I slipped back in my clothes and splashed cold water on my face, trying to calm my burning skin.

I don't know why I failed every time to stay away from him.

I left Florencio's room and entered the hallway. When he saw me, his hands were instantly under my shirt, playing with the buttons of my pants.

I slapped his hands away. "Don't touch me." He had his way with me and I let him. I needed him to know I could—would set up some boundaries. I could try at least.

He ran his tongue over his teeth and laughed. He released me and walked down the stairs. I followed him closely and when we got to the living room I saw a familiar face.

Sam.

He was dressed in a blue sweater and black jeans. He had a backpack on that seemed innocent enough but I knew he was anything but.

Sam ignored Florencio and came up to me. "Hi, Parker."

I fidgeted. "Hi, Sam."

"You know," he started off chuckling, "Florencio has told me a lot about you. Do you wanna know what?"

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Not really."

Florencio sighed and told Sam to meet him upstairs.

"Stay down here," Florencio told me.

I pouted. "Why?" For some odd reason I didn't want to be apart from him.

He snickered. "Because Sam doesn't know Spanish."

I rolled my eyes. "You think it's some secret language, but I can figure out what you're saying."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really? Give me a run down of the conversation I had. When you were talking to Max."

I recalled back to that moment and only remembered gibberish coming out of everyone's mouth.

"Teach me then," I offered.

He grinned. "You'll have to learn by yourself, honey. I'm not a teacher."

He started to walk away but I grabbed onto his arm.

"Just say something in Spanish."

He looked annoyed now. "You know, I hate when people say that."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because what the fuck am I supposed to say?"

I giggled. "I don't know. Just something"

"Cállate," he told me and went upstairs.

-

My boredom was running out of control.

I made a sandwich, looked through all the cabinets in the kitchen, organized the fridge, basically I was just cleaning Florencio's house. Realizing this, I stopped scrubbing the mirror in one of the hallways.

Stay down here, he told me.

I didn't want to though.

Cautiously, I made my way upstairs. They would be talking about things I didn't know about, I assumed. Things that didn't involve me. But they involved Florencio. He was such a...

I found the room they were in and pressed my ear to the door.

I heard some mumbling.

Then, "his names Tyler. Rudy knows him."

"That's what I thought."

More mumbling.

"Pay him off."

"I can't. You know what the money is for."

"You sold and transported all he gave you. Time for his part of the profit."

Someone laughed. I recognized it as Florencio. "I don't care about him. He can chase me all he wants."

"Yeah, but someone else is involved now." Who?

"Wait."

I heard some footsteps and I was too late to move away from the door.

Florencio caught my upper arm and dragged me back to him.

I tired to smile.

His jaw ticked.

"I just came to see if you guys were hungry," I lied.

"Bullshit," he called me out.

I tried to scramble my brain for another excuse. "I wanted to kiss you," I hushed so Sam wouldn't hear me.

The side of his mouth lifted up. "Doubt it." He let go of me and said to Sam, "this is over. Go."

Sam walked out of the room, his hands holding onto the straps of his backpack.

I followed Sam down the stairs and Florencio didn't follow me.

I walked him outside to his car and Sam didn't bother to acknowledge me until I asked him, "can you tell me something about Florencio?" I don't know why I asked him. Maybe because Florencio gave me so little.

Sam's face held a weird expression. "Go ask him," he said obviously.

"I-I can't," I stammered. "He doesn't tell me anything."

His features softened. "Fine. But don't tell him I told you this. Gets all fucking weird when people talk about him."

I nodded.

"Well, uh, he's really smart," he started, looking at anything but me. "And I don't mean just street smart, book smart too. Like, he's the kid you hated in high school because he did so good." Sam smiled, maybe from recalling memories. "He went and got a bachelors degree."

I was shocked. "Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, he had to stop after that because..." Suddenly his smile dropped. "That's it."

I frowned. "Tell me more."

He shook is head. "It's not my business to tell you about his family." He said the word family carefully.

"Okay," I huffed. "Fine no family. But tell me how long you guys have known each other."

"Freshman year. High school."

"What clubs was he in?"

"Chess and robotics."

I let out a small laugh. "Sports?"

"You know, tennis for a little bit but he couldn't hit the ball to save his life."

It was weird to imagine Florencio has a clumsy, smart, high school kid. He sounded normal all the way around. Now I just wondered how he got into doing this.

Suddenly a question came to mind. Not a very good question though.

"Has he had any girlfriends?" I asked, hoping the light breeze would help my burning face.

Sams head tilted to the side a little. He had a crooked smile on his lips. "Like three in high school, maybe two in college."

"Oh." Had he called them his girlfriend? What if they were in the exact same postilion as I and didn't know what they were to Florencio.

"How many boyfriends have you had, cutie?" Sam asked. He looked like he was laughing at me.

I wracked my brain for an answer. I was dating a boy in high school but then he broke up with me because I refused to kiss him.

"Like one," I admitted shyly.

Sam smiled grimly after I said that. "No offense, but what are you doing with Florencio?"

I was taken back. "Offense taken," I mumbled.

Sam laughed softly. "I'm sorry, but the guy is so...isolated. His feelings, his everything."

I nodded. "I noticed."

Sam frowned and got in his car. I stepped back as he started the engine.

He rolled down the window and his frown was gone. His smile was small. "You know, I think he'll open up to you. Just give him a minute. He's a little, well, messy."

-