Silent (22 page)

She’d always been hot, even though I’d never wanted to think of my sister that way. But I’d known it, and she’d known it. And the guys had known it, which was how she’d ended up with a kid when she was just a kid herself. But she really didn’t look as pretty anymore. Was she just getting old? Was it because she was so thin that her face didn’t have the same glow?

“Well?”

“Star’s bed has bedbugs,” I said abruptly. “I got bit a few times, and she has bumps all over her.”

“Fuck,” Mimi muttered, shaking her head. “I thought maybe it was just fleas—Angel has a couple pit bulls he brings around here sometimes—so I washed all her sheets and her clothes.”

“Nope. It’s bedbugs. Don’t you remember—we had them that one summer, when we were still living in the projects?”

“Yeah.” She pulled a napkin off the table beside her and wiped the lipstick from her mouth. “Fuck. I’ll have to throw out the mattress. I don’t know where I can get another one.”

I felt guilty about weighing Mimi down with crappy news, but I knew she wouldn’t want Star to suffer. And for some reason, I wasn’t quite ready to share my story—maybe because I was afraid of what a bad reaction would mean for my future.

“So…this is Angel’s place?”

Mimi gave me a wary look. “Angel takes care of the rent and I…pay him back.”

“And does he live here?”

She shrugged. “He stays here sometimes. He was here yesterday. I know we left a mess…” She glanced around the kitchen, her brow furrowing.

“Star and I cleaned up.”

“Oh. Thanks.” Her eyes sank closed, and she rested her head next to a dark brown stain on the back of the couch. I couldn’t really tell what color the fabric had been originally.

“What’s that burned spoon on the counter over there?”

“Angel used it yesterday.”

“Used it for what?”

Her lids snapped back open, and she narrowed her eyes with that same look Star had given me earlier. “You know for what. For crack.”

I picked at one of the tiny welts on my arm. “And do you use it?”

“No. Not like Angel does.”

“So you do sometimes, then.”

“Jesus Christ, Alex. Is that why you fucking came here? To get all up in my business and judge me?”

“No, no.” I shook my head quickly, spreading my fingers wide to signal I was dropping the subject. “Sorry. I came because…I really need your help.”

“Okay.” She sighed. “So then tell me what happened. Even though I don’t know how I’m gonna be able to help.”

I started at the beginning, with Hector and the shoes. Her expression grew really hard at that part, and she snatched my wrist to examine the scars while she muttered under her breath, “
Hijo de puta
.” Then I told her how I’d been taken away, straight from school, and all about Ms. Loretta’s. I left out the parts with Seb, though, skipping to the fire and ending up with my escape from Greg and Eleanor’s house.

When I was done, Mimi waited a full five seconds before smacking me on my head.

“Are you fucking crazy?” she cried. “Why would you leave a fucking mansion?”

“It’s not like they was gonna adopt me!” I shouted back. “They didn’t even want me! They wanted a little kid!”

“Go get your shit!” She stood and marched into the kitchen, where she grabbed some keys out of a drawer. “I’m gonna take you back there right now, and you just better pray they forgive you!”

“What the fuck, Mimi. I came to you for help! I’m not going back!”

Star had finished her Pop-Tarts, and she glanced up at us worriedly as she licked the crumbs from her fingers. “Is Tío in trouble?”

“Go get dressed, baby. I’m gonna leave you with the neighbor ’cause I gotta go somewhere. And yes, Tío is in trouble.”

“But I am dressed!” Star protested.

“Mimi, listen to me—”

“
No te creo
,” Mimi went on, pulling at her hair violently as she stuffed it into a ponytail. “I don’t believe you. You have a fucking chance to get out of here, and you run away. Jesus Christ, Alex.”

“Mimi!”

She finally stopped her angry movements, placing her hands on her hips as she stared me down. “What? What is it?”

“I wasn’t finished,” I ground out, teeth clenched. “Will you please sit down and let me finish?”

She kept glaring for a few seconds before she flopped back on the couch. “Fine. Finish. But you best make it good.”

“Can we go to the store and get milk now?” Star interrupted. “I’m still hungry.”

“Go play in your room, baby,” Mimi ordered. I supposed it said something for her parenting skills that Star immediately obeyed.

“Okay, listen. When I was at the first house—the group home—I had this friend. And they thought he was the one who started the fire, even though he wasn’t. So he got sent away to this, uh…facility, and he can’t stand it there. He needs my help to get out.”

Mimi rubbed her eyes. “So you ran away for a friend.”

“Yes. I promised him I’d always have his back. And I’m gonna keep my word.”

“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

God, I was so sick of relying on other people to get what I wanted. I couldn’t wait till I’d figured out how to take care of shit all on my own…but in this case, I really did need her help.

“Mimi, I
owe
him.”

“Well, you wanna know what I think? I think you should never owe shit to no one.”

I slammed my fist into the couch, and a puff of dust arose from the impact. “He’s my best friend, and it’s not like I’ve had a fucking shitload of those! You know things haven’t been easy for me since you fucking left!”

“I didn’t leave because I wanted to, asshole!”

“But you did!” My voice cracked, and heat gathered in my face. Weak, pitiful tears would be next if I couldn’t get a handle on myself. “You left, and Hector kept beating up on me, and there was no one there!”

Mimi didn’t deserve this. I knew she didn’t. It wasn’t her fault.

“Alejandro, I didn’t want to leave you alone.” Her tone softened. Old Mimi might’ve cried with me, but this one kept her emotions in check, her expression oddly calm. “I had to do what I had to do.”

I wiped my face with the back of my arm, catching any moisture before it could escape. “He’s the first person I’ve been able to count on in a really long time, okay? And I’m not gonna let him down.” A small part of me knew I was building Seb up to be more than he was—or maybe ever could be—but I couldn’t stop. “So either help me, or get the fuck out of the way, ’cause I’m gonna get him out.”

Moments of silence ticked by while Mimi studied her nails. They were painted pink, like Star’s.

Then she sighed. “I dunno, Alex. What all do you need?”

Hope burst forth in my chest. I scooted forward on the couch, trying to contain my excitement and probably failing. “I have a plan. But this place is really far away, so I need a car…and a few other things.”

Mimi crossed her arms. “I hope you know what the fuck you’re doing.”

~*~

We parked Mimi’s beat-up Camaro—or
Angel’s
beat-up Camaro—in the same spot I’d been in with Suzie. It was already eleven in the morning, because Mimi had insisted on showering before we went to the store to get the supplies. I could only pray the Richards hadn’t discovered my absence yet—after all, I could’ve still been sleeping. And if they had, well, hopefully Suzie wouldn’t realize I had the means to get all the way out here again.

I tugged on the sweater I’d used since Ms. Loretta’s, then secured a baseball cap on my head. “Okay. I’m ready. Remember, we gotta make this fast.”

Mimi scowled. “If you get me arrested, I swear I’ll fucking kill you.”

A different lady—an older Latina one—was sitting at the front desk. I walked up to her casually, letting Mimi do the talking.

“We’re here to see a friend,” Mimi said in her most adult voice. I reminded myself that she
was
an adult now—almost twenty-two.

“Who are you here to visit?” the lady asked.

Shit. No one had asked Suzie any questions, and I wasn’t really prepared for an in-depth interrogation.

“Sebastian,” I answered, since I’d never told Mimi that detail. And all of a sudden, I realized I didn’t even know Seb’s last name.
Fuck.

“Oh, yes.” The lady smiled. “That’s nice.”

I guessed Seb was a pretty memorable kid. I’d certainly never be able to forget him.

The lady wrote down
Sebastian Smith
in her sign-in book, under the Resident’s Name column, then turned it over to Mimi.

“Names and ID, please.”

ID?
Jesus fucking Christ. Suzie must’ve been able to skip all this since they knew she was a social worker. What the hell were we going to do now?

“I f-forgot mine,” I stuttered.

The lady seemed undisturbed. “Just hers is okay.”

Great. Not that Mimi was going to want to give her name and ID when we were about to arrange a fucking prison break.

Mimi smiled a very warm smile, reaching into her oversized purse without a hint of concern. “Here you are.” She handed over a card. While the woman examined it, she took up the pen and wrote on the visitor’s line:
Elena and Joséf Marquez.

“All right.” The lady passed back the ID, and I caught a quick glimpse of Mimi’s picture on it—next to the name
Elena Marquez,
of course
.
“You just need your visitor’s stickers”—she peeled off the backs and gave them to us—“and do you know what building he’s in?”

“I know,” I said quickly, already walking away. “Thanks!”

I didn’t breathe again until we were outside in the sunlight. “Holy shit, Mimi,” I gasped. “I was scared there for a minute.”

Mimi smirked. “I’m always prepared,
hermanito
.”

“That was a really good fake.”

“It better be, for what I paid.” She huffed. Then she took a look around. “Jesus, Alex. I thought he was going to be in some detention hall or something. This place looks really nice.”

“He hates it here,” I said defensively.

She rolled her eyes. “You two sound fucking perfect for each other. You hate mansions, and he hates beautiful countryside.”

I ignored her. She didn’t know what she was talking about—she was just trying to get a rise out of me. And I had other, more important shit to worry about. “Let’s go.”

We reached Seb’s cabin, and by the time I got to his room at the end of the hallway, he was sitting straight up in the bed.

He must’ve heard me coming, but maybe he had to see me to believe it, because the moment I stepped into sight his eyes grew wider than ever before, and his mouth fell open to accompany them in shock.
You came back for me!

I didn’t care that Mimi was in the room. Nothing in the world could have stopped me from running to him and pulling him into a tight embrace. “I told you I would!” I laughed in his ear. “Didn’t you believe me?”

“Alex,” Mimi said testily, her eyes trained on the door. “C’mon, move it. You can do this shit later.”

I knelt down in front of Seb. “Listen, I got a plan to get you out of here…but it’s gonna involve breaking some rules. You okay with that?”

He nodded.

I’d already turned around to get the stuff we needed from Mimi’s purse before the importance of that moment sunk in.

He’d fucking
nodded.

“You and me,” I said as I ripped open a plastic bag containing a brunette wig, “we’re gonna have a talk when we get out of here about what you can and can’t understand, you got it?”

No response.

I settled the wig over Seb’s blond hair, tucking the loose strands away so that none could be seen. Then I took the second baseball cap we’d bought and stuck it on top.

“What do you think?” I asked Mimi.

“I think he looks like a white kid in a wig.”

I rolled my eyes. “Gimme your makeup.”

She handed over a bottle of cream foundation, and I worked quickly to smear it on Seb’s face and neck. It was sort of fun, actually, getting to touch his skin like that. His complexion gradually darkened, and I finished by putting a bit of it on his hands. Then I gave him my sweater, complete with the visitor’s sticker still attached.

He wasn’t a perfect replica of me, but it’d have to do.

“Now, you gotta walk out the door really fast,” I told him. “Don’t stop at the front desk. Let Mimi do the signing out or whatever if she has to. And keep your head down.”

That last part should’ve been easy enough for him, but the rest of it had me worried. I was counting on the fact that he could understand and follow my directions, and that was actually a pretty big risk to take.

But I had to believe he could handle it. I
had
to.

“All right. Go ahead, Mimi. And if that lady asks, tell her the reason we left so soon is ’cause he was sleeping, okay?”

Mimi nodded impatiently. “I know. I got it, Alex.”

Seb stood and walked to Mimi’s side, and I couldn’t resist giving him one last hug. “Mimi’s gonna drive to the bottom of the hill and I’ll meet you there, okay?” I adjusted the sweater, smoothing it out on his shoulders. “Listen to what she tells you, all right?”

No nod this time, but maybe that was because he was nervous.

“And Mimi,” I whispered, even though he’d obviously hear me, “just so you know…Seb don’t talk.”

“What?” She stared at me.

“He can’t talk. He’s like…mute or whatever.”

“Oh, Jesus Christ,” Mimi muttered. “Can we please just get out of here?”

I pushed them out the door. My hand might’ve lingered a little too long on Seb’s back, but I was pretty sure Mimi didn’t notice.

Once they were gone, I started taking really deep breaths to calm myself. Filled with both excitement and dread, my body shook in weird, jittery spasms. I wanted to pace or do jumping jacks or something to pass the time, but I couldn’t risk wasting any energy I might need later.

It took an eternity for each minute to go by. Eventually I felt I’d waited long enough, and I stepped out the door with a purposeful stride, psyching myself up for success.

I’m gonna walk right out of here, and no one’s gonna stop me.