Read Online We Were Here by Matt de la Pena - Free Book Online Page A

all the San Jose group homes, addressed to Lester. It said the state was going to increase funding for the entire program, which would affect the sentence lengths of both current and future residents.
    I looked up at Mong, my heart still beating all fast. He was just standing there with his arms crossed again, watching me read.
    I went back to the letter. It said what Jaden was talkingabout before, how current resident sentences would all go full term from now on, and in some cases they could even be extended for consistent misbehavior.
    I looked at Mong, back at the paper.
    It said with the extra resources they planned to increase the rehabilitation side of the program, including more one-on-one therapy sessions and educational and career counseling.
    Pretty much the last thing I wanted was more damn therapy. I handed the letter back to Mong, said: “So?”
    He folded it up and stuck it back in his pocket. “I’m leaving,” he said. “One week from today.”
    “What’s that got to do with me?”
    He shrugged, peeked over at sleeping Rondell. “Maybe it’s better with two people,” he said, turning back to me.
    I stared at him, confused as hell. I knew dude wasn’t asking me to go with him. Last I heard we pretty much hated each other.
    He crossed his arms again. “I’m asking you because I trust you.”
    My eyes straight bugged. “You trust me,” I said.
    He nodded. “I have a place we can get to in Mexico. On the beach. I have a ride for us. If you want, once we get down there we can go our separate ways.”
    I pictured him stabbing me in the back on a beach in Mexico, me falling to my knees, blood pooling all in the sand. “Nah, I’m good,” I said, leaning back on my elbows, letting my head go against the wooden headboard. “I can’t be doing all that.”
    “You can do anything you want,” Mong said.
    I shook my head, thinking about everything. The letter addressed to Lester. The extra therapy sessions and people’s sentences. Mong standing above my damn bed again, onlythis time asking me to go on the run with him. “Nah, man,” I said.
    He smiled and kept staring at me.
    There were a few seconds of quiet between us. I looked over at Rondell, who was still sound asleep. I looked at his Bible sitting there on his nightstand. Then I turned back to Mong and said: “I know how you could get money, though.”
    His smile got bigger. “We can get work in Mexico too,” he said. “At this resort they have. And it’s a different country, where nobody will know us.”
    “You could get work there,” I said. “Not me.”
    Mong kept right on smiling, though. He pointed at me and said: “I’ll give you three days to tell me if you’re going.” And then he turned and left the room.
    “I just told you,” I called after him. “I can’t.” But he was already out of my room.
    I sat there shaking my head, trying to think. And then I heard the springs in Rondell’s bed crunching as he rolled his big ass over. “You gotta take me with you, Mexico,” he said.
    I turned to look at the shape of him through the dark. “I thought you were asleep.”
    “Nah, Mexico. I been awake this whole time, that’s my word.” He went on his back and put his hands under his head, his big feet tenting his blankets way past where his bed left off. “I been in places like this since I can remember. I just don’t wanna do it no more.”
    “I don’t even think I’m going,” I said.
    “But if you do.”
    But if I do.
    He didn’t say anything else. He rolled over onto his stomach and immediately started snoring. I stayed awake awhile,though, letting Rondell’s last line float around in my head some.
    But if I do.
    But if I do.
    I put my hands under the back of my own head, like Rondell always does, and stared up at the ceiling. I pictured my mom’s face when she drove me to Juvi. The way she kept looking in the rearview mirror, or at her side mirror, even though there weren’t any cars around us. I pictured her