person and you both get brain damage. You can’t even do little shit like say the other guy is a liar and a freaking loser who can’t even afford his own lawn mower. You have to say everything from your point of view, like instead of saying, “You’re a selfish dickhead for borrowing my shit and bringing it back broken,” you have to say, “I feel like you don’t value my friendship or respect my property.”
I totally forgot all about that argument crap until Lupe got so mad she almost broke up with me. It’s not like we never had a fight before, but usually we just have those little kinds that you can get over pretty fast if you go out and eat some good green chile enchiladas in a dark place that has a little candle on the table so you look real handsome, or if you rent a movie and sit on opposite ends of the couch with the soles of your bare feet touching each other for the whole thingeven if you feel like grabbing each other’s
nalgas
halfway through.
But this time nothing worked even though the whole thing seemed pretty lame to me. Lupe got so mad just because me and her have a whole different idea about time. We got different kinds of clocks ticking in our heads. Like she thinks
a little while
means two minutes or even two seconds, and I think
a little while
depends on what I’m doing right now. Like if I’m changing the oil in Papi’s truck, a little while is probably thirty minutes. If I’m taking a shower, it could be anywhere from two minutes to twenty minutes, depending on certain things.
Anyway, Lupe called me last Wednesday night and asked me did I want to walk down to Caliche’s and get a frozen custard with her because she needed some chocolate custard with chocolate sauce and chocolate chips or she would lose her mind because of some hormone imbalance that I didn’t want to hear the details about, so I told her to hold on and I would be over her house in a little while. I hurried up and finished my chores but I had a lot of extra work on account of I sneaked out the night before to help Henry Dominguez steal his little brother’s bicycle back from the creep who stole it and Papi caught me coming back in at 3 a.m. He didn’t hit me or yell at me, but he didn’t argue good, neither. He just shook his head and went back in him and Mami’s room and shut the door real quiet. In the morning, Mami looked at me real sad and told me all the extra chores Papi put on my list.
By the time I got done with everything, it was about two hours until I got over to Lupe’s and by the time we got to Caliche’s, they just turned over the CLOSED sign. Lupe stood there staring at the door, looking so sad that I thought maybe the owner lady who was standing inside would feel sorry for her and open up for five more minutes, but she didn’t. For a couple seconds Lupe looked like she was going to cry. Then she looked like she just stepped on a goat head in her bare feet. Then she looked at me real hard and closed her eyes and sat down on this little cement bench and hugged herself with both arms and just stared at her knees. When I sat down and put my arm around her, she just about knocked me off the bench and said, “Leave me alone,” and she meant it.
I didn’t try to put my arm around her again, but I sat back down and said, “I’m real sorry, Lupe, but I had a good reason for being late.”
“You always have a reason,” Lupe hollered. “You’re always late and you always have a reason. But you’re the only one who thinks they’re good reasons. I think they suck!”
I whispered that maybe she shouldn’t holler so loud, but she hollered even louder, “What’s the matter? Don’t you want anybody to know that you’re too dumb to tell time? And you don’t even care enough about me to look at your watch?”
I was thinking to holler back that why would I look at my watch if I was too dumb to tell time, and just because she had cramps didn’t mean she had to act like a you-know-what, and if she
I totally forgot all about that argument crap until Lupe got so mad she almost broke up with me. It’s not like we never had a fight before, but usually we just have those little kinds that you can get over pretty fast if you go out and eat some good green chile enchiladas in a dark place that has a little candle on the table so you look real handsome, or if you rent a movie and sit on opposite ends of the couch with the soles of your bare feet touching each other for the whole thingeven if you feel like grabbing each other’s
nalgas
halfway through.
But this time nothing worked even though the whole thing seemed pretty lame to me. Lupe got so mad just because me and her have a whole different idea about time. We got different kinds of clocks ticking in our heads. Like she thinks
a little while
means two minutes or even two seconds, and I think
a little while
depends on what I’m doing right now. Like if I’m changing the oil in Papi’s truck, a little while is probably thirty minutes. If I’m taking a shower, it could be anywhere from two minutes to twenty minutes, depending on certain things.
Anyway, Lupe called me last Wednesday night and asked me did I want to walk down to Caliche’s and get a frozen custard with her because she needed some chocolate custard with chocolate sauce and chocolate chips or she would lose her mind because of some hormone imbalance that I didn’t want to hear the details about, so I told her to hold on and I would be over her house in a little while. I hurried up and finished my chores but I had a lot of extra work on account of I sneaked out the night before to help Henry Dominguez steal his little brother’s bicycle back from the creep who stole it and Papi caught me coming back in at 3 a.m. He didn’t hit me or yell at me, but he didn’t argue good, neither. He just shook his head and went back in him and Mami’s room and shut the door real quiet. In the morning, Mami looked at me real sad and told me all the extra chores Papi put on my list.
By the time I got done with everything, it was about two hours until I got over to Lupe’s and by the time we got to Caliche’s, they just turned over the CLOSED sign. Lupe stood there staring at the door, looking so sad that I thought maybe the owner lady who was standing inside would feel sorry for her and open up for five more minutes, but she didn’t. For a couple seconds Lupe looked like she was going to cry. Then she looked like she just stepped on a goat head in her bare feet. Then she looked at me real hard and closed her eyes and sat down on this little cement bench and hugged herself with both arms and just stared at her knees. When I sat down and put my arm around her, she just about knocked me off the bench and said, “Leave me alone,” and she meant it.
I didn’t try to put my arm around her again, but I sat back down and said, “I’m real sorry, Lupe, but I had a good reason for being late.”
“You always have a reason,” Lupe hollered. “You’re always late and you always have a reason. But you’re the only one who thinks they’re good reasons. I think they suck!”
I whispered that maybe she shouldn’t holler so loud, but she hollered even louder, “What’s the matter? Don’t you want anybody to know that you’re too dumb to tell time? And you don’t even care enough about me to look at your watch?”
I was thinking to holler back that why would I look at my watch if I was too dumb to tell time, and just because she had cramps didn’t mean she had to act like a you-know-what, and if she
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