Gloria and I were sat in the kitchen. Someone knocked on our door so Gloria got up to answer it. "Hola, Cam. Hola, Mitch." Gloria greeted the two. The walked inside as Jay walked down the stairs.

"There He is — the steely, grizzled veteran," Cam said, "ready to do battle with the plucky upstart. Speed versus grace. Brute force versus—"

"Let's just do this." Jay said, cutting Cam off. Jay and Cam left to go to the gym whilst I walked over to Mitch and Gloria.

"Hi, Mitch." I said, making him turn around,

"Oh, Hi Y/N." He grinned, "Gloria told me all about your date. Still not saying who the mystery boy is?" I went a shade of red due to embarrassment.

"No. Like I've said a million times, I probably never will say." I told him.

"But there's a possibility that you will?" Mitch asked as Manny ran down the stairs.

"Okay, Okay, Okay. I'm ready. Let's do this." Manny says as he reached the bottom.

"Ready for what?" I asked him.

"The walk."

"The walk? You made it sound as though we were going of to war, or something." I joked. Manny shook his head at me as Mitch put Lily in her pram. After another minute we all left.

——

"I was driving along this street." Gloria began, "The cars were parked just like this. And boom. Out of nowhere, he hits me."

"Okay, so, he-he cut you off?" Mitch asked her.

"Yes. A crazy driver."

"Right." Mitch nodded, "You know, I used to be a little bit like that. I don't know, maybe it's because of Lily, but I've definitely become more considerate. Like, I used to never let people in, and now I do. Just now getting that metaphor. Okay."

"So, what do you think?" Gloria turned to him.

"Were there any witnesses?" Mitch looked at her.

"No, just Manny. He was in the backseat."

"It all happened so fast — just like they say." Manny looked at Mitch.

"Yeah. All right. Well, this is what we're gonna do. I'll take a few pictures, and then we'll sit down and write a statement." Mitch told her.

"Perfect. I'll go and get us a table." Gloria said, walking ahead of us, "Manny, Y/N, come."

"Uh, just a minute, Mum." Manny said, "I need to tie my shoe."

"Okay." Gloria said as we walked towards the cafe. We both reached the cafe when Gloria looked at Manny. "Manny, what kind of cupcake do you want?"

"Um, that's okay. I'm not hungry." Manny looked back down and shook his head, he then said something but I was too far away to hear what.

"Are you Okay?" Gloria asked them.

"I'm fine." Manny replied. Gloria shrugged and continued doing what she was doing. I watched as Manny continued to talk to Mitchell. I'd hear snippets of the conversation, it sounds like Gloria was the one to blame, and she was driving a hundred miles per hour.

"I'll be right back, Aunt Gloria. Just going to make sure they're okay." I told her. She nodded and continued doing what she was doing. I walked over to them and listened to what they were saying.

"She honked so long, the horn ran out." Manny said to Mitch.

"Taking a long time to tie your shoe, Manny." I spoke, making them jump and look at me.

"Uh, I just finished. I accidentally untied the other one." Manny laughed nervously.

"How do you accidentally—" I began but was cut off,

"Manny, Y/N!" Gloria shouted.

"Coming, Mum." Manny shouted back. Manny ran over to Gloria and I followed.

——

We were all sat inside of Cafe. We had all ordered our drinks, each being tea, and had gotten some biscuits and a two cupcakes, one for me, and one for Manny.
Mitch sat down after getting some napkins, "Okay. Maybe, uh, we should go over the accident one more time."

"Put the dogs on a row. You're such a good lawyer." Gloria grinned.

"Uh, I just wanna make sure we're 100% clear on exactly what happened." Mitch said before sipping on his tea.

"Oh, we're clear." Gloria stared at him, "I told you." Mitch looked up at her, his lips were parted, and his face showed disbelief. Gloria noticed this and spoke, "What? You don't believe me?" She tilted her head to the side.

Manny and Mitch shared looks. "No, no." Mitch shook his head, "I just— you know, sometimes you can forget tiny details. Like, is it possible, maybe, uh, you were driving too fast?"

Gloria looked towards Manny, "Who said I was driving too fast?"

"Yeah," Manny nodded, looking at Mitch, "who?"

I sipped my tea as Mitch looked between Manny and Gloria. "I just—" Mitch began, diverting his gaze towards the window, "I'm looking at the street, and, um, I'm thinking if you were driving a little fast," he looked back at Gloria, then at the window, "it's possible that maybe you didn't see the car—"

"You're like everyone else, huh?" Gloria cut him off, raising her voice that made a few people look at her, "You blame the Latino driver. Where I come from, they always blame the Latino driver." She shook her head.

"Where you come from, isn't everyone a Latino driver?" Mitch asked.

Gloria looked at me, "Y/N, tell him."

"Tell him what?" I asked, moving my cup away form my mouth, "I wasn't with you when it happened."

"Okay," Gloria began, turning to Manny, whom was currently eating his cupcake, "Manny, tell him."

"I can't 'cause I have a cupcake in my mouth." Manny replied.

"Oh, come on. Don't blame your cupcake." She suddenly grabbed his arm, "What?" She leaned closer to him, "You think I'm guilty too?"

Manny shook his head. "No." He replied, his reply muffled by his cupcake.

"Y/N? Do you think I'm guilty?" Gloria looked at me.

"No." I replied before taking a bite out of my cupcake.

Gloria then turned to Mitch, "Fine." She began, "I don't need you as a lawyer anymore." She picked up her purse, "And if you two," She referred to Mitch and Manny, "think I'm such a bad driver, you're safer walking home."

She stood up and picked up her bag, "Come on, Y/N."

"Be with you in a second." I replied before taking another bite out of my cupcake. Gloria nodded and mumbled stuff in Spanish. I quickly drank my tea and stood up to follow Gloria when she walked back into the Cafe.

"Ay, I'm sorry, guys." She said as she reached the table, "It's true— I am a defensive driver."

Manny looked up at her, "you mean you're defensive about—"

"I know what I am." She cut manny off, "Let's go." The two boys grabbed their stuff and got up, "It's just that I don't like when people assume that I'm a bad driver. Maybe it was just, like, a little bit my fault." She shrugged.

Mitch and Manny walked towards the doors; Mitch pushing Lily's pushchair. "Well," Mitch began, looking at Gloria, "I'm glad you can admit that, Gloria.

Gloria and I followed the two, "But I'm still gonna need you as my lawyer, Mitch." She turned to look at him.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because this one—" she turned to look at the chaos she had most definitely caused, "it was not my fault, I promise you."

There were multiple chairs scattered on the ground, and there was a large metal cupcake on top of a strangers car, crushing the car's bonnet. Mitch wafted some of the smoke away before speaking,

"That's what that sound was." Mitch frowned.

"It was the big cupcake." She pointed to the cupcake on the car.

A/N
Ahh, I'm so sorry for making you all wait so long. Thank you all for being patient. And, thank you all so much for 12K reads!! Love you all, stay safe. ♥️