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could say any more, Sal had slipped away.

Twelve
    A T LEAST WITH Sal coming over on Saturday, Carlos was able to avoid his friends’ finding out. He also forgot to tell his ma. Saturday morning she woke him, nudging his arm. “Carlitos, a boy named Sal is here. He brought a can of paint—and some bamboo. What’s this about?”
    Carlos’s brain slowly cleared from sleep as his eyes blinked open. “Um …” He sat up, rubbing his face. He felt too embarrassed to tell her the full extent of his plan with Sal, so he simply said, “Remember I told you I was going to fix up my room?”
    His ma gazed around the bedroom. It was getting messy again, with video games and dirty clothes piling up on the floor.
    â€œSo, is it okay to paint?” Carlos asked, even though he wasn’t sure what they’d paint.
    His ma glanced up at the posters of megababes in bikinis that lined his wall. It only took a second for her to reply, “Sure.”
    Carlos pulled some clothes on, stopped by the bathroom, and headed to the kitchen. His ma sat at the breakfast table with Sal, sipping coffee. She was laughing—not something she usually did with his friends. In fact, she didn’t really laugh much at all since the divorce.
    â€œâ€™S’up?” Carlos told Sal and grabbed some Sugar Puffs from the cupboard. Sal glanced at the cereal box and slid the sugar bowl across the table to Carlos. “Why don’t you just spoon out the sugar bowl for breakfast?”
    â€œThat’s what I’ve told him!” Carlos’s ma nodded agreement. “He had two cavities his last checkup.”
    â€œMa …” Carlos frowned. “That was three years ago.”
    â€œThat long?” she replied, just as the doorbell rang. “I’ll have to make you another appointment.”
    She left the boys to tend to a client for her home sewing business, and Sal commented, “Your mom’s pretty. You’ve got her eyes, you know that? They’re, like, honey-colored—really nice.”
    As Sal gazed at him, Carlos chomped on his Sugar Puffs. No one except his ma had ever told him he had nice eyes before. Sal better not be planning to try anything funny.
    Carlos quickly wolfed down his cereal, eager to forget Sal’s compliment and get to work. He helped Sal carry the gallon of paint, brushes, some bamboo stalks, and a Plexiglas box-frame to the bedroom.
    â€œHey!” Sal shouted at the sight of the unmade bed and crap accumulating on Carlos’s floor. “I didn’t spend all that time helping you clean up just for you to slob the place up again. It only takes fifteen minutes a day to keep it neat, okay? That includes making the bed. A messy bed means a messy head.”
    Carlos clenched his jaw. He didn’t like being chewed out. But how could he argue? Besides, Sal was already making the bed. “Get the other side,” he ordered Carlos. In fifteen minutes, the room was tidy again.
    â€œNow, first we’re going to paint an accent wall,” Sal announced.
    â€œHuh? What’s that?”
    â€œIt’s when you paint one wall a different color. I got auburn to go with the beige carpet. Tell me you don’t hate auburn.”
    Carlos didn’t know what the hell auburn was, but glanced at the color on the paint can. “It looks okay. But how come we’re only painting one wall? Won’t that look weird, like we ran out of paint?”
    â€œNo. It’ll look stylish.” Sal scanned the walls, focusing his gaze on the big-boobed babes. “Hey, you haven’t told me: Who’s the girl you’re so hot for?”
    Carlos bit the inside of his lip, hesitating. What if Sal revealed to Roxy what they were doing? Carlos would surely be the laughing stock of school. “Um, I’d rather not say.”
    Sal stared at Carlos, his brown eyes clouding. “Then I guess I’m out of here.” In an