A wasteland of strangers Read Online Free PDF Page A

Anthony and Mateo were staring at him, too, and it was plain they didn't like what they saw. As if he was there to give them a hassle or something, when all he wanted was to buy some gas. He wasn't paying any attention to any of us as he unhooked the hose and stuck the nozzle into the tank.
    Anthony said, "Man, will you look at him."
    "Ugly fucker," Mateo said. "Wonder if he's tough as he looks."
    "Why don't you go find out, man?"
    "Yeah."
    "So why don't you?"
    "Shit, man, I can't just go pop the dude, can I?"
    "Think you could take him?"
    "If I had to. Yeah, sure, I'm big enough. Look at that face, man. Makes you want to bust it up some more, don't it?"
    "Yeah."
    "Face like that. .. man, you just want to smash it. You know what I'm saying?"
    "Like that Cisneros dude down in Southport."
    "Yeah, like him. Ugly puto like that . . . what's he doing around here?"
    "Go ask him, man."
    "Freak him. I don't care what he's doing here, man."
    I quit listening to them. Stupid talk. I don't know what's the matter with guys sometimes. Wanting to beat up somebody just because of the way they look. A person can't help it if they're ugly or deformed or something, can they? And don't they have the right not to be hassled, same as everybody else?
    Anthony isn't always such a macho jerk. Only when he's with his buddies, and worst of all when he's with Mateo. His brother's three years older and a total asshole. Always strutting around and starting trouble. Once, when a bunch of us were partying at Nucooee Point, he put his hand up my skirt and tried to tear my panties off—he was drunk on Green Death, that ale from up in Washington, and he's even more of a pig when he's ripped—and I practically had to scream rape before he let me alone. I told Anthony about it and he just laughed. As far as he's concerned, Mateo never does anything wrong. Mateo could blow up the courthouse and Anthony would probably think it was a cool thing to do.
    So the huge guy finished pumping his gas and came over to pay Mateo for it. Mateo gave his badass sneer and said something I didn't hear and Anthony laughed. The huge guy looked at them, one and then the other, not saying a word. Anthony stopped laughing and Mateo stopped sneering, just like that. So then the huge guy reached out and tucked a ten-dollar bill into Mateo's shirt pocket, hard and with a sneer of his own, and Mateo didn't move or say a word. Not then and not until the Porsche's engine roared and its tires laid rubber as it went zooming out of the station.
    Then Macho Man gave the finger, jabbing it into the air half a dozen times, and yelled, "iCarajo! Vete al carajo! Tu madre!" at the top of his voice.
    "You should've popped him, man," Anthony said.
    "Yeah. Next time I see him I'll break his ugly fuckin' head with a fuckin' tire iron."
    I said, "Only if you sneak up behind him in a dark alley."
    He raked me with his eyes. "What'd you say?"
    "He didn't do anything to you."
    "Came in here with a chip on. Tough guy."
    "No, he didn't."
    Anthony said, "You saw the way the dude looked at us. Mean, man, like he wanted to break our heads."
    "Why don't you grow up, Anthony."
    "What?"
    "You heard me."
    "Say that again, Trish, I'll bust your lip."
    "Now who's being mean?"
    "I'm telling you, man. Go bitch on me and I'll pop you."
    "I'm pregnant! I'm gonna have your kid!
    I felt like screaming the words at him. But I didn't, because then maybe he really would smack me. He'd never laid a hand on me before, but there's always a first time. His eyes were hot and squinty, his face all scrunched up like a little boy getting ready to throw a tantrum. I've always thought Anthony's the handsomest hunk in Pomo and that I was, like, beyond lucky when he first asked me out; I practically wet my pants the first time he kissed me. But he didn't look handsome now. He looked mean, like he'd accused the Porsche guy of being. And a lot uglier, somehow.
    Funny, but all of a sudden I wasn't so sure I wanted him to marry me. I