“Hey, guys! It’s awfully quiet in here,” Austin howled, clapping his hands together as if he were trying to frighten a small animal.
Kael and I stepped back from each other, as if by instinct. Mendoza rested an almost empty tequila bottle on the counter by the kitchen door.
“My man. You leaving?” Austin asked, as Mendoza nodded and clasped his shoulder. “Thanks for coming.” Austin continued, “I know it’s hard to get out.”
“Yeah.” Mendoza turned to Kael. I felt like something significant was going on in front of me, but I wasn’t really able to decipher it.
“Next time bring Gloria,” Austin said, reaching for the tequila bottle. “One more before you go?”
Mendoza looked at the thick, white watch strapped to his wrist and shook his head. “No way, man. I have to go home. Kids get to be a handful, and Gloria’s tired. The baby is keeping her up all night.”
“I didn’t mean you.” Austin touched Mendoza’s car keys on his belt loop. “But for me?”
Mendoza took the bottle and emptied the remaining tequila into Austin’s glass. It wasn’t my responsibility to worry about my brother. This was his party and I was already over being the house mother. Not tonight.
“It was nice to meet you, again,” I told Mendoza when he said bye to me.
“Take care of my boy,” he whispered. Then he hugged Kael and went out the back door, leaving me to wonder what on earth he meant.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“Man, I love that guy. He’s a Grade A fucking guy.”
Austin was over-the-top cheerful, even for him. It made me a little afraid of what was coming next. It wasn’t that I was worried about him getting into trouble. Not really. It was hard to see him standing there swaying like that.
“My sister! My beautiful sis.” Austin wrapped his arm around me. His movements were fluid and his pale cheeks were red. He was clearly smashed.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” he asked Kael. I froze. I hated when Austin talked about my looks.
Kael nodded yes, clearly uncomfortable.
“You’ve really grown up. Buying your own house and shit,” he said, squeezing me. “I mean, there you are, holding down a steady job and shit. Paying bills—”
“And shit?” I finished for him.
“Essactly,” he said.
Something on the bridge of his nose caught my eye. I moved toward him. “Did you actually break your nose?” I asked, lifting my hand to his face. He jerked away, laughing me off.
“It didn’t break. It just, um . . . it moved over a little.” Then he turned to Kael with a goofy smile plastered on his face. “Be careful with her, bro. I’m not going to be that guy who’s like threatening dudes over his sister or anything like that. Nothing like that. I’m just saying, my sister, well . . . she flips on you and, man . . .” He used his fingers like a knife under his throat.
Kael cast his eyes downward, giving no indication of what he thought about what he’d just heard.
“I’m kidding. She’s a peach.” He hugged me again. “A real peachy peach of a sister. Aren’t you?”
Oh, yeah, totally smashed.
The kitchen was getting busy now, with people coming in to refill their drinks, as if a shift change had been announced or something. It wasn’t until Kael looked at me that I felt like a kid. I probably seemed so immature, borderline wrestling with my brother, who was completely out of it.
“Right. Thanks for the news bulletin,” I said, maneuvering out of his arm. “Your new little friend is waiting for you. She looks lonely. I saw her a few minutes ago sitting by herself on the floor.” I nodded toward the living room.
“Katie? She’s cute, huh? She’s going to school to be a nurse,” he told us with pride.
Kael made a face like he was impressed, but I wasn’t as drunk as Austin was, and I could tell that Kael was humoring him. He mostly hid his mouth behind the dark beer bottle.
“You mean the little girl wants to be a nurse when she gets to be all grown up? After she’s out of high school and into the big world?” It was how I was with Austin—teasing him about stuff. It was part of our twin dynamic. We didn’t have that mythical twin thing where we could read each other’s minds or feel each other’s pain. Nothing weird like that. Okay, I understood him on a level that I didn’t feel with most people. And I felt a closeness to him that I couldn’t explain. But a lot of siblings felt that, especially when they’d gone through their parents’ divorce and all the mess that came with it.
So, really, my comment was not intentionally mean-spirited, it was just part of the teasing that went on with Austin and me. Only it sometimes caught other people in the middle of our fun . . . like the comment he made to Kael. （The comment that I swore to myself I wouldn’t obsess over until later, when I was alone.）
“She’s nineteen, okay? And she’s going to actual nursing school.” Austin lifted his plastic cup to his mouth, pouring out the last drops of the A?ejo he had been downing the whole night.
“I’m sure she is.” I rolled my eyes at Austin. “And the next Barbie will be—”
It took me a moment to register that everyone was looking over my shoulder to something behind me. MPs, I thought for a split second. Damn. We’re busted. I turned around to face the officers, to give them some sort of excuse or attempt some type of negotiation. Only when I turned around, I saw that it wasn’t the MPs at all. It was the girl in the ruffly shirt, and she had heard every word I’d said.
I was the one who was busted.
The girl’s face fell. My face fell. We stood there in silence. Caught. Two deer in the headlights.
I had insulted her, insinuating that not only was she in high school, but that tomorrow night, my brother would be making out with someone else. Which not only made my brother seem like a total douchebag, it was rude as all hell to her.
Her eyes welled up with tears.
“Sorry . . .” I said. “I’m so sorry. It wasn’t anything against you, I just meant—” She looked so young when she pouted like that, her bottom lip quivering. Damn. I didn’t want to give her a half-assed apology or make something up to make her feel better. But I couldn’t tell her that she really did look like she was in high school and I sure as hell couldn’t tell her that, in all likelihood, my brother would be making out with someone else—if not tomorrow, then the day after.
I stood in the doorway for a second, not facing the group, contemplating apologizing to her again—and thinking of how to smooth things over with Austin, too, even though he wasn’t likely to be that annoyed with me. He knew my sense of humor better than anyone. And he gave as good as he got.
But Austin spoke first.
“Nice, Kare. Real nice.” He moved toward the girl and put a comforting arm around her. “This here is my sister, Karina,” he said, squeezing her shoulder. “Karina, this is—”
She cut him off. “You can call me Barbie,” she said through her breaking voice.
The room erupted with laughter. Big, bold, sidesplitting laughter. Score one for Barbie. And who could blame her? Certainly not me. I let myself exhale.