Memories

I was still dripping from the shower when she walked into the bathroom without knocking, wearing that crooked smile she’d been avoiding me with for weeks.

We were alone that March siesta, and she was still in her uniform. I don’t know how we went from tickling on the sofa to something else.

I saw the bus driver watching us in the rearview mirror and, instead of covering up, I let him pull down my top. At three in the morning, my ex and I were a free show.

Catalina came into the room at three in the morning, took off her dress without looking at me, and said she didn’t want to sleep alone in the cold.

It was two in the morning, I opened the window looking for air, and saw her lying on the sofa across the way, with no idea anyone was watching her.

When he opened the door wearing only his shirt, I knew we weren’t going to talk much that afternoon. And I wasn’t wrong at all.

That afternoon, while the movie kept playing in the background, her sweaty hand found mine under the blanket and I knew something between us was about to change forever.

Four weeks watching her move between the tables, wanting what I didn’t dare name. After that, nothing was ever the same.

We were sworn enemies since we were five. No one would ever guess that the girl who made my nose bleed would also be my first woman.

She had a boyfriend. She said she was straight. And yet that afternoon at the hotel pool, her foot found mine under the water and I didn’t pull away.

We pulled down our pants in front of the other four and, when he bent over me, I knew I wasn’t leaving that classroom the same man.

On the second day, the wind shook the cabin so hard that all we could do was watch movies. One of them should never have come out of that wet case.

I hadn’t seen Mateo, Diego’s father, in years. When we ran into each other that afternoon, I never imagined I’d end up on his sofa with borrowed red swim trunks and my breath coming fast.

The music was playing far away, the family was toasting downstairs, and I was still sitting on the bed, not understanding when his kisses had stopped being a game.

I thought the rain would leave me with nothing. Twenty meters away I saw the dark-skinned boy by the bench, soaked, and I knew the night was only beginning.

I had never thought about it until my new friends mentioned it. That night, alone in my room, curiosity won out over fear.

The first time I put on someone else’s heels, I knew the image in the mirror was the most honest version of myself. It took me years to accept it.

They were cousins, they rarely saw each other, and that night they were alone in the living room while everyone slept. Nothing should have happened. Almost nothing did.

The house was empty and I had all the time in the world. I never imagined that looking for a charger would lead me to my father’s and stepmother’s secret life.

When the storm cut the lights and thunder shook the walls, she curled up against me. It had been years since she’d felt anyone’s heat. That changed everything.