“What the hell was that?” Samanta snapped as soon as Teresa walked into the house.
“I thought…” her sister mumbled.
“You thought wrong and you know it. You can't expect to go through life acting like that whenever I meet someone.”
“Had you been honest with me, none of this would have happened. When you were with Alan, I should have…”
“Stop it! Alan was a mistake. A big one, I know. But I learned and moved on. You should do the same, too.”
Samanta turned around, heading for her room, furious.
Teresa could not keep herself from diving into her memories …
For the 11 years she had been a social worker, she saw all kinds of cases, everything from homeless children who had lost their parents in any sort of tragic accident or because they lived with an inept relative who could not offer a decent life for them. She had to deal with sexual abuse victims, drug-addicted teenagers, 13 or 14 year old girls in pregnancies. She had to learnt to not let her emotions get the best of her, she had to be strong for all those people who needed her. What she never imagined, was that that reality could leave a mark in her so deeply.
“Teresa, you have a phone call” one of her workmates announced.
She got phone calls every day, all day … but, that day. Something unsettling happened. Teresa felt a chill running down her spine. She took the phone and answered.
Her blood froze when a man, identifying himself as a Good Samaritan Hospital worker, let her know her sister had been admitted into the ER presenting a severe case of intoxication.
Those minutes, however many it took her to get to the hospital, were the most terrible minutes of her life. Concern took over and a feeling of guilt took her by surprise.
«If only I had been more strict».
She knew precisely what was going on. Ever since Samanta started hanging out with that boy, she started acting unlike herself. Although Teresa had done everything she could to oppose their relationship, her sister acted like a typical rebellious teenager. She changed everything from the way she dressed, wearing only black and skull prints, apart from cross fixes and other accessories that seemed like taken right out of the show "The Munsters." Her sweet and well behaved sister became the exact antithesis of herself. The whole situation got out of proportion.
She came to the Emergency Room asking everybody about her sister. A young woman told her she was being looked at and she needed to wait in the waiting room. So she did, all the while, feeling the anxiety killing her slowly.
After nearly 20 minutes, a handsome doctor came up to her.
“Are you related to miss Samanta Andrade?” he asked.
“Yes. I'm her older sister” Teresa stood up immediately. “How is she? What happened to her?”
“We managed to stabilize her, but…” the doctor paused. He seemed very concerned, “unfortunately, we could do nothing for her baby. She lost it.”
“Baby?” Teresa felt like somebody had punched her right in the face.
“You did not know?” The doctor muttered, notoriously surprised. “Yes. She was almost 3 months along. We believe she may have caused it. We found a high concentration of heroin in her bloodstream.”
“What?” Teresa could not even imagine the scene. Her little sister? Pregnant? With an over dose?
«Damn you, Alan O’Conell». Teresa cursed in her mind the only culprit of this whole mess.
*****
When Samanta came into the coffee shop, there was a line of almost twenty people, waiting for service. She headed for the lockers quickly, put her affairs away and threw on her apron, ready to get to work. She was ten minutes early, but she still had to join Carlos, who was already making coffee.
It was a Saturday, besides her and Carlos, there were also Megan and Stacy, who gave her a dirty look when she joined them where they were, but Sam simply ignored them. She cheerfully greeted Ethan, who only worked on weekends. Gordon would usually call everybody in on the weekends, there were usually a lot of customers on the weekends.
“Good morning” Samanta greeted everybody, the always believe in the power of courtesy. She was only being polite.
“Shhh” laughter. “Shhh” a voice was trying to silence another. Sam realized this was Megan and Stacy gossiping and laughing.
To Samanta, they were the two most annoying people on the planet. They were the stereotype of plastic girls, always aware of trends, parties and boys. Two pretty girls, dumb as rocks. Both of them enjoyed picking on Samanta for being Latina.
She focused on dispatching every customer she could, almost one hour later, the shop was clear.
“I bet you're tired. I mean, working overtime last” Megan let out sarcastically. Stacy laughed.
“Overtime?” Samanta turned to Megan. “What are you talking about?”
“What dome people are capable of for a few extra dollars” Rachel added in a mocking tone.
“Drop it already, Stacy” said Ethan.
“Shut up! Stay out, Ethan” said Megan, raising her voice.
Ethan opened his eyes, surprised by how rude his work mate was.
“It's ok Ethan, I can fend for myself” Sam said as she finished cleaning the counter. She turned to Stacy and walked towards her, until they were very close.
“That's not the only thing she can do on her own” the woman said.
Both, Stacy and Megan cackled.
“I really have no idea why are you so jealous of me, but… You know what? If you put the same effort and time you waste trying to come for me, you could do something of profit for yourself, I can guarantee you'd be someplace else away from here, where daddy put you to teach you a lesson on humility, to learn the value of things. You're evil and conniving to everybody because you're resentful and frustrated because you're unable to live on your own, without having to depend on daddy like a parasite” Stacy was petrified before the verbal attack. Ethan smiled and Carlos could not stop himself from laughing out loud. Megan watched all of this in horror. “I give zero damns whatever people like you might think of me. Yes, I come from a humble background, but I have something you never will: the will to work and become somebody by my own effort. You two?” she looked at them both. “Who are you two? Who will you be in a couple years? You two are nothing without daddy's influence or money” She stopped, turning her back to those two snakes.
Stacy felt like a vein would pop in her face from the anger.
“What are you two doing here? It's time to work. Coffee can't pour itself” said Carlos, clapping his hands a couple times. “How were things last night?” He asked, keeping Samanta from walking away as well.
Sam glared at him.
“Really? I think you know exactly what happened” she snapped.
“Oh, Come on, Sam! You don't think that I…”
“What I think is that you went and told Teresa and…”
“That's not it, I just went there to…”
“What did you go to my house for? You knew I was not there.”
“I saw something on the internet and I was worried.”
“What did you see?” inquired Samanta.
“A picture of you with Dominik and…”
Carlos stopped. He did not know how to put this in words without Samanta getting a wrong impression. The night before, on his way home, he was looking for the results of that day's soccer matches, on an app, on his phone, but he found a "Very Relevant" note. The article had a photograph showing Dominik Weigand, in the company of a lady, apparently a little too lovey-dovey.
Carlos felt his heart skipped a beat as he recognized his friend.
»See for yourself” he added and showed her a magazine.
"The star footballer wastes no time”, was a headline on its cover.
Sam took the magazine, shocked to see her picture on it, with Dominik. The paparazzi had been so clever to capture the exact moment she got up to him to take off something his face, it seemed as though they were kissing.
“Oh my God!” Sam said. “We didn't…”
“Keep looking” her friend encouraged.
As she opened the magazine, she could see the whole article.
"Star footballer, Dominik Weigand, is in town along with his country's representative team, disputing the World Cup against 31 other countries. However, as he waits for his next match, in order to classify for the last of the elimination rounds, he wastes no time and decides to spend his time in the company of a beautiful girl, who we know works at a Starbucks coffee and goes by the name Samanta. This Mexican born girl has managed to captivate the most valuable player of the past three years. Not bad, girl, not bad.”
Followed underneath by a picture of them smiling...
"During yesterday's afternoon, at around 4:00 pm they were spotted walking on the beach.”
“At least they didn't get me pregnant” she said and laughed.
“What? You think this is a joke?”
“Relax, Carlos. It's not the end of the world.”
Samanta turned around and walked towards the counter, ready to serve some customers who had just come in, but she could not even make it there when, out of nowhere, tens of people started coming in.
“Is that her?” someone asked.
“Yes. It's her” another voice answered.
Samanta was petrified facing all those flashes. She had to blink many times in order to clear up her vision. She could not understand what was happening. Someone pulled her by the arm.
“Sam!” It was Carlos. “Get out the back door.”
“What?” She was very confused.
“Take Gordon's bike and go home. The keys are hanging from the board on the wall.”
Samanta obeyed, she had no other choice. Everywhere she looked; there was someone with a top notch camera trying to snap a good shot of her.
When she was finally alone, away from all this sudden madness, she could think clearly about what was going on, the idea of losing anonymity.
Samanta was not aware how her life had just been forever changed, overnight. She no longer had a private life.