An unseasonably hot late-May sun beat down on the smooth concrete comprising the driveway and sidewalk around the Herrera household, a faux-watery mirage increasingly glistening off each of its pieces the farther away you looked. It wasn't just the light that was hot, either–the air itself had a bone-dry taste to it, the kind that makes you thirsty if you so much as breathe too hard. Even the rocks-and-cacti landscaping in front of the house seemed maladjusted to the warmth, with the sparse green succulents appearing more brown and cracked with each passing minute.

Of course, none of this would be a problem, thought Eduardo 'Lalo' Vasquez-Herrera, as he crossed his arms and leaned against the hood of his car, if we had just sprung for a normal lawn like everyone else in the neighborhood. The designer denim of his True Religion jeans provided little protection against the frying-pan metal of the black Honda Civic supporting his weight.

"Oi, Mijito! Sometime this year, maybe?" Lalo rapped the outside of the garage. On cue, the door rolled open with a crinkly groan, and a small, dark boy with an equal amount of grass stains and minor scrapes on his stick-like legs stumbled out into the blistering heat. "A-ha! Now where was that speed at the game ten minutes ago? Where was this Jesse?"

The boy scowled back. "Jerk. If you're not going to give me time to change out of my uniform, I'm not coming inside the store with you." He reached down to brush off his socks, in a vain effort to remove already-caked mud that had snuck deep into the fibers of the cotton. "And Mama said you're not allowed to call me Mijito anymore. I'm not a baby."

Lalo pulled open the driver's side door, its hinge emitting a small squeak as it reached the end of its arc. He clicked his tongue and grimaced–yet another thing to fix once he got back. The blue Adidas shoebox perched on top of the Civic shuddered with the swing of the door, lost its grip on the edge of the roof, and began to fall.

Halfway down to the ground, Lalo's eyes darted to the side, and his arm extended instinctively, slowing its descent and bringing it up into an tuck underneath his shoulder. "Ah, there you go, little friend." He tapped the box with his other hand. "Can't have you taking a tumble, now."

"Whoa." Little Jesse had already made his way into the passenger side, with beads of sweat forming on his forehead from the oven-like interior. "Good catch."

"Of course–some of us actually work on developing our reflexes." Smirking, Lalo jumped into the driver's seat and dropped the shoebox onto Jesse's lap. "And the price of admission for this show is carrying the box the whole way there."

"I am working on it, idiot. You didn't have to deal with someone like Val Esperanza back when you were in the league," Jesse pouted. "And this box stinks. Can't we just put it in the back?"

"No way. I'm not letting any of that touch the new seats. Kills the vibe with the ladies." Lalo flicked his little brother's forehead. "Speaking of which, why don't you try to put the Herrera moves on that Val girl? Maybe she could actually show you how to play football–you know, once she finishes laughing at you for getting put on the bench by a girl," he laughed as the engine roared to life.

Jesse put both his arms on the shoebox, angling his face away from his lap. "Pfft, nah, she's stuck-up. Doesn't even talk to anybody at the games. I heard her parents are too loaded to show up to her games, but they pay for her to take private coaching three times a week."

"Tsk. Sounds like a waste of money. She's gonna give it up like that," Lalo snapped his fingers, "as soon as she gets into middle school. Nothing makes a chick stop acting like a boy like finally getting attention from some." He elbowed his little brother across the driver's console.

"I don't know. She's pretty good. Coach says she could get a scholarship and go pro if she kept trying."

"A scholarship? For girl's football?" Lalo scoffed as he flipped up the air conditioning and whipped the car out of the driveway. "What a fuckin' world. Hope those fancy University people don't mind when she gets knocked up freshman year by some white boy and ends up back here and flat broke."

Jesse bit his lip and furrowed his brow. "Val wouldn't do that. She's different."

Lalo ruffled his brother's hair and laid back in his seat as he floored the pedal and swerved out of the neighborhood, tires squealing and trailing smoke pouring out of the exhaust behind them. "Ah, see, Mijito, that's a good thing! That will bring her down to your level, and then she might be able to ignore how badly you suck at football."

Jesse fell silent and stared out the passenger window.

Ah, he'll get it someday. Lalo smiled to himself, gunned the engine and flicked on the stereo, last night's Chief Keef album jolting mid-808 into the poorly-EQ'd speakers, the old iPod Nano connected to the aux cord vibrating in the cupholder.

The ride continued with much of the same, with rattling hi-hats and overloud bass backing slurred auto-tune lyrics, only somewhat muffled by the ironically unmuffled engine. Jesse would occasionally sniffle, but his face was glued to out the window, blocked from Lalo's view–who himself barely cared, as he turned in and out of strip malls, trying to retrace his steps from the previous weekend.

Close to giving up, he pulled into the farthest plaza at the edge of the retail part of town, where only two palm trees rose up out of the sea of asphalt so bleached that it was impossible to tell if colored lines had ever once been painted on top–either way, orchestrated parking was well out of the realm of possibility.

Lalo was unsure if this was the place he had found–but he vaguely remembered in his crossfaded haze being obsessed with the particular way the neon of an orange body bled into a white stripe, and so he figured that the shop with the clownfish in its logo was the most likely candidate. He pulled right to the door, with his car angled horizontally against the curb, taking up a theoretical three parking spaces (though again, the lack of lines made this conjecture at best), rotated and flicked out the keys, and jogged up to the door, with little Jesse wandering right behind.

He swung open the glass door. A gust reeking of saltwater and fish waste arrested his face, causing him to scrunch his nose in disgust–though he noted that, at the very least, the air was finally sort of cool.

"Welcome to Hector's Aquatic Pets and Reptiles!" A curvy, shorter girl on a ladder at the back of the store turned around and called out as she grabbed a bag of flakes from the top shelf. "I'll be with you in a moment!"

Lalo waved a hand in greeting. "You got the box?" Jesse nodded and placed it in Lalo's hands, who then placed the Adidas shoebox on the granite counter, its surface grimy and stained with various fluids and flakes. He sighed and scanned around the store, trying to remember which aisle he had found those snakes with which he had telepathically communicated during that same outing last weekend.

The girl was still up on the ladder, and was now trying to grab a much heavier bag of feed from the shelf. Lalo slicked the sides of his hair back, fluffed up the top, and leaned against the counter with one thumb looped around his True Religions before he called out to her. "Need help up there, mama?"

Jesse rolled his eyes.

She turned back in mild surprise, then paused. Lalo could tell she was undressing him with her eyes–he knew he had such an effect on women, and had picked out this particular tank top, gold chain, and hairstyle to maximize his appeal for this situation. He had even done a handful of reps with the dumbbells in the garage to give his arms and back just a little extra pump; he had remembered the employee that had been here last time as a particularly flirty middle-aged woman, but it was all just as good that it was a chick about his own age.

Maybe even better.

"Ah… uh, sure! If you don't mind?"

"Not at all. Not… at… all." Lalo drew out his words as moved over to the ladder, then began his ascent up to the top where she already was.

"Oh gosh… I don't think this ladder is rated for two people, do you want me to step off?"

"Just stay right… there." Lalo stood behind her on a step below, reaching his longer arms up to the bag, 'accidentally' spooning the employee girl in the process. He slung it over his shoulder, then descended first, followed by the girl, whose hand he held to steady her on her way down. "See? No need to worry."

"I suppose so…" she cooed, batting her long, fake eyelashes. Her nametag, now visible, read 'Sadie', with cursive so flourished it was barely legible, but with a little heart over the 'i'. "Can you bring that over to the counter for me?"

"Of course. Sadie, was it?" Lalo spoke with a breathy voice, lowering its pitch about half an octave below the normal.

"My, my… how did you know?"

"You pick up a few things when you get around." Lalo flashed a devilish smile.

Jesse started to raise his fist to his face, intending to cough loudly to stop the cliche playing out right in front of him, but as he tried to do so, his elbow bumped into a small, unstable stand of beach-theme stickers on top of the counter, which fell over and clattered its plastic hooks against the granite.

The teenagers from across the store snapped their faces up to the source of the crash–both bearing an expression of frustration at the child for interrupting their moment. Lalo mouthed a "seriously? now?" in his little brother's direction, before regaining his composure.

"Sorry, I was just–"

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"Jesse, could you please clean up your mess? Let's not give our already-busy friend here more work to do just because you cannot control your own body." Lalo admonished, gesturing towards the spillage before turning back to Sadie. "After all, somebody so lovely has absolutely no business cleaning a floor."

"Oh, thank you!" Sadie blushed, again, and placed a hand on Lalo's upper arm. "So, what brings a handsome stranger like you in today? Was my 'lovely' self that compelling?"

"I do wish that were the case," Lalo put his arm behind Sadie's back and led her back over to the counter, "but I must admit, I do have some particular business to take care of with your store." He rapped the top of the shoebox. "You see, I purchased an animal from your store last weekend, and unfortunately it's not looking like it's going to work out."

"I see. That's unfortunate." Sadie nodded as she popped behind the counter and wiggled a computer mouse, the default Windows XP background reflecting in her eyes. "That's kinda weird though, since most of our pets here are extremely friendly–what was the issue you had, exactly?"

"Well, you see, it is not an issue with the creature itself, so much…" Lalo tried to piece the words together in his head, cracking the knuckles on his thumb. "The purchase was made during a more… optimistic state of mind, but schedules are schedules, and obligations are obligations, and I ended up not really having the capacity that I thought I would have…"

"Oh!" Sadie's eyes glittered with recognition. "You must be the 'slick young thing' my mom mentioned to me–the one that brought home Tommy Turtleson last week. We were sad to see him go, but she said you seemed like a responsible young man."

"Right! Tommy was its name." Lalo snapped his fingers as his face lit up.

"You called it 'the Shellbong' all night, anyway…" Jesse piped up from the floor, where he was still picking up stickers.

"Regardless–and it's quite sad, I agree–Tommy and I were not a great fit. As such, I'm here to see if I can return our little shelled friend…" Lalo looked down, shifting his eyes back and forth. "Er, and have payment remitted, as well."

"Well, there's usually a restocking fee of fifty or so, but… we may be able to make an exception for friends of the family…" Sadie gave a sly grin, then put her elbow on her desk and her chin in her hand, looking up at Lalo and slightly pursing her red lips.

"How considerate. I'm sure the Shellbo–I mean, Tommy, must've loved spending all day in the company of such understanding and beautiful people. I can't help but feel jealous. Perhaps we could discuss our friendship over dinner tonight?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea." Sadie stood back up, double-clicked something on the computer, typed a few things, then grabbed the warm sheet of paper as it choked out of the nearby printer. "So, you'll just need to fill out a few things here–just your name, reason for the return, and then we'll need to do just a quick look-over of…"

Jesse sighed. His older brother's 'smooth-talking' voice always grated on him. It wasn't so much the the tone, or the words–it was the veneer of absolute confidence, compassion, and understanding, backed by absolutely nothing other than a sociopathic charisma and admittedly great genetics. He knew that Lalo only brought him along because having a little kid there made him look like he was good with children, something every teenage girl seemed to buy hook, line, and sinker.

A particular sticker, buried underneath the generic-as-can-be 'Fun in the Sun!'-s, caught Jesse's eye, a creature with sea-green scales and vicious maw poking out with holographic flash from the suns-with-sunglasses. Fishing it out, he held the sticker in his hands, its hard plastic solid and heavy in his hands, and as he moved it around, the image changed to show the creature opening its mouth to reveal savage, serrated rows of teeth. 'Legend of the Palma Leviathan', the Papyrus font beneath the creature read.

He'd never seen anything so beautiful–until the bell on the door rang open, and a pair of canvas Vans atop ripped jeans stood in front of him. His eyes followed up the wiry legs to see a dark-haired, heavily tanned fellow sixth-grader with her hair in a low ponytail and a white stained 'Hector's Aquatic Pets' t-shirt.

And yet, in those beaten-up clothes, she was the prettiest girl Jesse had ever seen.

"Hey! Sis! I'm back from the game!" The girl stepped forward, and, not seeing Jesse, promptly slammed her shin against his knee–to which he let out a little yelp. She jumped back and immediately kneeled down next to him. "Oh, shoot! I didn't see you! Are you okay?!"

Jesse's eyes were glued shut as he tried to fight back tears, not wanting to cry in front of this new girl or Lalo. Something about the way that shin hit his knee felt familiar, the small amount of muscle that pressed into him feeling like titanium at its thinnest and yet like tough rubber at its thickest. It's almost like he'd been hit like this before…

"V-Val…?" He pried his eyes open.

"…sorry, do I know you?" She cocked her head to the side.

"We're… on… the same… team. Just played a game together?" Jesse was still fighting back tears, trying to not let his voice break.

Val's expression grew concerned. "You sure? I mean, I've seen the uniform before… wait, one second…" She put her hand on Jesse's back, then leaned him forward while she peered over his head. "Oh! The Herrera kid! Sorry, I'm really bad with faces."

"S'okay." Jesse mumbled, then sniffled. "What are you doing here? Your parents need some feed for their sharks? Don't you have servants for that?"

"Ha, what?" Val stood up. "I've been working here for a while, and we definitely don't own any sharks–that I know of, at least. This is my dad's store."

"Oh. Do you have foreign clients or something? Or…" Jesse hushed his voice and leaned up towards Val's ear. "…is this a front for illegal animal sales?"

Val gently shoved him back down. "Look, uh, no. And if it were, I definitely wouldn't be telling some random from my soccer team."

"Soccer?"

"Football, sorry. My dad gets mad when I talk like a European." She looked up towards the cashier counter, looking at the two teenagers making googly-eyes at each other. "Who's that up there making eyes with my sister?"

"My brother." Jesse stood up, holding the once-fallen stickers in his hand. "Half-brother, really. He's kind of shady." He put the stickers back on the stand, though he palmed the Leviathan and began to slide it into his pocket, just out of sight of Val.

Her eyes darted down to his hand as it moved. "So are you, apparently." With lightning speed, she grabbed his wrist and Jesse's heart skipped a beat–both from being caught and from her touching him. "Whatcha trying to take, there?" She opened his fingers and saw the sticker inside.

"Oh, this must've stuck to my hand…" Jesse looked up and to the left.

"Sure, sure. It's a cool design. I don't love what it represents, though." Val peeled the sticker off of his sticky palm and put it back on the stand. "Stuff like this either scares people from going in the ocean, or gets a bunch of crazies out there trying to find something that doesn't exist. And why do that when there are a ton of fun, friendly animals that are actually in the ocean?"

"I guess, y-yeah." Jesse responded, still shook.

"Mm." Val mosied over past the counter and hoisted herself on the window sill, just behind Sadie. "What we got here, Sis?"

"Oh, Val. You're back." Sadie didn't even look up, still focused on watching Lalo fill out the sheet of paper. "He's just filling out some paperwork so he can return Tommy."

"Whoa, really? Tommy Turtleson is coming back?" Val jumped down from the counter and looked up at her sister. "I missed him so much!"

Sadie let out a half-sigh, half-groan. "You know we have to sell pets in order to make money, right? Don't let Dad hear you say things like that."

Val's eyes scanned around the store. "Whatever. Where's Tommy? I want to feed him again."

Lalo ignored Val entirely, and Sadie shrugged her shoulders.

Jesse grimaced, then pointed at the shoebox on the counter.

With that same speed, Val gripped the shoebox, her short fingernails failing to peel off the tape that sealed the box. "Come on guys, you can't just keep him like that in there, he's going to suffocate without air holes!"

"I don't Tommy minds so much at this point…" Jesse rubbed his sweaty hands together. Lalo remained unperturbed.

Val's fingers finally caught hold against the tape, and in one motion she flung open the top of the box. A rotten, awful smell poofed out from the box, overwhelming everyone in the vicinity, and Val stood, dumbfounded, looking into the box.

Jesse moved forward. Inside laid Tommy, legs splayed out, head bent at an unnatural angle, prone and upside down in the box, not moving a single millimeter.

"T-… T-… Tommy…?" Val stuttered, reaching into the box and pulling out the turtle carcass, cradling it in her palms.

Sadie watched as well, a disgusted expression creeping across her makeup'd features as she turned to Lalo. "Y-you… you didn't say–"

Lalo raised his hands in mock arrest. "What? You didn't ask."

"W-was he…" Sadie tripped over her words, "er, had he… you know, passed… before you came here?"

Lalo shrugged. "Like I said, it just didn't work out." Jesse faced away and pretended to browse the stickers, secretly watching Val's face as it scrunched and melted.

"Look," Sadie gathered her wits. "I don't know if we can accept a deceased… pet, but maybe we could work out some sort of store credit–"

Cracking his neck and strecthing out his fingers, Lalo frowned. "Look, I'm not trying to be a pain, but I spent good money on that little guy, and it's not like I'm going to be walking out with another animal if the last one didn't work out."

"You monster." Val growled from beneath the counter, holding Tommy's body against her chest. She stood up and accosted Lalo. "You killed Tommy!"

"Hey, sis, let's not be rash… he's a customer, after all…" Sadie held her sister's shoulder.

"You both need to leave." Val snarled. "Now."

"Listen, you're clearly worked up. Why don't you go kick the ball around outside again, and then when you're calmed down we can talk about–" Sadie tried to push Val out of the cashier area.

"Shut up." Val snapped back. "You're defending him? Just because he was nice to you? News flash! Some handsome boy isn't going to marry your pregnant ass because you let him murder helpless animals and still get his money back! And if he does, that doesn't make him any less of a piece of shit."

Jesse backed away towards the door. Lalo rolled his eyes.

Sadie clutched her stomach. "You… know about…?"

"Yeah, I do." Val planted her feet right outside the counter. "And you know what? You're just as bad as him." She pointed at Lalo. "I bet you would kill Tommy, too, just to get in this monster's pants."

"Whoa, now, ladies, there's a lot of emotions running high, here." Lalo spoke calmly, with an assured tone. "I'm just trying to run some errands with my sweet little brother, here. So why don't you just refund me, take back your little friend, and we'll all move on with our lives."

Sadie drew out a long breath. "I'm sorry, my sister is extreme, but she's sort of right–we can't let you return a deceased animal–we're just a small family business, and we can't really eat a loss like that…"

Val continued to glare at the brothers.

"Well, looks like this situation has also turned unfortunate." Lalo gripped the bottom of his tank top and began to lift up.

"No… no… don't do this, Lalo…" Jesse mumbled as he shielded his face and leaned against the door.

Above Lalo's six-pack abs, on top of one of his well-formed pectoral muscles, laid a fresh tattoo–a whaling spear wrapped by a snake. He looked down, then up at the sisters. "I'm assuming you know what this is?"

Both girls gulped, both slowly nodding.

"Good. Then you know that it's really best if you don't cause trouble for me and my brother, here. You must understand, I really, really wouldn't want any accidents to befall your fine store, especially because of one bad customer experience. Wouldn't you agree?"

Sadie nodded again. Val still stood, frozen.

Lalo turned to Val. "And you, as well, understand what I am saying?"

Val held Tommy even tighter to her chest, then bolted out to the back of the store and out the exit by the ladder.

Even though she was already gone, Jesse waved a slight goodbye.

"Ah, good, now we can speak like adults. You'll be providing a full refund, correct?"

Turning the key, Sadie opened the cash drawer, grabbed a small pile of hundreds, and silently placed it on the counter, next to the now-empty shoebox.

Lalo slid the money off the counter and flipped through the bills in his hands. "Ah, you even threw in an extra couple for my trouble! How thoughtful." He stashed the bills in his pocket and gestured to Jesse. "Another successful trip. Thank you for your service, and God bless your beautiful store."

Sadie choked out a goodbye as the two brothers swung the door out of the store.

As they drove away, Jesse looked and saw Val, face marred by tears, with a soccer ball in between her folded legs, still staring down at Tommy.

Yep, Jesse thought to himself. As usual for us.