Sixteen years old and armed with the knowledge of everything and the weight of the world on her broad latin shoulders, Joy Maribel Ruiz Garcia, sighed for the upteenth time. What was she doing? Just letting life pass her by? Letting the birds sing and the oxygen flow while she withered away in her room? No, she could not. She would not. “Joy!” her mother yelled from down the hall.

“Si mami!” (yes mom?) Joy yelled back, head lolling to the side and waiting for a response. “Mami!” she yelled again, still nothing. “Mami que quieres?” (mom what do you want?) with an eye twitching and a clenching of her hands Joy grunts dramatically and stands up. “Mami!” she huffs, stomping into the kitchen where her mother was cutting potatoes. “Si mami?”

“Alli” (there) Maya said, chin jutting to the purple phone on the counter. 

“Quien es?” (who is it?)

“Katy”.

“Ah, gracias mami” with a kiss on her small mothers cheek Joy picks up the phone to katy yelling, the usual. 

“Biatch!”

Eyes bugging, Joy whips to her mother who seemingly has not heard anything and walks as far away as the cord will allow her. “Why ju alway screaming?”

“Sorry, sorry. Yo, what are you doing?”

“Nothing, mami is cooking.”

“Oh, what she makin? Bet its rice and beans...again!” Katy screeched. The smell would say that yes, it was in fact rice and beans. “I only called to ask if you wanna hang? There’s a movie at the Whitestone later tonight, wanna go?”

“What is the movie?”

“Independence day, just came out. Everyone says it's really good.” 

“Mm, let me ask”.

“Okay!”

Turning back to her mother, Joy saunters back into the kitchen before resting her head on Maya’s shoulder. “Mami.”

“Mm?”

“Puedo ir al cine con Katy?” (can I go to the movies with katy?)

“Cuando?” (when)

“Mas tarde” (later)

“Preguntale a tu padre”. (ask your dad) Joy groans, and sets the phone down before walking to the living room where her father stares at the TV.

“Papa?”

“Si mamita?”

“Puedo ir al cine con katy?”

“Preguntale a tu mama” (ask your mom). Are you kidding me? What the hell!

“Ya dijo que si.” (she already said yes).

“Ah, ok, ok. Have fun.” grinning widely, Joy skips back to the phone.

“All done.”

“So you comin?”

“Yeah, wanna meet there?”

“Girl! Is dangerous out there, I'll meet you at your place. Is your cousin coming?”

“Um, I did not ask him.”

“Sweet! Just us then, see yah later. I should be there round eight tonight, movies the midnight showing. It's gonna be great!”

Hanging up the phone, Joy smiles and looks outside. She still had a lot of time to kill, “Mami?”

“Si?”

“Puedo guiar el carro?” (can I drive the car?) Joy asks, smiling brightly at her mother. 

“Pa que?” (for what?)

“Um, aire?” (um, air?) Joy offered, shrugging.

“Que! Pa aire? No mamita, el gas es tan caro! No no!” (what! For air? No honey, gas is so expensive! No no.) Maya laughs, hands on hips as she shakes her head at her fuming child.

“Pero mami! Tengo stress!” (but mommy! I have stress!) Joy sputters. 

“Pues mamita, si quireres sentir aire, correr afuera mamita. Sentir el aire!” (well mamita, if you want to feel the air, run outside. Feel the air!)

“Mami!”

“Joy!” Maya yelled back, waving a wooden spoon all about. Joy’s nostrils flair, before taking a deep breath. One wrong mood and she's screwed, no movie theater and no laying down without a sore . So Joy turns on her heels and decides, better safe than sorry.

Later on in the night Joy kisses her parents goodbye and practically skips outside to meet Katy. “Alright so, movies at midnight. It's only eight thirty, watcha wanna do till then?”

“We can jus go’ba y comer y despues, (and eat and then) we leave.”

“Or I can take you to speech class and teach you how to speak in complete sentences in one language. Choose one Joy english or spanish.”

“It’s called spanglish.” Joy laughs before Katy shakes her head and takes her hand.

“C’mon, I know a place near school.”

“We’re going to school!” Joy whines, swinging their hands.

“No you dork, there’s a fish place by the school. Best baked fish ever.” Joy hums in understanding and simply allows Katy to direct them all about South Bronx. “What kind of fish you like?” Katy asks when they sit down at the bus stop. 

“Bacalao”, Joy answers, pulling her and Katy’s joined hands together onto her lap.

“What kind of fish is that?” 

Joy shrugs, “I don't know. Bacalao”.  

“I wish they made things, where you could just translate words anywhere you were.” 

“Like on your watch?”

“Could you imagine? Like those spy movies, talk to your watch and it talks to you. That would be so cool. Look, they have phones in cars, we’ll get talking watches one day too for sure.”

Katy grins, thumb rubbing along Joy’s point finger. Is this what perfection feels like? Just you and the girl you like sitting at a bus stop and talking about talking watches? “Joy?” she hums in response, “Will you always be with me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, will we always be like this? A pair, united and such.”

“U-unit? I don't know this word, say in spanish.”

“I don't know it in spanish, um. Like will we always be together, like this?” Katy says, holding up their joined hands.

“Ah juntos”.

“Juntos?”

“Yes, it means together.”

“Then will we always be juntos?” Joy smiles, leans over and Katy’s heart damn near stops. Is she going to kiss me? The answer is yes, or well, it would be if the bus hadn’t pulled up. Oh that stupid, evil, ing bus! Joy pulls her up, swings their hands excitedly and pulls Katy to the bus who govels the whole way. Maybe they could continue this moment on the bus? Or! Maybe they can just not go for fish. And they can talk and Katy can finally confess that Joy may be the most beautiful girl Katy has ever laid her beautiful brown eyes on. 

It doesn't happen, Katy doesn't confess today or any other day in fact. No, in fact, ten years later one of her best friends would out her and by then it wouldn't even matter anymore. 

She gets her wish though, they do stay together. In fact, they stay together so long, Katy gets to watch Joy and her soon to be wife tell her parents they have a baby on the way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joy looks like she's about to pass out I mean, so does Katy which is weird. But they’ve always been a weird duo so it would probably be more weird if Joy looked like she was about to pass out and Katy was just sitting around all willy nilly. Maya and Cristobal laugh at something Eric says and Joy wipes her forehead for the 100th time before looking at me. “Are you ready?” I mouth to her she shakes her head. Oh, she’s so cute. “Hey, we’ll be right back. Joy feels a little off.”

“Mami, are you okay? Do you want something to eat?” Maya asks, leaning over Cristobal to grab Joy’s hand. 

“No mami, estoy bien.” (no mom, i’m okay.) Joy smiles, leaning over to kiss her mother on the forehead before the two of us walk to the back of the apartment to the bathroom.

“Alright, talk to me.” Joy pouts and I cup her cute chubby cheeks in my hands, “you look like you’re seconds from absolutely keeling over.”

“What’s that?”

“Keeling over?”

“Passing out.”

“Ah, ah okay. I’m scared princesa.” I press a gentle kiss to Joy’s pouting lips and grin.

“You have nothing to be scared of honey. You’re going to tell your parents this amazing, exciting news and your parents are going to love it and then your mother will probably make us move in or i’ll be seeing her in our house even more than before, which will surely surprise me seeing as she’s always at the house but she is amazing at surprising me.” 

“I love you”,  Joy groans and I'm mildly insulted.

“You sound so excited to love me, my goodness!” perking up, Joy hugs me close and I do my best to send all my love and affection into her.

“Alright, mi amor. Let's do this.” 

Katy grins when we make it back to the kitchen and I can't help but grin back, my feet swinging in excitement. “Mami, papi”, Joy clears and I swear I've started shaking. Katy shoots up from her seat, leave it to her to steal our moment. Jesus! 

“Joy, don't forget the gift you brought.”

“Gift?”

“Yeah you dork! Remember we made it, you told me to hold it in my bag so you wouldn’t lose it?”

“I uh”, Joy turns to me and I look at Katy who’s staring at us like we might just be the dumbest people on the planet.

“Oh! The gift!” I yell, like I know what the hell Katy is talking about.

“I’ll grab it for you. It’s in my bag.” off she went, Eric shrugged and smiled when Joy and I looked at him as though he might have answers. He obviously did not because nobody ever has any idea what is going on in Katy’s head. Katy returns with a long tiny box and hands it to Cristobal who smiles brightly.

“Aw gracias bebe!” Cris grins, popping the top off the box and showing the contents to the box to Maya who lifts out--oh !

Maya turns to us, holding up the pregnancy test before shaking the stick and falling into a mess of tears. “I have new baby?” 

I think technically I’m the one with the new baby but I nod for the sake of the moment. I am once again reminded of Katy saying, “dayum auntie got hops!” as Maya seems to fly off her seat and onto Joy and I. 

“Aye Cristobal!” Maya wails, “mi bebe está embarazada. ¡Voy a tener un nieto! ¡Ay, gracias a dios!” (my baby is pregnant. I’m going to have a grandbaby! Oh thank god!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh my god! This is the best news Wendy, I'm booking a flight now. Oh Jesus, this is fantastic, I think I'm going to pass out. Your mother is packing as we speak!” my dad gushes, Joy laughs from next to me. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it. I’m a grandfather! Can you believe it Tiffany! We’re going to be grandparents!” the speakers on the house phone fizzle as my dad continues to scream. “Joy did you tell your parents?”

“We told them earlier daddy and I was terrified her mother was going to hold us hostage until we had this baby.” Joy rolls her eyes and falls back into the fluffy pillows. Her hand comes out to flick my ear as I continue to tell my dad how I found out about the baby. Joy’s hand has made its way to the back of my neck when I finally get off the phone with my parents who assure me they have found the earliest flight despite my assertion it was not needed and that they did not in fact need to come visit. “He hasn’t sounded that excited since I got accepted into Uni.”

Joy laughs quietly before pulling me down to rest on her chest, “I love you.” I mumble against her neck.

“Well that's good because I’m having your baby. Would be weird if you didn't love me.” I poke Joy in the rib for the joke and she giggled before rolling us over. “Do you know what you are?”

“Beside your future wife or other mother to you baby?”

“The best thing I have ever done.”

“Does that have a double meaning?”

“It sure does amor”, the last thing I see before the night takes us away on a wave of love and the promise of an amazing is Joy’s face leaning down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, I let Joy sleep in before her two o’clock shift tonight and start getting dressed before work. You know what, I am pretty cute. Look at those cheeks! There's a strange sound down the hall, I step out the bathroom and see nothing. Oh well, maybe the wind. While I'm brushing my teeth I hear it again. Grabbing the closest thing to a weapon I can find, I grab a clothes hanger. Joy is still asleep when I creep down the hall. 

What. the. . 

Sitting on my living room floor, is a puppy. Absolutely tearing up, oh my god! “Joy!” skidding from the kitchen Junito grins at me.

“Oh Wendy! Hey boo!”

“Junito, what the hell are you going here?”

“I was bringing you a gift! Look!”

“Wendy!” Joy comes flying into the living room holding a remote. “What’s going on! Who is it!”

“It’s just me! I was bringing you guys a gift, look!” Junito whined pointing at the dog ripping my brand new sofas apart!

“! That's not a gift! That's a demon! We just got those!” 

“Nah, nah he's going to protect you!”

“When? When he's done ting my brand new sofas!”

“Alright well look, mistakes were made.”