Chapter 4

The First Rule of The Cheerleaders' Secret Fuck-Buddies Club: You do not talk about The Cheerleaders' Secret Fuck-Buddies Club.

The Second Rule of The Cheerleaders' Secret Fuck-Buddies Club: You do not curse star athletes.

Sitting down, I avoided the eyes staring at me. I'm not friendly in the male department, but I could have used another guy in the room.

Magdalena lived in an apartment with her mother and grandmother. From the living room size, the place couldn't be very big. Magdalena's mother owned a gym and sank every penny into being competitive with the brand names. Rent-controlled was powerful voodoo in their lives.

I looked at each female in turn: Bailey, Janet, Magdalena, and Magdalena's grandmother. I hoped the last would have some answers for me. The old woman was studying Bailey. I'd been known to spend time learning the minutiae of my favorite blonde in the whole wide world, never quite in such clinical terms though. If Granny pulled out scalpels, questions or not, I'd be running!

The old lady picked up the remote control and turned on the TV. I watched as she flipped through screens until she found what she wanted. We watched a slow motion replay of the football field incident. Like with every event involving kids and parents, people had been filming. Incredibly, everyone with a camera had the brains to run when the bullets started flying, but the truck portion was well documented. Having been there, I didn't need to watch it over and over again so I avoided the news shows.

I watched and remembered. Granny replayed a section and then replayed it again. We watched the scene where Bailey's head turned towards the truck before she jumped to save two of her friends.

"La puta del Diablo no se mata tan facil," the old woman said to Bailey.

"Abuela!" Magdalena hissed.

I was stopped from saying anything by Bailey's raised hand.

"What did she say?" Janet asked.

"You don't kill the devil's whore that easily," Bailey said. She raised an eyebrow at us. "What? I'm supposed to waste my high school language classes. I spent last summer in Barcelona."

"You're in high school," I said. "We don't do summers in Spain."

"Daddy wanted time with his girlfriend. And let's be honest, you could summer wherever you wanted," Bailey told me. She smiled at the old woman before continuing, "A whole summer in my ass! Can you imagine that, Mateo?"

Shot across the bow answered! The old woman smiled back.

"What does she mean?" Janet asked.

Bailey raised an eyebrow, "You're the one that calls me Mateo's personal slut; puta should be self-explanatory."

"I got that part, puta!" Janet replied. "What does she mean you can't be killed easily?"

The old woman pointed at the TV and replayed the Bailey scene again. Janet's brow furrowed; she gestured for another replay. Granny did a frame by frame slow-mo. Janet turn to meet Bailey's smiling eyes.

"I'm perfect, baby!" Bailey said. "He made me that way."

Janet shook her head slowly.

"Come on, Janet! You know me. You know my body," Bailey said, staring at her friend intensely. "I haven't had a pimple since the first massage. I'm so healthy I should glow."

Janet shook her head even more slowly.

"Janet, dammit!" Bailey exclaimed. "Think about Brianna--she was hot before, now she's a walking dick pump. Her tits are too big to openly defy gravity, but they've started doing it."

Janet turned to me. I winced and shrugged.

"What did you do, Mateo?" she asked.

The old woman must not have liked Janet's tone of voice, "No le hables asi en mi casa!"

"Don't talk to him like that," Magdalena translated for Janet.

"In her home," Bailey added. "I would appreciate if you didn't use that tone with him in my presence either, Janet. If we're all going to admit the truth, then let's be honest."

Janet's eyes almost popped out of her head. She took a deep breath. Running a fingertip over her teeth, she looked at me until she calmed down. "What did you do to Bailey and Brianna, Mateo?"

"Cada persona se esta muriendo," the old woman told Janet. "Asi es la vida."

"Everybody is dying," Magdalena said. "That's life."

"Con el, mueres un poco menos."

"With him, you die a little less." Magdalena stared at me.

"Slower," Bailey said. "Because my body is a lot better equipped to fight."

"Is he the Devil?" Janet asked Magdalena's grandmother.

"Puede ser."

"He could be." Magdalena didn't take her eyes off me.

"Pero el Diablo era un angel."

"The Devil was an angel," Janet guessed.

The old woman nodded.

"Esa no lo va ayudar." The old woman said, pointing her chin at Bailey. "Si esta a su lado, no le importa lo de mas."

Janet looked at Bailey.

"I'm not going to help him choose," Bailey said. "Demon or Saint, I don't care as long I'm with him."

"You're all crazy," Janet said. "You most of fucking all, Bailey."

The old woman and Bailey shared a look. The old woman had Bailey pegged, but it also felt like Bailey found a kindred soul.

"What is he?" Janet asked the old woman.

"Por aqui lo llamen un Gran Cura, pero su familia dicen el Verdadero Cura," the old woman replied.

"People around her call him a Great Healer," Magdalena said. "His family says a True Healer."

"His family?" Bailey leaned forward.

"El septimo hijo de un septimo hijo en su family tiene poder como pocos debajo de los ojos de mi Dios."

Bailey sat back.

"What?" Janet said, looking desperately between us.

"The seventh son of a seventh son in my family is special," I said.

"You knew? And that bullshit legend is true?"

"Yes, Janet," I said. "And yes, Janet."

"Esa mujeres!" Granny said with a hard shake of her head. "Como les robo tu mama el poder."

"My mother didn't steal anything." My voice flattened.

She didn't look like she believed me.

"The women in his family have a small part of his powers," Magdalena told Bailey and Janet. "The direct daughters of a curandero like Mateo."

"Are there female Mateos?" Janet asked. "I mean ... you know what I mean!"

"Se llaman Gran Curas, pero todos saben la verdad," the grandmother replied. "Ninguna pudiera lo menor que le ha hecho a su puta."

"They call themselves Great Healers, but everybody knows the truth, not a single woman in his family could do the least he's done to me." Bailey turned from Janet to look at the old woman. "Not even the pimples?"

The old woman looked at her granddaughter.

"Ni las espinillas," Magdalena said, drawing a circle around her face with a finger.

The old woman laughed, "Te las pueden quitar pero el las prevenido. Mira muchachita, estabas enferma, no?"

"She says they could make pimples go away, but Mateo prevents them. She also asked whether I was sick." Bailey said. She met the old woman's stare. "My mother died of cancer. Mateo diagnosed me, and my mother's doctor agreed."

The old woman nodded when Bailey couldn't continue. "Te curo."

"Yes, he healed me."

"Lo sabes?"

"I know it." Bailey said. "After Mateo, my doctor couldn't find anything. She thinks the initial tests were wrong. She doesn't really believe it though."

"Si tuvieras dies de sus hijas, o cien, o mil, o todas que a vivido trabajando juntas para ti, todavia estuvieras muriendo de esa malicia."

Bailey nodded.

"This is getting old," Janet complained.

"You didn't have to come," Bailey replied coldly.

"If ten, a hundred, a thousand, or even all the daughters of his family that ever lived tried to help Bailey, the cancer would still be killing her," Magdalena said.

"Oh!" Janet said, exhaling all the air from her lungs. "That's fucking unfair!"

"Es lo que es," the old woman said. "Ay mas mujeres que pueden ayudar los enfermos, que importa que Dios le a dado mas a el. Ninguna mujer puede ser el Demonio tampoco! Y lo que yo viera ser por ese pocito de poder."

"It is what it is. There's more women who can help the sick; who cares that God gave Mateo more power. The women can't do the evil he can either and that's a blessing to them. Plus my grandmother would have done anything for even that little bit of power."

Janet pressed her lips together while she stared at Magdalena.

"Las mujeres saben la verdad," Magadalena's grandmother said. "No lo van admitir, pero un poco es mejor que nada. Protegen lo que tienen! Por eso, me sorprendio que Mateo esta aqui."

"The women know the truth. They won't admit it, but a little power is better than nothing so they protect what they have. That's why she's surprised Mateo is here," Bailey told Janet. "She thinks Mateo's mom stole the power from them."

"My mother didn't steal anything!" I said, meeting each woman's eyes in turn.

"No eres un septimo?" the old woman asked me.

"I am a seventh son," I said. "Six with his wife and the seventh by my mom. She didn't steal me!"

The old woman knew better than to walk any further down the road.

"I'm not here for a history lesson," I said. "Magdalena told me I cursed Reggie. I've always known about the healing but not this curse thing."

"El Ojo De Malicio," the old woman leaning towards me.