I’m sorry to hear about your sister, but I really wish you’d reconsider. Your friendship means a lot to me now. I don’t think I can let it go as easily as you can.

Again he held his breath and waited. Her response was immediate and an enormous relief.

You think this is easy for me? It’s not!

Feeling a little guilty about the automatic smile that instantly spread on his lips, he took a moment to think about a proper response to that. She was already upset; he didn’t want to say anything to make her feel worse. Before he could, she promptly followed up with another text.

Taylor and I just got to his apartment. I haven’t talked to her yet, but Taylor said she was so upset he had to give her a pill that would knock her out. I’ve never seen my sister as upset as he described her. I’m almost afraid to. And on top of that, the guilt is eating me up alive. How could I have secretly wished for this? I’m such a terrible person! I’ll text you after I talk to her.

In the past few weeks, Rose had mentioned Taylor and Joey, her sister’s two best friends. At first, it burned him up the way Rose gushed about them until she explained they were g*y and a couple.

Vince muttered, fisting his hand. It was times like this he wished to hell he could call her. He wanted to talk to her—console her, even if it meant listening to sweet Rosie cry. But it was bad enough his parents had to pay the fine for the tagging. His mother had warned him enough about using her precious minutes. He’d finally finished up all the community work the judge piled on. He wouldn’t take a chance screwing up his hopes for summer, not even with this. He sent off his final text before leaving her to be there for her sister.

You have nothing to feel guilty about, Rosie. Okay? NOTHING. Don’t do this to yourself. Go be with her now. I’ll be right here, waiting for your text.

Blowing out a harsh breath, he started walking in the opposite direction of his friends. He needed to think.

“So you’re out? Alfonso called after him.

Vince nodded without looking back and turned the corner of the building. He was just getting his thoughts together when he saw his neighbor Anita and her two little brothers walking toward him.

Smiling as they got closer, Vince put up his hands in a kung-fu stance as her little brother Pepe, the older of the two, gave him the usual stink eye and lifted his right fist shaking it at him. “You wanna go to the hospital?” Pepe wound up his other fist lifting it behind and over his head. “Or the cemetery? Your choice.”

Vince laughed. “Easy, tough guy. I don’t want any trouble.”

“That’s what I thought.” Pepe said still holding the stink-eye stare.

Anita rolled her eyes. She was younger than Rose, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at her. Like most of the girls in this neighborhood, she wore way too much makeup, but Vince knew it wasn’t just that. Anita was truly a victim of the environment, and he didn’t mean the neighborhood either. He meant her home life. Most of the kids in this area didn’t have it easy, but Anita had it rougher than most. She lived with her two little brothers and her usually drunk-ass dad. Things weren’t easy for her, and since she lived in the building right next to his, Vince had been witness to her family drama too many times.

“What are you up to?” she asked, placing her hand on her other brother Beto’s head as he wrapped his arms around her leg.

Vince shook his head, thoughts of Rose’s text coming back to him again.

“Something wrong?”

“Nah,” he smiled. He hadn’t told anyone, not even Lorenzo, about Rose and how often they texted. He wasn’t about to start now. “I was just going for a walk. You guys coming from the playground?”

“Yeah.” She looked down at Beto messing his hair. “But this guy is getting cranky; I think it’s nap time.”

Beto was only four, and since their mother died two years ago when he was only two, he’d been glued to Anita just like now. He grabbed his crotch and began to whine against her leg.

“Oh, and that, too. He’s gotta go potty. So we’re done with the playground for the day.”

“Just let him go against the wall.” Vince laughed. “It’s what we all do. When you gotta go, you gotta go.”

“I will not!” She laughed. “These boys are gonna have some manners if it kills me. C’mon.” She tugged Pepe gently. “Your brother’s gotta go bad.” Looking up at Vince, she smiled again. “I gotta go.”

Vince continued toward the back of the building, still lost in his thoughts of Rose. He hated that she was feeling guilty. One thing he’d gotten to know about Rose in the past weeks was that as sweet and faultless as he still thought her to be, her life wasn’t as perfect as she was. Her mother, from what little she’d told him, was a real piece of work.

According to the little he’d gotten out of Rose about her mom, the woman had never showed any interest in anything she did. Growing up, she’d barely bothered to show up to any of her school events or soccer games. Basically, Rose considered Grace more of a mother figure. Her stepdad sounded like a perverted douche too, only she at least hadn’t mentioned any violence like with Anita’s dad. Still, as things with Grace and Sal had gotten more and more serious, Rose worried about Grace marrying and leaving her to fend for herself. She’d admitted this to Vince but made him swear not to ever tell anyone that she secretly wished things would slow down for them.

Vince was sure she had never wished they’d break up. Even if she had deep down inside, Vince understood why. He was certain that if she’d had even the faintest hint that her sister would be this devastated about it, she would’ve never wished it, no matter how bad it would’ve made Rose’s life. In the short time he’d known Rose, he knew she was as close to Grace as he was to Lorenzo. Vince would do anything for him.