CHAPTER TWELVE
Birthday

          LOOKING INTO THE camera of her phone, Arlo wasn't happy with her appearance. She hadn't slept a wink and bags were forming under her eyes accompanied by a few spots breaking out on her forehead and not only had she forgot to put her concealer on that morning but she had also forgotten to bring it with her.

"Kid, no one will notice." Julio said with a chuckle. "Now get out or you'll be late for school."

"Love you too, Julio." Arlo laughed before she climbed out the car. "I'll see you later."

As she walked into school, Lu fell into step besides her. "Arlo, dear. How are you? Ah, I see you've taken my advice about keeping your hair up."

Arlo inhaled a sharp breath. "I'm fine and you?"

"I'm great. I was wondering if you want to share a ride to Guzmán's birthday party tonight." Lu spoke, twirling a strand of hair around her finger innocently. "Oh, shoot. Were you invited?"

Arlo smiled. "No. No, I wasn't."

"That's weird. I thought that since you two started talking again, you'd definitely be going. I'll give him my love for you." Lu beamed, blowing her a kiss as she walked away.

Arlo raised her eyebrows and shook her head. "Just another day in Las Encinas." The girl walked turned the corner to see Guzmán talking to Nadia before she walked away. Arlo then opened her bag and took out the present she got him. She skipped towards him and smiled as she hugged him, kissing his cheek. "Happy birthday."

"Thank you, Lo." Guzmán beamed before they pulled away.

"Here." Arlo said, handing him the present. "You open this after you open Marina's, okay?" Guzmán reached for the present, but the girl retracted her arm back. "Okay?"

The boy laughed. "Fine, okay!"

"Then here you go." The girl chuckled, giving him the present. "Have fun at your party tonight!"

Guzmán's smile dropped. "Lu told you." He deadpanned. "It's not a party, I swear. It's more of a family meal and she invited herself."

"Guzmán, it's fine."

"I swear, not even Ander or Polo are coming."

"It's fine!" Arlo insisted with a laugh.

"If you want, I can cancel the whole thing and we can celebrate instead." The boy suggested.

"No, don't do that. It's your family, you have to celebrate with them. Besides, I can't. I have plans with the two gremlins tonight."

Guzmán nodded, a look of disappointment washing over his face. "Oh, okay. See you in class."

"Guzmán–" Arlo called, but stopped when he entered a classroom. The girl sighed, closing her eyes as she threw her head back. "Nice job, Arlo."

She followed him into class to see Lu already all over him when he entered. The girl sighed before she made her way to her seat next to Ander who smiled at her.

"Hey, gorgeous." Christian beamed before kissing her cheek, catching Guzmán's attention from the front of the room and he tensed.

Arlo jumped slightly and slyly used the sleeve of her blazer to wipe her cheek. "Christian, hey." She smiled, but he was too busy smirking at Carla as she walked into the room and Arlo laughed. "Things are going well I take it."

Christian turned to Arlo and winked. "Really well. Like chemistry and biologically well."

Ander snorted in laughter while Arlo's eyes widened. Ander then inched forwards so he could see Christian. "That might have been a bit more than we needed to know."

"Wait," Arlo said as Carla sat next to Polo and kissed him. "You said things were going well, but she's still with Polo. How does that work?" It then dawned on her. "Oh."

Ander laughed again, squeezing the girl's shoulders. "Took you that long, huh?"

"Leave me alone." Arlo grumbled, swatting his hands off her.

Christian chuckled as his hand clamped down on her shoulder. "No need to be embarrassed. It's cute. A lot of guys like that."

"Do they?" The girl inquired, raising her eyebrows. "Duly noted."

"I have a friend I can set you up with if you want."

"I'm good for now, but if I ever change my mind, I'll give you call."

Ander moved closer to her. "Will you?"

Arlo snorted. "Of course not."

"Is that because you like someone else like a certain birthday boy for example?"

"Shhhhh." Arlo hissed. "And I told you, I don't know."

The lesson finished within the hour and as they made their way to their next class, Samuel caught up with Arlo. "Hey, Lo."

"Hi, Samu." Arlo smiled.

"I just wanted to see if you were okay about what happened yesterday." Samuel said.

Ander's ears perked up. "What? What happened yesterday?"

Guzmán also tried to listen in from behind them, but couldn't hear what was said next as Lu started to talk loudly in his ear.

Arlo sighed, a lump forming in her throat as she shook her head. "I got into an argument with my parents at La Cabaña. It's not anything new."

"Them being back is causing more problems than when they're gone, huh?" Ander said.

"You have no idea." Arlo chortled, trying to hold back how much the argument had affected her. She had done everything to help her family– help her siblings and no one seemed to acknowledge it.

Ander sighed. "I'm sorry. If you need anything..."

Arlo grinned. "I know." Smiling at her, Ander swung his arm around her and messed her hair up. "Hey! My hair took time this morning! Now I see why Diego hates when I do it to him."

          SITTING AT THE island in the kitchen, Arlo subconsciously started tapping her pen on the marble. She regretted how she left things with Guzmán that morning and hadn't had a chance to talk to him during the day and all she had done since she got home was stare at her phone.

"You know you could just pick up the phone and text whoever it is you're thinking about." Alma suggested as she walked into the kitchen. "Isn't that what you kids do nowadays. Your phones are always glued to your hands."

Arlo let out an exhale of amusement. "That's Izzy."

"What's going on?" Alma questioned, sitting next to her.

"It's Guzmán. It's his birthday today and he invited me to celebrate with him and I said no." Arlo sighed.

Alma nodded. "Why'd you say no?"

"I told him I had plans with Diego and Izzy tonight. Which is true."

"Lo, I love you. Your siblings adore you. They'll understand if you wanna reschedule. But if you are constantly putting your life on hold for them, you won't get to live. And it's not like they're alone. Your parents are still home."

Arlo scoffed. "Yeah, I know."

Alma placed a hand on the girl's cheek. "Go. Go hang out with your friends. And besides, it'll give you a chance to avoid your parents for the night."

The girl laughed, shaking her head. "You do know you're employed by them, right?"

"Yeah, but they're not the reason I stay."

Arlo smiled as she hugged the woman, closing her eyes. "I love you."

Alma kissed the girl's cheek, rubbing her back. "I love you too, kiddo."

          ARLO KNOCKED ON the door of Guzmán's room, only for him to open it a few seconds later. He looked down to see Arlo holding two boxes of pizza and he grinned widely.

"I'm sorry about earlier." She said. "It's your birthday, so I thought maybe you, me and Marina could watch some movies and stuff our faces with pizza like the old days. What do you say?"

Guzmán squinted his eyes at him before snatching the boxes out of her hand. "If only I get first pick."

"Of course, of course." Arlo said, raising her hands in surrender. Looking over her shoulder she grabbed her backpack. "Marina! Come on!"

Marina darted out of her room in her pjs with bags of sweets as she ran towards the upstairs sitting room, Arlo and Guzmán following shortly. The red head and situated herself on the floor, her back leaning against the couch while Arlo and Guzmán plopped down on the couch.

Guzmán opened the first pizza box and cheered seeing it was his favourite, meat lover's supreme as he picked a slice up and stuffed it in his mouth. He turned to Arlo. "Are you sleeping round?"

"Yep." Marina answered, her voice muffled by the sweets she had already started eating. "I've got the air mattress in my room already set up."

"Okay!" Guzmán exclaimed. "What movie?"

"It's your birthday. Your choice." Arlo pointed out as she bent down to grab one of Marina's sweets.

"Die Hard marathon?"

Arlo raised her arms. "Die Hard marathon!"

Marina cheered as she leaned towards the TV to find the DVDs. Placing the first one in, the red head then dimmed the lights and sat back down in her place, now pulling up a bag of popcorn in her lap.

"Thank you for the present by the way." Guzmán smiled as he looked at Arlo. "I feel like with the amount of film you got me, I can take hundreds of Polaroids."

"You are welcome." Arlo nodded. "If you couldn't already tell, we coordinated our presents." The girl said as she poked the top of Marina's head.

"I wonder where I'd be without you." Guzmán remarked sarcastically before he stood up.

"How'd you like the camera?" Arlo wondered.

"I love it! Let's take some photos now, but this time don't break it! Pause the movie."

"Excuse me! You're the one who pushed me and I stepped on the camera. It's technically your fault!" Arlo called out to him as he went back to his room to get the camera.

Arlo's phone then chimes and she looked down to see it was a message from her mother telling her to have fun tonight. She hadn't spoken to her parents since the other night, ignoring them all morning. She tried to drown out what her father had said to her by distracting herself all day, but it hadn't work. She wasn't even sure why such a nice text wanted to make her burst into tears right there and then.

"Lo, you okay?" Marina wondered.

"Yeah," Arlo forced a smile, locking her phone as she played with a strand of her hair. "Just my mom checking in."

Guzmán returned shortly holding the Polaroid, giving it to Marina. "Take a photo of us."

Guzmán then wrapped his arms around Arlo's neck and rested his chin on her shoulder as they smiled at Marina who pointed the camera at them. The flash went off and the photo came out, Marina hiding it from light before she held the camera up and crammed them all into a selfie. Guzmán then took a photo of the two girls, their arms around each other's shoulders.

Once the photos were ready, Guzmán picked them up and grinned widely at how they turned out. "These bring back memories. I'm gonna put them with the others."

"Others?" Arlo breathed out. "I thought you threw the others out."

Guzman's eyebrows pinched together. "How– how do you know that?"

The girl jabbed her thumb at Marina. "She told me."

"Oh, great. So much for the unspoken sibling confidentiality rule."

Arlo squinted her eyes at him before she darted off the couch and ran into his room. She glanced around to see not much had changed and that's when she noticed the Polaroid's on the night stand. She walked towards them and picked one up to see younger versions of her and Guzmán in the exact same pose they just did. She sat down on the bed and smiled before the boy joined her, holding the new Polaroid next to the old one to compare.

"You haven't changed a bit!" He exclaimed. "Except you no longer have braces. But the smile is still the same. You haven't aged. How is that possible?"

"It's what happens when you're Asian, short and have a baby face." She then pointed to his 12-year old face. "Oh, hey, you grew into your ears."

"Hey." The boy laughed, elbowing her lightly.

Arlo chortled as she continued to look down at the photos with a fond smile. She then looked up at the boy to see he was already looking at her. The breath in her throat hitched, realising how close their faces were.

"Are we watching Die Hard or not?" Marina's voice echoed from down the hall.

Arlo moved her head back. "Yeah. We're coming!" She put the photos on Guzmán's nightstand and jerked her head to the side as she looked at him. "Come on."

"Wait," Guzmán whispered, placing a hand on her's before she could stand up. "What– what happened yesterday? What was Samuel talking about?"

"I got into a very public argument with my parents at La Cabaña and Samuel was working so he witnessed the whole thing."

"Why didn't you tell me?" The boy asked.

Arlo shook her head. "Because it's not surprising. We were having a good time and it escalated."

"Arlo, what happened?"

"My dad said I was ungrateful and that I was a disappointment."

Guzmán's eyes widened. "What? That's not true!" He then looked at Arlo and his face softened. "Lo, you know that's not true, right?"

Arlo nodded, loose strands of her hair moving to cover her face. "Yeah, yeah, of course."

The boy smiled slightly. "You're lying."

"What? Of course I'm not."

"Yeah, you are." Guzmán insisted. "Ever since we were younger, I've always been able to tell when you're lying. You, uh, kind of have a tell."

Arlo raised her eyebrows challengingly. "A tell?" The boy nodded. "What is it then?"

"You don't like anyone looking you directly in the eye, or in the face in general, when you lie. So you–" Guzmán then reluctantly lifted his hands up to the strands of Arlo's hair on each side of her face. "–find a way to subtly move your hair in front of your face, which hides anyone's full view of you." He whispered, gently tucking her hair behind her ears.

Arlo gulped as she held his gaze, his hands still brushing against her ears. "How– how do you–"

Guzmán licked his lips. "Remember that time when we were 11 and you broke your mom's vase and blamed it on Izzy?" Arlo nodded. "I noticed it then and I just noticed a pattern every time you told a lie. It's how I knew you were lying to Ander about having lunch that day."

"And why you left me your's." Arlo breathed out with a small smile.

"Exactly."

"Hello?" Marina's voice called.

Arlo looked down at her lap and moved her head back. "We're coming." She stood up before Guzmán could ask her anymore questions, holding out her hand to him. He took it. "Come on, we have a movie to watch."

ARLO WOKE UP the next morning, her head resting on something sturdy, but at the same time, comfortable. She groggily opened her eyes to see whatever she was lying on was moving.

She tried moving only to realise something was laying on her, looking down an arm was wrapped her torso and she looked up to see she was laying on Guzmán's chest, his arms around her. His eyes opened slowly and he met Arlo's gaze. Both their eyes widened as they looked at each other before Arlo moved off him to the other side of the couch and he sat up abruptly, clearing his throat.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." Arlo blurted out. "I must have fallen asleep without realising."

"No, um, I'm sorry." Guzmán laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "I must have fallen asleep too."

A groan came from the floor and two looked at each other before peering down to see Marina sitting up, her curly, red hair a mess from falling asleep on the carpeted floor. She ran a hand over her hair and peeled one eye opened as she looked up at the two. "What happened? What time is it?"

The three all looked at each other and dived for their phones, glancing at the time. They were late for school.

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