Then it was Alice’s time to welcome them and Carmen’s presence didn’t go unnoticed. She gave the latina a kiss, gave her a beer and went stright to her friend’s side.

– Yo Shaney

– Hey Al, how you doin’?

– Well my question would be a bit more like WHAT you doin..

– Huh?

– Carmen, you two came together right?

– I picked her up from work

– Uhum..

– Molly told me

– Mhmm kay.

– What?

– Nuthing, it’s cool. You want a beer?

– Please

– Hey there casanovas!

– What’s up Pops?

– All hood and better now that you brought the hottie

Again Shane stiffened hearing that, feeling that thing bumping in her throat again.

– She’s not like you Pops. I wouldn’t spend time in there, there’s no future if you know what I mean.

– I wouldn’t be so sure vanilla, she already said yes to going to prom with me. I’m gonna go charm my lady anyway but it’s good to see you champ

– yeah.. you too.. –Said Shane watching Papi aproach Carmen as a predator to its victim-

She didn’t like that. She didn’t like Papi treating Carmen as a price. She didn’t like Papi getting a touch of Carmen whenever she could. ‘Fuck, you don’t need to touch her hair to see is perfectly smooth!’ And yeah, yeah she was with Molly, it was just that she knew Papi and was, again, just worried..

– Honey, what are you doing standing there? Come on, sit here with me –Said Molly bringing Shane back from her thoughts and motioned to her to sit next to her on the couch-

***

Shane had been avoiding Carmen the whole evening. She couldn’t stand the image of Papi and her together, let alone the image of Carmen sitting on Papi’s lap. It disgusted her how Papi would touch Carmen hips or hair, or slowly say things to her ear. And althought she was having Molly sat on her lap, her hands were too busy with the bottle of beer she was holding. In fact, she was holding it so tight her knuckles were already white.