Page 178 of Pride High 2: Orange

Diego didn’t give him a chance to respond. He got back into his car and peeled out. Omar stood in the street and watched him go, feeling for the second time in his life that he’d lost a brother.

He was walking up the driveway with a heavy heart when a honk stopped him. Omar turned and saw Silvia’s truck park next to the curb. He ran over to it, relieved to see her smiling face behind the wheel. She got out and embraced him before covering his cheeks with smooches.

“Hey, it’s nice to see you too,” he laughed.

“You’re the best,” Silvia said with tears in her eyes.

“Everything went okay then?” he asked, nodding at her father, who nodded back with a friendly expression.

“Yes. We took a different way here, to make sure nobody was following us.” Silvia shook her head and laughed at herself. “I’m getting paranoid!”

“Nah, you’d made a great secret agent,” Omar replied. “Need any help getting him home?

“No. We’re headed there next. But I needed to know that you’re okay too. Where are the others?”

“Safe,” Omar said.

“Good.” Silvia seemed antsy as she glanced at the truck.

“Go home and get settled,” Omar said. “Give me a call when you can.”

“I will,” Silvia said, turning toward him again. “I can’t kiss you as much as I want to right now. Not with him staring.”

“That’s fine,” Omar said, accepting a quick smooch on the lips. He wasn’t in the mood anyway, Diego’s words too fresh in his mind. Omar really did have it good. Better than he deserved. And today had been a reminder that not everyone was so lucky. “Drive safe, babe. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Silvia said, her eyes brimming with emotion before she hugged him.

Anthony received the same treatment when he appeared from around the other side of the truck. After a few more parting words, they watched her drive away.

“Are you okay?” Anthony asked.

Omar took a deep breath before he let it out again. “Yeah.”

“Where’s Diego?”

“He took off.”

“In a huff?”

“You know it.”

Anthony studied him a moment while gnawing on his bottom lip. “Did you really start the fire?” he asked at last.

Omar sighed. “I don’t know. We only had seconds to hide everything. Maybe itwasmy fault. But I didn’t really plan on going back to the garage to put something out. That was just a lie. I thought everything was fine.”

“I still think it was him,” Anthony said. “We saw Diego playing with that lighter just before your parents got home. He could have spontaneously lit the fuse on the bomb we were making. It’s exactly the crazy sort of thing he’d do back then.”

“But we don’t know,” Omar stressed. “Not for sure. So why have we been treating him like he’s guilty this whole time when we never had proof? That’s messed up!”

“Yeah,” Anthony admitted. “I guess it is.”

They walked to the front porch steps, where they sat in silence for a few moments.

Anthony bumped shoulders with him. “I thought I was protecting you. Back then.”

Omar made a face. “From what?”

“Diego. I thought you were going to get hurt. I never hated him or felt jealous. But maybe I was a little selfish with you. I don’t know.”