Memory Lane's Got Some Potholes... [locked]

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"And now we play the waiting game," says Jaime, lounging around Paco's bed with Brenda. Brainy's left them alone, but hovering nearby in case he's needed again. Right now, they're hoping the real Paco's being entertained by the pointless babble and that the Sub-Visser's annoyed.

"Shame we don't have any Scrabble. How about charades?"

Comments

[cityship]

Quite a bit of time passes. Buses come and go. The shadows get longer like they do during those hot, dusty afternoons.

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

Paco waited. And waited. And kept waiting. Finally though, when the sun started getting near enough to the horizon that red sky was turning faintly purple, Paco picked himself up off the bench and walked back home. When he got there, he climbed in through his bedroom window and shut the door.

He didn't want to talk to his mother right now.

---

It's not over, Paco spat. You can't just end it before it's over when I know damn well what happens next!

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

They climb up through the window. His mom--crying--had said his door is locked, and they know how he gets, so...

There's something moving in the bushes outside.

[shes-intense.livejournal.com]

Brenda scoffs at Jaime's nervousness and gets up on her tip-toes to push the window open a crack, then she starts scaling the few feet of trellis there like it's her own personal ladder.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

He's a bit of a nervous and paranoid little boy, Jaime is.

But he's still climbing to that window.

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

The window was shut, but not locked. Mostly because Paco figured no one else would try climbing up the trellis. His mother certainly wouldn't.

He was lying face down on his bed with his pillow clamped over his head so he couldn't hear his mom knocking and asking him what was wrong.

[shes-intense.livejournal.com]

Brenda hauled herself over the sill and dropped to the floor with a thump, not quite avoiding Paco's legos littered on the carpet. One of them worked it's way into her sandal and she is still crouched below the window hissing in pain when Jaime sticks his leg in and unintentionally uses her back for a step stool.

Brenda makes a very bad step stool.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"Oh man, sorry--oof!"

Yeah, he fell on the legos too.

"Ow."

Special delivery at the window, Paco. You have a best friend pile.

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

Maybe if he doesn't move, they'll go away?

[shes-intense.livejournal.com]

Brenda climbed up first and crept over to the bed, and after a moment of waiting for acknowledgment she just sat down on the edge of the mattress like she owned it.

Then she leaned over and just HUGGED Paco as best she could with him lying face down in the pillows, because this was clearly an 'I need a hug' sort of misery.

"He didn't show up did he?" She mumbled against his shoulder, squeezing him. "I'm sorry Paco."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

Jaime comes over to and climbs up on the bed, and although there isn't hugging, there's a pat on the back.

"Look, you--he was a jerkface and you hardly knew him anyway. You have your mom and your sisters--and us. That hasn't changed."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"I shouldn't have bothered going," Paco said. Of course it came out all muffled due to there being a pillow in the way.

The touching was good, though. It made him feel less lonely.

[shes-intense.livejournal.com]

"Can't undo it now. Just look at it like... you gave him one last chance." Brenda said quietly, rubbing his shoulder a bit, still draped against him.

"You showed up, you held your end. You're a better man than he is and you're not even through puberty yet, so screw him."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"...I really can't word what Brenda just said better than that," Jaime says, giving him another backpat, and just resting his hand on his shoulder.

"She's right though. My mom says that giving people chances is a good thing to do. You did that. After that, it's their fault, and they're the bad person for not following through."

A pause.

"You're allowed to be angry at him. You're allowed to be sad. You shouldn't be angry at yourself though, for what he did."

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

"Don't feel much of anything right now," Paco said. He sat up finally, letting his pillow fall to the floor. "Don't want to talk about it either."

He mostly felt too jumbled up to feel anything about the whole...thing right now. It was just huge and messy and tangled and he didn't even want to touch it.

"I can't talk about it right now. It's too messy."

[shes-intense.livejournal.com]

"It's okay, we don't have to talk about it then. Why don't we watch a movie. We can make awesome spicy popcorn."

She smiles. "We can totally do 'distracting the Paco'."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"I brought my allowance. The video rental place should be open still."

It's right down the road...

[flunkingspanish.livejournal.com]

Paco's mouth twitched a little. It might have been the beginnings of a smile.

"Yeah," he said, looking thoughtful. "Think we can get away with a PG-13 movie yet?"

What? It was worth a shot, wasn't it?