CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Distraction

WALKING DOWN THE hall, Arlo held her guitar in her hand while she listened to music. It had been a busy morning trying to get her siblings up for school and she was not in the mood.

As she walked downstairs she spotted Guzmán in the middle of talking to Ander and Polo. Yesterday's events playing in her head, the girl pressed her lips together and nodded in greeting at him before she went to the music room to drop her guitar off. Once she did, she turned back around to see Guzmán by the door and she took her earphones out.

"Have we really gone back to awkwardly passing each other in the halls?" He asked.

"That really depends on whether or not you're still an ass." Arlo deadpanned, raising her eyebrows.

Guzmán laughed. "Fine. Okay. I deserved that. I was angry yesterday. The look on Marina's face just killed me."

Arlo nodded in understanding. "Yeah, me too."

"You were right. I was being an asshole." The boy sighed. "God, why are you always right?"

"It's a both a gift and a curse." The girl shrugged. "Or maybe you need to stop being an asshole."

Guzmán chuckled. "Yeah, maybe. So, are we good?"

The corner of Arlo's lips pulled upwards. "Yeah. We're good. Come on, we should get to class." She ushered as she took a hold of his hand and dragged him out the music room.

The two went their separate ways when they entered the classroom, Guzmán going to sit with Polo while Arlo took her seat next to Samuel who was nervously biting his nails.

"What's up?" Arlo questioned in concern.

Samuel turned to the girl and moved girl to her. "Marina and I are going to, um..."

"Oh, that's great." The girl interjected with a chuckle.

"I'm a virgin." Samuel hissed. "What if she thinks I'm just a loser?"

"Samu, thats nothing to be ashamed of. So am I. And she won't, this is Marina we're talking about. She cares about you."

"You're a virgin? Shit." The boy grumbled.

"Why?"

"I was gonna maybe ask if you'd know what girls would like...you know."

Arlo's eyes widened slightly. "Oh. Well, um, sorry. I, uh, can't really help you there. I guess, you could always ask Christian for...tips."

"Are you kidding?" Samuel scoffed. "No way."

"What about your brother?" Arlo wondered.

"No. I don't want his advice, nor do I want him knowing anything about what happens between Marina and I."

The girl clocked her head to her side. "Why not? He's your brother."

Samuel sighed, rubbing his hands over his face, debating whether or not to tell her what his brother nearly had him do. When he noticed Guzmán glance at her briefly, he knew it was best not to. "He's just an ass. He's not exactly the kind of person I want her to be around. I don't want her getting caught up in his shit."

"Yeah, I get that." Arlo exhaled. "But this wouldn't be getting her caught up in his problems. Just some brotherly advice."

"Lo, in my relationship with my brother, I'm the one who gives advice." Samuel chuckled, trying to change the subject.

Arlo laughed. "Yeah, tell me about it. Look, maybe you should just ask her what she likes. I don't know much, but I do know it's different for every girl."

Samuel let out a sigh of relief. She had not only not carried on the subject about his brother, but she had given him the advice he should have thought of in the first place.

GUZMÁN, ANDER AND Polo sat in La Cabaña, waiting for Arlo and Omar to show up. Ander was finally going to formally introduce his friends to Omar and Arlo was running late.

Polo cleared his throat, catching Guzmán's attention. "Are you going to tell us?"

"What?" Guzmán asked.

"Carla and Lu tell each other everything." Polo pointed out.

"It was nothing, Polo. Just a mistake." Guzmán brushed off. He then looked up to see that Arlo entered the restaurant, talking to Samuel and his eyes widened as he grew more urgent. "A mistake, period. Please drop it. Please."

"A mistake." Polo nodded raising his hands in surrender.

"What's a mistake?" Arlo questioned as she plopped down next to a Guzmán.

"Nothing." Guzmán blurted out as he exchanged a look with Ander. "Nothing at all."

"Okay." The girl noted as Polo pushed his bowl of fries towards her.

"Take some." He offered.

"Thanks, Polito." Arlo smiled, taking him up on his offer. "How are your moms?"

"Frustrating." Polo huffed. "What about you? Everything okay with your parents now?"

"They left yesterday morning. I wouldn't exactly say everything's okay, but at least I can expect no arguments in public until they get back." Arlo laughed.

"They left?" Guzmán reiterated.

"Yep." Arlo nodded. "It's just me and the two gremlins again."

Guzmán scanned her, trying to read her, but she had gotten so good at lying at times he wasn't sure if she was genuinely fine that they were gone or that she was trying to hide it.

"Omar's here." Arlo informed before Guzmán could say anything.

Ander stood up and walked to him, the two speaking in quiet whispers. Guzmán looked between Arlo and Polo. "Should I tell them to sit here?"

"Yeah, go on then." Polo encouraged.

"Ander." Guzmán called, raising his arm. "Take a seat. Come on. Sit."

Ander sat back in his place as Omar reluctantly walked over to the table. Arlo smiled at him and stood up, giving him a hug. "Hi. How are you?"

"I'm good." He nodded as he sat down next to the girl.

"Look, as long as you don't sell any shit to my friend, we're okay." Guzmán grinned, reaching round and clapping Omar on the back. "I support you. Gay power and all that, okay?"

"What are you doing, Guzmán?" Ander questioned as Arlo shook her head.

"What do you think?" Guzmán countered with a smile. Omar huffed before he stood up and began walking away. "Don't go. I'm giving my blessing, Ander."

"Who asked for your blessing?" Ander snapped as he stood up to follow Omar.

"Don't leave, please." Guzmán pleaded.

"What blessing?" Polo scoffed once Ander and Omar left. "It's not like you're their best man." Guzmán blew air out of his mouth before taking a bite of his burger. Arlo and Polo exchanged an exasperated look at the boy's antics. The latter rolled his eyes. "You've probably scared him off for good."

"Would that be a bad thing?" Guzmán wondered.

"Yes, you idiot!" Arlo hissed, hitting his arm. "Ander finally let us formally re-meet him and he's happy with him. You can't drive him away like that." The girl sighed as she stood up from the table.

Guzmán's eyebrows pinched together. "Where are you going?"

"To check on them." Arlo replied. She walked out the restaurant to see Omar hand something to Marina before he walked away, leaving Ander alone. The girl ran up to Ander, smiling at Marina as she walked past and stood next to the boy. "You okay?"

"He said we're not together." The boy muttered. "And he can't do this."

Arlo nodded. "Did he say why?"

"He doesn't want anyone knowing about him. He can't risk his family finding out."

"Given how strict Nadia has told me her parents are, I'm not too surprised."

"Dating is supposed to be easier than this, right? I mean, Polo and Carla are hanging on by a thread which so happens to be Christian. The only couple that seems to be worth shit nowadays is those two."

Arlo looked over to where Ander was pointing at to see Marina and Samuel smiling at each other and the girl nodded. "Yeah, they are cute."

"Maybe it is just a gay thing. His dad would be fine if I was a girl and Muslim."

"So technically that would also be a religion thing."

"I could always convert."

Arlo laughed. "True."

"How are things at home since your parents left?" Ander questioned.

"Weird." Arlo breathed out. "It always is when they leave. Diego misses them all the time and Izzy gets unusually quiet."

"Anything I can do?"

"Distract and babysit Izzy and Diego while I can get my homework done?" The girl joked.

           AS ARLO HELPED Alma clean up the kitchen table after a nice dinner of Adobo (another Filipino dish) the door bell rang. Pinching her eyebrows together, Arlo dropped the rag she was holding and jogged to the front door, opening it to see Guzmán and Ander.

The girl cocked her head to the side and flashed a confused smile. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Distracting and babysitting." Ander beamed.

"You said it gets weird in the house when your parents leave so we thought we'd come and relieve some of the tension with board games and DVDs." Guzmán grinned, holding up a bag. "And you could do the chem homework in peace."

"If it's okay." Ander added.

Arlo beamed at the two before she tackled them both in a hug, the two boys staggering back at the force. She rested her chin between their shoulders and closed her eyes. "Thank you."

After she let them in, Ander took his shoes off and ran up to Diego's room like he always did while Guzmán stayed downstairs, following Ander's lead with the shoes before he followed the girl into the living room.

"I wanted to get Marina here too, but she wasn't answering her phone." The boy explained.

Knowing what Marina and Samuel had planned tonight, Arlo was glad Marina couldn't get in contact with. "It's okay. She has plans with Samuel."

Cheering echoed through the house and the two turned their heads to see Diego typically on Ander's back as he jogged down the stairs, Izzy behind them, her phone tucked into her pocket.

"Alright, you–" Guzmán began as he grabbed Arlo's hand and pulled her off the couch. "–go do your work and we'll be down here. Go on."

"Okay." Arlo gave in as she went upstairs to do her work. She stopped at the top of the stairs to see them setting up connect four and her smile only grew wider as Izzy insisted on being red.

Once Arlo sat at her desk, feeling that her siblings were okay and content, she got started on her homework. A couple of hours passed by and she was done and her hand had started cramping, Arlo shook it as she leaned back in her chair, letting out a tired groan as she closed her eyes. She smiled, happy that she had finally done her homework without having to worry about finishing it at last minute the next day.

She sat up and glanced at the time, then left her room to hear loud laughter. She sat at the top of stairs, watching admiringly down at her friends and siblings.

They had spilt up into teams: Ander and Izzy vs Guzmán and Diego playing Operation and by the look of things, Ander and Izzy were winning. Arlo leaned her head against the railing and she smiled. Her eyes landed on Guzmán who was grinning ear to ear despite losing. He high-fived the 5-year old after his go, even when Diego touched the edge, causing the red nose to buzz and light up.

After a few more minutes of watching them, Arlo walked down the stairs and plopped down on the couch next to Guzmán.

Diego frowned. "Is it my bed time?"

"Unfortunately, yes it is." Arlo sighed.

"Can he put me to bed?" Diego wondered, pointing to Guzmán.

Arlo smiled and turned to Guzmán. "If he thinks he can handle it."

"Yeah," Guzmán nodded and smiled. "Sure." He then looked down at Diego and held out his hand. "Come on, little man."

Ander placed his hand over his chest. "I think I've been replaced."

"Don't be stupid. You know he loves you." Arlo said, pushing his shoulder.

"Yeah, I do." Ander grinned, then looked at Izzy. "Are you gonna sleep?"

"No." The 12-year old scoffed. "I'm not 5."

"Well, why do you act like it?" Arlo teased.

Izzy shot a glare at her sister. "You're so annoying."

"Hey, that's what sisters are for."

"Whatever. I gotta start planning my thirteenth." Izzy chirped as she stood up and ran up to her room.

"Thank you for this." Arlo smiled as she looked at Ander. "I appreciate it."

Ander shook his head. "Don't worry about it. After what happened earlier, I could use all the distractions in the world right now."

"How about helping me clean up some messes?" Arlo inquired, arching an eyebrow.

Once Arlo had given Ander a few tasks, she carried out her's. Guzmán walked out on to the covered patio where she was cleaning up the empty bottles Diego and Izzy were messing around with after school. She threw them into a recycle box and smiled up at Guzmán as he slid the sliding door shut.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked, taking in her slightly damp appearance. "It's pouring!"

"Hence why I put the cover up!" She yelled over the rain. "I already thanked Ander, but thank you." She grinned. "You guys saved my ass today– and my grade."

The boy beamed back at her. "Anytime. Here, let me help you." He then bent down to grab some of the other bottles and tossed them into the box.

"You're being surprisingly helpful." Arlo noted, her eyebrows furrowing.

"People can surprise us." Guzmán winked.

Arlo laughed. "Yeah, they can."

The boy then noticed her thin sweater and he shrugged off his jacket and placed it on the girl's shoulders. "Here."

"Thanks." Arlo grinned. As she looked up at his blue eyes and freckles, it was when it hit her. She did like him that way and she was almost certain he felt the same way, but there was that part of her that didn't want to lose him and going down that road meant a possible break up and he'd be out of her life. Ander came out and joined them and Arlo broke her stare from Guzmán and looked at Ander as he helped tidy up the patio. "You really needed a distraction, huh?"

"You have no idea." Ander huffed.

"I'm sorry about today, man." Guzmán huffed, clamping a hand down on Ander's shoulder and squeezed it.

Ander waved his hand. "It's okay. It wasn't your fault. But you do have to learn how not to be an arrogant douche."

Arlo snickered as she looked at Guzmán's face, who's mouth fell agape, his eyes with brief shock as he looked at Ander. The girl shrugged. "He's right."

Guzmán playfully rolled his eyes. "I don't need to take this abuse."

"Aw, come on!" Ander mocked as Guzmán walked back into Arlo's house and turned around, putting his middle finger up.

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A/N: I just wanna thank you all for the support I've received on this book! It's incredible! Also I uploaded a different prologue so if you wanna give that a read go ahead!