Wait for It

by Mariana Zapata

“I know about Mr. Dallas already,” he announced. I sat up and set an elbow under me, watching his puffy, red face as he stared up at the ceiling. “What do you know?” “He loves you. You love him,” he muttered with an eye roll, glancing down at me briefly before focusing up again. “You know, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Aunt Di with a baby carriage.” Uhh, where the hell had that come from? “How… did you know?” “I have eyes?” This fucking smart-ass. “And he told me.” “What did he tell you?” He glanced at me from his spot still lying flat on the mattress. “Remember when Jonathan’s mom yelled at you during the tournament and you cried?” How could I forget? “He told me.” What the hell? “What did he say?” Josh rolled his eyes, sliding his elbows underneath his shoulders to sit up, bored with this conversation. “I don’t know. He said he liked you—yuck.” I blinked at him. “One day during practice when we saw that dad talking to you, I told him I didn’t like you talking to him, and he said he didn’t either. So I asked him what we should do, and he said nothing because you were never gonna do anything with him and that one day soon, between me and him, none of those jackasses—he said it, not me, don’t get mad—would never bother you again.” Was my heart about to burst or was I imagining it? “And what did you tell him?” “I told him okay as long as he didn’t make me go live with Grandma and Grandpa—” “I would never make you go live somewhere else!” “That’s what he s...