When Kavi had accepted Chrissie’s offer to be her date for the dance, he wasn’t sure how he would feel about it after the fact. And even now, as his
2018 black BMW convertible rounded a corner with the Lambert house in sight, he still wasn’t sure how he felt about it. This was mainly due to how conflicted he found himself feeling about it all. He still held rather strong feelings for Ariel and there was a part of him that knew he would always feel this way and maybe he just couldn’t grasp that they were over, regardless if it was a temporary thing or not.
Taking a moment to stop near the driveway (though not yet pulling into it), Kavi allowed the sounds of whatever was playing on the radio to drown out his thoughts. It was working until the station decided to end the song he was vibing to and the next song that came on made Kavi sigh.
“Of all the--” Kavi silently cursed as the song resounded in his BMW, the chorus ringing true for him and this particular truth made him instantly turn the volume down and proceed to drive forward. His foot hit the gas pedal enough so that he could turn right and into the driveway. But as soon as he was about to, a mix of anger and panic set in, which wasn’t hard to believe since Kavi was starting to descend into one of his down spells, his brown eyes caught the sight of a flashy red-almost-crimson Lamborghini and the atrocious sounds of someone so obnoxious as the person driving the car that took his spot.
Angrily, though trying to put on his best face, Kavi pulled up next to Santiago’s pricy car, sighing as he pulled his key out of the ignition. He got out and, as he leaned against his clearly superior car, he stared Santiago down as though he was trying to force the candy man’s brain to pop and he did it all while wearing a striped pink shirt, white pants, and a white blazer. So safe to say what he was doing just looked like a human strawberry going through a bad fit of constipation face.
Lost as he was between his phone and the obnoxious, loud music booming through the Lambo’s sound system, it wasn’t until he saw a familiar car out of the corner of his eye that
Santiago’s attention was diverted. A questioning eyebrow was raised as the devil momentarily wondered why on Earth Kavi Salvador would be pulling up at Stella Lambert’s house when his friend clearly had another date. Of course, it didn’t take long for Santiago to remember that the girl’s cousin was also a resident at the house- which explained the other man’s presence.
Shrugging, Santiago watched as Kavi exited his vehicle and took to leaning against it instead, glaring at him like he was a pigeon who’d just taken a big shit on his freshly-cleaned windshield. A part of him wanted to throw in some remark about how terrible his wardrobe choice for the night was. But that would be playing along with childish, passive-aggressive games that he wanted no part of- and the young man was determined to not let anything ruin his mood. Instead, Diablo turned down his music, rolled down the window and began his attempt at a cordial conversation with Kavi.
"You here for Chrissie?" Santiago asked, trying his hardest to not laugh as he took a glance at Kavi's Créme Savers outfit.
Kavi didn’t say anything but instead glared at Santiago. And that lasted for all of five seconds when he realized it was stupid of him to do that.
“Yep. Just waiting here,” Kavi stated with arms folded across his chest. He had never been one to enjoy small talk when it came to Santiago but he didn’t want to cause a scene.
“And you’re here for Stella, or are you here because you just love showing off that obnoxious Lambo of yours?” In regular circumstances, the cynicism in Kavi’s voice would’ve rubbed Santiago the wrong way. But today, it only made the young man snort instead.
"Oh yeah, definitely just showing off this bad boy. It's like a dog, y'know? Gotta take it on walks around the neighborhood to keep it healthy," he chuckled, yet it didn't take long for his laughter to fade away into a deep sigh and a somewhat sad expression.
"I've put it up for sale, so I'm taking every chance to enjoy it while I still can."Kavi had a lot of things he could probably say right now. Maybe rub salt in that wound or make some off-hand comment about how nobody would grieve when it was finally gone. But the longer Kavi stood there and met Santiago with how… well, honestly how sad the guy looked, Kavi felt bad. And that’s what really surprised him. Not that he didn’t speak his mind but how this car actually meant
that much to the great Candyman of Crown Heights, that the Devil of King’s was actually feeling so depressed about it that anything Kavi said would be moot.
“Well, I’m sure Stella will like it. She’s always been a fan of shiny things. I can’t tell you how many tubes of glitter she’s gone through over the years,” Kavi laughed as he tried to count how many of those tubes she went through when they were younger.
“So, why are you selling it anyway?” Kavi asked.
The gray-eyed boy raised an eyebrow. The answer, Diablo thought, was obvious to anyone with half a brain.
“Not exactly a lot of space for a car seat in a two-seater Lambo, is there?” the young man answered with a smile and a small shrug.
“It’s fine, though. I’m getting something a little more practical- like this custom 4-door Charger I saw the other day. Then whatever’s left I’ll put away in a savings account for the girls.”Kavi remained silent for a while. He let Santiago ramble on but mainly because he had no earthly idea what to say. ‘Oh, I’m sorry about your incredible loss. I couldn’t imagine what you are going through' wasn’t something Kavi wanted to say. To be honest, he didn’t want to talk to Santiago. He wanted to get Chrissie and take her to the dance. He wasn’t trying to make small talk with Santiago, but here he was, hearing about how poor Santiago Fernandez was gonna depart with his unattractive car.
Or maybe Kavi was putting his own frustrations on Santiago, who by all rights did nothing to Kavi.
Kavi put his hands inside his pants pockets, his gaze shifting away from Santiago for a short, somewhat awkward moment.
“So, a daughter, huh?” Kavi spoke as if he didn’t know. With him being friends with April, he knew.
“That’s cool, I guess. I hope to have a couple of those myself eventually,” Kavi admitted with a half-smirk.
‘If only you knew how daunting it is to think that our future daughters could be or meet someone just like us, you wouldn’t even fathom having more than one…’ is what Santiago so desperately wanted to tell Kavi. But that would make him seem like an asshole, which he was trying hard not to be. So he settled for something that wasn’t hostile.
“I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you this, but hold off on that front for a bit, will you? Learn from my mistakes,” he chuckled again.
“Don’t get me wrong: I’m excited for it. But I’m not gonna lie to you, man: it’s fucking terrifying at the same time. Wondering what she’ll be like, if she’ll make it here safe, if Lils will be okay, or if I’ll be able to take care of both of them right… It drives me crazy sometimes.” Santiago had no idea why he was being so honest about his struggles with
Salvador of all people, but there was a sense of relief in voicing aloud the thoughts that had been consuming him for months now.
“Yeah, I bet.” Well this was awkward. Last semester, Kavi and Santiago couldn’t be near each other without some sort of verbal fight breaking out or one of the boys trying to egg on the other. So, Kavi was thrown from them going from that breed of hostility to...whatever
this was. Kavi, who usually always had something to say regardless how appropriate it was, found himself not only able to say anything but deep in his gut and slowly rising to other places, he had this feeling that maybe things between him and Diablo never were ‘bad’. He didn’t like him, of course, but this was probably the first time either of them had had any sort of conversation that didn’t involve them saying things to each other that were mean, cruel, and absolutely said with the intention of getting on the other’s nerve.
But now, even as Kavi thought about doing it, he didn’t have it in him.
“You have every right to go crazy. I obviously don’t know anything about this, so you can accept it or not. Kavi’s eyes landed on Santiago and he took a breath.
“My advice is just relax, don’t worry about all these what ifs until you actually get to that point, y’know? It’s like I tell my kid sister all the time: unless you know for certain, there’s no reason to drive yourself up a wall.”Huh. Who would’ve thought that Kavi Salvador would be able to provide him with good advice and any sort of comfort in a situation like this? Not the devil, that was for sure. If you would’ve told Santiago at the beginning of the year that he and Kavi would have a calm, honest conversation of any kind without any insults or offensive remarks, he would’ve asked what cocaine you were snorting. Yet, as strange as it was, this was probably the best example of how far he’d come in his journey to self-improvement. If he was able to make peace with a guy who had, at some point, been the biggest threat to his relationship, then he’d be able to take on anything else life threw at him.
When he and Santiago sort of laughed at the interesting, pleasant turn their conversation took, whatever either of them were going to say next had come to a complete halt as loud, hostile screams came from inside the Lambert house. It immediately caused both boys to direct their eyes from each other and feel a gravitational pull towards the closed doors. They heard screams. They heard shouting. They exchanged curious looks as they heard the obvious escalation of
some kind of altercation between two voices that only took moments of identifying who they belong to.
“I wonder what’s--” Kavi began to speak but had been interrupted as Chrissie came out huffing and puffing. Stella wasn’t far behind her, though she stood in the doorway, waving to Kavi, smiling as though they didn’t hear obscenities being thrown out for the entire world to hear.
Kavi waved back but immediately found himself in one hell of an awkward position as Chrissie aggressively entered the passengers side of his BMW, slamming the door with nearly as much force as she opened it.
“I HATE HER!” Kavi heard her scream, his eardrums likely bleeding because of it.
Rolling his eyes at the uncertainty he felt in his gut about how difficult this night was gonna be, Kavi offered Stella an apologetic expression. Taking one final moment to center himself, Kavi got back into his car and drove off.
As the black BMW pulled out of the Lambert driveway, Stella said her goodbyes to her mother and father and walked her way over to Santiago’s chrome red Lamborghini, smiling at him. She got in the passenger seat and sighed, yet put on a smile.
“Hey,” she greeted Santi simply,
“How much of that did you actually hear?” She asked, looking somewhat embarrassed about how far things got between her and Chrissie. It wasn’t so much that things were said that shouldn’t have been said but more that the neighbors and others had to hear it that got to her.
“Actually, forget about it! I’m just ready to have as much fun as I’m able to!” Stella nodded more for herself than Santiago and leaned back into the leather seat as her date pulled out of the driveway, taking the
opposite route Kavi and Chrissie took (for good measure).
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