Page 20

Alonso

THE SECOND THE FRONT DOOR CLOSES, EMILIA AND DONNA DE LUCA waste no time. They scuttle into the living room and draw back the heavy drapes, squinting through the dirty windows as Penny walks down the driveway.

“Can you not,” Alonso says.

Aunt Emilia’s eyes are bright, like she’s watching a sunrise. “Oh, Alonso, she’s darling.”

“Her eyes are too big for her face,” Aunt Donna says. “I like it.”

Emilia grabs Alonso’s hands. “You must bring her over for dinner. Right, Vera?”

Alonso’s mother hasn’t moved from her position by the front door. When he meets her eyes, it’s like she takes a pin to the balloon filling his chest.

For about an hour, Alonso’s worlds collided. Penny was in his house, the place where he’s lived his entire life. Every time he looked at her, she was taking in the details—decorations, paintings, even flaws Alonso hadn’t thought about for years. Her reaction almost made Alonso see his life from a new angle. As if it was something wondrous. As if she might not mind being part of it.

But now, looking at his mother, that hope disappears.

“Solarium,” his mother says. “Now.”

She doesn’t wait for him to follow; she just walks out of the room, killing the excitement like it’s her job. Alonso rolls his eyes, and Aunt Emilia squeezes his hand.

“She’s worried about you,” Aunt Emilia says.

“You really believe that?” Alonso doesn’t wait for her answer before he pulls free from her grip, but he can’t look at her as he does it. Aunt Emilia is the best of them. She doesn’t deserve to be iced out like this, especially because she feels everything so deeply.

Then again, so does Alonso. He just has a different way of showing it.

When Alonso reaches the solarium, his mom is facing away from him, staring into the foliage. Then she whips around, her eyes like two scary little flames. “What were you thinking, bringing that girl into our home?”

“That I want to get an A in physics.”

“It would be great if you could stop being so condescending for five minutes and realize how serious this is. It’s her mom , Alonso.”

Alonso looks her directly in the eyes. “You think I forgot?”

Her face softens by about one percent. “I know you’ve liked Penny for a very long time, but she’s emotionally vulnerable right now. Don’t you understand that?” Her mouth pulls into a frown. “Or maybe that’s the point.”

That hurts worse than any of the punches Corey has ever thrown.

Alonso sputters for a moment, trying to find the words. “What—what the fuck kind of person do you think you gave birth to?”

“Do not use that language with me—”

“Why not? You accused me of taking advantage of a girl with a dying mom!”

Vera lets out something between a gasp and a sigh. “I meant that you need to respect the Emberlys. What do you think she would do if she knew the truth?”

Alonso chokes on his next words. Because he almost said it out loud—Penny already knows. And somehow, she can still look him in the face.

But maybe Vera is right, in a way. Penny is spending time with Alonso for one reason: She wants to break the curse. Even if she looks at him without malice, Alonso can’t let himself think it’s about anything more than the end goal.

Except, no. Penny isn’t going to be nice to him just because of what he can do for her. She’s not that kind of person.

A memory rises to the surface. In fifth grade, Yvonne Mason’s dad was diagnosed with cancer. Yvonne cried a lot in school, and she was going to the nurse’s office almost every day. Once, when Alonso got there early, Yvonne was sitting in their classroom, tears rolling down her face.

She wasn’t alone, though. Penny was sitting with her.

Alonso hovered outside the classroom, listening as they talked. They didn’t seem to be friends, but Penny was listening like they’d always been close. Yvonne was saying that her dad had been so excited to see Stevie Nicks in concert in Indianapolis, but he couldn’t go because he was too weak from the chemo.

“He’s so sad all the time!” Yvonne said. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Listen,” Penny said, “my mom has tickets, too. She’s bringing me. What if I film the show on my mom’s phone, and you can show your dad?”

Yvonne’s face brightened. “Really? Could you do that?”

A few days later, Penny came into class and asked for Yvonne’s email. She’d filmed the concert like she’d promised, and she wanted to send it to Yvonne.

Instead of thanking her, Yvonne looked at her friends, who raised their eyebrows as if to say, Do you even know her? Yvonne thanked Penny, but it was fake. Forced. It was as if Penny had crossed some sort of line. She had tried too hard, and sometimes that scares people away. Alonso understood that.

He never saw the two of them speak again.

But that wasn’t the point. Penny did what she did because she was good. Kind. She didn’t expect anything in return. And Alonso had never thought to do anything like that, for anyone, in his entire life.

Penny belongs with someone different from him. Someone who doesn’t struggle with anger management or get suspended from school. She’s too bright, too warm, and Alonso is just a mopey inkblot of a human being.

His mom must see something in Alonso’s face, though he can’t put his finger on what it might be. She reaches out a hand to him, then thinks better of it and crosses her arms.

“I know you care about her,” she says. “And she seems like a nice girl.”

That might as well have been an insult.

“I’m going to study,” Alonso says, and it’s the truth. But his mom probably thinks that he’s going to study physics. Instead, Alonso dips down into the basement, closing the door quietly behind him.

For the first time in his life, Alonso wants nothing more than to disappear into his family’s spell books. If magic is the only thing in Alonso’s life that will make him feel a sense of control, he’ll take it.