In all 15 minutes of being in the same table as Carmen, along with four of her friends – Bette, Tina, Papi and Alice – Shane only managed to come out with a “Hey, Carmen.” She had completely zipped her mouth; it was shut so tight that she could only smile without even exposing her teeth. She didn’t react to anything that the group was talking about; Shane just sat there – her thoughts made her an immovable object. To her, she found it a good thing that no one was asking her anything at all.

Very similar to early morning that day, Carmen came in with Papi. Apparently, Papi picked the new Latina girl up as a form of gratitude for the favor of giving her a ride to school today. Since she had no access to any of her parents’ cars, Paps borrowed from her cousin – in any case, what use were her connections if she never once used them?

Trance music was blasting from every speaker there was in the bar – it was so inviting that Papi and Carmen went ahead to have a go at dancing. Bette and Tina followed suit. Shane was left alone with Alice in their table again. The guest band wasn’t there yet; it would be an hour still before they perform live on the stage up front.

“I gotta get myself another beer, Alice. I’ll be in solo city.”