Amaya's POV

"What do you mean you blacked out?"

"I had a panic attack in his kitchen, the next thing I know I'm practically breaking down your front door. What's hard to grasp?"

"The fact that you were at his house at seven in the morning."

Lupe gave me a look, I know what she thought had happened but nothing of the sort did actually happen. Thank God.

"I stayed after that bitch blindsided me. Shit I left my set up in his backyard!"

"And your car." Jose said opening the front door.

"What are you doing here?" Lupe asks.

"Came to get Amaya's keys." He reached his hand out towards me.

"Santos call me AJ." I retort and grab for my keys. "That car better get to my house in one untouched piece. Got it?" Jose snatched the keys and walked away.

Before he shut the door he mumbled, "Someone's still a fucking princess."

"DAMN RIGHT!" I yelled through the metal door.

I fell back into the couch I was sitting on. I raked my hands over my face trying to remember more of the memories which evaporated from my mind.

When I took my hands away Lupe was still staring me down.

"What?"

"Tell me what you're thinking."

"Just a small memory. Nothing more."

She huffed and fell back into the cushions with me.

"Do you want me to pull out the cards?"

I rolled my eyes. Tarot cards.

Devilish things.

"Why not? My life couldn't get any worse today!"

Lupe jumped up in excitement. I never let her do this, not when we were kids but here I sat desperate for answers.

======

"Oh bullshit!"

"I'm not saying that! The cards are!"

"The cards are saying I'll make a huge, gigantic relationship jump with someone I'm in love with! I'm not in love with anyone!" I say dryly.

"Well...."

"Well, what?!"

Lupe collects the cards from the ground and puts them away.

"Nothing. What do you wanna do now?"

"I want you to tell me what YOU'RE thinking Guadalupe."

I pulled out her real name. She hated me when I did that to her. 'It makes her feel too adult-ish' or some shit.

"I'm just saying you've been here what a week and things are weird."

"Weird how?"

"Your mom told me not to tell you about things you can't remember. But I am also your best friend so I feel like I should tell you."

"Just fucking tell me."

She was contemplating it, but I decided to jump the gun.

"You are gonna tell me about Oscar and I. When we were teenagers."

Her eyes widened and mouth opened in amusement.

"How'd you know?! Did you remember something?!?!?!?"

"A little bit. Not a whole lot. I opened up our yearbook and saw photos. Just put two and two together and figured that we were dating."

"Dating." She spit out like a joke. "You two were more like a married couple."

Now my eyes were widening.

"Girl, everyone in town thought y'all were gonna be Santo royalty together. And then that freak accident, then D and you. Then after all that you took your skinny butt and left us all in the dust. Missed you every single day. It broke hearts that you just left and said nothing then only a happy birthday from you on our birthdays."

Santo royalty?

What?

"I think it broke Oscar's heart even more because even when you and D became a thing he let it run course. But the day you left he went and became the stupidest, most dangerous cholo this side of Freeridge. Even got himself locked up the next day."

He went to jail after I left?

What the fuck?

What the actual fuck was happening?

"I love you Ma but it sucks that you can't remember all that. I have no one to talk to anymore. I wish, I wish it was me and not you." 

At this point she was crying and I was starting to have another panic attack.

"Lupe, I gotta go."

Just like a bullet out of a gun, I was gone from her house.

Oscar's POV

"What'd she say?"

"Gave me a ration of her shit but nothing more."

"You get the keys?" He lifted them from his pocket and threw them at me.

"I still have drops. See ya." He turned and ran down the street not looking for more of my shit. We both knew I'd ask about a hundred more questions about her.

I popped the trunk on her Pop's old beauty and loaded it full of her equipment.

For someone who was just a teacher she sure did have nice stuff.

It was a little suspicious.

I piled her shit in the trunk and drove her car back over to her Mom's. Amaya ran out of here so quick this morning that she was either spooked that she was here or something happened.

Her car ran just like it used too. It smelled the exact same as I remember. The stickers her little hermanas put on the dash board were still there. Everything in this car was the same but the driver.

Pulling up to a stop sign someone slammed into the car and hopped in the passenger seat.

To my surprise it was the hyna who had vanished this morning.

"Sup fool?" I asked as I pulled away from the stop.

"Saw you down the street and figured I didn't have to run home."

"Why?"

"Why, what?"

"Why'd you have to run home? Where were you?" She rolled her eyes at me like when we were kids, it made my heart thump a little bit.

"I was at Lupe's. Clearly you knew that cause Jose came to get my keys."

"Nope. I told him to go to your house."

"Oh well, same difference."

Not the same. I said in my head.

"How's your head?"

"Good. Lupe's mom cleaned it up some more so it's just a same scar now."

"Good." I replied.

The rest of the car was silent until Amaya's phone started ringing from her pocket.

"Oh, what the fuck!" She harshly said to herself.

"Something wrong?"

Instead of answering me she just put her hand up to stop me. I watched from the corner of my eye as she answered the call.

"Hello? Yes, I will be. No, there's no problem. Yes, I understand I was answering my phone. Well I was at Urgent Care." Amaya cleared her throat and turned away from me a little more. "I was punched last night and was cut on my temple. No! I'll be in, just give me an hour and I'll be there. Ok, see you." She hung up the phone and her head fell backwards.

"You need some help?"

"Can you get my boss off my back for me?" I gave her a look and she knew I could.

"Nah. You late?"

"No, I just didn't answer any of his calls because Lupe was giving me a...." She stopped herself from finishing her sentence.

"Tarot reading?" I asked and Amaya nodded.

Lupe used to do them all the time at lunch in high school. She could scam the money off Jesus if he had any.

"I forgot how stupid they were. My friends at school didn't believe in anything Lupe does, so we got on well. But I still missed her batshit ways."

I pulled into her driveway and parked the car.

"Well everyone around here definitely missed your batshit ways. So its nice to finally have that back."

She nodded and got out of the car.

"All my stuff in the trunk?" I nodded and slid her the keys.

"You need anything else?"

"Can you call off the watch dogs tonight? I'll be in LA until tomorrow."

"Will do."

The boys were sitting down the street and started towards them.

"Hey Oscar!" I turned around to see Amaya jogging towards me.

"Thanks for everything."

"No problem. It was a sick party, too bad you missed it."

"I bet. But I mean, thanks for everything." She clapped her hands and ran up the front steps into her house.

Thanks for everything?!?

What the fuck does that even mean?