"Throw me the remote," says my egoistical brother.

I give him a once-over and roll my eyes. "You had your turn yesterday," I reply with attitude.

His eyes darted to mine in a hurry and he got up quickly. I watched as he made his way over to my spot on the couch and stood in front of me with his arms crossed over his chest. "Give me the remote right now or else I'm going to tell on you," he threatens.

I raise my eyebrow in amusement, thinking of the inexistent evidence he was supposedly going to blackmail me with.

"What?" he furrows his forehead.

"You have nothing against me," I tell him after realizing I had been squinting my eyes at him for a minute now.

The corner of his lip quirks up. "I do."

I tilt my head in disbelief.

"You came home with a boy yesterday."

My eyes, which had wandered back to the screen, reflecting some reality show, darted back to his.

Then, a mischievous idea popped up in my head. "Don't tell Mama," I play along, trying to get him to fall for my act.

His face, overshadowed by a dark look, shifted to the kitchen as he looked around for our mother.

"Give me the remote then."

"I can't," I admit. "I gotta find out how the wife spent 50k on the bathroom shower," I continue, pointing at the TV.

He sighs while shrugging. "Then you leave me no choice..." He clears his throat. "MAMA!" He yells out. "ARIANA CAME HOME WITH A BOY, YESTERDAY!"

My mom rushed through the kitchen and stared at us with wide eyes. "Ariana did what??"

He nodded his head innocently. "Instead of studying, she went to hang around with boys."

She approached me slowly, her expression darkening as she did until she reached the foot of the sofa. "This better not be true, Ariana..." She warns me.

I slowly look down at the palms of my hands, resting on my lap. I made sure to show as much guilt as possible. "It's true, mom."

She lets out an exaggeratedly long breath of air while she slams her hands on her hips. "Ariana you know how much your father expects from you," her mouth moved with a frown. "You can't afford to be wasting your time with boys! If you're going to be a doctor, you have to stay focused on the path you'll be taking! Who's this boy?"

My gaze quietly shifted upwards to meet her piercing eyes. "Andrew," I admit whilst trying to suppress a knowing smile from fading in.

Suddenly, her look shifted. "Andrew?" She said In surprise. "What a nice man he is! Un hijo bien criado..." She pursed her lower lip in pride as she nodded.

Cristian's face fell in disappointment.

Not what you expected, huh?

Just give it up, brother. You'll never win against me...

Her body turns to face him. "Don't scare me like that, Cristian! Your sister has her priorities right, unlike you..." She rolled her eyes as she walked away.

He plopped down on the seat next to me in defeat. "Even after I got my life together, I'll always be second place to you," his voice said dramatically.

"You'll never compare to me-" I shrug before getting cut off.

My mother's head pops up from behind the wall. "Ariana you better have cleaned your room," she warns. "Maria is coming over today.

My heart drops at the statement.

Why does no one tell me anything??

"Is... he going to come...?" I ask discreetly, hoping for a negative answer.

Her eyes stare up at the ceiling and land back on mine. "His mother said he's too busy with work. I don't think so."

I sigh in relief.

"Now go clean your room! We can't afford to have guests over while your room is a mess!"

Were they going to gossip in my room or something?

I lean back into the pillows, unhappy that I'd have to resign my rights to the remote to my annoying brother.

"Give it to me, now," his hand waits for me, expectantly.

"No," I refuse, out of pettiness.

"Please!" He begs. "Hell's Kitchen is starting in like two minutes!"

Hell's Kitchen?

I slapped the controller on his lap as soon as he finished his sentence. "Why didn't you say so?"

Cristian stared at me in annoyance, snatching the remote from his lap with attitude.

He really was a child in a man's body.

About an hour later, the doorbell rang and I rushed downstairs to greet the guests with my mom. The problem was that no one was at the door and only an unusual person was seated on the couch.

"Ariana," the voice belonging to the individual, greets me with worry.

I froze at the bottom of the stairs, afraid of what was expected to come. I slowly made my way over and took a seat at the opposite spot. "Why are you here?" I ask with hesitation.

Isabella took a deep breath in while her eyes flickered around the layout of the house. Tension was in the air, and I could feel it. "I'm here to..." She leaves her sentence hanging.

I stared at her with expectation.

Apologize? Is that what she was going to say?

She examined me uncomfortably before puffing and finishing what she wanted to say.

"... apologize."

I frowned a little, taken aback by the words. I expected her to say that, but I didn't think she'd actually do it.

"You are?" I question uncertainly.

Bella's lips set in a hard line. "Yes," she says. "I've thought over what you told me... And I realized that maybe I was wrong."

Maybe?

Never mind, I should be glad she ever realized that.

A quiet silence filled the room. The ticking noise of the clock kept my mind from wandering around to the multiple ways I could tell her that I had forgiven her.

"It's okay Bella, I-"

"No, it's not okay, Ari," she frowns. "You know that I had no right to judge you when I've never experienced things your way. I was wrong and I'm sorry I made you feel like that this whole time. It was very selfish of me."

I pursed my lips awkwardly. "I forgive you, but I also shouldn't have-"

"Stop with this!" She whines. Her forehead had furrowed while her eyes flashed with sorrow. "Ariana, it hurts me to see the extent you're willing to go to just to please others. Even to me, your own blood, you're afraid of saying how you feel just so I don't get mad at you," She says with pain in her voice.

I looked down in guilt.

"I'm sorry Ari, I really am, but I wish you could make an effort towards standing up for yourself," she acknowledges. "I just can't believe that even that cold-hearted asshole stood up for you, while you couldn't."

"I know," I reply.

I didn't know what else to say, but it seemed by the way she was staring at me, that Isabella was waiting for a certain answer. I didn't know what else to tell her. I knew that I couldn't stand up for myself. What else should I have said?

A sigh leaves her mouth and she gets up in a swift move. "Okay, well, I hope we can go back to normal after this. I have to go apologize to Laurie now. It's kind of weird, finding out that you've been a control freak this entire time."

A breathy laugh escapes my mouth and I get up to walk her to the door. "I wish you luck with Laurie," I beam up at her.

A smile made its way across her face when she realized that I was genuine. "I'll see you at school, then."

I waved her goodbye and shut the door behind her.

Well, that was overwhelming.

Surprising in a way, also.

Maybe even eye-opening?

Who knew my well-being affected her this much?

My heart warmed at the thought.

I shook my head and dashed to my room, focused on getting it sparkling clean before anyone else rang the bell. Getting inside, I looked at the barely obvious mess in my room. There wasn't too much work left to do since I had been able to clean almost everything in about an hour. Maybe just a couple of papers hanging around here and there, but that was all. Taking the opportunity, I decided to reward myself for my work.

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"Alexa," I call out to my A.I., the blue ring lighting up. "Play my liked songs on Spotify, please."

Remember to always be nice to your robots, kids. So when they take over the world, the chance of sparing you or killing you, after everyone else, will be slightly higher than the average person.

"Now playing your liked songs on Spotify," she replied in a monotone voice as the music began.

Break Free by Ariana Grande starts to play on my speaker, bringing the fangirl in me out of her shell.

I grabbed the broom that was leaning against the wall next to my door and prepared myself for the song to begin.

If you want it, take it.

I should've said it before.

I sang along to the beat of the song and pretended that the broom I was holding was my dance partner. I spun and fell to the ground, posing as if I was getting hit by imaginary bullets. With every passing lyric, I tried to act as if I were in that same exact scenario.

I only wanna die alive, never by the hands of a broken heart.

Ooh.

My heart pumped as I danced around, exaggerating my moves.

I don't wanna hear you lie tonight,

Now that I've become who I really am.

I stopped and looked down, waiting for the beat to drop.

"This is, the part when I say I don't want ya, I'm stronger than I've been before! This is, the part when I break free, 'cause I can't resist it no more!" I sing into the broom, using it as a microphone.

Ariana Grande's voice reverberated throughout the room while I had trouble catching my breath due to the dancing around. Finally, at the bridge of the song, I sucked in a deep breath and prepared for my time to shine.

I dropped to the ground and slid my hands along my body as slowly as I could, trying to reach every inch. "Thought of your body I came alive! It was lethal, it was fatal. In my dreams, it felt so right. But I woke up, every time!"

Jumping up on cue, I sang with every ounce of my lungs. "Ooh, baby!" I attempted to run and grab the broom, that I let go of before, but stubbed my toe along the way.

"Ow!!!" I whined in pain, hopping up and down while squeezing my toe to try to ease the pain. I grabbed the shelf positioned on top of my desk for support while the continuing music interfered with my pain receptors.

Suddenly, I heard the already opened door burst open and Andrew walked in with a deepened frown on his face. "What happened?" He asks, trying to get me to hear him over the loud music.

In surprise, I shifted all my weight to the hand holding onto the shelf for dear life and ended up breaking it, making me fall and all the books, that were placed on top, slid down and landed on my head.

I yelled out an 'Ow!' each time a book made contact with my body.

I felt like Hiro in that one scene from Big Hero 6.

"Alexa! Stop the music!" I cry out in pain.

My body was aching from head to toe and I couldn't bear to feel the embarrassment when I faced Andrew.

It was my fault.

Why would I think of doing this while they were on the way to our house? And most importantly, why was he here?

As the pain slowly faded away, I remained on the ground, still holding onto my poor, poor toe. Andrew walked closer to me and squatted down. I refused to make eye contact with him, in shame. I was afraid his eyes would show how disgusted he was.

Had he been watching the entire time?

He reached out his hand but stopped midway, retracting. Finally, I gained the courage to face him and raised my eyes to connect with his. A faint look of worry flashed across his eyes. His messy black hair poked out everywhere while he stared down at me in uncertainty. Then, he faced his head away from me. I had a perfect view of his side profile. Although it didn't show a lot, a bright pink colour tinted his cheeks. Noticing that same colour covering the tip of his ear, I tried to think of all the reasons why his face was flushed.

"Why is your face red?" I risk asking him.

His face quickly turned to face me and his eyebrows furrowed deeper.

"Because I ran up the stairs when I heard something fall," he says with his deep voice.

I don't believe a single word. I could tell he was lying by the look on his face. No one would be this red just by going up the stairs.

"You're lying," I state.

"No, I'm not," he pleads not guilty.

"You are," I argue.

"I'm not," he frowns.

"You saw me dance to her," I try to get him to break.

He sighs and runs a hand through his dark thick hair. "I didn't see you dance to Ariana Grande," he claims, freezing after the deed was done.

He slipped up.

I started to whimper exaggeratedly, letting my head fall on my folded knees.

"I promise not to tell anyone," he offers.

"I don't care," I whine. "You saw me do that sexy dance thing or whatever," I explain, looking back up at him.

His face turned a different shade of pink as he tried to respond. "I-I didn't."

I stared at him in humiliation, taking in the flushed look on his face.

Why did it have to be him? Why couldn't Bella have walked in on me instead?

This was so embarrassing. I was running my hands up and down my body while he was watching me, probably cringed out.

I groaned into my hands.

"Are you sure you won't tell anyone?" I ask with a quiet voice.

A blank expression covered his face while he answered. "I won't."

With a sigh, I get up in one swift move and make sure that my legs are still working.

Yep, they are.

I make my way over to my bed and plop down on it. Sitting cross-legged, I stare at the man standing in the middle of the room.

He was looking down at the floor, standing awkwardly in front of my desk. His white t-shirt clung to his body, putting his muscles in the spotlight. He then shoved his hands into the pockets of his grey sweats. I watched as the muscles in his arms flexed while he did so.

Looking back up, he locked eyes with me, catching me staring.

Shoot. I need to change the subject, quickly.

"Why are you standing there awkwardly?" I ask, clearing my throat. "Come sit on the bed."

Does that sound weird?

Listening to me, he comes over, making me feel a dip in my bed.

I'm gonna sniff every inch of that bed when you leave, little boy.

WOAH! WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?!

I need to control my intrusive thoughts.

Yeah, he was a good-looking guy, but I wasn't going to go to that extent.

For a while, we both sat in silence. I listened to his quiet breathing, while the scene that happened just now, replayed over and over in my head.

Should I be saying something? This was so awkward.

"You sing well," he says out of the blue.

Catching me off guard, I straighten up. "Oh... thanks."

No one's ever told me that. I mean, probably because I don't sing in front of people. I can't even say "no", so how would I ever be able to sing in front of a crowd?

The returning silence created tension in the room.

I was about to say something when my brother suddenly popped up from behind the door.

"Why are you guys sitting like that?" He asks with a furrowed expression, confusion plastered on his lips.

I straighten my back again. "What do you mean?"

He shakes his head in annoyance. "Never mind."

Hold on, did he hear what happened? I hoped not.

"Did you just come from downstairs?" I question him, reaching for a conclusion to my question.

"Yeah, I was talking to tía Maria. She's really sweet," he nods in approval.

"She is," I agree.

Cristian's eyes then land on the man sitting beside me. "So you're Andrew?"

Of course, he is. Who else would it be? I roll my eyes at his stupid question.

Andrew's eyes squint at him in suspicion before slowly nodding.

"Cool, cool," he leaned on the doorframe. "You're pretty fit for your age, you know?"

Once again, Andrew simply nodded.

"Why didn't your father come?"

"I don't have a father," he answers coldly, darkness flashing in his eyes.

Cristian tenses and clears his throat. "And here I thought I was gonna be the scary older brother. That boy is terrifying." He mumbles to himself, loud enough for us to hear it. "Anyway, come eat. The food's ready," he says before hurrying back down.

When I shifted to look at Andrew, I noticed the way he was staring down at his lap, an unreadable expression in his eyes.

"Let's go," I call out.

The moment I get off of my bed, he does the same. We both make our way downstairs and head to the dining room.

The kids were sat at the table. Cristian was at the head of it, while the moms sat in front of each other. I plopped down next to my mom and Andrew sat at the other end of the table, which was diagonal to me.

Our mothers were laughing over some nonsense Mateo did while my brother was piling up food on his plate. Noticing his action, my mom gave him the wide eyes, making him back off from the tamale he was about to grab.

"Why isn't Lisa here?" I ask no one in particular.

Tía Maria shifts her gaze onto me and smiles. "She's studying for her exam. She's been studying a lot these past weeks, thanks to you."

A smile crept up my face. I was unable to hide the pride I was feeling. I couldn't believe I affected her this much.

"Instead, you should ask me why this man is here," She points at him with her fork.

Freezing while holding a spoonful of rice, his eyes shot up in a hurry.

"Why is he here?" I laugh.

She shrugs with a chuckle. "I don't know. That's the problem."

I turned around in amusement, examining the look on his head. His obsidian eyes locked on me as he searched my face. As if nothing happened, he continued to pour food onto his plate with a frown on his face. Nothing out of the ordinary.

We all ate together. The kids bantered with each other, while the moms gossiped about everyone, to the point where they even started talking about Shakira. Cristian was invested in their conversation, sometimes adding a little fire to it.

"I saw her daughter the other day," he mentions. "She was wearing very revealing clothes. Plus, this wasn't the first time I've seen her hang out with a boy."

Both our moms shook their heads in disbelief. Who were they talking about again? Was it still Shakira?

Yeah no, I don't think they're friends with her.

"It's kind of expected. Her dad was too busy cheating on his wife to care about what she did," Tía mentions.

Do you know who else didn't have a father figure?

Andrew.

I guess now he had some excuse for the way he acted around everyone.

So why didn't he have a father? Does he know who he is? Is he dead?

Okay, maybe I shouldn't be asking these questions. If someone ever goes through my head, I'd have a life sentence for sure.

I stuffed down the questions swimming in my head and resumed eating.

Thank you so much to the Mexicans for creating Tacos. I love you all.

A while later, we finished up our dishes and I removed the plates with the help of my brother, while my mom went with Andrew's mom to discuss the economic and political state of the world in the living room.

Making himself useful, Andrew decided to help out and brought the plates to the counter while I shoved them inside the dishwasher.

"She makes a good housewife, eh?" My brother wiggles his eyebrows at him.

"Housewife?" Andrew questions him. "Why are you telling me this?" His eyes darted around with a frown.

What the hell was that man doing?

"I'm just saying," he shrugs. "It's a good point to consider when marrying her. Not that you'll marry her... I'm just talking in general," a smirk climbs up his nasty face.

"Cristian, I'm not going to study for 10 years just to become a housewife." I cross my arms with attitude.

"Again, I'm just saying this in a hypothetical situation," He shoots up his hands in surrender.

I scoff. "You don't even know what hypothetical means," I roll my eyes. "I'm not doing this anymore. You can put the rest of the dishes inside," I walk past him with a frown, bumping into him on purpose.

I wasn't actually mad at him. I knew he was joking with me, but I wanted to see Andrew's reaction.

Was that a bad thing?

I ran up the stairs and into the comfort of my room. A couple of minutes passed by, while I sat on top of my bed, waiting for him to magically show up. The moment I gave up on that idea, he popped up through the opened door. I examined him as he made his way over and plopped down on the other side of the mattress. The faint smell of his cologne comforted me as if it were one of those familiar ones you remember from your childhood.

Without a word, he made himself comfortable by grabbing my pillow and placing it on his lap. His noticeable presence intimidated me in a way. I wasn't scared, but I wasn't comfortable either. I couldn't put my finger on the feeling.

Why was he so quiet all the time? I was always the one who had to start a conversation.

Trying to break the tension, I speak up first. "Isabella came over today."

At that, his onyx eyes shifted to mine.

Seeing as he wasn't going to speak, I tried to keep the conversation going. "She apologized to me... but then she started telling me that it hurt her that I couldn't stand up for myself," I continued.

He shifted in his position, making the bed bounce slightly. Facing towards me, his eyes dug into mine.

"She's right," he ends up telling me.

I frown a little. "Not you too..."

He squints his eyes at me, examining my face. "You can't live relying on people all the time."

"You don't get it," I sigh. "People will judge me. I hate it when people hate me."

"You can't make everyone happy," his eyebrows furrow deeper.

Annoyed, I reply without hesitation. "At least I don't push away people with my attitude."

He stares at me with a glare, an unreadable expression covering his face.

Regretting my words, I look down at my hands in shame. I was never this honest around people. I didn't know why it was different with him.

"Sorry," I mumble. "I didn't mean to say that."

He lowers his gaze for a little, before speaking up softly. "You don't want your brother telling you to become a housewife, and yet you let strangers dictate the way you live."

My eyes widen in surprise.

I've never looked at it this way.

Am I really letting them control my life?

It was really hypocritical of me to get mad at my brother when I've been hiding away my feelings just to please others.

I'm a coward. I've always been.

Could I really change? Was it possible for me to become a stronger person?

I sigh and slump down.

I want to change. Even if it's difficult.

I can't imagine myself becoming a doctor when I can't even say "No" to a person.

We sit there in silence, once again. The different words coming from my cousin and Andrew wandered around in my head.

I can't rely on others all the time. I had to change.

Suddenly, an unanswered question pops up in my head.

"Andrew..." I speak up. "Why did you even defend me that day?"

His black eyes bore into mine. A muscle twitched in his jaw as his stare flickered between my eyes. For a split second, I thought I saw him look at my lips, but I brushed it off.

"Where I'm from..." He begins, hesitating to continue. "If you didn't stand up for yourself, no one else would."