Accidental Love by Gary Soto Read Free Book Online Page A

Marisa whined to Rene.
    "You can try whisper-singing," Rene suggested. "And there's so many of us that if we sound really bad no one will notice." He took Marisa's hand into his. "You were great up there. They should have given you a speaking part."
    "Get out of here!" Giggling, Marisa unlaced her fingers from his hand. "I was terrible and you know it!" She had been asked to read lines—she was playing Juliet's mother—and she fumbled the ancient words, finally slapping the book against her thigh and saying to the drama coach, "People don't talk like this!" Holding her book up to her face to hide her embarrassed laughter, Marisa moved stage left while the director countered, "Oh, no, you did very, very well."
    "No, really, we can practice singing. I'm going to practice in the shower." Rene then asked, "So how did I carry myself?"
    So how did I carry myself?
she pondered. For a moment Marisa assumed that he was quoting Shakespeare because he sounded—what was that word?—
theatrical.
He sounded English.
    "What do you mean?"
    "In my audition!"
    Rene had read the part of Mercutio.
    "You were tight."
    "I was tight? I was that good?" Rene beamed and scratched his knee absently. "I have something to confess, Marisa."
    Marisa snuggled up to him. "What, buddy boy?" She could smell his breath flavored with chewing gum.
    "Well, you may not believe this, but I'm not really what you think I am." He flirted by blinking his eyelashes.
    "What?" Marisa wanted to know everything about her first boyfriend, to delve into his secrets. He was gangly and smart, and had an odd laugh. But what wheels turned inside his head?
    "I'm not really a nerd."
    Marisa covered her mouth with her hand, laughing. She slapped his shoulder. "Yeah, you are."
    "No, really! I'm very Shakespearean, very manly!"
    Marisa laughed. Rene bent over and, through the fingers covering his mouth, honked out a funny ducklike laugh.

    But Marisa was convinced that he was a nerd when he rode his bike to the car wash sponsored by her old high school that weekend. It was midmorning
and the car wash was going poorly—only three cars had been washed and vacuumed. And the principal's car, a large Buick, was nasty with fingerprints all over the window and the ashtray filled with cigarette butts. He hadn't bothered to clean it up even a little bit.
    Rene was holding his hand over his nose as he rode up.
    "What happened?" Marisa first thought that he was going to pull his hand away from his face and reveal a fake nose and possibly a set of vampire teeth. But when he did she saw a rivulet of blood.
    "I fell off my bike," he explained as he rolled his bicycle toward the chain-link fence near the tennis courts.
    "Someone jumped you, huh?" She scanned the street.
    One of the girls from Washington approached them. "Who's he?"
    Without answering, Marisa led Rene to the curb, where he sat, head back, the blood staining his throat. A coin of blood fell and splashed onto his wrist.
    "How did it happen?" she asked again, this time sternly.
    Rene shrugged.
    Marisa had got into fights and had won some and lost others—one of the losses showed in a faint jagged scar under her chin, which at night in bed she would trace with her finger. She'd bloodied noses and had her own nose blossom with blood from roundhouse punches. It didn't matter to her—life, as she had discovered so far, was mostly knocks and punches. But she felt rudely offended that her boyfriend—he
was
her boyfriend, wasn't he?—would be smacked around. He was so sweet. Who would hurt him?
    Right then Roberto showed up, driving his parents' car. Marisa watched him emerge from the car, hugging friends and giving peace signs to those who were too cool to step forward. He jumped when someone sprayed him with the hose.
    "Wait here," she instructed Rene. She got up and approached Roberto.
    "Hey, girl," Roberto greeted.
    "Hey yourself. She's not here."
    Roberto slammed the car door.
    "Who?" he asked, owl-like.
    "You know who." She