Los Jóvenes y el Agitado

Ah, to be young. And stubborn-as-hell.

Carmen was trying very hard to remind herself about the arrogance of youth, and that Soledad was not, in fact, a cousin of hers that she could just smack upside the head for giving her lip. Tempting as it might have been.

She stood up and took her title, placing it back on her shoulders with a long, exasperated sigh. She knew when to stop banging her head against a wall, and she figured it was fair to cut Soledad a little slack. After all…

”You’ve had a shit day. I get it.” Carmen looked down on the younger fighter, no longer caring how much of her mother’s mannerisms slipped out. ”You’ll calm down, you’ll think about this, and then you’ll realize what I’m actually offering you here, and you’ll stop acting like a spoiled brat.”

Carmen brought out her wallet and started fishing through it. ”You’ll come to your senses and start acting like the adult you are instead of the child you’re not. When that happens, you’re ready to be serious…”

She brought out her business card and handed it over to Soledad. Business number, home address, anything she’d need to find Carmen in Kyoto when she needed her. And she would. Eventually.

”...call me. Come over, and we can really talk.”

Soledad huffed. She'd been lectured before, of course, and she was just as much in a mindset to listen now as she had, then. She silently flashed back through the hundreds of times her mother had tried to get through to her in the past, tried to get her out of the streets. Just like then, Sola felt the aches and pains in her body, and let those fill her ears, blocking out anything that was actually being said with lingering pain and frustration.

Still half-off the bed, Sola's body heaved a bit as she huffed and puffed. She didn't break her glare, though, didn't want to show a chink in her armor. "Yeah, yeah," she muttered, "cuz you know me so good, you know exactly how my tomorrow's gonna go ..."

Sola did take the card, though. Taking it between her index and middle fingers, she flipped it back and forth a couple of times. It was difficult, maintaining the focus to keep her grip. But for all her bluster and attitude, she wasn't letting it go.

"Yeah, I'll come over," she said, "we can have drinks and you can show off all your fancy shit, like you show off that fancy title. So very adult and fancy, yeah ..." Soledad stared at the card, then, rolling her jaw, a little. Thinking. Glancing from the card to Carmen, wheels were turning in the young woman's head. "Yeah," she said, finally, "we can have words. I'm sure there's a hell of a lot I can get out of it ..."