CHAPTER 4

The promise

The guy standing with Sofia did the stupidest thing he could do at that moment. He reached over and touched her arm. Eric had never had a problem controlling his temper, but right then he felt like exploding on the guy.

“What are you doing, Sof? What’s this?” Eric gestured to the guy’s arm still touching her.

“Who are you?” The guy asked before Sofia could respond.

It wasn’t even asked with that much conviction, but that’s all Eric needed to let out what he’d been feeling the whole time since he spotted them. He jumped in the guy’s face. “Who the f**k are you?”

Sofia jumped in front of him, her br**sts pushed against him. “Stop, Eric!”

Angel and Romero were there in a second.

“Easy, Eric.” Angel glanced back at the guy. When his friend came from behind him, as if to back him up, just like that, Angel was on fire. “What are you gonna do?” He growled, jumping in his face.

Sarah struggled to hold Angel back. Romero got in on it when more of the guys closed in. The girls all did their best to keep the guys apart, though the other guys didn’t put up too much of a fight. The younger ones didn’t even try to get involved. When it was all over, the other guys walked away. Eric glanced at Valerie and her friend, who still struggled, holding Romero from going after them. Sofia pulled her hands away from his chest and took off toward Angel’s car.

Still reeling and breathing hard, Eric wondered if Angel would question just why he reacted that way. The door to Angel’s car slammed, getting all their attention. Sofia was already in the back seat of Angel’s car. Obviously, she wasn’t jumping in with Eric.

Angel and Sarah got in the car. He stood outside the passenger side trying to hear what Angel was telling Sofia until he heard him ask her if she was crying. Instinctively, he stuck his head into the side of the window. “You crying, Sof?”

After Romero stuck his head into the driver’s side window to see what was going on, Sarah sat up. “All right, out!” She pushed Eric’s head out. “You too, Angel.”

Eric H walked around the car and met Angel and Romero, “Good looking out, man.” Angel held up a fist.

Eric tapped it with his own fist, trying to smile, but he was still too wound up. “Always.”

“Was he being a wise ass?” Angel asked, as they walked away from his car toward Valerie and her friends.

“Yeah,” Eric embellished. “I didn’t like the way he was looking at her, either.”

“One of those, uh?” Angel shook his head. “Fucking ass**le.”

They talked to Valerie and her friend for a few minutes, before heading back to their cars and off to the beach for a bonfire. Eric thought about Sofia with that guy the whole way there. He knew she couldn’t be happy about seeing him with those girls yesterday and today. But if she thought she was going to be hanging with guys she had another think coming.

With Angel so distracted with Sarah at the beach, Eric took full advantage. He’d already planned on coming to some kind of understanding with Sofia. He knew he had to after she’d jumped in Angel’s car yesterday, instead of coming home with him. After tonight’s incident, he definitely had to get things straight with her.

It helped that Romero was busy trying to cozy up with Sarah’s cousin, Valerie. Eric wouldn’t have to deal with him interrupting. Almost as soon as they got the fire going, Angel and Sarah laid a blanket down and sat down on it. Within seconds, Angel was all over her. That guy was so obsessed. Eric had never seen him like this. He walked over to Sofia, who was putting down her own blanket on the sand. “You wanna go for a walk?”

When she began shaking her head, Eric glanced back at Angel. He was whispering in Sarah’s ear. Eric reached his hand out and touched Sofia’s. “Please, Sofie?”

She stared at him for a moment, then slipped her hand in his. Another glance at Angel confirmed he was still completely distracted. He’d pulled Sarah down and was now lying next to her. “Eric’s walking me to the restroom, Angel.”

Angel barely managed to pull his lips away from Sarah long enough to respond with an, “Okay.”

They headed toward the water, completely out of everyone’s sight. First things first. Eric squeezed her hand. “Who was that guy, Sof?”

She didn’t look at him. “Just someone who started talking to me at the game.”

“Why were you alone with him?”

Sofia stopped and faced him. “Why was that girl touching your hair yesterday?” Those beautiful eyes glared at him. “Why was that stupid girl on your back today?”

Eric took a deep breath. He knew it. “I was gonna talk to you about that today, but I didn’t see you all day at school.”

She shifted her weight. “And after school you were too busy?”

“Listen, Sof. I can’t help it when things like that happen.”

She pulled her hand out of his. “Then I won’t be able to help it, either, when guys talk to me, Eric. So I’d appreciate it if you not attack every guy that talks to me.”

“That’s not gonna happen.”

“Why not? I don’t attack the girls that flirt with you.”

“That’s different.”

Her mouth opened then closed. Before she said anything, he added, “I’ll try, Sof. For you, okay? But it’s going to be hard.”

Her eyes were ablaze. “Really? It’s hard for you to not flirt?”