Page 19 of American Love Story

“Yo, where did you go to, man?”

I snapped my head back and saw Nesto, Ari, and Yin looking at me.

“Sorry Nes. I just started thinking. My mom did get me a lot of stuff,” I said, running my hands over head.

Nesto, whose own mom was not subtle in her protectiveness of her son, was unfazed. “She’s just trying to take care of her baby. So speaking of people that do too much. How’s it going with your landlord?”

I knewthatwas coming. Nesto was still pretty invested in being matchmaker and it was still annoying.

“If you mean Easton, he’s fine.”

Yin nodded from the kitchen, an impish look on his face. “He sure is.”

Both Nesto and I busted up at that while Yin looked over at Ari with a sassy grin on his face. Ari was trying hard to scowl,but he couldn’t resist for long and after a second bent down to give Yin a quick kiss on the lips. Yin didn’t waste any time and wrapped his skinny arms around Ari’s neck.

They were fucking adorable, and so into each other. Nesto said they’d only started dating over the summer after a year of walking around each other like lovesick puppies. Nesto looked at them, and then at me, and smiled.

Were we ever that young?

It made my heart happy to see those two able to kiss and show their affection for each other freely. Here, at least. Things were not easy at home for Ari; his uncle was very traditional and would not be ok with Ari having a boyfriend. Yin, whose sisters were fiercely protective, thankfully didn’t have the same problem. They had people who were supportive of them and their relationship.

Nesto came over to stand by me and help get books into shelves as Ari and Yin resumed unpacking boxes in the kitchen.

“Should we wipe these down before we put them up?”

I grabbed a couple of old t-shirts I’d been using for cleaning and handed him one.

“Yeah, please. All the boxes are labeled by category. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and all my work and schoolbooks?” I pointed at the two bookcases on the wall behind the couch. “Bookshelf on the right has all the stuff that’s not school or work-related and the other one has everything else.”

Nesto nodded and started pulling books out. I had a couple dozen boxes full of them. Some I’d kept in my mother’s house, but most of them I’d just had in stacks all over my tiny apartment. The thrill of finally having space to display my things hit me by moments. I’d be unpacking something and it would come to me again that this place was mine.

“Man you look so fucking happy right now,” Nesto said, from where he was shelving books. “I’m so glad it worked out for youto get this place. It is so much nicer than the first one. How is it going with Easton, by the way, don’t think I’m gonna let you get away with not answering.”

I cut open another box of books and made a show of getting a few out of the box and wiped down before I said anything. I looked up after a minute and Nesto was still there, pulling out books and staring at me, waiting for an answer.

“There’s nothing going on, so there’s not much to say.”

“Bullshit.”

I lifted a shoulder and kept working. Nesto was like a dog with a bone with shit like this, but I was just as stubborn.

He, of course, was not done. “I saw the way you were looking at each other the day of the sancocho. There’s something up with you two, it’s only a matter of time.”

There was more than something. Easton and the way he made me feel sometimes felt like this gigantic piece of a puzzle I didn’t even know was missing, but I was not going to get into it right now. “It’s not like that. I mean yeah, I want him and he’s made it pretty clear that he’s down for whatever, but we decided to keep it at just friends.”

Nesto was about to say something, but I held up my hand.

“I get it. There is something there, but now I’m living in his building and honestly, it’s too messy. Now with all this shit happening with the police stops and all that. I won’t be able to look the other way and let things go, so—” There was just too much in the way. “Nah man, it’s better like this.”

Nesto twisted his mouth to the side, like he was literally forcing himself to stay quiet. After a second, he sagged and exhaled. “I’m not sure why everything needs to be life or death with you, but all right. It’s your life.”

“Everything isn’t life or death, but this specific thing that’s been happening here potentially could be. You know that. I don’t need to start rattling off names of people who have losttheir lives to get my point across. I’m not saying that Easton is responsible to stop it, because it’s not that simple. But it’s going to cause tension and I got enough on my plate right now.”

I had no idea how Easton was handling any of this and to a degree, I almost didn’t want to know. If I began to let things slide because I was involved with Easton, I’d eventually hate myselfandhim.

It frightened me more that despite knowing all of that, I wanted him anyways.

“This lone wolf shit is a whole lot, P.” Nesto’s exhausted tone made me shake off the overthinking, but I seriously didn’t want to talk about it anymore. The more I did, the less my reasons didn’t seem strong enough to hold me back from getting involved with Easton.