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Carla noticed how Polo looked at Guzman. He didn't even look at her with so much respect, admiration and desire. He looked at Guzman as if he hung the moon and the stars.
She was starting to consider that maybe Polo was gay and that he was only dating her because he dealt with mandatory heterosexuality as the son of two lesbian women who were trying to prove that they were capable of raising a common child.
However, she knew that it was impossible. Polo was pendent of her twenty-four hours a day, he treated her with love and sweetness and he showed her that he was willing to go to infinity and beyond for her. It was impossible for Polo to fake those feelings, he truly was in love with her.
Perhaps what he felt for Guzman was a physical attraction or personal admiration because he represented everything he could never be, a strong and powerful man with leadership skills. But that didn’t hold a candle to the true love he felt for Carla. She knew it.
★
Polo was attracted to Christian, and so was Carla. Here came the opportunity to open up their relationship to break the routine and ignite passion between them. Now Carla and Polo would strengthen their trust, increase their communication and explore new fantasies and games together. Polo would finally satisfy his sexual urges and get over Guzman.
The day of the party at Marina's house, Carla felt better than ever, and she had no doubt that Polo felt the same and he was just as eager as her to repeat the experience.
Until at night, in her apartment, she discovered that, of course, Polo had asked Guzman for his opinion.
"We're going to stop all this thing with Christian." He told her.
"Why?" Carla asked, but she already knew the answer.
"I've talked to Guzman about it." He confessed, causing her to roll her eyes. "When I told it to him, I realized how crazy it sounded."
Carla wasn't sure if Polo was trying to lie to her or to himself. Did Guzman actually have so much power over Polo that he didn't even realize that he changed his mind because of him?
"Polo, are we really going to stop experimenting and having fun because of your friend's opinion? Besides, we all know what he's like."
Guzman was a meddlesome, toxic and controlling person, who wanted to have an influence on everyone's lives, especially on Polo's, since he was the only person he was able to control.
Polo followed Carla to the bed. "And I’m telling you more, we're playing with fire. It isn't normal that we're doing this at our age, it isn't normal."
"My mom is a winery marchioness and you're two rich lesbian women's son. You and I have always been everything but normal. Our lives are written, why not go off script?"
"I don't know..." Polo looked at the ground, trying to remain firm, but Carla knew that she was about to convince him.
"What don't you know, that you love me?"
"I love you.” Polo assured, while looking at her. "Do you love me?"
"I love you.” She kissed him, and that was enough. Carla was sure that Guzman no longer had any chance of ruining her plans.
★
Carla was kissing Christian, satisfying her own sexual needs and experiencing new forms of pleasure. She was used to only making out with Polo for years, and this was all new.
But Polo had to ruin everything.
He scared Christian away like Guzman wanted him to do.
Guzman's condescending and violent words had more influence on Polo than Carla's caresses, kisses and "I love yous."
Polo’s feelings for Guzman were stronger than she used to think.
★
Carla could be many things, but she wasn't stupid. She had the same need to control the people around her that Guzman had, but she knew how to hide it better. She wasn't predictable, her intentions weren’t easily discovered. With indirect and subtle threats, she got people to comply with her whims. With her angelical voice and her charm, she made people feel important, and thus she gained power over them.
However, now her main manipulation technique hadn't worked, so Carla decided to simply mock Polo for his absurd and incoherent obsession with Guzman.
Why did he like him so much?
She understood that Guzman had been the first person in the entire school to approach him in elementary school when he was a shy child with social anxiety, and Polo was always going to be grateful for that.
But over the years, Polo idealized Guzman and apparently he saw no flaws in him. He wanted to be as strong as Guzman seemed to him. He wanted to have a relationship with Begoña and Andrea like the one Guzman had with Laura and Ventura. He wanted to make his family proud like Guzman did. He wanted to develop the leadership skills that Guzman had. He fantasized about managing the group like Guzman did. He wanted to make the important decisions in his relationship with Carla, like Guzman made them in his relationship with Lu. Guzman was the personification of hegemonic masculinity, and Polo admired him because he knew that he could never be like him no matter how hard he tried.
However, Carla knew that Polo not only wanted to be like Guzman, he wanted to be with him.
Guzman's perfect and enviable image explained Polo's respect for him, but not the crazy love that he felt. Guzman was rude to him, and only called him when he needed help to start fights or participate in them.
Polo clearly wished to be his first option. He hoped that he could treat him like how he treated Ander and Marina. And sometimes he probably allowed himself to imagine how it would feel if he treated him like how he himself treated Carla.
"Polo, have you already told your mothers that you will come with us to Croatia for Easter?" Carla's mom asked.
"I might have other plans. I have to think about it, I don't know what to do."
Carla smiled. "Whatever Guzman says, surely."
★
When Polo slept with Christian without her, that was the final nail in the coffin.
Their relationship was officially dead.
She was surprised that Polo was able to lie to her and Christian by telling each one that the other one wasn't available, just to have a sexual encounter with him alone.
She wasn't actually that offended. She understood that Polo felt left out because Christian didn't want him, and therefore he didn't enjoy the threesome as much as she did. Plus, as always, he had Guzman giving him his opinion all the time. Carla should have seen it coming that there would come a point where Polo would explode.
If she couldn't control him anymore, that was the time to end their relationship.
And anyway, even though Polo loved her, she knew that she wasn't the person Polo would always long for.
However, Polo tried to convince her to return to him with expensive gifts because he had spent years limiting his personality to being the most perfect girl's boyfriend and without her he felt lost.
"I can't be without you, don't you see that I can't be without you?" Polo asked on his knees looking at Carla.
"Yes, you can, and do you know why? Because I think you like boys more than girls."
She was about to reproach him his love for Guzman, but she didn't. His life was already miserable enough. He was completely and undeniably in love with his so-called best friend, who didn't even appreciate him as such and only used him for his own benefit and treated him like a slave.
★
Carla's life took a 180° turn on the day of the end-of-year party. Polo brutally killed Marina, and she covered it up and carried out a plan for him to escape justice.
Carla never thought that Polo would be capable of blatantly lying to Guzman's face about a matter as important as his sister's murder. But at the end of the day, if he didn't do it, he would lose him permanently, because Guzman would never forgive him for having murdered Marina.
However, Carla knew that Polo had noble intentions. Guzman had encouraged him to impress her so that she would come back to him. Everything was Guzman’s fault. He provoked it. Polo thought he would be the hero of the story, convincing Marina to return the watch to make both Carla and Guzman proud. He unintentionally ended up hurting Guzman more than anyone had ever done before. However, Guzman thought it had been someone else, Nano, and apparently that was what enough to Polo. Carla had assumed that Polo would be devastated to see Guzman in that state, but now she saw how, as long as Guzman was by his side, Polo didn't care that much about his state.
Polo was being quite firm and stable considering the circumstances. He seemed to have learned from her how to keep a cool head, the strange thing was that now, even Carla herself was starting to lose her mind.
What had shocked her the most was how much Guzman had been needing Polo. He turned around to talk to him in class all the time, he asked him to go to his house almost every day after school, and all the times he got upset, Polo was the only person who was able to calm him down.
Carla had always thought that Guzman didn't really value Polo's friendship, but apparently he did.
Lu, Nadia and Valerio were looking for ways to cheer him up, but all he wanted was to spend time with Polo and Ander, although the latter one was increasingly distant.
For Guzman, Polo was his only emotional support.
Carla had always hated seeing Polo and Guzman together, since because of Guzman she wasn't able to control Polo as much as she wanted, but now she even felt bad imagining the drastic change that their relationship would have if Guzman found out what Polo did.
★
After months of bullying Polo after discovering that he killed Marina, Guzman decided to put his feelings of hatred aside.
When Polo's moms caused Guzman and Samuel to be expelled, Carla expected to see Guzman in a rage. But that didn't happen. He accepted the expulsion as a consequence of having annoyed Polo during the year, admitting that although Polo should be in jail, that didn't mean that he deserved to get bullied.
He didn't even blame Polo for what had happened. Carla didn't know if Guzman simply wanted to turn the page to free himself from his demons, or if he defended Polo because he felt that the expulsion was exclusively Begoña's idea, and that Polo had nothing to do with it.
Lu and Nadia exposed Polo's crimes at graduation, and Polo's moms decided to take away their scholarship.
Carla thought that they shouldn't have taken the risk, what did they expect, that Polo's mothers would sit and watch how their son was humiliated? If you decide to insult the owner of the scholarship you applied for, it's clear that you will suffer consequences. Furthermore, it wasn't Polo's mothers’ obligation to pay for anyone's college fees, they were only doing it as a favor.
And apparently, Guzman shared the same opinion on the matter.
Valerio, Omar, Malick and evidently Lu and Nadia were upset with Polo for allowing the scholarship to be taken away.
Guzman defended Polo every time someone complained about what had happened with the scholarship, saying that Lu and Nadia wanted to play heroines.
Carla realized that Guzman couldn't help it. No matter how much he tried to ignore Polo, his protective instinct was always there. He didn't let him be criticized for any reason other than the same reason he was mad at him, Marina's murder.
Guzman actually loved Polo.
★
When Carla saw Lu's horrified face at the bathroom door, she knew something was wrong.
She turned and saw Polo, who was walking like a zombie towards Guzman.
After all, despite having been far away from each other for months, his first reaction was to look for Guzman whenever he was in danger.
If you think you're about to die, you want to be with the person you need the most.
And Carla was right, for Polo that person was always going to be Guzman.
Polo tripped over someone and fell to the first floor. Guzman shouted his name and ran towards him.
Carla felt sad because her childhood love was dying.
But at least he would die in the arms of the man he loved, who was caressing him and whispering sweetly that he forgave him.