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She listened carefully. The chorus was about how love and hope never die and, no matter what, your heart and soul will survive—a positive message sung over an almost traditional Mexican song with horns and hip-hop drop-ins.
Addie liked it immediately and wondered if she really waslistening to one of Mrs. Mendoza’s CDs.
Be
She realized he had been pulling her leg the entire time. She smacked him in the shoulder. “You!”
“Ay, querida, you’re way too gullible.”
Mildly a
"Like what?"
“Like if you said you’d be careful not to get me pregnant, if we ever… you know.”
“ Querida, I don’t joke about serious things.”
“Oh? Then tell me something I canbelieve.”
Be
Addie sat there for the longest moment, not knowing what to say. She adored hearing him finally say those words, but even the throwaway way he’d spoken them seemed to have sucked all the air out of the car.
When the Dixie Highway veered at One-hundred-eighty-third Street, Be
Finally finding her voice, Addie said, “You love me? Really love me?”
Be
“You better not be fooling.”
“No way, querida,” he said, his voice softer now. “I told you before I don’t joke about serious things. I love you.”
Once Be
“I love you, too,” she said.
He gri
Leaning over, Be
“Drive,” she said, pushing him away. She wanted to pull him to her, but waiting until they weren’t driving in a rainstorm with cars all around them might be a safer plan.
He took the right that jogged back to the Dixie Highway and once again headed south. Addie had learned a long time ago that few things ran straight in the Chicago area. Streets veering off in odd directions all over the place was an accepted part of living in the city. She still remembered, as a child, commenting about nothing being straight in the city, and her father replying, “You think the streets are something? Wait until you’re old enough to understand politics.”
The answer had stuck with her because it made no sense when she was six, but now, as her government class studied how things in the city worked, Addie realized what her father had meant. The streets weren’t the only things in the city that were crooked.
They wove southeast until Be
Technically, Addie lived on Two-hundred-seventh Street, but since she lived on the corner, Be
Most people, especially those from anywhere other than Chicago Heights, immediately thought “slum” when they were told of the suburb’s location on the south side of the city. That wasn’t true at all.
The neighborhood where Addie lived was a multiracial middle-class neighborhood with blacktop streets, no sidewalks, and houses varying from ranches to split foyers to the new brick castles coming up when the old houses were razed.
One of those brick monstrosities sat across the street to the east from her parents’ modest ranch with its one-car garage and flowers planted everywhere. Houses lined the south side of Two-hundred-seventh right up to where Hutchinson teed into it, then east of the intersection, on the south side, Swanson Park spread before them, an oasis of green with its soccer fields and softball diamonds.
Be
She caught a glimpse of the clock as Be
Be
The rush she felt as his tongue snaked its way into her mouth was like nothing she had ever felt before. Heat rushed from her lips to her tongue, down her throat, extending out through every fiber of her being, to burn somewhere just south of her waist.
His arms were around her, then they were unfastening her seat belt. Next his hands were roving all over her T-shirt, leaving a wildfire trail in their wake.
Be
Control was slipping away and even though it was nearly 1:30 in the morning on a school night, her parents less than a hundred feet away (certainly not asleep and almost certainly waiting up for her), Addie was about to let Be
Not like this, she told herself as she wrestled for control. Not a quickie in a Hyundai, even if it was with Be
With more strength than she knew she had, Addie broke away.
Be
“I can… can’t,” she said.
“I thought this was something you wanted.”
“It is,” she said, and, despite her best efforts, she found herself crying.
His arms engulfed her as she wept full tilt now, sobbing into his shoulder. It felt good there, in his arms, and slowly her tears subsided.
“ Querida,” he soothed. “There’s plenty of time for that. I love you. We’ll wait for the right moment. No rush. I’m not going anywhere.”
She pulled back from him a little to look into his eyes. “You will go away… this summer.…”
“Addie,” he said, gazing at her, “that’s just one summer. We’re going to be together forever.”
She kissed him again, with a painful urgency. When their kiss broke, she thought she saw someone standing next to the driver’s door, outside in the rain. Oh shit, she thought. Was it her dad?
Instinctively, she pulled away a little from Be
The form outside the car was definitely a person. Addie saw something come up between the figure and the car, then there was a flash that caused Addie to blink. When her eyes opened, the window shattered and Be
Finally, she heard the roar of the gunshot and something else, someone screaming— herself.
As Be
They weregoing to be together forever.