Prologue

As he approached his locker, Hector could see that the drama going on all week wasn’t over. It was really starting to get old. Lisa, a girl whose locker was a few lockers down from Hector’s, had been having issues with her boyfriend. Apparently that past weekend after an argument, her boyfriend, who was drunk and mad, posted something about her on his Facebook status, and it was the talk of the school.

Hector neither cared nor bothered to ask anyone what the idiot posted. All he knew was he was forced to be witness to their constant bickering all week because the dumb ass was trying to beg her back and she wasn’t having it. What sucked is they did it right there by his locker, and usually they had small crowd listening in on their arguing. It was so stupid.

Today the crowd was bigger than the norm, and Hector could hear that the argument was a bit more escalated. Even hearing her boyfriend’s angry accusatory tone when he spoke to her now, Hector had every intention of staying out of it as he had all week.

Ironically, Lisa had been someone he’d been interested in getting to know a little better the previous semester. He wasn’t sure if it was because she was the new girl to his school or because she was quiet and shy, but she’d sparked an interest. Most of the girls he knew had been going to his school the entire four years and were loud and anything but shy about flirting with him. There’d been something refreshing about Lisa’s timid smiles.

As usual, by the time Hector would so much as consider getting to know a girl for real, not just think about getting in her pants, she started seeing someone else. He was never one to move in on another guy’s girl. His brother Abel said, “There are too many girls out there to be fighting over one,” so Hector left well enough alone.

Lisa had been seeing this guy now for months. Up until this week, as far as Hector knew, things between them had been peachy. For the most part all week, Hector would overhear their arguments while he got whatever he needed out of his locker but only because it was inevitable. Not so much Lisa but her boyfriend was one of those persons that didn’t care who heard his business. He’d argue with her loudly no matter who was around. In fact, Hector got the feeling he enjoyed the attention. Today, he was louder than he’d been all week, and with his friends there laughing and egging him on, he got even louder.

From what Hector could see as he walked up to his locker, she wasn’t even looking at him. She was staring into her locker as he stood behind her, demanding something. “Move,” Hector said to the guys blocking his locker, and they did immediately.

As annoying as it was that she was obviously uncomfortable with the attention her idiot boyfriend was getting, Hector was still going to mind his own business and not say or do anything.

“Just admit it,” her boyfriend said. “You were skyping with his ass all night, right? Why not just text if it was such a friendly conversation? Huh?”

Lisa was ignoring him. If she did respond, Hector hadn’t heard it. The banging on the locker forced Hector to pay attention. Annoyed, he turned to see the guy’s fist against the locker next to Lisa’s. She’d finally looked up and was facing her boyfriend now, but that wasn’t good enough for the punk. He got in her face all menacingly as if she were another guy. “Admit it. Did you show him your tits?” He got even closer to her now, and she tried to back up, but the guys behind her were too close. “Did you? You skank!”

Instantly on fire, Hector slammed his locker shut and pushed the few guys in his way aside. Without giving it so much as a thought, he grabbed the guy by the hair and slammed his face into the locker right next to Lisa’s more than once. “You think you’re a tough guy talking to your girl like that!”

Now, the crowd, which had closed in so much that Lisa hadn’t been able to move, backed up real fast. Just as Hector suspected, there was absolutely no fighting back from her boyfriend. Hector lifted the guy’s bloodied face away from the lockers and turned him to face his stunned friends. “He look like such a tough guy now?”

None of them said anything, and not one of them so much as stepped up to try and help her boyfriend either. Hector threw him against the locker, this time letting him go. “Get in my face, tough guy!” He took a step closer to the guy. Seeing the guy brace himself only pissed Hector off more. “Or is that something you only do to girls, you f**king pu**y?”

Luckily for the guy, in the next instant, Hector himself was pushed up against the lockers by school security as was Lisa’s boyfriend. They were both hauled into the dean’s office.

As much as it sucked since he knew this was grounds for suspension, Hector had a feeling his brother Abel would go easy on him for this one. All Hector would have to do is defy his brother to stand there and watch a guy get in a girl’s face the way this ass**le had and not do anything about it.

Months Later

By the time Hector looked up, Vanessa was too close for him to tell his friend A.J. to be cool. The huge mole that covered half of her cheek had always been a draw for cruel jokes, and A.J. had one of the biggest mouths in school.

“Morning, Spot.” A.J. waved at Vanessa, who after all these years had gotten pretty good about playing it off like she didn’t care.

She ignored him and kept walking past them.

Hector shoved A.J as they reached the top of the stairs to their school entrance. “Why do you have to be such an ass**le?”

A.J. laughed. “What? That’s what everyone calls her.”