the years just roll on by

9 yrs later

Mili





         “Where you going?” Looking back at a dressed up Lina with purse in hand, heels and all


“I got a date, I met this guy yesterday…” her face was flushed, she was fidgeting and Mili had never seen her like this, except for when she had had her first real date with Jose.


“You just came home” boredly mumbling and no longer really paying attention to Lina.


“Yeah well, unlike you Saturday’s for me means party”


“Shouldn’t mean party when you came to visit the family”


“You should be doing the same thing…”


“Not tonight, I’m just relaxing” actually she’d just broken up with her 3rd boyfriend of the month; she just could not stay in a committed relationship with that idiot on her mind.  She saw him like once a year, yet every year she waited for him to come home, he never came home without passing by their house. 


“Did you get dumped?”


“I don’t get dumped, don’t you have somewhere to go?” she heard heels clicking then Lina dropping a kiss on her forehead.


“Don’t wait up, tell mom and dad not to worry” with that she walked away, Mili stared at the door for a while, then the time, 11:48pm on a Saturday night and here she was just watching TV, yet she really wasn’t paying attention to it.  She went to her room and got her smoke, with a jacket, wore her black combat boots with her hat.  She smoke inside the house, her parents would be pissed, so here she was sitting on her front porch steps, taking a drag of her smoke.  She savored it then blew it out, she remembered her 21st birthday.  She’d spent it partying like crazy, but the whole time thinking and hoping he would show up, even though it wasn’t the weekend.  That night she had gotten home at around 3 in the morning, her parents had been irritated, but since it was her birthday they hadn’t said anything.  She had sat in the living room, crying her eyes out and angry at him when she heard banging on the door, ‘what idiot knocked on people’s door at 3 in the morning? Gon wake mom and dad up’ she thought wiping her face, angry for even crying, ‘he’s a dumbass, who gives a crap if he shows up or not’ she thought angrily flinging the door open.


It had been Jose, face flushed, looking tired and delectable, he’d grinned at her, gave her a carefully wrapped gift.


“You didn’t think I forgot about you did you?” he said touching her face, she knew her eyes were red, and couldn’t help feeling stupid.  She’d laughed, held his face and dropped a kiss on his lips.


“That mean I’m forgiven? You know you’re legal now?” he smiled crookedly at her, his dimples appearing, her heart had beat so fast she thought it would burst out.


“I was legal when I turned 18”


“I meant to drink genius, come on, let’s celebrate, I got us some champagne…only the best for my favorite girl, a party for two!” he’d hugged her, and though she was standing on the stairs of their porch, he was still taller that her, she loved how small she was in his arms…she’d snuggled closer and smiled.


It had been at least a year after that since she last saw him, he’d been mad that she was out partying again, yeah she tended to get wild at times, but only because there really wasn’t much else, life just seemed sort of pointless, she stared at her short black nails, took another drag.  Life made sense when Jose was around; everything became clearer when Jose was around.  She didn’t hear the footsteps, with her being lost in her thoughts; she didn’t see the feet until it was an inch away from her range of vision.  She frowned and looked up.


“Uh sorry, just thought that…um do you live in this house?” she knew that voice, raising her head from his feet to the long long legs and upward, her eyes collided with his.  “You know the Patel?  I don’t think they moved, are you a family member or something?” he frowned scratching his head, he had his hair pushed back with a headband, she wanted to laugh, he looked almost pretty.


“Yeah they still here”


“Oh…well I’m José, I’m their next door neigh…”


“You really don’t recognize me…?”








José





The voice had sounded familiar, but he couldn’t pinpoint it, her face was hidden by the hat she wore, but he knew she had a diamond stud in the bottom of her lip, just as he knew her nose was pierced.  Then she looked up and he saw those eyes.


“Mili?”


“Yeah” she laughed, dropping the cigarette then stepping on it, she jumped him right then and there, unable to hold his balance he fell right on his butt with her on top.  She grinned down at him.  “Missed me?” Last he saw her was close to a year now, yeah he’d missed her like crazy, for some reason every time he saw her his heart felt lighter, he felt happier, that was good though, right?


“How could I not, but you smell like ash, thought you stopping”


“I will” she said and stood up, “Come on” she held out her hand, he took the slender hand in his own big ones then followed her into the house.


“Where the parents at?”


“Sleeping…come on” she said making her way up the stairs, without asking, he followed her into her room.  Her room hadn’t changed much, she wasn’t like Lina who was more girly and liked girly stuff.  Mili was a tomboy, she didn’t always dress like one though, she just wore whatever suited her. He sat on the bed as she took her jacket off.


“Still act like you allergic to smoke?”


“You know I don’t like it when you smoke” she shot him a saucy glance, he just stared at her, she had gotten tall, not as tall as Lina, nor was she as pretty, but she could hold her own.  Lina was a beauty, but Mili, Mili was charisma, she was character all on her own, she attracted people to her like bees to honey. 


“You haven’t changed, still think you can give orders to people” she said as she sat on the bed next to him, “You just missed Lina” he was surprised but didn’t want to react in front of Mili whom he could see was staring at him from the corner of her eye.


“That’s great, how she doing?”


“Great, she had a hot date” he knew what she was doing, but he was over Lina, chances of him getting jealous were a 1000/0, and hadn’t he broken up with her?


“That’s what’s up, that’s what you should have been doing instead of taking a decade off your life”


“Nah, relationships don’t tend to work for me” she signed and laid down staring up at the ceiling with her feet dangling down, he followed suit.


“Why not?”


“Just…”


“Just what?”


“Just…how come you haven’t been coming here?”


“I don’t know Mili, there’s just so much shit going on with school, my fi…girlfriend” he looked away


“Oh…that’s enough to keep you away, you broke our promise”


“Mili come on, that was so long ago, I-I have things to do you know, and anyway, I came today didn’t I? So let’s forget about this…tell me why you not good with relationships” he said turning to her and brushing some hair out of her face.


“I cheat, a lot” she grinned sadly, “…I think I just broke up with what was like my 5th boyfriend of the month”


“5?th” he really didn’t know what to think, he wasn’t surprised though


“Maybe 4th, I dunno” she turned at looked at him, “So what about Sandra?”


“She good, said hi, and uh we actually live together now” Sandra was a good girl, they didn’t have a lot in common, neither did they like the same thing, but they had been together for 5 years now. She was the exact opposite of Mili, she was actually more like Lina.  Her and Lina would hit it right off the bat, both were girly, liked the same stuff, basically clothes, shoes, and such.


“Sounds great” she touched his cheek, he didn’t move from her, just wondered why it always came back to this, no matter how long, in the end, when they met it always ended up like this…did that bother him? A little, maybe a lot…he wasn’t sure of his feelings on this matter, neither was he of hers, usually when they met she had just broken up with someone.  He seemed to be the convenient guy who showed right on time to soothe her, they never had sex, he’d hold her all through the night, maybe she’d kiss him once in a while, but that was all…so it wasn’t cheating, right?


He turned his face to hers, she leaned in and kissed him, and as always he could not compare it to any other kiss…