The Gilded

“Did you hear?” Kaycee takes a seat across from me, his hair is let down today, and dark brown hair is put to his shoulders with a few braids tied with yarn and beads in it. “There are new people in town.” He’s setting down his backpack on the table, opening it up, and pulling out his lunch.

“Seriously?” Rip asks from beside me, he’s halfway done with his school burger, and a beanie covers his black hair today. “This town ain’t big enough for more people,” He grumbles before he takes another bite of his burger.

“How’d you find out?” Kaycee looks at me with a crooked grin, his teeth are perfectly straight, if this were before winter break then I would have been looking at his braces.

“I saw ’em,” He’s putting white rice and meat on lettuce, wrapping it up like a spring roll before he takes a bite, chewing. “They bought the place next to Rip’s, I saw them moving in when I was driving by.”

“Any hotties?” Rip’s question comes out as mimicry of his sister, who is seated beside him, but she’s too immersed in her conversation with Kaycee’s own sister.

“They’ve got a daughter,” This peaks our interest, and all three of us huddle a bit closer together, “Looks about our age,” He grins. “That fucktard Lee was driving too fast so I couldn’t see her too well but I’m sure she’s our age. I saw her getting out of the driver’s side of a car, it was a black impala.”

“Driver side?” Rip is frowning, “Dude what if she’s older?” He mumbles out. “I’m not into old ladies—“

“Not like any girl, older or younger, likes dirty dogs like you, Rip,” Candice calls out, from beside him, Fallen laughs at that, and the two others of our small group have finally joined in.

“Hey, Candice?” Rip smiles at his sister. “Go choke on a dick.” She’s giving him the finger, with a grin on her face. Rip and Candice Owens were both adopted by Derek and Joseph Owens, two of my father’s friends since childhood, my father says he prays for both of them to live more soundly than those two. But from the looks of it, they’ll both be as foul-mouthed and wild as Derek and Joseph.

“You two are annoying,” Fallen bites down on a carrot, the small bag that came with our lunch is freshly open and she chews on her piece of carrot before she looks at Kaycee. “You talkin’ about the new people by Candy’s place?”

“Yea, even told them how Lee was being an absolute dickhead!” They both laugh. Right at the same time and at the same pitch, when we were kids it was freaky whenever they synced up without meaning too, now? It’s completely normal.

Kaycee and Fallen are twins, born to Finn and Avery River, both of them have recently returned from a trip to the reservation their father was raised in. Fallen says that’s where our pack really belongs, in the reservation running through mountains and thick trees and wild buffalo. Kaycee says our place is here, that if we were meant to be born in that oasis we would have been.

“You talking shit?” Lee seats beside me, and we’re bumping fists, he’s got fresh cuts over his knuckles and dried blood.

“You good, Lee?” I look up into dark brown eyes before long black hair framed his face, now. Now it’s all been buzzed off, sharp cheekbones are exposed and so is his jawline, I’ve heard a few girls whispering about how he looks better without his hair.

He looks down at his hand, “Yea,” He says. “Just had to kick Carpenter’s ass.” I nod in response, he looks away and to his cousin, “If you don’t like my driving then let’s go in your car next time,” There’s silence. “Oh wait,” He grins. “I forgot you don’t have one.”

“Hey man,” He raises his hands. “All I’m saying is you could be a little more conscious of our lives,” This is normal, our group of six is complete, sitting in the same space we’ve occupied since we first entered high school, everything is right—

“Darlington!” I feel my shoulders tense, looking up I’m met with girls flocking to our table. “We’re having a get-together, you should come,” Bailey’s eyes look over the others at the table, “All of you should come! It’s tomorrow afternoon, bring your swimsuits.” She smiles and sets down a paper for me before she waves goodbye.

“As popular as ever, Darlington,” Lee says and I sigh.

“It’s gotten worse now that you’ve cut your hair.” Lee laughs at my words.“Seriously man, if you looked more approachable they wouldn’t bug me about inviting you,” I look at the others. “All of you, to these freaking parties.”

“You know they like you the most,” Rip finishes his food and then he claps his hands together, “Let our aunties and uncles know that we’re hanging out at my place after school, I’ll tell our dads to order up, they’ll be down to check out the neighbors with us.”

Lee snorts loudly. “All of our parents are going to want to check it out, it’ll be a full-blown event.”

“I’ll let my mom and dad know,” I’m pulling out my phone and there’s a round of me toos.

The grass beneath me isn’t right. It isn’t as green, nor is it as soft. It makes my skin feel as if it is being bitten by hundreds of ants. It’s nothing like the grass I would lay on outside the apartments we used to live in, the itchiness of the grass makes me forget every other touch.

The only good thing about this grass is that it hasn’t been cut, it’s pretty tall, tall enough that it feels like a small barrier from the world around me. I open my eyes, staring up at the gloomy sky. It was bright and blue when I first came out here.

The sound of a car approaching has me growing tense. I suck in a deep breath, shutting my eyes, forcing my body to not tremble. I force it to become steel as I grit my teeth and keep my eyes closed, this way he won’t bug me, he won’t call out to me.

It doesn’t pull into our concrete driveway. This car is pulling into the house on the right of mine, the one that is enormous and has a driveway with some loose gravel. I feel myself relax, immediately when I realize it. The sound of car doors opening sounds, “Didn’t we have the reckless driving talk?” A voice spits out.

“You guys are fine,” The voice drawls out. “Last I checked the five of you haven’t—“

“Hey!” It’s a girl’s voice that calls out. “Are you my new neighbor?” I am silent for a moment, debating. I open my eyes, pushing myself up, my hair falls over my shoulders and my hands grip my calves as I turn to face the neighbors.

A pretty girl is grinning at me, her hair is cut short, stopping right beneath her chin and it’s a bright blonde. Blue eyes are sparkling and full of life, I should’ve ignored them. “Sure.” That’s all I offer, my eyes slide behind her, and there are five others with her. One other girl with brown hair and brown sugar skin, her dark eyes watching me.

I look away from her dark eyes, and back to the blue ones, “I’m Candice,” She says with a smile. “Everyone calls me Candy.” Of course, they do. “What’s your name?”

I remain quiet for a second, clearing my throat. “Inocente,” I say my name slowly, enunciating the Spanish name so they won’t butcher it.

“How old are you?” The sound of another car has me rising to my feet, I look past them, down that end of the road but I see no cars. Looking back I see a car, a white one, I take in a deep breath and exhale loudly before I turn back to her.

“Sixteen,” I lick my lips. “Almost seventeen.” I shove my hands into the pockets of my cargo pants, some of the ends of my hair go with my hands tugging at my scalp but I ignore the slight pain. It’s gotten really long. “You?” I ask before I can stop myself.

“Seventeen.” She smiles. “You want to come over and—“

“Inocente!” Catalina’s voice calls from inside the house, I feel my shoulders stiffen. “Is Mateo back?” I turn away from them, looking towards the place that is supposed to be my new home, my eyes find Catalina looking out from the kitchen window. She’s got a good view of the front of the house.

I shake my head in response and she walks away, my eyes find the girl again. “I’m supposed to help with the groceries when—“ The sound of the front door opening has me pressing my lips together tightly.

“Estas bien?” I pull my hands out of my pockets, turning to Catalina and signing to her, I’m okay. She nods, a quick nod, but despite my telling her I’m fine she walks this way, pulling down her shirt as if it’ll change the fact that she’s almost 9 months pregnant.

I remain quiet, she’s here before I know it, besides me in the tall grass. “Hello.” She says it a bit loudly, I look away from her, letting her talk on her own. “I’m Catalina,” I hear the hesitance in her voice. “You guys must be the neighbors, this is Inocente she—“

I put a hand on her shoulder, she looks at me and I glare softly, signing as I speak. “I can make my own friends, Catalina.”

“I thought we talked about that.”

I remain quiet.

Catalina sighs.

“We agreed you would start calling me mom, again.“

I feel my heart race, anger spikes inside of me, hot seething anger that’s quickly replaced with terror as the sound of Mateo's black impala is pulling into the driveway. “Then can I go over to their house,” I sign a bit slower than I speak. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to sign, and it’s been a long time since I’ve been with Catalina.

She crosses her arms, raising a brow, “Mom.” She smiles now, before she signs for me, the correct way.

“Mami.” She says gently as she signs, and I feel my heart melt, she pinches my cheek gently before she nods and looks over at the neighbors. “Please be kind, to Inocente,” Catalina speaks with ease, as if she weren’t deaf, as if she could hear all her life and not just for twenty-four short years.

She looks at me once more, gentle eyes, before she is looking away from me and I realize she is motioning to Mateo. I look away now, the sound of him walking through grass and approaching makes me put my hands back into my pockets, I’m curling my fingers into fists.

“Looks like you’ve made some friends, Inocente.” My name sounds like sin coming from his lips, his hand rests on my right shoulder and I force myself not to flinch, force myself to look past this girl. I want to see the open skies and the field but my eyes are met with whiskey-colored ones. His eyes hold me in, they pull me from Mateo’s sickening presence, and the world seems to end completely as our eyes meet.

The loud sound of a crack seems to turn the rest of the world black. My chest feels as if it is swelling up, and heat begins to rise from the souls of my feet all throughout my body before it begins to settle right at the center of my being.

My heart is racing—no—it is pounding in my body. It is begging to be let out, begging to be put into the very chest of the one with the whiskey-colored eyes. His eyes are demanding. They are reaching out and stealing my very essence, they tell me I am willing to die for—

“—Daughter,” That word punches me. It makes the world come back, whiskey eyes no longer tell me lies. “These two are my only family.” I want to vomit all over here, to scream that he is nothing to me. “Seems like they beat me at saying hello..”

“Nice to meet you!” My voice finds the one that just talked, he looks the oldest of the entire group. “I’m Lee, these are my cousins,” He points to the boy with beads in his hair. “Kayce,” Then he points to the girl with sugar-brown skin. “Fallen.” And then he points to Candy. “Candice.” His finger goes to the boy who looks just like her, only boyish, “and Rip.”

He finally rests a hand on the shoulder of the only other boy who is as tall as him, black hair is messily pushed back, the top of it is long and the sides are buzzed. It reminds me of one of my old friends. I look into whiskey eyes.“This is Darlington.” Darlington. Whatever else his cousin says is muffled to my ears. I stare into whiskey eyes, my soul seems to have shifted, and a hard-hitting crush has been brewed by that single moment those eyes saved me.

Darlington. Darling, Darlington.

“Darlington.” Mom suddenly says, and I turn to look at her but she’s looking at Mateo. Why him? “Did I read that right?” She says as she signs and he nods.

I look away, disgusted by the sight of them. “We were just asking Catalina if your daughter could come over, we were planning on getting takeout.” Candice is the one who talks now. “Fallen and I were excited to find out there’s a new girl in town, the female population is seriously outnumbered here.”

She smiles and I almost want to smile back, but Mateo’s voice pulls me in. “Did you take all your things out of boxes already?” He asks and whatever want to smile vanishes, I feel my hope of a slight bit of freedom vanish in an instant.

My silence is his confirmation. “She can go over another day,” Is what he says. “Inocente has a lot of responsibilities now since she’s going to be a big sister.” I grit my teeth together, forcing the anger I feel down my throat and not allowing myself to grow wild. I can’t, not in front of others. “It was nice to meet all of you.”

I hear him walking away, but not Catalina, her hand takes mine and she speaks softly. “Inocente starts school on Monday,” I feel like a child again, like a little girl as she holds my hand, it makes this startling fear arise. “Be nice to her for me.”