A Poetic Retelling of an Unfortunate Romance

Early the next morning Ella awoke to the sound of her mother nagging at her to get dressed for mass. Ella groaned in response, not wanting to go to mass that morning but when her mother tore off the covers and threw one of her many vintage dresses on the bed she knew that this was not a battle she would win.

Sunday mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Los Angeles is tradition in the Acosta home. Religion was the one thing, other than their love, that Maggie and Samuel had had in common in the beginning of their relationship and it’s played a large role in their lives together.

“Gabriella!” hollered Margaret from downstairs.

Ella groaned while she grabbed a pair of flats from underneath her bed. Her feet hit against the floor as she rushed down the stairs to the living room where her family sat waiting for her with bored expressions.

“Why is it that you’re always the last one ready?” inquired Olivia, the eldest of the Acosta children.

“Why are you complaining? You rarely go to church so you have no right to criticize me only the elders do,” answered Ella while she slipped on her flats.

“I'm going to get you in trouble during mass,” threatened Olivia softly so that only Ella could hear her.

Like any other day in Los Angeles, the drive to get to the Cathedral took twice as long as it should have thanks to the perpetual gridlock traffic that plagues the streets, freeways, and highways of Southern California.

During the course of the car ride Margaret had scolded her children at least five times for misbehaving and Samuel had threatened to pull over to sort them out. Ella began laughing when he told them that because everyone knew that Samuel wasn’t going to smack or spank anyone; he’s too peaceful for that.

“She’s going to melt when they throw holy water,” whispered Leo to Ella while they walked behind their family.

Ella worked hard to keep the smile off her face as she told him, “Livy’s going to be like, I'm melting and then I'm going to go the power of Christ compels you.”

“Compels her to what?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Those religious fanatics always say that though so I thought it would make sense to say,” reasoned Ella, shrugging her shoulders slightly.

The family filed into one of the benches towards the middle of the Cathedral. Ella, like she always does, sat in between her brother and sister. She played with the hem of her dress as her eyes darted around the Cathedral that was jam packed with people.

Olivia smiled slyly as she looked from her sister to her mother. Ella was going to pay for the little comment that she had made earlier that morning.

“I'm going to make mom force you to sit between her and dad,” threatened Olivia, her face holding no malice but her voice dripping with it.

Ella raised her brow at Olivia. “Dude we’re at church.”

“According to you I'm a heathen,” shot back Olivia.

Olivia’s plan to get Ella in trouble wasn’t intricate, it was very simple and all she had to do was make the youngest Acosta laugh because once Ella starts laughing there’s no stopping her until she gets sat in between her parents and pinched.

Crude jokes were told by Olivia, they were vulgar, raunchy, and shouldn’t have been told at Church but she was telling them and when she saw Ella’s lips begin to twitch upwards the jokes became more intense until a laugh erupted from Ella’s lips.

“Ella, come over here,” hissed Margaret through clenched teeth, embarrassed by her child’s actions.

“Mama, it wasn’t my fault! Olivia made me laugh,” argued Ella, not wanting to sit in between her parents.

“GABRIELLITA,” snapped Margaret.

An involuntary shudder wracked through Ella when her mother called her that name. Her mom only calls her that when she’s really angry. Grudgingly she stood up from her place in between her siblings and wandered in between her parents.

Her mother pinched her side rather roughly while shooting her “the look.” Margaret turned her attention back to the priest once “the look” had been given. Samuel knew that Olivia was the one to blame but he didn’t feel like scolding his kids in the middle of mass so he wrapped his arm around Ella’s shoulder and kissed the top of her head tenderly.

When mass ended the family made their way towards the expedition and got on the freeway to go to Carson where Ella’s uncle Felix’s house. Ella loves her uncle Felix, he looks like the comedian Chevy Chase and is always making the lamest jokes but even though his jokes aren’t funny his unique laugh makes all those around him chuckle.

Ella stuck her index finger in her mouth while she sat in the third row of the expedition alongside her brother. Their eyes momentarily met and he nodded that the time was right.

“ELLA YOU ARE SO FUCKING DISGUSTING!” roared Olivia when Ella’s dripping wet finger made contact with her inner ear.

“May the lord curse you with an ear infection, can I get an amen?” spoke Ella.

“Amen!” chimed Leo.

“Dad, you have to tell her something!” whined Olivia as she busied herself cleaning her ear with a Kleenex tissue.

“You know you deserved it Olivia. I saw what you did at the church so callate,” stated Samuel as he parked the expedition in front of his younger brother’s house.

Loud ranchera music and the smell of carne asada enraptured their senses the moment that they stepped out of the car. Ella ran towards the backyard where her favorite cousin, Gabriel, was located.

The pair has always gotten along best and the fact that they’re both named after their grandfather tightens the bond.

“How was church?” inquired Gabriel after he had hugged and kiss his cousins cheek.

“It was pretty good, fucking Olivia got me in trouble though. How was church for you guys?”

“Horrible! I don’t get why my dad likes going to mass at 7. It’s way to fucking early to pay attention at that time,” complained Gabriel. “I’ll be right back. I have to say hi to your parents.”

Halfway during the carne asada Gabe and Ella excused themselves saying that they were going to run down to the store to get some ice cream but in reality what they did was park in the back of the supermarket and smoke out a bit because although marijuana is fine with Samuel and Maggie it’s a forbidden fruit at her uncle Felix’s house.

Gabe sat in the driver’s seat of the car telling Ella about how his parents have been hounding him for not having gone to college. He hated high school and knew that if he pursued higher education he would’ve wasted him time but his parents, having that immigrant mindset wanted him to get a degree in something, anything.

Ella’s words were direct to the point. She told him that it was his life and that he shouldn’t go to school just to make them happy because in the long run that will make him miserable and make them feel guilty because they pressured him into doing something that he didn’t want to.

A little while after Gabe and Ella returned, Samuel announced that they had to get going because he had work in the morning. Goodbyes were said and Maggie invited Felix and his family over to the house on Saturday for dinner.

“I see you’re watching one of my many films,” spoke Leo when he saw Ella watching Donnie Darko in the living room.

“You’re delusional.”

“Nah, you’re just hating because you’re not as pretty as me.”

“I would cry if I was as ugly as you. Honestly, how do you live knowing that you’re the ugliest person in this whole family?”

“If I was so ugly then I wouldn’t have tourists slipping me their hotel keys and asking to take pictures with me,” countered Leo, plopping down beside her.

Ella raised her brow as he said, “The fact that over processed beach blondes think you’re hot means nothing.”

Leo opened his mouth to respond to her statement but the sound of his mother calling for Ella at the top of her lungs silenced him. He watched as Ella muttered a slew of profanity under her breath and wandered in the direction that the angry Irish accent was coming from.

Maggie scolded Ella for having taken off with Gabe to smoke in the middle of the carne asada. Ella didn’t hear the rest of the conversation because a few minutes into it she completely tuned out; it’s a talent that comes in handy when your mom’s menopausal.

Five minutes passed before Maggie finished her nagging and as soon as she was done Ella bolted towards the living room, hoping that she hadn’t missed the ending of Donnie Darko because she hadn’t seen it before.

“I fucking missed the ending!” she mumbled angrily. “Hey Leo, what happened?”

“He killed Gretchen,” he answered.

“What? Why would he kill Gretchen? He really liked her and they’d just made love,” said Ella, trying to figure out why Donnie would have killed Gretchen.

Leo turned off the television. He turned to look at his sister and told her, “That’s what happens when people have underage premarital sex; they die.”

“If that were true then you’d be dead by now,” shot back Ella.

“No, you see I won’t die because I'm so amazing but if you have sex the guy will most likely kill you and then he would suffer an untimely death brought about by an angry older brother.”

“Is this you giving me a sex talk?” asked Ella.

He nodded his head.

“This is the most ridiculous and awkward sex talk that has ever been given in the history of the world and I am going to go to sleep now before you say anything else that would make me question your sanity.”

Ella was bombarded with messages from her best friend, Zoey Davies, the moment that she signed onto her AOL instant messenger. Zoey sent a bunch of messages demanding to know who Ella was talking about when she sent her a text about a gorgeous strung out man.

A detailed account of everything that had happened was immediately given and Zoey typed OMG at least one hundred times in the two hour period that they were messaging. By the end of their discussion the teenage girls were sure of a few things.

1. James Devlin Parker was the Lizard King Reincarnated.

2. James had to have done something bad to really piss Leo off.

3. James wanted Ella and she had to decide what she wanted.