Through My Window (Hidalgos #1)(108)

Still, I find myself enjoying this party. It’s not set around a long table with too much silverware or at a noisy club. It’s normal, and the atmosphere is familiar and relaxed. People are chatting comfortably around me. Dean and Apolo are talking about something from school.

But to be honest, the reason I like this birthday party is not the environment but her: Raquel. My eyes fall on the girl with tousled hair and expressive eyes who has infiltrated my soul completely. She smiles openly at something Daniela says and her whole face lights up. She looks gorgeous. If a birthday party makes her smile like that, I’ll attend them all. I’ll even gladly organize them.

I never thought she would be the one to make me feel all this. As a kid, I remember seeing her several times through the fence between our homes, but it wasn’t until over a year ago that I actually saw her. I still remember that day I noticed her looking at me from her window. Of course, I played it like I was oblivious. Yet her curiosity about me piqued mine about her, and I began to want to know more about her: what she liked, what she did, and where she went to school.

And then one day our paths crossed, and, although she didn’t realize it, I still remember it clearly.

“Let’s get out of here.” Dean yawns as we walk through all the temporary exhibits and tents at his sister’s school fair. “I still don’t understand why she stopped attending our school to come to this one.”

Daniela’s classmates had organized a fundraiser for their extracurricular activities and personal projects. Dean dragged me with him to support his sister, but Daniela had already sold everything she brought and left, so we didn’t need to stick around anymore.

As we pass through the crowd, I can see several tables in the distance with items still for sale. One table in particular catches my attention.

Raquel, that girl who watches me from her window all the time, stands at the side of her table, offering handmade jewelry to everyone who passes by, but no one pays any attention to her. Her table is full of neatly arranged and untouched bracelets. I doubt she’s sold anything. A Funds to pay for my chess lessons sign is behind her table.

Chess, eh?

I stop because for some reason I don’t want her to see me. Dean stops and looks at me.

“What’s wrong?”

“You go on without me to the parking lot, I’ll catch up with you.”

He gives me a quizzical look but continues on his way. As he passes in front of Raquel’s table, he greets her, and she smiles at him.

She has a very nice smile.

I use the people walking by as a shield to watch her. Her face is so expressive, it’s as if I can tell exactly what she’s thinking just by looking at her.

What are you doing, Ares?

My conscience reproaches me, but I’m just curious.

She sighs and sits behind the table, defeated. She grimaces in frustration, and finally her face fills with sadness, and I don’t like it. It makes me uncomfortable to see her sad. I haven’t even spoken to her, and it already affects me this way.

You haven’t sold anything, curious eyes?

I look around for someone I know, and I find a boy who sometimes goes to our soccer field to practice with us. I give him money to buy all the bracelets she has on the table. I stand and watch from a distance as Raquel’s expression changes from pure sadness to disbelief to happiness and excitement. She thanks the guy a bunch of times and passes him a bag with the bracelets.

The boy brings me the bracelets and leaves while I stand there, bag in one hand, staring at the curious girl whose smile I enjoy watching.

“Ares?”

I return to the moment. Apolo furrows his brows, waiting for a response to something I didn’t hear. His eyes go from me to Raquel, and everything seems to click in his mind.

“She’s really got you bad.”

I don’t bother to deny it, and Dean shakes his head as he puts his hand on Apolo’s shoulder.

“We’ve lost him.”

“I know, and you still have me to thank. It’s all thanks to me.”

“Shhh!” I silence him because I don’t want him to tell Dean about the beginning of it all. My mind travels easily to another memory:

“You want to me to do what?” Apolo furrows his brows in confusion. I sigh uncomfortably.

“I’ve already explained.”

“But I don’t understand why you need me to do that.”

“Just do it.”

“And you think she’s going to believe me? Ares, she knows we’re wealthy. How can she believe that we don’t have internet, and that we’re stealing hers?”

“She’ll believe you.”

“If you want to talk to her, why don’t you just do it?”

“I don’t want to talk to her,” I say. Apolo raises an eyebrow.

“Really? Why don’t you go up to her and tell her you’re stealing her Wi-Fi?”

“Because I want to prolong this as long as possible, make her suffer a little, she deserves it for stalking me.”

Claudia walks in with a basket of freshly laundered clothes.

“Oh, sibling plotting,” she says, giving us a look. “This is new.”

Apolo doesn’t hesitate to bring her into the conversation even though I gesture at him to shut up.

“Ares wants to use me to talk to the girl next door,” he tells her. Claudia laughs a little.