Dante and Freddie circled around the neighborhood for three hours before heading back after receiving news that Manny had been caught in the house of one of his "accomplices". After a few hours of questioning, Mrs. Garcia picked him up from the station and drove home in silence.
When Manny got home, he walked to his room, and the sound of his door slamming echoed through the house. As much as he'd wanted to go off on Manny, Dante knew now was not the time. He'd seen this happen to Manny before, when he'd mess up and act extra defensively so he wouldn't have to think about the mess he'd made. Dante let Manny stay in their room alone and slept on the couch instead.
The next morning Dante did something he hadn't done since he was in high school- he went to church with his mother.
The feeling of walking into the church felt like a rush of the familiar, something Dante hadn't realized he was craving. He and his mother sat in the pews long after service was over.
Dante wasn't necessarily praying like his mother was, but more letting his mind wander to random thoughts that floated in and out of his mind. A lot of them were bad, like his thoughts about what was going to happen to Manny or flashbacks to Naya jumping off the bridge, but most were just random, like what was going on between Gloria and Alex, or what exactly made Freddie's toolbox have anything he needed when he needed it.
Dante's mother pat his leg twice as she rose from the bench, signaling that it was time to go. Dante made a quick sign of the cross as he walked out of the tightly packed pew.
When they got home, Dante and his mom saw an enraged Manny push past them. Both made weak attempts to stop him, but decided to just let him go. As they walked into the house, they saw the cause for Manny's anger. Their father was sitting at the dinner table, his fingers clasped tightly together and his bushy graying mustache visibly twitching, which Dante would have thought was hilarious under different circumstances.
"So... I leave for a week, and this is what I come home to? One of my sons is going to jail?" Dante's father demanded to know.
"Ay, querido, no," Dante's mother tried to explain, "He's a minor, so they'll probably just give him some community service."
"With a face like ours? Maybe for that white boy he was with, but he's going to juvie for sure. Really Maya, I was really expecting you to take care of things at home better when I'm away."
That was when Dante snapped.
"At least she's here. You've been running off every two weeks to do your dumbass cross country deliveries since Andre died, so don't you dare try and pin this on Mami!" Dante threatened.
"Dante, you don't know what you're talking about," Dante's father called out, but it was useless. Dante was already storming out of the house.
Dante was so blind with rage that he was ready to just start his truck and just drive as far from his house as he could, when for the first time in the eight years he'd owned his truck, it didn't start.
Dante finally understood Alex's impulse to beat his car up as Dante hit the steering wheel hard enough to activate the horn, scaring off a group of pigeons perching on the wide variety of discolored garden statues that were scattered along the front border of his house.
He heard the faint sound of tapping on glass behind him. Dante turned around and let out a piercingly high shriek as he saw a blurry face pushed up against the window.
After his nerves finally calmed down, he could better see the face of the intruder behind the dusty distorted glass of his pickup truck. Dante got out of the truck and saw Naya in the bed of his truck, failing to stifle her giggles.
Dante put his hands on his hips and sarcastically said, "Haha very funny. What are you doing up there?"
Naya scooted to the side and patted the spot next to her, signaling to Dante to climb in next to her. He took the spot, slouching against the back of the truck to lean his head against Naya's shoulder.
"I heard arguing happening inside when I got here, so I was just hanging out here until you came out."
Dante ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah, sorry about that. Things are just really messed up at home."
Naya pulled at the edge of her pink blouse. "Tell me about it," she scoffed.
"Ah shit. Here I am complaining about my family when you…" Dante let the rest of that sentence trail off.
"Don't have one?" Naya said, finishing the thought that Dante knew was too insensitive to say out loud.
Dante's voice softened, "Hey, I know you're probably not okay, but how are you feeling?"
Naya wrapped her hands around her legs and rested her head on her knees, watching the sky begin to mix the clear blue canvas with orange and soft pink tones as it prepared for sunset
"Honestly, I don't really feel much of anything. The people at the station said it was just shock or whatever, but I don't know. I actually do feel kind of...okay. They also said it was just a random hit and run, but they don't know the kind of people my dad used to work with, so what do they know."
"Don't get me wrong, I'm still super stressed and so damn lost, which is why I came to see you in the first place. I don't know why, but you've kind of been my anchor to keep me from spinning out of control. I just feel like I'm supposed to be bawling my eyes out, but everything's just too complicated for me to feel like crying."
"Like yesterday, I was on a video call with some relatives I apparently had in India to talk about sending the bodies there, and there was this one woman who I talked to privately, and she told me all this stuff about my dad, like how he was kinda forced to take on the family business and marry the girl his family wanted him to marry, and things just started to make sense. I'd like to think that my dad was just protecting me from that kind of life, but realistically, he probably just didn't want to be responsible for another thing that was forced on him. Whatever it was, it just feels like the closure I didn't know I needed."
"Damn, that's a lot. Kind of makes me feel like a douche for complaining about my life when you've got all that going on yourself. Do you know where you're going from here?"
Naya let out an annoyed sigh, "That's where things get complicated. Because I'm not a minor anymore, all of my dad's money and properties went to me. Which makes me a millionaire."