2. Best Friends
We laugh as I gun the car out of the driveway. Lucas is riding shotgun, with his window rolled all the way down. It’s a hot day in May and the air comes inside the car as a jet stream, fluttering our hair around. What a feeling to be in command, to depend on yourself. I choose what time I leave and what I time I come back. It’ll be like this every single day when I get my own car. For now, I’m happy I can drive my parents’.
I grab a tape from my backpack, push it into the car’s stereo, and crank up the volume. The music blasts through the speakers, as we approach a stoplight. The song becomes our third passenger; inspiring, inciting.
“How in the world did you get your Mom to lend you the car?”
“My dad is out of town.”
Lucas chuckles in understanding. His thick glasses frame his narrow blue eyes. His blond hair covers some of the terrible acne scattered across his cheeks. His teeth, covered with braces, glitter in the sun. He is the class genius, but not a typical geek. He enjoys life and friends and is actually funny at times. Some of the guys do make fun of him, but he doesn’t mind it and laughs with them. He got attached to me at the beginning of the year, I guess because we share the same strange sense of humor. I can’t complain at all. We have great conversations about practically everything, even though he’s full of himself at times, but Elizabeth and I are working on that.
As a matter of fact, Elizabeth has been taking Lucas as a pet project lately. She’s been giving him tips to dress more hip, get a different haircut and speak without overbearing or alienating people in conversations. She’s doing a good job, I guess, although I think it will be a tough job. Lucas will probably wind up with an ugly, intelligent girl like him.
Elizabeth and I, on the other hand, are perfect for each other. We struck a deep friendship in a matter of days. I feel like I’ve known her since I was born.
“We spoke last night until two in the morning.”
Lucas jumps on the seat. “Really?”
“My mom heard me and gave me a hard time about it. I was in the living room, half naked, whispering on the phone.”
“What were you guys talking about?”
“I don’t know. Stuff. I think her brother is missing again.”
Elizabeth had a half brother, from her dad’s first marriage. She didn’t really like him, because he was a bit of a hippie. He would get lost for days, without telling her mom. Then he’d appear one night, stoned and hungry. Her mom didn’t care, as long as he was alright. It made Elizabeth mad because even she didn’t get that much attention. His dad had left her mom for a younger woman years ago.
“That jerk!”
We are now on a wide avenue with palm trees in a median. San Cristóbal is a small town, so traffic is never an issue. On my right, the famous Hotel Tamá and next to it, CADA, a chain supermarket with an outside café that serves beer to minors. This, in fact, is the place where I had the first beer of my life, with my brand new group of friends from Don Bosco school.
We continue cruising up the avenue, the power of the engine leading our ascent while the song plays my favorite part. For a moment I forget about Lucas and lose myself in an Elizabeth memory. She wears her hair short and has a round face. She is not tall and by no means looks like a model, but with her I feel special. I’ve been replaying the scene in my head; when I finally confess my feelings for her. She would probably laugh out loud, not believing in a word I’m saying, taking it as another of my pranks. She would probably slap my arm and would sing-song my name, “Julio! You moron!”
The time to tell her, of course, has passed so many times that it has become harder and harder to say it, as our friendship grows deeper and deeper. Last Friday we were both at her house, lying on the carpet, listening to the radio, our legs crossed on top of each other, my head woozy from her sweet perfume. Out of the blue, she asked me if I thought Victor was attractive. I felt like I was getting punched in my stomach. I could hardly breathe after she let the confession out, and I must have turned red for a couple of seconds, because she asked me if I was alright. I sprang up and replied I had to go to the bathroom. I ran across the sofa, followed by her perplexed eyes and closed the door behind me. I looked in the mirror and saw myself through blurry eyes. I have to do this right now, I thought. I opened the faucet and washed my face.
But I wasn’t able to say anything. When I opened the door, she was standing right there, waiting for me, with a forgiving look as if I was in some sort of awkward situation. “It’s alright”, she said, “I think those beans are getting to me as well.” We both let out a howling laugh and just like that, the moment had passed.
Today is different, though. I am risking it all: stealing the car without telling my mom, my friendship with her, the awkward situation I’ll put Lucas in. But nothing else matter, I have got to make a move, and make it now.
