#perfectly wrong

"Cami, don't be mean. The boys did their best..."

I watch the place while my best friends discuss the manual skills of our male friends. Some people come in and out of the place, the music is muffled from outside and some flashes of colored lights escape through the windows. In the midst of the groups of people circulating around the facade of the house, I see Marco. He sees me too and smiles.

"Hey, I saw that." Camila nudges my arm. 'I was already wondering where our dear Marco Tavelli was. I haven't seen him in ages."

"Tonight promises to be interesting, huh, Fran?" Violetta laughs, teasing me. I roll my eyes and smile.

"Ha Ha. Girls, you know how my story with Marco is. Since he requested a transfer to London, we decided to take a break from... whatever it was that we had. I adore him, but it wasn't meant to be. Good thing he moved before we got into a serious relationship."

"Well, I like him. If you guys atarted dating, I'd approve 100%."

"I know, Vilu. You made that clear since the first time I bumped into him in the university corridors."

"Well, what can I say. I'm a romantic" she says, shrugging and then slotting her arms between mine and Cami's. "Now, let's go in. My boyfriend is waiting for me inside and I'm really in the mood for a drink."

***

The party has been going on for 3 hours now, and I'm slightly drunk. Not drunk like Cami, who is currently engaged in a dance battle - if you can call it that - with a group of Brazilian boys, but drunk enough to stumble twice on my way to the sofa in the corner of the room. Our whole group of friends is here tonight, as well as the rest of the entire university. After all, it's not every day that the motocross king and vocalist of the biggest band in Buenos Aires gives a birthday party. Funny how even in college, you can still feel like you're in high school sometimes.

I sit on the sofa, finally, and emit an involuntary sound as I feel my legs relax for the first time tonight. I close my eyes and lean my head against the wall, letting the music enter my ears and take over me. Although I'm not a fan of this song - or more specifically, of the person singing it - I start humming the lyrics of Destinada a Brillar quietly. After a few minutes, I finally open my eyes and instantly regret it.

I see the guy sitting on the other end of the sofa, all dressed in black leather and his hair messy, staring at me with a mocking expression.

"What?" I ask impatiently.

Diego doesn't answer, he just laughs and turns his gaze to the crowd. Ugh, this guy….

Vilu and him have kissed a few times at parties just like this one, when her relationship with León wasn't going well and they took a break. I never liked that jerk and definitely never understood what she saw in him. Camila says it's the magic of bad boys, that seduces you when you least expect and makes you want more and more. Anyway, I wasn't surprised at all when my best friend came to me telling that Diego had gone braging to León about the great time he had with her the night before. Vilu eventually forgave Diego, but I didn't. This guy is always looking for trouble and seems proud of being an idiot.

It's no secret to anyone that Diego Hernandez is involved in illegal stuff. He's a drug dealer and I've heard that he once stole some shit from a rich girl from the university. Normally, I don't have much contact with him. In fact, I don't even remember that he studies with us most of the time. But from time to time he reappears, getting into fights or... hanging out with Marco.

Yes, Diego and Marco are friends. Best friends. That will never stop sounding crazy to me, considering that Marco is the sweetest and most respectful boy I've ever met. When I first started hanging out with Marco - before he told me he was moving to the other side of the world and ended our "relatioship" - I tried to ignore my convictions about Diego and have a good relationship with him, for everyone's sake. But that's just impossible. Diego is everything I disapprove of.

"Hey, Di." a short girl with curly hair and dark red lips approaches and starts talking to him (read: flirting). "You disappeared. I missed you this week in class."

I roll my eyes and try to ignore the conversation happening next to me. I try to focus on watching my drunk friends doing embarrassing things in the middle of people and it actually works. Until a guy with an unhappy expression enters my field of vision and starts approaching with wide, firm steps.

"Dude, are you crazy?" the guy yells when he stops in front of Diego, who just looks boredly up at his face from under his long, thick lashes. "You're kissing my ex-girlfriend in front of me, knowing damn well we broke up four days ago?"

"Man, you're drunk. Just go back where you were, I'm not looking for trouble, okay?" he replies. The girl, now sitting on his lap, huffs and rolls her eyes at her ex-boyfriend.

"Do you think I'm joking, asshole?" The guy's fingers tighten around the beer bottle in his hand, and I see a vein in his forehead about to explode. "I'm not afraid of you, Hernandez. Don't doubt that I'm capable of beating your ass up."

At this point, people around are already paying attention to the discussion. The music is still too loud but it's possible to hear some cheers coming from drunk boys. I look back at Diego and he slowly takes the girl off his lap and stands up, facing the man.

"Dude, seriously. I don't want to fight, okay? I'm not doing anything, just enjoying the party. And you should too. If you want to fight, go fight alone. It's not my fault your girl chose to spend her nightsitting on my lap". He stares the guy with firm and challenging eyes.

And suddenly, the guy punches Diego in the face.

Before I could understand what was happening, a fight broke out and everyone around me started shouting. Some people backed away as punches were thrown, forming an circle around the two fighters. The girl with red lips - now smeared - screamed desperately. I was stuck between the wall behind me and the two men fighing in front of me, meaning i couldn't leave to a safer place. After what felt like an eternity, a few boys managed to hold the furious guy for a few moments. And then, before I realized what I was doing, I pulled Diego by the arm firmly, guiding him to the nearest bathroom door, pushing him inside and entering right after him, slamming the door shut. When I locked the door, I turned to face Diego.

"Are you fucking serious?" I shouted, irritated. "Can't you go to a party without ruining everyone's night? Is fighting the only thing you know? You -"

Suddenly, aggressive knocks on the door behind me made me jump, and the drunk guy's slurred voice spitting threats to Diego only made me more stressed out.

"OH MY GOD, JUST SHUT UP! GO AWAY, THE FIGHT IS OVER, DOUCHEBAG!" I shouted back.

After some time, the knocking stopped, and I heard what sounded like León's voice yelling. I spin around to face Diego, feeling my face hot with angry.

"Are you happy? This fight just ruined León's birthday. And now I'm stuck in this bathroom with you because aparently I'm the only one trying to prevent the death of two young men tonight. Why are you even here? For God's sake, I--" I interrupted my speech when I see blood dripping from Diego's fingers, where his hand was holding his head. "Holy sh...did he hit you with a bottle?" I asked in shock.

"That's what it seems" Diego says dryly.

I run to grab something to clean the blood. I hand the toilet paper to Diego and rummage through the cabinets for some first aid supplies.

"Fuck, this hurts," Diego cursed while trying to stop the bleeding with the paper.

Finally, I found a box of band-aids and other first-aid materials and turned to the boy leaning on the sink counter, staring at the injury through the mirror reflection, clearly not knowing what to do. I took a deep impatient breath.

"You know what? Here, let me do this." I guided Diego to the edge of the bathtub, and he sat down, becoming shorter than me and giving me a good view of the huge cut on his scalp. "This is going to hurt," I say, short and to the point. I take a clean cloth and wet it a little, then bring it close to the wound, and when I finally touched Diego, he flinched and made a noise of pain.  I clench my jaw and sigh, trying to contain my frustration.

"Fuck," he's tense, the word is said through gritted teeth. "Careful".

"I'm trying".

I go for it again, and this time, Diego doesn't flinch. After long minutes, I managed to clean the entire wound, including the blood that had dripped onto his ear, and improvised a terribly made bandage.

And then, for the first time, I looked down at his face, and Diego was staring at me attentively. I ignored it.

"Your eyebrow and lip are cut too," I stated.

"Really? Huh, that's funny. I hadn't noticed the bloody taste in my mouth and the pulsating pain above my eye," he said sarcastically.

"Ha." I said, annoyed. "For God's sake, what did I do to deserve this? I knew I should've stayed at home studying for my next exam," I kept rambling while Diego just stood still, letting me continue to clean up the mess on his face.

When I finally touched the gauze to his lip, it twitched, and Diego gasped weakly. I unintentionally raised my eyes to his, and something inside of me softened as soon as those big brown iris met mine. And before I could bring myself to apologize for a reason I didn't fully understand, he whispered a quick "sorry" and  swallowed dry, while still holding my gaze. I looked away.

When I finished my work, my annoyance had dissipated a little, and I was able to talk to him again without spitting curses and yelling.

"That's the best I can do," I step back, observing my work.

"Thanks," he says weakly, standing up slowly and walking toward the mirror. Upon seeing the messy bandage, Diego let out a low mocking laugh. He's laughing. "We already know you definitely can't be a nurse."

I stare at the man in front of me incredulously, my mouth open. "I'm sorry? You're seriously gonna make fun of me after I saved you from bleeding to death?" Diego chuckles again and raises his arms in a sign of surrender.

"Okay, yeah, sorry. You did an awesome job fixing my bleeding head and face, okay?."

As I was about to reply something, a new voice echoes from outside again. "Fran? Diego? Are you guys in there?" I recognize Violetta's voice. "León already kicked that boy out. You guys can come out now."

I look at Diego as I respond to my friend. "Hey, Vilu. Yeah, I'm coming." I pass right by him, towards the door and unlock it, but before i open it and finally leave that crazy situation, I turn to Diego one last time.

"Just to be clear, the fact that I didn't leave you bleeding in the middle of this party doesn't mean I like you or can stand you. And just because that lunatic started the fight doesn't change the fact that you also messed up. Next time, do everyone a favor and don't show your face around here, okay?"