The Key of Hearts by Mia Rodriguez
Chapter 9
Moonflower sobbed with acute desolation, that it left Selena completely helpless. They sat in Selena's room, and Moonflower hadn't been able to stop weeping long enough to tell her what was wrong. Selena patted her on the back, wishing she could do more.
"It's over," Moonflower finally managed to say.
"What's over?"
"My life."
"What are you talking about?"
"Saul broke up with me," Moonflower said, her tearful gush starting again. "Now I know how Bella felt in New Moon."
"What happened?"
"Saul called me on the phone and told me he couldn't see me anymore. My life is over."
"Moonflower, your life isn't over. Saul isn't your life."
"What am I going to do without a boyfriend?" Moonflower asked desperately.
"The same as you would do with one—live your life."
"He's with someone else."
"He told you this?" asked Selena.
"I finally got it out of him. He's seeing Julia Gutierrez."
“What?”
“He’s seeing Julia Gutierrez!” repeated an anguished Moonflower.
"You’re kidding?" blurted Selena, in complete surprise.
"He dumped me for her. At least Edward dumped Bella to protect her. Saul threw me over for Julia!"
“Is this a joke?”
“I wish it was.”
"But I thought he didn't like her,” stated Selena. “He said she was stuck up."
"I guess he changed his mind," she warbled.
"What's wrong with him?" Selena snapped furiously.
"I'm really stupid for not having seen it coming."
"Moonflower, you're not stupid! No one saw it coming. He was acting a little different with all that popularity that had hit him, but I still wouldn't have imagined in a million years that he'd break up with you to go out with that gigantic snob."
"Sel," Moonflower murmured sadly. "I wasn't good enough for him."
"What?!"
"When he made it into the football team, he didn't want for someone like me with him."
"Someone like you? What do you mean?"
"I'm fat and I need a nose job and--"
"Stop! Don't do this, Moonflower," Selena demanded.
"Look at me, Sel," she stated, sobbing. "I’ve got so much wrong with me." Moonflower was a pretty girl with caramel curls, hazel eyes and a size seven body but no matter how much Selena tried, she couldn't get her BFF to stop obsessing about being fat and unattractive.
"The truth is that he's not good enough for you, Moonflower. He's an idiot."
"I'm going to lose weight one way or another. That'll teach him to dump me!" she snarled.
"You don't have to teach him anything. Grandmother Chela always says that we shouldn't try to impress the idiots. We should dust their toxic poison off ourselves."
"How will I ever be able to get over this?" Moonflower asked as she started sobbing violently again.
"I'll be here for you, Moonflower. Let's take one day at a time.”
Xavier assured Selena he had something wonderful and surprising for her. They traveled across Trans Mountain Road to the Northeast side of El Paso where Xavier insisted she would be pleasantly rewarded for her blind patience. After what was happening with her BFF, Selena could use a respite.
“It’ll be a good surprise, Selena,” Xavier mentioned brightly.
She smiled, keeping her eyes firmly on the road as she drove. His presence next to her as intoxicating as always. “I’m dying to know what it is.”
“I think you’ll like it.”
“As long as it’s not anything weird. I don’t even want to think about what Grandmother Chela told us about the heart gifted and the greedy gifted.”
Xavier gently stroked her cheek. “There's nothing weird about my surprise.”
“Good.” Selena breathed out.
“But as long as we’re on the subject . . .” he said with hesitation.
“Yes?” Selena asked, dreading the conversation.
“Has anything out of the ordinary happened?” he mumbled.
“No, how about with you?” Selena asked, being as hesitant as he was.
“No,” Xavier stated with immense relief.
“We’re clear so far,” she said happily.
“Yes,” he responded with as much glee as her own.
“It’s been so normal at school too. Nothing strange there either.”
“Yeah, what a relief.”
“The only bad thing happening is what’s happening with Moonflower,” Selena said, frowning deeply.
"Saul really messed her up."
“I’m very worried about her.”
“So am I,” he murmured.
"I still can't believe Saul is going out with Julia."
"She's only going out with him because Ronny dumped her," Xavier scoffed.
"How do you know?"
Xavier's eyebrows furrowed. "My cousins were talking. You know I usually don't care about gossip, but this was about our friend Moonflower."
Selena let out a sigh. "Saul is a worse idiot than I thought. Julia is only using him."
"He's really changed since having made the football team."
Selena grimaced. "I thought he would snap out of it."
"Me too. I thought he'd realize how stupid he was acting."
Selena sighed again as she recalled certain events. Saul had been going out with the other guys from the team and hadn't wanted to double date with Xavier and her anymore. He had asked Moonflower to start applying her make-up better and to trim her hair more stylishly. He also wanted her to start wearing more black outfits to hide her supposed flaws. Selena had been furious and told Moonflower that she needed to put him firmly in his place. Moonflower had said he was just going through a phase, and Selena had hoped it was true.
Xavier gave Selena directions and they soon drove into the driveway of a sprawling one-story house. It was as beautiful as Blake Montgomery's home but in a different way. It seemed to fit very comfortably, unlike the Montgomery home, in the desert. While this house was a creamy beige, the trim and shutters on the windows were a pastel turquoise green. In front of it stood a fountain with scarlet brick around it, and water shooting from a dark-orange clay pot sitting in the middle.
"Whose house is this?" Selena asked, overwhelmed.
"You're not letting this house intimidate you, are you?"
"Maybe a little."
"You know what I'm going to say,” Xavier chided. It hadn't been that long ago when he had taken her to where he lived at his uncle's house, and she had been in a stupor with the opulent mini-mansion.
"It's just a house," Selena murmured.
"Right."
"So whose house is this anyway?" Selena asked, more than a little curious.
"My Uncle Paul’s."
"Your Uncle Paul lives here?"
"He just moved back in town, and he wants to meet you."
"He does?"
Xavier gave her his movie star sparkler. "I'm going to finally get to introduce you to someone from my family."
Selena returned his smile. "I thought the day would never come."
"Let me tell you a few things before we get in there."
"What do you want to tell me?"
"My uncle used to be a jerk too like my uncle Blake," Xavier informed her.
"He was?"
"He wasn't really that much of a jerk, but he was so influenced by Uncle Blake that he acted like him. He married an old girlfriend of my Uncle Blake so you can imagine what she was like. Uncle Paul couldn't have children, so she eventually left him for his best friend."
"Man, that's rough."
"After his pride stopped hurting, he realized he was relieved that she had left him. He had never really loved her."
"He was married to someone he didn't love?" Selena asked, surprised. “Why would anybody get married without love?”
Selena met the intensity of his eyes with her own. "I'd hate to be with someone I didn't love."
Xavier nodded, smiling. "Me too."
"So what happened after that?"
"He went over his life and realized he wasn't who he wanted to be."
"Who did he want to be?"
"He didn't want to be Uncle Blake," Xavier stated. "I think that's why he went on the road and traveled."
"To find himself?"
"Yes."
"How did he do?" Selena asked.
"He completely changed and he's married again."
"What's his new wife like?"
"I haven't met her face to face, but I've talked to her. She's the total opposite of his first wife and . . ."
“Yes? And what?”
“I have to warn you,” he stated with mystery.
“Warn me about what?”
“She’s kind of different.”