“Oh,” said Héctor. “Don’t worry about that. I knew you were talking about yourself.”

Juliana’s mouth dropped open while Sal covered their laugh with a hand. “What?” she said. “How did you know that?”

“It was obvious,” said Sal. “We both knew.”

“And it’s okay,” said Héctor. “We all just met. I didn’t expect you to tell me your entire life story in the first hour.”

Juliana sniffled again. “Still. I feel bad. And I don’t know what to do.”

Héctor furrowed his brow. “About lying? I promise you, it’s fine.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “About my problem.”

He watched as Juliana’s shoulders sagged, as she let out a long breath. And just like that, as Sal had done the day he and Juliana met them, Juliana let go. “Something happened,” she began. “And I don’t know how to stop it.”

Héctor didn’t get what she meant by that, but figured she was about to explain herself. “Okay,” he said. “Maybe we can help.”

So Juliana told them both. She told them about Sascha, the girl that she’d met at the beginning of the school year. They had bonded over protective hairstyles like braids and twists, over their loud and loving Southern families, over a million different things that they had in common. Juliana explained how Sascha made her feel something she hadn’t before. It was a funny sensation, deep in her heart.

“Oh, so you like like her,” Héctor quipped.

“Don’t make fun!” she said, playfully hitting him on the arm. Then she pressed her lips together. “But yeah. I do.”

She told him that she had asked Sascha to the fall dance, where Juliana was going to DJ.

And she told him that when the principal had found out about it, he took the DJ job away from her.

“It happened a few weeks ago,” she said, wiping away the tears that were falling down her cheeks. “He called me into his office and told me that the school had hired an outside DJ for the dance.”

“That’s horrible,” he said. “When is the dance?”

“In a couple weeks,” said Juliana.

“And that’s what you’re scared about? People finding out that you aren’t going to be the DJ?”

She shook her head, and when she looked to Héctor, the tears came back again. “He’s going to tell my mom today. Like . . . I need to go to the office after this.”

It took a moment for Héctor to understand.

“Oh no,” he said. “She doesn’t know, does she?”

Juliana put her face in her hands. “No,” she said. “This is how she’s going to find out that I like girls.”

“That’s what made you so angry,” said Héctor, realization dawning on him. “And why you found this place.”