Happy That It's Not True Read Online Free PDF Page A

still loved Octavio—how her pain now was greater without him.  It was a heartbreaking yet joyous discovery, but at least now she knew.   She could almost picture Tavi’s fragile countenance, clawing at her heart.  Inside her, eternal frustration and sympathy, feelings that had never left her.  Why hadn’t she stayed with him?  If only she had known that the end of a relationship would never have cured her of caring more for him than anything in the world.  She missed him, the greatest friend and lover she had ever known.  The past and who they once were, far away at the other end of the universe.  An incomprehensible glimpse into the truth of their love opened up before her.  She felt like a child without a shred of wisdom or knowledge, not knowing what to think or feel.  But in an odd fashion, she was grateful for this revelation. 
                  Life is often transformed by the subtle and imperceptible, the delicate surprises that happen so gently that one is almost unable to notice them, like a gradual and disarming trail that guides us to some sense of purpose.  It is only when we lower our defenses that truth is comfortable enough to sneak up behind us with an embrace—truth that we will never fully understand, truth that exists unnoticed and independent of our approval.  Yet there are some things that are as plain as the sunlight that find their way deep into our cavernous lives.  For Adriana it was her love for Tavi that was both plain and surprising.
                  For Cara and Alex, it was still a time of subterranean activity, the means by which lives become cavernous.  There is much that forms a young heart; every day is a new birth, filled with opportunities for life and the injuries that raise unwanted defenses.
    ...
    After school, Eduardo—a young man with bad acne, marred by his pathological contempt for anyone who didn’t speak Spanish—grabbed Alex’s iPod Touch and ran through the neighborhood, avoiding dogs and cursing neighbors.  Alex did his best to keep up with him, determined that no matter what, he would fight to the death.  Eduardo, after an eternity of being tracked, his hands sore from jumping fences and his lung capacity diminishing, stopped and hunched over, gasping, the device held against his sweaty thigh.  Alex, also out of breath, caught up and slowly approached him.
                  “Give it back,” Alex said.
                  “You’re such a coconut.  I can’t believe you listen to indie music.  What’s wrong with you?  You don’t act like a Latino.  You don’t talk like a Latino.  You don’t have a Latino attitude.  You’re not Latino!  You disgust me!”
                  “Give it back.”
                  “Careful, don’t get too close or I’ll sack tap you.”
                  “That’s not even funny.  A guy on the news had to have a testicle removed because of that.”
                  “All right, truce then.”
                  “Give it back.”
                  “Make me.”
                  “I thought you said truce?”
                  “Yeah, I’m not going to sack tap you.”
                  “Pizza face!”
                  Alex was standing too close and Eduardo slapped him.  “Fat ass!”
    In the moment it took for Eduardo to recover from his laughter, Alex grabbed his iPod Touch and ran, Eduardo chasing him.  Alex ran in the direction of his home, grunting and groaning, hoping that Eduardo would tire.  Eventually, he did, but Alex kept running—hoping that he would disappear into the horizon, that his street and apartment number would remain a secret.
                  Alex, sweaty and wheezing entered the apartment to another profound disappointment, his stepfather. 
                  “What’s wrong with