The irritation was more than Hector could bear. He knew it wasn’t Walter’s fault, but that’s where he channeled his frustration. As ridiculous as it sounded, if Walter could grow a pair, he may just keep Charlee from going out tomorrow and stay there with him where Hector knew nothing would be happening. Walter couldn’t even get the nerve up to ask her to watch a movie with him. There was no way the guy would be making any kind of move.

“Dude, when are you gonna man up already?” Hector sat up a little and pointed at him. “You blew chance after chance last week. Now tomorrow, she’ll be there at your place, and your pansy ass is gonna blow that too?”

Immediately, Hector felt bad. Walter sat back in his chair, looking wounded, but before Hector could take it back or at least rephrase what he’d said, toning it down a little, Walter smiled brightly, sitting up again. “I hadn’t had the chance to tell you. I saw that guy again, and I went right up to him and Charlee.”

“What guy?”

Walter’s smile waned a little. “You know the one you knocked out on campus? He and his friends—”

“Yeah, Yeah, I know.” Now Hector did the sitting up a little. “When?”

Walter thought about it for a moment. “Monday, first thing in the morning, I saw Charlee sitting and talking with him right here on campus, and I walked right up to them,” he said proudly.

Hector didn’t think that he could feel any more irritated tonight than he already was, but he literally felt his body heat go up a few degrees. “She was sitting with him: the guy that nearly broke your ribs because you were defending her?”

Walter rolled his eyes a little. “Yeah, well, she said something about him not actually wanting to harm her or anything. That he’s just,” Walter lifted his fingers, air quoting Charlee, “‘pursuing her,’ but she did say he’s intimidating.”

“Intimidating? Like how?”

Hector had been called intimidating by girls before, but it was more of a compliment than anything negative. This guy wasn’t intimidating; he was a disrespectful little bitch, who didn’t fight fair.

“She didn’t really say, but when it started to sound like she might be taking up for the guy or making excuses for him, I told her the guy was a jerk, and she agreed.”

“Taking up for him?” There was no hiding Hector’s exasperation now. Walter had told him about the guy completely disrespecting her. He tried to put his hands on her even after she made it clear she didn’t want to be touched. “How’d she take up for him? What excuses did she make?”

Walter was beginning to seem frazzled. Hector got that he was trying to tell him about manning up and going right up to them even after the guy had beat on him once. They’d get back to that soon enough, but first Hector wanted to get this part straight.

“I don’t know, man. She just . . .”

Walter paused as if to try and recall exactly what she said, and Hector gave him all the time he needed, because he couldn’t imagine what excuses she could’ve been making for the idiot. Maybe Hector did have her all wrong. Maybe she was a stupid girl that made out with guys randomly and then flaunted it shamelessly.

“Oh, I remember now,” Walter finally said. “She didn’t exactly make excuses, but she said she didn’t think he was so bad—cruel! That’s the word she used. She said she didn’t think he was being cruel or something.” He shrugged, looking a little irritated himself now. “It just sounded almost as if she were saying that if the guy weren’t so aggressive or intimidating, he wouldn’t be so bad.”

Unbelievable. Hector couldn’t get past this. “So what? Now she’s gonna sit and chat with him like they’re buddies or something?”

“No, I don’t think so. She said he asked her to have coffee with him, and she did thank me for saving her again.”

Finally, Walter shed some relief on the situation. Hector didn’t even know why he cared. If what she said to him was true, she wasn’t anyone he’d ever take seriously, and maybe Walter shouldn’t either. He thought about maybe telling Walter what she’d said—warn him. But then he’d have to tell him how the subject even came up.

He let Walter tell him the rest of the story about how he so bravely walked up to her and asked her if she was ready. Hector held back rolling his eyes. If it had been him, Hector would’ve asked straight out and in the guy’s face if she needed him to kick his ass again, not walked up with some vague excuse to get her away from him without hurting the guy’s feelings.

Unaware that today would have taken so much out of him, Hector lay in bed that night, feeling completely drained. It was his own fault. He should’ve just done it first thing that week, not wait and let the anxiety of getting it over with build all week. Somehow he thought doing this would bring closure to the angst he’d been feeling and he could go back to feeling like he did before he’d met her—held her—kissed those sweet lips. Instead, all he could do was lie there and wonder who the f**k she was with tonight and what exactly she was doing with him.

Chapter 14

This didn’t prove shit. So it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and Hector could be anywhere, with anyone, doing something fun. So what? Walter had invited him more than once to accompany him to his grandfather’s assisted living facility to play some of the old guys there. Walt had told him he’d be surprised how good it felt to make their day.