I Don't Want to Lose You Page 6

  I don’t ever recall my neck being able to move my head that quickly as I turned to look at Theo. “Are you corrupting the minds of these young men? What have you been sitting here telling them?” I didn’t know what had happened.

  He had a serious look on his face. “Not at all. I was just telling them that after I graduate from UC Berkeley, we’ll be seeing about getting married.”

  “I thought that was going to be after you became a councilman.”

  “I changed my mind. I decided that I need you right by my side from the start.” He looked at the boys who were staring at us with what was either amazement or bewilderment in their eyes. “You boys better hope you can find a woman as good as this one to be by your side. You don’t want her behind you. She should be your equal and always by your side. Support her and she will support you.”

  The boys nodded as though they were really paying attention to heed his advice. I looked around for a minute at the ceiling and in the corners of the walls and, after not being able to find cameras to possibly prove my internal theory that I was either being pranked or on an updated version of the Twilight Zone, I conceded. Granted, his comment made me think that someone raised him right. The boys asked us both questions to find out more about us. Three of them admitted that they voted for me to be President of the National Honor Society.

  “Babe, I’m going to get some more cake. Would you like anything?” Theo asked.

  What was with this babe thing? I shook my head no while trying to grasp this new level of possessiveness that had taken over him and wondered how he came up with his pet name for me.

  During the program I noticed that he had moved his chair a little closer to mine. After we had applauded somebody winning something, I put my hands in my lap and felt an additional hand on my left knee. With where we were sitting no one could tell, especially with the length of the tablecloth. I turned and looked at him but he refused to look at me, as though he was enthralled with the current speaker. Once the speaker finished and everyone clapped, as the applause started to wane, I looked at him to see if he would have the nerve to put his hand on my knee again. I could see him take a hard swallow and that Adam’s apple bobble up and down. He put his hand back under the table until he found mine. He opened my hand enough to allow his long fingers to gently go between mine before resting our clasped hands on my thigh. He finally looked at me tenderly. I gave him a quick smile to assure him that I wasn’t going to bite his head off and we turned our attention back to the ceremony. We were done applauding for anyone else for the rest of it.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  It was near graduation and it was time to take our senior panoramic picture. With the number of graduates, I knew it was going to be chaotic. It was a gorgeous, sunny morning. Everyone came wearing green gowns with the exception of the valedictorian and salutatorian, who happened to be Guillermo, my freshman crush that suddenly had the confidence to talk to girls after being scared away by me. Sonya, Brenda and I decided we would like to try to stay together for the picture, but as we climbed each step of the bleachers we were starting to doubt the possibility. We hadn’t known each other well despite going to school together for the past six years, but we got to be really close as seniors and I wanted to be by their sides.

  Sonya and Brenda were ahead of me climbing up when Theo grabbed my arm and said, “Come stand by me.”

  I tried to call Sonya and Brenda but they couldn’t hear me above all the busy sounds of people talking, laughing and stomping on the bleachers.

  “Theo, I’m supposed to be with Sonya and Brenda in the picture,” I said nervously. I didn’t want them to think that I just ditched them.

  He took me to the spot he had saved. “Stay here and tell others these spots are taken. Ralph and I will get them, okay?”

  “How are you going to find them with all of these people?”

  “I found you, didn’t I? I’ll bring them to you. Don’t worry.” They walked away on what I thought would be mission impossible.

  I was flattered that he was concerned about who I wanted to take a picture with as well. As I waited for Theo and Ralph to come back, I couldn’t help but to think of how different it would have been if Nathaniel was there. As long as he had around him who he wanted to take a picture with, he wouldn’t have walked away to find the two people who were important to me. It would have been me surrounded by the football team and their girlfriends, none of which were my friends.

  Within five minutes, Theo, Ralph, Sonya and Brenda were standing next to me.

  “Girls, I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Don’t be,” said Sonya. “We’re still together for the picture.”

  Theo stood in the spot next to me. “Thank you for finding them,” I said appreciatively.

  He shrugged his shoulders. “Told you we would.”

  Ralph was to his left and I was on his right with Sonya and Brenda to my right. While it probably shouldn’t have been a surprise, he held my hand the whole time that we stood there taking pictures. The length of the sleeves on the gowns made it hard for anyone else to tell. I didn’t mind at all or care in the least that I was still on with Nathaniel.

  After we were done, everyone used the opportunity to take pictures with their friends. I only got to take a few with Brenda and Sonya since my presence was required by Theo to be in every picture that he was taking with his friends. Fortunately, I knew all of them and none of them were on my list so I didn’t have a problem with smiling in any of the pictures. In each one his arm was around me. When Puppy wanted to take a picture of just the two of us, Theo wasn’t having it. So I stood in the middle with my arms around their backs to keep the peace.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The school newspaper had been out for a couple of days and it listed the Senior Best and Worst winners that everyone voted on that were to be published in the school yearbook. Since I was in there for female class cheapskate, I thought it would be unfair of me to write the article and the comments. Next to my name it said, “Always sniffing out the deals in town.” I wasn’t mad because it was true. I gave the assignment to another senior who was familiar with most of the people on the list and didn’t find anything terribly offensive about the comments that he wrote. Not everyone shared that opinion.

  Theo was liked by almost everyone that I knew, except one. Rosalind. I think she couldn’t stand him because he hated her and had no problem letting his disdain be known. They were in Student Council together and it ticked him off even more that he had to see her face outside of shared classes.

  I had a long day and didn’t do so well on a test that I had called myself studying hard for. I tried to, but I had been having headaches from lack of sleep trying to prepare for finals. After school, I went to the school library to have a bit of peace and quiet until I was ready to walk home. I laid my head down for about thirty minutes and then got up to go. I could tell a Student Council meeting had just finished because I could see the members coming out of the classroom where they met. When Rosalind came out, she saw me and came over to me.

  “Why would you let something like that be said about me in the paper?” she asked.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I answered. I really didn’t. She won for the female teacher’s pet and the comment said, “Will do anything for another treat.”

  “You’re the editor. Didn’t you read it?” she asked a little louder which hurt my head more.

  “I read it and I was okay with it. Everyone who made the worst list had similar quips made at them. I was on there also but I’m not taking it seriously.”

  “Monica,” she started, “I know we’re not best friends but I thought you at least liked me enough to not have said something like that.”

  “I didn’t say it. I didn’t write the article.”

  “I don’t care. I demand an apology be written in the next paper or I’m going to the principal.”

  “Whatever you say. I really don’t care either.”

 
“Well, I’m serious and it had better get done.” She turned around to walk away and there was Theo.

  “Get out of here, dog,” he said to her as he did a shooing motion and walked over to me. She walked away. He put a concerned look on his face and asked, “Babe, you feel okay?”

  “I had a horrible day. I have a headache and need to sleep and she didn’t make it any better.”

  “What happened?” he asked with a touch of anger. I told him the conversation and, like a raging bull, he took off after her with nostrils flaring.

  Uh oh.

  He was moving too fast for me to reach him before he got to her. I was walking as fast as I could, which was about one mile per four hours, and I was saying “Theo, wait” over and over again but not loud enough for him to hear me obviously. Just the sound of my own voice was making my ears hurt. He stopped her from walking and I could tell he was going off and I didn’t have to hear to know that he wasn’t being nice in the slightest form. She tried to get defensive and pointed her finger at him. He shut that down real quick because her hand flew to her side after he said something. I saw him point at me and then at himself. I felt sorry for her. I could only imagine the arsenal of names he had saved up specifically for her and she was being barraged with all of them. I had heard him go off on her before when he was in a good mood so this was not going be pretty. Even from afar, I had never seen him get so mad like that before. As I got closer, I heard her call him a butt hole in Spanish and then walk away. He yelled back, “Tu madre,” Spanish for “Yo momma.”

  He turned to me and said, “No apology is necessary to that thing over there. Give me your backpack. I’ll walk you home.”

  “I can go by myself. I’ll be fine”

  He shook his head. “No, I’m heading that way anyway. I’m going to Octavio’s house and he’s just a couple of streets over from you.” He took my backpack. “I want to make sure you get home all right.”

  We walked slowly in silence until I asked, “What did you say to her?”

  “Don’t worry about it, babe. It was just some damage control. You don’t need to be involved in the nasty side of politics,” he answered.

  “That’s one of the reasons why I don’t like it.”

  When we got to the driveway of my house, he gave me my backpack and said, “Get some sleep.” He kissed my hand. “Sweet dreams.” He smiled and kept walking.

  The next day while I was walking from one class to another, Rosalind came up to me and said, “I’m not allowed to speak to you anymore according to Teodoro.”

  “What?”

  “If I had known you were going to stick him on me, I wouldn’t have said anything at all,” she answered.

  “I didn’t stick him on you. I just told him what you said and he took off.”

  “Well, he said that if I want to enjoy the rest of this school year that I had better not say more than ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ to you with a smile on my face and anything else I need to say should go through him.”

  “Say what?” I was truly puzzled by this threat he had made to her. It didn’t sound like him although it looked like he was saying something close to that when he was giving her a piece of his mind.

  “Are you two together?” she asked.

  “Nope,” I responded, somewhat disappointed that we weren’t with the way he had stuck up for me.

  “You could have fooled me.” She gave me a fake smile and said bye before walking away.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  It was Grad Night at Disneyland. Nathaniel wasn’t interested in coming with me. Unlike with other things, I wasn’t going to let his disinterest in going or having collegiate things to do get in the way of my going. My girls and I were determined to make it an unforgettable night. We looked good, all dressed up. I was wearing a black pantsuit.

  Everybody gathered at the school parking lot all dressed up and we got on the same bus to make sure that we stayed together. Excitement was in the air. Despite the fact that I had been to Disneyland more times than my two hands could count, this was different. This was to celebrate all that we did to get to this point with only one step left-graduation. Then there would be freedom from this guarded prison of a high school and a future of whatever we made it out to be.

  The three of us took pictures as soon as we got in and started trying to figure out what side of the park we were going to head to first. We decided that we would start with the Matahorn. As we were in line, Theo and his buddies were walking by.

  “Hey you guys,” Brenda called out. They all stopped and came over to us.

  “We just got off of this ride. It’s a long line but it goes pretty fast,” Ralph said.

  “We’re headed over to Thunder Mountain now,” Puppy said.

  Theo walked over to me. “You look nice.”

  “Thanks. You look dapper yourself.” He did even in a dress shirt and tie and dress pants.

  He looked around. “Where’s Nathaniel?”

  “He didn’t come so I don’t know where he is.”

  Ralph tapped Theo on the shoulder. “Dude, let’s go.”

  “You guys can go,” he told them. “I’m going to get on this ride with them and we’ll catch up to you later.”

  “Are you sure? Didn’t you just get off?” I asked.

  “I’m positive,” he said to me. “We’ll see you,” he said to his group. He made his way over the rope to stand by me. And by me is where he stood for the rest of the night.

  I had to admit it was nice being with him on that ride. Sonya and Brenda sat in the front and he and I sat in the back with me in between his legs. He wrapped his arms around my waist and put his head on my shoulder while I hung on for dear life to the handlebars on the side. When the ride was over, he stepped out before me and gave me his hand to help me exit.

  When we met up with the group he was with originally and it was time to decide who was going to pair off to sit in each row for the next ride, he made it clear that I was sitting with him on every ride. Sonya and Brenda looked at me wondering when I suddenly became his. I didn’t mind. Like a little kid waiting to be picked to be on someone’s team to play on, it was nice to be picked first. He made each ride more fun than I had ever remembered them being all of the other times I had been there. I didn’t even mind that he aided in getting us banned from It’s a Small World for the rest of the night. His shenanigans had me in constant laughter.

  With every ride that we got on, he made sure that I was the first one to get on, even when it was just the two of us. And when the rides were over, he would get out first and take my hand to help me out. That stuck with me because I remembered going to Six Flags with some friends and Nathaniel over winter break. For the few times that we sat together on a ride, I didn’t receive any assistance with getting on and off of it. I was on my own.

  It wasn’t until we went into Minnie Mouse’s house that the possessive level jumped from a four to a nine. As we were walking through Minnie’s house, I took a picture of him sitting on her sofa, another one with him and my girls and then we came to her bedroom. Theo got on Minnie’s bed and laid down.

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to actually use her bed as a bed,” Brenda stated.

  “It’s comfy,” he said as he pulled me over to the hard, fake bed. “Sit down.” I sat. “It’s comfy, huh?”

  “I guess if you like sleeping on a rock,” I said. I went to get up and he pulled me again but this time to lay down next to him. “I don’t want to be in a bed that a mouse sleeps in.”

  “You know she doesn’t really sleep in it. We can put it to good use,” he said as he winked.

  What? I looked at his face and could see that he was serious.

  “Theo, you have lost your mind? I’m getting up,” I said. I freed myself from him and got up.

  He sat there pouting over my objection and rejection but he eventually made his way up off of Minnie’s bed and followed me out of her house.

  Sonya whispered in my ear, “What is wrong with him t
onight? I’ve never seen him act like this.”

  I whispered back, “I don’t know.” I kind of thought I did know, though. The time that we had to spend together was coming to a close and if he was going to do something, he had better get it done.

  The only times that I was able to be apart from him was when we had restroom breaks. When we would walk through large crowds, if I was behind him, he would grab my hand and hold it so that I could keep up. He kept saying, “Don’t walk behind me. Walk next to me.”

  By the time the night was near over, we got on our last ride, Space Mountain. We were so exhausted but nothing I said to get us out of line before we got on the ride worked. Everyone wanted to get on this last ride. Theo spent the whole time in line with his head on my shoulder enjoying a facial hair massage. Normally that ride would provoke fear from me because of a bad memory I had as a little girl of almost falling off. This time, however, I couldn’t even muster up the energy to scream. We just went along with the motions of the ride, barely holding on to the handlebars because that required too much effort.

  When it was time to leave Disneyland, Theo hugged me good night, or morning since it was five in the morning. I got on my bus and went to sleep. When I woke up at the school, I officially stamped that night as the best night ever since I had never had so much fun, all thanks to Theo.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Graduation day. My mother was ecstatic as it meant one down and one to go. I had mixed feelings about it. There was sadness in knowing that this would probably be the last time that I ever saw or spoke to the majority of people that I knew. There was one single road that we all took together and this event marked the fork and different paths to take which would continue to have more forks and paths leading us further and further apart. When I would speak like that to my fellow seniors they would say, “We’ll see each other at the reunion.”