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fingers didn’t turn into Diego’s the moment I let my guard down.
    A loud knock collapsed my daydream. My hands instantly curled around the bottom of the plastic chair, heart pounding out a responsive rhythm…like I knew it was for me before the door even opened.
    Mr. Ricks greeted a plump woman in a tired-looking gray suit and a cop, and the three of them spoke quickly in hushed voices.
    “Alejandro Alvarez?”
    My mouth went dry. A fucking cop needed to see me? Could someone have ratted me out for the occasional drug deal? Jesus…I was so small time I hardly deserved an arrest on school grounds, right?
    “Alejandro?”
    Stomach sinking, I stood and walked to the front of the class. “Yeah?”
    “Get your belongings.” Mr. Ricks’ eyes darted about worriedly.
    I backtracked and grabbed my stuff, giving José a nervous glance and not receiving any comfort from his rapid, fearful blinks. “’kay, see you tomorrow, Mr. Ricks.”
    He tilted his head and avoided my gaze. “Goodbye, Alejandro.”
     
    The woman in the gray suit moved in without hesitation, hovering around me like some kind of color-sapped bee. “Alejandro, my name is Suzie. We’d just like to speak to you for a moment, in the front office, if that’s okay.”
    The cop may have distracted me at first, but when no one slapped on cuffs and the adrenaline began to wear off, I suddenly realized there was another dangerous force at work here—Suzie practically smelled of social worker.
    Reacting on instinct, I threw up my defenses. “I gotta lot of homework, lady. I can’t stay too late.”
    The cop crossed his arms, a silent witness to her annoyingly calm voice.
    “Well, let’s just settle in the office and see if we can’t clear things up.”
    We entered the conference room together, and I sat stiffly in a little chair, reminding myself over and over again that I just had to keep my mouth shut. The school psychologist was also there, but I decided to ignore her since we’d never actually met. I was a little screwed up, I knew, but not bad enough to need her services.
    She seemed satisfied with my choice as she folded her hands over her skirt and relaxed in her chair. She was obviously only there to observe…what could very well be my destruction.
    Before Ms. Suzie Social Worker could even get out a word, the nurse bustled into the room in her gigantic flower muumuu and white overcoat.
    “Let me see da burn, hun,” she said in her thick Nigerian accent.
    “It’s nothing.” I tucked my arm behind my back. “I spilled soup. Chicken soup.”
    The cop and the social worker exchanged glances. The kind of knowing glance that said, oh boy, do we ever know he’s lying.
    God damn it.
    How could I possibly have been so stupid as to slip up in front of Ms. Elridge? It had to be because I was hung over. I refused to believe that after fifteen years of managing my life perfectly fine, I’d let one lousy teacher get the better of me for no apparent reason.
    The social worker rifled through some papers in a manila folder. “You and your mother live with a man named Hector Ramirez, correct?”
    “So what?” I shot back.
    “Did someone at home cause those burns?”
    I felt my nostrils flare, so I shook my head violently to cover it up. “Nope. No. It was an accident. Why’re you asking about Hector? Ms. Elridge said something? She’s fu—…she’s nuts. She’s just pissed ’cause I’m wearing flip-flops…and talking about this girl’s virginity in class…” And Jesus Christ, what had happened to keeping my mouth shut?
    Suzie reached out to squeeze my hand. I let her keep her fingers there for a second—only because I was in shock—before pulling away. “Alejandro, you can tell us the truth. If someone is hurting you, you should not have to put up with it. You don’t deserve to be treated that way.”
    Who was this lady? How did she know what I did and didn’t deserve? In all fairness, I was the one who’d stolen the weed. He’d had