell is your problem?" his sister Karla asked him.
Ricardo ignored what his sister said and sat down in the couch,
        "Are you going to say anything?" Karla demanded.
        "I don't want to talk about it. Just leave me alone Karla."
Karla never seen her brother act the way he did. She decided to leave him alone hopefully by the next day he would be fine.

Next morning, "Wake up." Brenda told Daniel who was laying next to her in bed. "What is it?" he asked as he started to wake up. In the last few weeks, Daniel and Brenda had been sleeping together; for Brenda, Daniel was just another pleasure for her sexual desires and was not interested in him emotionally. Brenda got up from bed and walked to the bathroom, "I think you should leave now." Daniel stood up and walked up to Brenda and said, "Oh come on, one more time. I know you want to." Daniel put his arms around Brenda's waist, "Daniel, please." She turned around and smiled, "You know me so well."

After a long night of drinking, Ricardo came out of his room and walked into the kitchen where he found his sisters eating breakfast, "Good Morning." Karla grabbed the orange juice from the fridge. Ricardo walked over to the strove and served himself a plate.
         "What happen to you last night?" Karla couldn't helped herself from asking the question.
         "I think my relationship with Reyna is over."
         "What?" both sisters turn around to look at him.
         "Estas loco." Erika said.
Ricardo joined his sisters at the table.
        "What happen?" Karla asked.
        "I saw her kissing Diego yesterday."
        "That doesn't mean she's cheating on you." Karla replied.
        "So what does that mean? Karla! I saw them kissing twice. What do you call that?"
Ricardo stood up, grab his keys from the couch and left. Erika and Karla were surprised; they knew Reyna and knew she was not capable of cheating on their brother.
It was barely 10 and I just wanted to go back to sleep; last night I was not able to get a good night sleep because I stood up thinking about the fight with Ricardo and the kiss that Diego gave me. A good thing about being Saturday was that Diego didn't came to work and after how he kissed me at my house, I was not so sure how I was going to confront him. The more I denied what happen with Diego, the more I realized maybe there was something but I just didn't want to accept it.

As Reyna was trying not to think about Diego nor Ricardo, Brenda had to get her plan in motion, so she decided to pay a visit to Diego. That afternoon, Diego had gone to Montebello park to play soccer with his friends. "What are you doing here?" he asked Brenda. He grabbed a water from the cooler. "Came to see my boyfriend." she replied. Diego laughed. "What boyfriend? The last time you had one was when we were in middle school." Diego said. "Daniel is my boyfriend." Diego laughed again. "Oh okay, sure he is. What do you really want?" Brenda smiled, "How are you doing with Reyna?" He gave her a look, "Really? Do you expect me to have her within a day notice? It takes time."
 Daniel walked over to Brenda, "Hey what are you doing here?" Diego look at Brenda and smiled. "Babe, remember you invited me?" Brenda tried to cover up her lie and Diego just laughed. "I thought you didn't like soccer." he told her. Diego walked away. "Well I changed my mind, so hey I was wondering if you want to cover tonight." Brenda started kissing Daniel's neck, "Not here, everybody is looking." Brenda smiled. "I don't care."

After work, I decided to give myself a break from the drama and focus on what I thought it was important, school. As I mention before, with work and afterschool activities gave me no time to do homework and now that I didn't have a boyfriend to distract me gave me more time to finish my homework. It was almost 3pm, my mom came in my room, "I'm so proud of you." she smiled. I took a break from solving equations to eat my meal that she prepared. "Como te va?" she asked. I love my mom but I felt she pampered me too much growing up. "I'm almost done." I told her. She gave me a face, "I wasn't referring to that?" I put my sandwich down and grab the water bottle. "Oh." I looked away. "Mom, I don't want to talk about it." I told her. I finished my meal in peace and went back to working on my calculus homework.

Ricardo just needed to get his mind of everything, maybe talking to someone would help him decide what do so he decided to call the only person who he confided on.
        "Hey thanks for meeting me." he stood him from his seat and hugged Stephanie.
        "No problem, you know I'm always here." she smiled.
  For a strange reason, Ricardo felt more relaxed after he talked to Stephanie; something in her words helped him to relaxed and be more understanding in Reyna's thoughts and choices. After a late lunch, Stephanie and Ricardo went back to her house for dance rehearsal. "Thanks for doing this." she told him. "No problem, I love your sister." He grab Stephanie's hand and started dancing. "Wow, you've gotten better since my quince." she said. Ricardo laughed.

That night, I decided to dedicate some time in applying to scholarships; I knew that our family income would not help me financially afford a private school so I had to seek out extra money. Most of the scholarships were essay format, so I spent most of the time writing reflecting on my life. For example one question was Where do you see yourself in five years? And how would winning this scholarship will help you achieve your goals? As I started to write the response, I received a phone call, it was my friend Karina,
       "Hey Karina."
       "Are you ready?" Karina asked me.
        "For what?" I asked.
       "Bowling Night, remember?"
A few days ago, Karina and I planned to go on a double date; Ricardo and I with her and her new boyfriend Alfredo. Everything happened so fast that I forgot to tell Karina about Ricardo,
        "We can't go." I told her.
       "Why not?"
       "Karina... Ricardo and I are in a middle of an argument." I explained the situation to her. It felt nice to talk to someone about how I was feeling, the anger, the sadness and even the loneliness. After a few minutes, I received a visit from Karina.
        "How come you call any of us?" Karina asked.
        "I thought I could hand it all." I replied.
We went up to my room, and started talking, then Karina started to act a bit crazy,
        "What if we have a sleep over?"
Karina grab her phone and called Melissa and Lucy. While we waited for them to arrived, Karina and I prepared everything. I gathered the junk food and took it the room while Karina gathered the sleeping bags from the basement. It had been too long seen I had a sleepover.
After the rehearsal was over, Stephanie and Ricardo talked for a bit, "I'm going to go talk to her." he said. "That's good, I hope everything turns out well." she walked him to his car.
 It was almost 9pm when there was someone at the door, my mom cam over to my room and said,
        "Mija, someone came to see you."
        "Who?" I asked.
By the look on her face I knew who she was referring to, Ricardo. I didn't know what to do, I had a choice, refuse to received him or confront him. I got up, put my shoes on and walked down stairs.
"Wait, are you sure?" Karina asked me. I nodded. I reached down to the living room and there he was,  "Hey." he smiled. I walked over to the couch and took a seat across from him.
        "I came over to apologize for the way I acted. I knew I messed up when you told me that you're 
         were having doubts about UCLA. I took the news as if you were having doubts about me."
While Reyna was in the living room talking to Ricardo, Karina and the girls were in the room gossiping, "What do you think is happening?" Melissa asked as she grab the popcorn from the table. "I bet they are working things out." Lucy replied. "You think? I feel like Reyna is confused about her relationship with Ricardo." Lucy and Melissa look at Karina. "You know something." Lucy said.
          "You should have talked to me about it instead of acting the way you did. Seriously, sometimes your behavior is childish like."
          "I know, I was but when I went to visit you at work is when I saw Diego and you kissing. What was I suppose to do?" Ricardo sat closer to me, but I moved.
         "Ricardo, if you love me, you should have trust me. The kisses, you have to trust me that nothing happen. He is the one who came on to me first." As I said these words to me, I was thinking Why am I pleading to him? He should have trust me in that moment. "I trust you, I got jealous; you have to understand Diego was a huge part of your life and I'm worried that I'm going to lose you to him." He was right about one thing, about losing me to him, if only he knew what Diego had told me yesterday. I couldn't let Diego come in between my relationship between Ricardo and I, no matter what he felt about me. I was with Ricardo and he just had to accept that and if he didn't, well I couldn't be his friend.
           "Ricardo." I sat next to him." Look at me, Ricardo. You won't lose me, but if you keep acting the way you do, you just might." he reached for my hands," I know, and I'm sorry Reyna." we  hugged and we kissed.

Relationships are a work in progress, not all relationships are perfect nor broken, we, as individuals have the ability to make it work. Even if that meant being the bigger person, if you know that relationship has a possibility of surviving, you know you are doing the right thing. That's exactly what I did.