The Distance Between Us

Weeks after the trip to Mexico, Mago tells Reyna that she’s getting an apartment with some friends and invites Reyna to move in with them. Reyna is relieved that the fight they had is over and that Mago is not going to abandon her. As a high school senior, Reyna leads the marching band during a Christmas parade near home, but her father, unimpressed, doesn’t attend. 

Reyna starts a relationship with Steve, a boy from her school. While he pressures her to have sex, she refuses. First, she wants to remain a virgin until marriage. Also, she is certain that their relationship will be short-lived, as she will soon be moving in with Mago and probably transferring to a new school. Eventually Mago announces that she is moving but can’t take Reyna with her. Reyna is crushed and begins to pray, thinking that she is being punished for having lied about her first communion: “Please don’t take away my Mago, God. Punish me in another way, if you must” (285). Mago tells their father that she is moving out soon; he calls her ungrateful and tells her she will be dead to him if she moves. They drop the subject and eventually go out to a restaurant to celebrate Reyna’s acceptance to UCLA.