𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓 : 3.6k

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐔𝐄𝐕𝐀 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐔𝐙𝐙, impatiently awaiting the arrival of their dear niece/annoying ass, know-it-all, bitch cousin. And while they loved her dearly, being on time was not one of her strong suits. She had mentioned something about getting there after lunch, so when there was a timely knock on the front door right after noon, the assumption was that it was Miguel. Gwen swung the door open, all prepared with a joke about him reporting for duty, when she was met with... the gap-tooth grin of her aggravatingly punctual cousin, Mia.

"G!" she squealed, dropping all her bags to dive in for a hug. "Oh my god, look how big you've gotten!"

Mia was only four years older than her.

"You're here so early," Gwen chuckled, nervously. She could already feel the stress sweat forming on her upper lip. "I thought... you said you'd be here for dinner? That's what Mom told me."

As if on cue, her mom's voice rang out from within the house. "Is she here? Jer, I think she's here!" Around the corner she came, a wide and genuine smile on her pretty face. Chloe playfully shoved Gwen out of the way to get a hug of her own. "You stinker! You said you wouldn't be here until after lunch!"

"Something weird happened with my flight, and then traffic was unusually light, so"—her hands fluttered through the air flamboyantly—"here I am. And all before lunch!"

"Before lunch, yeah," Gwen echoed in a frail voice. "That's so... great."

"Well, now... We're going to have to rework the plan a little bit," Chloe said, thinking aloud. Her hand was still resting comfortably on Mia's arm, tethering her just a bit closer. "I was going to make dinner for you when you got here, so I don't have anything ready."

"Oh, that's okay. I totally snuck up on you!"

Gwen's mom managed to brush her off in a way that still felt kind. "How do you feel about ordering in? We could get something delivered! How about that sushi place you loved last time you were here with your mom?"

"That would be a-mazing! The sushi at NYU is... lackluster, if I'm being honest."

While Mia and her mom got lost in some conversation about the coastal differences in sushi quality, Gwen was desperately working through all the new roadblocks that had popped up in the way of Miguel's seamless arrival. Ideally, he would have gotten to her house, changed clothes, freshened up, and have been hanging out already when Mia arrived. Then, he would have been all warmed up and ready for whatever New York City hipster bullshit she threw at him from across the dinner table.

But now? She had to get Miguel in, looking presentable, out, and then back in for their meal, without anyone noticing.

Of course, Mia had royally screwed her over without even trying.

"So, Aunt Chloe tells me your boyfriend's supposed to be joining us," Mia teased, nudging Gwen with her elbow. Her intonation on the word 'boyfriend' sounded like the way you talk about a kindergartener who just-so-happens to be friends with a boy for the first time, not like Gwen's actual, real-life, fake boyfriend she only had in order to make someone jealous. "Is he cute?"

"Sure, I guess," Gwen shrugged. The offhanded sincerity was a little alarming, but Gwen didn't have time to dwell on it.

"When's he gonna be joining us?" Mia asked, still leaning and pressing all the way into her personal space.

Gwen's smile was tight lipped. "Soon, hopefully," she said. "I'm gonna go shower and then call him and let him know you got here early. So very early."

Mia squealed, rolling upwards onto her toes. "Okay, I need to use this energy wisely. I've got a few things to carry in," she giggled, stooping down to try and gather her insane amount of luggage for a weekend stay.

"You better not get all that luggage yourself," Chloe chided, then raised her voice loud enough that it carried through the whole house. "Jericho! Come carry these bags to her room, please! Now!"

Gwen used her dad's sheepish entrance, belated greeting, and all the distraction surrounding both of those to sneak up to her own bedroom. The moment her door was closed and locked behind her, she dashed into her attached bathroom and flipped the shower on. She scrolled through her contacts list and called Miguel, leaning her back against the bathroom counter in hopes that the running water would mask her voice.

He picked up on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Bitch, she's here."

He paused for a second, the silence audibly confused somehow. "Who's here?"

"Mia, obviously! C'mon, keep up," Gwen huffed, her eyes rolling. "She's here early and I think she was expecting you. So, you need to be here, like... now."

"Now?"

"Immediately. Pronto. ASAP."

Gwen could hear vague rustling through the phone, a smattering of thumps and whooshes. "But she wasn't even supposed to be here until dinner!" he protested.

"You think I don't know that?" she snapped.

When he was silent for another extended period of time, Gwen wondered if he actually had the balls to hang up on her mid-conversation like that. She frowned, her head cocking as she lifted the phone from her ear to make sure he was still there. And yet, she had it back in place just in time to hear him ask, "Are you in the shower right now?"

The boyish excitement in his voice had her bristling again. "Miguel, get your ass over here now," she demanded. Right when she was about to hang up on him, however, she whipped the phone right back up to her mouth. "But don't you dare knock on the door when you get here. And throw that bike in the fucking bushes."

"Don't knock. Got it."

As promised, Miguel did not knock on the front door when he arrived at the Villanueva residence. And yet, Gwen knew right when he arrived because of the terribly suspicious commotion he was making in the front yard. When she poked her head out of her bedroom window, he was fully submerged in the fluffy, colorful grasses of their landscaping. She had to hiss his name more than once just to get his attention, but he finally ditched the bike... mostly out of sight from any passersby.

Miguel waved up at her, his smile a little dopey from her vantage point. "Y'know, this is very Romeo and Juliet of us, meeting like this," he said, in a tone that somewhat resembled a flirtatious charm.

"Yeah, well, Romeo wasn't twenty minutes late," Gwen reminded him in a hissy whisper-yell. She didn't really have the time or patience for flirtatious charm. "Now, get up here."

Miguel's mouth dropped open. "Get up... there?" He mindlessly pointed towards the front door. "But you told me not to–"

"Have you ever seen even one teen romance movie?" she exclaimed, her voice shrill. Hearing the sharpness back in her own ears, Gwen took a moment to recenter herself. She closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath before continuing in a much more level tone of voice. "You're gonna need to climb the trellis, Miguel."

He stepped forward to get a better look at the insubstantial piece of yard decor. "You want me to climb this thing?"

"That's literally what I just said."

"But–"

"Unless you have a better idea, of course?"

He pondered it, silently mulling over their options. Nervously, his tongue darted out to wet his lips. "Gwen, are you sure this thing can even hold me?" he asked, shaking it just to test how flimsy it actually was. A rotten piece of wood fell from higher up, blending in with the mulch once it landed at his feet.

When he looked up and met her eyes again, his were wild with a mixture of fear and utter disbelief. "I've never had any problems with it before," she assured him, hoping to calm him a little. She waved him up impatiently, glancing back into her room. "Now, c'mon! They probably think I passed out in the shower or something."

It was a modern day miracle that got Miguel up that trellis and in through Gwen's bedroom window. And the blessings just kept flowing when she happened to be in the bathroom, distracted with shutting the water off as he tumbled face-first onto her fluffy, pink rug. He made a sound—a mixture between a groan and a pained whimper—then popped back upright with a superhuman speed before she could catch him curled into a heap on the floor.

As far as he could tell, Gwen was already completely dressed and ready for the battle ahead. Her hair was perfectly straight and shiny, a sliver of perfectly tan midriff could be seen peeking out between her low-rise jeans and the halter top she had on, and she smelled like one of those fruity drinks that came with a little paper umbrella. "Wow, you look nice," he commented.

A thrum of heat lit up just beneath her skin, but she smothered it before it could show on her cheeks. "Yeah, I know," she deflected, easily. She bent and produced a Nordstrom bag from under her bed, shoving it into Miguel's arms without warning. "Put this on as fast as humanly possible."

With him closed inside her bathroom, Gwen could only hear the muffled sounds of him bumping around as he got dressed. It all sounded pretty uniform, until a rather obnoxious clatter jolted her from the edge of her bed. "You okay?" she asked through the door.

His voice was abnormally squeaky in response. "Yep!"

However, when he stepped out in the clothes she bought for him, it was like seeing her wildest fantasies come to life. Or maybe it was just like seeing a nerd in a nice button-up shirt, sweater, and slacks for the first time.

"Miguel!" she gasped, taking a step back to admire her handiwork. "You clean up nice! Thanks in large part to me, of course. But, still."

He eyed his new clothing warily. "You're sure it's not too fancy for lunch?"

"You're my boyfriend who clearly got a girl way out of his league. She'll think it's endearing that you're still trying so hard," she reasoned, reaching up to fix his collar for him. Miguel tried to ignore the way his skin tingled when her thumb accidentally brushed across his neck, but his own body betrayed him and sent a tremor up his spine.

Gwen felt the shiver under her fingertips and lifted her eyes to meet his, her gaze softer than he had ever seen it. She looked noticeably younger, more like the lively little girl in the pictures he had seen scattered throughout every corner of her family's house. He couldn't help but feel like this was his first time really seeing her, seeing Gwen as she truly was without all the frills and glitter. But she was there and gone in a flash, stolen right out from under his nose by an obnoxious laugh from downstairs.

Miguel cleared his throat and Gwen took a step back, far enough away from him to pull in a deep breath of air. "I guess that's our cue, then," he nodded, moving towards the door.

Thankfully, Gwen's hand shot out just in time to snag him by the back of his very fancy sweater. "Hello? Why the hell do you think I asked you to climb the trellis in the first place?"

A blank stare occupied his pretty features. She took pity on him and explained like it wasn't totally obvious.

"If my dad knew that we had been up in my room with the door closed, we would both be dead before we made it to eighteen." Gwen tossed her hair over her shoulder and floated over to her boudoir. "Besides, I have a final touch and then you're going back out the window."

After a few purposefully placed spritzes of her perfume as a way to mark her territory or something, Miguel was learning that using the trellis was a lot scarier going down than going up. Not only was it scarier, it was also a hell of a lot harder—hence, the reason why he landed on the ground outside with an unbecoming thud.

Gwen's head poked out to make sure he was okay, only to find him laid out flat on his back. He didn't say a word to her and she didn't ask him anything, but he shot her an optimistic thumbs-up, anyway. She wasn't exactly sure what that meant, so she aired on the side of hopefulness. "See you in a minute!" she cooed with a smile.

The doorbell rang when Gwen's foot landed on the final step of the main staircase. "I'll get it!" she called out, like anyone would fight her on it.

Just as expected, Miguel stood on the other side of the door, looking like the picture-perfect guy to introduce to her hard-to-impress cousin. What she didn't expect, however, was the rather familiar flower that he outstretched in offering to her. "For my lovely lady..." he said with a theatrical bow of his head and hand to his heart.

She plucked the flower from his hand, only to find that there were still roots and dirt dangling from the very bottom of it. She stifled a roll of her eyes and just hoped that her mom wouldn't notice the flaw in her perfect landscaping. Gwen tore the unsightly bits off and hurled them back out into the yard before clutching the gift to her chest.

"Oh, Miguel! You shouldn't have!" she gasped, in her best Scarlett O'Hara impression. "Please, come in!"

She closed the door behind him and turned to follow him in, but her eyes zeroed in on the patches of dirt and grass that littered the back of his sweater. Before anyone could see him, she dusted the shmutz off of him and out of his hair. "You look great," she whispered, giving a reassuring pat on his shoulder as the two of them stepped into the kitchen.

Miguel might have been greeted with more enthusiasm than their own guest of honor. His name came out in a chorus of cheers from the entire group, louder than the music that hummed from a tucked away speaker. Chloe delivered kisses upon his cheeks and slipped a flute of sparkling water into one of his open hands. Jericho's hand landed on his shoulder, heavy but comforting, like a weighted blanket.

Gwen had never brought a boy home before, and she had certainly never called anyone her boyfriend. So, this was a big day for everyone. Gwen almost felt bad for it all being fake.

Then, Chloe laughed in a way that sounded both unnaturally perfect and totally authentic all at once. And Gwen wasn't sure if a laugh could be both, or if it had to be one or the other. "Now that Miguel is here, let's eat!"

The perfect California weather just called for lunch to be eaten outside. From their high-priced lot up in the hills, a light breeze could be felt from under the shade of the patio's pergola, along with the subtle slosh from the aquamarine waters of their pool. It would have been completely relaxing had Mia been anywhere but there.

For a while, everything seemed calm. There was a passing of plates and questions were slung about the table as everyone caught up with one another and, in turn, got to know Miguel better. Gwen felt something akin to pride as she watched him ace every little test they threw at him, answering each question with a polite confidence she honestly didn't know he possessed. This is when Mia chose to send over her very first dig, under the guise of comfortable, boisterous laughter over some goofy story Chloe just told about Jericho.

"Oh my god, wait. Do you guys remember when Gwen used to do pageants?" Mia asked, her brows knitted together in a way that made her look like that one pitiful little emoji. She heard the chorus of 'aww's from her parents, but Gwen had frozen in place. "You were always so cute in those big, foofy dresses. It's too bad you quit."

Miguel's eyes flitted between Gwen and Mia, intrigue written on his features. "Wait, why'd you quit?"

Before Gwen could get a word out, Mia was already answering for her. "She messed up the talent portion once and then decided it just wasn't for her anymore," she said around a giggle. Chloe reached over to lovingly pat Gwen's shoulder, but Mia wasn't even close to being done. "And then you moved on to soccer, right?"

Gwen nodded wordlessly, a tight-lipped smile on her lips.

Mia leaned in a bit closer to Miguel, like the two of them were sharing a secret. "Turns out, she's way too aggressive for contact sports. She got benched at her first game for elbowing some kid in the mouth, then quit, obviously."

Jericho let out a big, belly laugh and threw his head back. "That's my girl!" he boomed.

"She picked up coding next—y'know making robots and stuff. You can't really knock any teeth out with that," Mia snorted. "She was actually pretty good at it, but... I'm actually not sure what the story is there. Not that it really matters, I guess. All I know is that she quit, but you probably saw that coming!"

While everyone else seemed quite satisfied with the punchline of her joke, Miguel couldn't help but hone in on the tension that was pulling every muscle in Gwen's body taut. She was sitting at the very edge of her seat, her posture impossibly stiff and a halfway-there smile on her lips, offered only because it was clearly what was expected of her. But she wasn't laughing—not like Mia and her parents were.

At first, Gwen thought she imagined the gentle brush of fingers against the top of her tightly clasped hands. Maybe it was a passing bumblebee or something caught in the breeze. But then she felt it again. She turned to Miguel, her eyes searching for his and expecting to find her own confusion mirrored in them. Instead, she caught a glimpse of something softer, keenly aware of her.

Gwen forced her whole body away from him, feeling oddly exposed under his stare. Nobody had ever looked at her like that, whatever that was. This was supposed to feel staged, like an amateur two-man show. He knew it and she knew it, but something felt decidedly real about holding his hand where nobody could see it. Still, she swallowed the lump in her throat and unclenched her fists, allowing his fingers to fold hesitantly around her own. She refused to meet his eyes again, using the shreds of nonchalance she had left to preserve her own dignity.

"All that to say... What are you into now, Gwennie?" Mia finally asked around fading laughter.

Gwen cleared her throat and felt something in her chest loosen, her breaths coming in a little easier. "I've been really into karate and cheer lately. I made the varsity team this year, so that's a pretty big deal," she nodded. "But, uh... Miguel's actually the one that got me into karate, actually. He won first place at the All-Valley Championship last year. So, when he invited me to join his dojo, I just couldn't resist."

Mia's eyebrows lifted. "Karate? Really?"

Gwen couldn't tell if she sounded impressed or in total disbelief. "Yep. I feel like this may actually stick this time... y'know, since I'm not ten years old anymore," she said with a glaringly false smile and a sickeningly sweet tone.

"Guess we'll see," Mia shrugged, tipping her glass in acknowledgement before taking a swig.

The rest of the meal continued onward with a surprising level of civility. At some point, Miguel's hand retracted to his section of the table and Gwen tried her best not to react when it did. She couldn't help herself from stealing a couple secret glances at him as he helped clear the table when they were done eating, carrying precarious stacks of plates into the kitchen like he couldn't make more than one trip.

Gwen was back out on the patio, collecting stray silverware while Mia finished up what lemonade was left in her glass. She set it down and leaned back in her chair, arms folding loosely over her chest. "Not bad, G..." she murmured.

When Gwen looked up, she saw the smirk that was playing at the corners of her lips. She kept her hands busy in hopes of seeming at least somewhat uninterested. "What do you mean?" she asked, genuinely clueless.

Mia nodded towards the house. "He seems like a really good guy. You should try to hold onto him... if you can."

Gwen peered over her shoulder, spotting Miguel through the big French doors her mom had left propped open. He stood in between her parents, hot pink dishwashing gloves on as he waded a sponge through soapy water. She watched him laugh at something her mom murmured at his ear and Gwen felt her heart ache.

Because Mia was right; Miguel was a great guy.

She wished it was that easy. Meet a great guy, talk to the great guy, find out you're thankfully attracted to him, and oh shit, he's into you too! Then you're sitting in your proverbial tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, and then the rest is history. Looking at Miguel, Gwen wondered if it could be that easy.

Her smile was wistful as she turned back toward her cousin, nodding politely. "Yeah," she chuckled, lightly. She wasn't exactly sure what she meant when she said, "I'll, uh... try to keep him around."