jin

Their mothers are friends and they grew up across the streets from each other. Regularly visited the others house for like a carne asada or some other event.

Coach Martinez and Mr. Ibarra became friends because of their wives and would watch soccer games together. Mrs Martinez and Mrs Ibarra would sit out in the back patio chismando while Mari, Travis, and Javi played in the backyard.

Mari actually has an older sister and a baby brother. By the time Mari and the boys were starting to hang out (around 5-6) her older sister already had her own personality and independence so she would go to her own friends house. At the same time Mari’s baby brother was yk a baby and too young to play with them.

Because Mari was older than the boys she got to choose what they played, Travis always thought it was unfair and Javi was just happy to be included. She had them playing Knights and Princesses but don’t be fooled, she was not a damsel in distress, she’s was lowkey a villain. They would go on ‘quests’ together then she’d take all the glory. Mari also had one of those crusty white dogs, they would pretend it was a dragon or some other creature during the game.

Mari is like a grade above Travis so they never had any classes together but they would ride the bus to and from school together. Javi would sit between them, Mari was closest to the window, and Travis was at the end in the aisle. This only happened in elementary school and some of middle school before they (specifically Mari) found other friends.

The end of bus rides together also caused the drift between them and they would act cordial, a nod of acknowledgment in the hall or a short wave from across the cafeteria, but they definitely weren’t as close as before.

When Mari’s baby cousin died she didn’t really know how to react. For days she was unresponsive to most questions, she would sit in her room staring at the wall for hours. Her mom was worried for her and expressed her concern to Mrs Martinez. They showed up the next day to give their condolences and tried to have Travis and Javi cheer her up.

Travis realized pretty quick that they couldn’t do much to cheer her up though. He sent Javi away so he could talk to her alone. They didn’t talk, they just sat and stared at the wall, he didn’t know how to comfort her but he knew he could show his support by being with her. After a couple minutes Mari leaned her head on his shoulder and cried. Travis let her, figured it was the first time she allowed herself to cry. They never brought it up again.

Shortly after, when Travis got his spinal fusion the Ibarras went to go visit, everyone went to go get food but Mari stayed. She thought about the day her cousin died and Travis could tell that she was but they didn’t say anything. Again they sat in silence, it was weirdly comforting for both of them.

Back in school they remained cordial, when Mari eventually got her drivers license her mom asked her to take the boys to school with her. Mari was pretty reluctant but after being threatened with the car being taken away all together she agreed. She wasn’t in the loop with other grades drama nor was she in the same circle as Bobby Farleigh so she had no idea about ‘Flex’

After the plane goes down and she calls him ‘Flex’ she didn’t really know the story behind it. She was scared and had heard the other girls calling him that so of course she got on the Travis hate train. It wasn’t genuine, she needed to blow off steam and was following the lead of the other varsity girls. Travis doesn’t say anything to her, it’s actually Natalie who tells Mari to quit it during the winter. When Mari learns the story she actually feels horrible because she remembers how 12 year old Travis looked in the hospital bed. That same night she apologizes to him in her own Mari way.

“Natalie told me what ‘flex’ means.” They’re in front of the fire place, Travis’s face flashes in anger for a second. He feels betrayed that Natalie would tell anybody, but then he realizes that it’s just Mari. The same Mari whom had played Knights and Princesses with him and his brother when they were younger, who had sat with him on the bus for seven years, who had packed in extra granola bar for him in the mornings when she would pick him up for school because he never had time to eat breakfast, who forced him to dance with her during the most important day of her adolescence.

He looks at her for a moment, wondering if she’ll continue but she just looks at the fire. Somehow Travis understands what Mari doesn’t have the guts to say. They sit in silence watching the fire as the wood crackles and smoke goes up the chimney.

The day Mari died Travis was too drunk to fully understand what had happened. His trap, intended for Lottie, had just killed Mari. He had killed Mari. Whether he wanted that to happen or not didn’t matter. He’d collected the wood, shaved it down, planted then covered it. It could be no one else’s fault but his own.