Before heading to Villa-Arriba, several events unfolded, all starting in the Plaza. It all began the day Álvaro, who could have become one of the key figures in this story, managed to lose everything in just a few short lines. He disappeared from the scene, lost everyone’s respect, and, most importantly, lost the respect of Sandra, with whom he had gotten along quite well.
[I’ll tread carefully as I recount this, Sandra.]
The one to blame for all of this was a girl named Raquel, who was, to put it mildly, a bit unstable. Álvaro became so infatuated with her that she took full advantage of the situation, treating him like a loyal lapdog. She distanced him from the group, to the point where she eventually joined the group herself—and that’s when the real problems began.
At first, things went smoothly, but it didn’t last long. She rubbed most of us—or nearly all of us—the wrong way. The only person she seemed to get along with was Jorge.
The person Raquel clashed with the most was Sandra, who didn’t need to do anything to grab Álvaro’s attention. Things got especially tense during the summer because of the amount of time we all spent together. But soon enough, we saw right through Raquel. She had a bit of a stuck-up attitude, both in terms of her height and her personality.
Everything ultimately fell apart when Tamara entered the picture, pulling Álvaro further away from everyone—especially from Sandra. Though Raquel was mostly to blame, Álvaro didn’t show the strength of character he initially seemed to have.
The result could be summed up as the near-complete disappearance of Álvaro from our lives. He still had one more thing to do, but for the time being, he was out of the picture.
The upside of Álvaro’s temporary disappearance was that it brought a sense of peace to the group, particularly between Marcos and Sandra. Ever since the day Marcos told Sandra she had bad breath and awkwardly declared his feelings during one of his worst moments, there had been tension between them. But with time, they managed to smooth things over and began to get along well. It took a while, but they got there.
