⋆ ⋅ ☆

Truly feeling like a princess as she made her way down the sidewalks, only a tad bit upset she wasn't spending what was more than likely her last Halloween with her childhood friend, Cora wanted to make the most of things.  Even if it meant listening to Ruby blabber and talk his mouth off in front of Olivia.

Cora turned to Cesar with a wide grin on her face.  "Ain't this fun, babe?"

"Sure 'nuff," Cesar interlaced his fingers with hers, bringing her fist to his lips and pressing a firm kiss to her skin.  "HeyRuby, isn't it nice not to have to look over your shoulder for once?" Cesar asked before turning around and realizing there was a small child trailing behind them.  "Damn. We forgot Ruby.  Where's Ruby?"

"Back here, asshole," Ruby said bitterly from behind more kids.

"Uh," Cesar turned to Cora.  "Give me a sec," he excused himself before hanging back with Ruby, leaving Cora to walk ahead with Olivia.  "What's your problem?"

"What's my problem?  What's your problem?  You just confused me with a nine-year-old, who admittedly is big for her age.  And what's with the cock-blocking?  I W-4'd Olivia.  As in I claimed her.  And I'm working on getting my first kiss tonight, and don't need you to do that thing."

"What thing?"

"That thing.  I mean, that thing you do with your face when you say words with your mouth.  Don't be you!  This was supposed to be my night.  I had the perfect P/V ratio."

"The what?"

Refusing to meet Cesar's gaze, Ruby spoke.  "Penis to vagina ratio."

"Calm down.  I'm not into Olivia, okay?"

"Then quit working against me and talk me up."

The boys then turned to join the girls who were already farther down the sidewalk.  "Hey, everything cool?" Olivia asked.

"Most def," Cesar answered.  "Hey, did you know Ruby crushes one-arm push-ups?  Show her, Ruby."

Cora furrowed her eyebrows, leaning in towards Cesar.  "Are you stupid?" she whispered.

Thankfully, Olivia was oblivious to the chaos.  "You know what would be crazy cool?  If we crashed that party.

"I don't know," a hesitant Ruby said.  "They look like they're at capacity.  We don't wanna create a fire hazard."

"Will you excuse us again?" Cesar asked.

"Yeah."  The girls nodded.

Cesar sighed.  "If you don't want me to be me, you need to not be you."

"Me?" Ruby asked.  "What's wrong with me?"

"I don't know," Cesar shook his head before mocking Ruby.  "They look like they're at capacity, and we don't wanna create a fire hazard."  Then he tilted his head.  "She just said she wants to go to the party.  For once, be Outside Ruben and take her to the party.  Come on."

"New plan.  Let's tear that party up!" Ruby announced.

"Yay," Cora grinned.

⋆ ⋅ ☆

"Everyone here's so friendly," Ruby grinned.  "I told someone I was from Freeridge and got major props."

"Hood must be trending."

"Here are some napkins and lemon wedges," Ruby handed Olivia a plate.

"You're so thoughtful and always such a gentleman," Olivia said with a warm smile.

"Gentleman, scholar, and a damn good swimmer too," Cesar added with a chuckle.

Cora turned to him with a slightly furrowed eyebrow.  The thought of Ruby swimming kind of wanted to make her laugh.  "Oh yeah, totally," she added before leaning closer to her boyfriend's ear.  "What the hell?" she whispered into it.

"Excuse me, it's time for my adventure to find the bathroom and wait in a long line," Olivia said, dismissing herself from their ongoing awkward conversation.

Once she was gone, Ruby turned to Cesar and Cora enthusiastically.  "Okay, so thanks for propping me up.  Just a small note, the swimmer comment was a little much.  Great intent, but a bit of a stretch.  Think grounded."

Cesar nodded.  "Point taken, Mr. Gentleman."

Cora shook her head as Ruby beamed.  "Ah, I know, right?  Looks like this gentleman is gonna get his throat tickled."

Then Cora's look turned into one of disgust.

"Wrong euphemism, dude," Cesar corrected him.

"Um... Who amongst us aced Gifted English?"

"It's 'among'."

"Among, amongst.  One's a variant of the other."

"Oh, no, we totally zoned out on Andres, Jamal and Monse," Cora realized, cutting into their incredibly thrilling argument.

"Send them our location," Ruby said.

"You sure?  You know how Monse is.  She'll start problems with her mouth," Cesar said, obviously annoyed.

"No, not tonight.  We're like rock stars here," Ruby grinned.  "Yo, Amy!" he yelled out to a random girl nearby.

"What's up, Ruby?" the girl, presumably Amy, hollered back, surprising Cora and Cesar.

⋆ ⋅ ☆

"What's taking Olivia so long?"

"She's dropping a deuce," Cesar nonchalantly answered.  When Ruby and Cora both turned to him with looks of disgust, he tried to defend himself with, "Everybody poops."

"What's wrong with you?" Ruby asked. 

Unfortunately, their conversation got cut short by a gringo who walked up to them, overly excited about his quote-unquote costume.  "What's up, locos?" he said in an obvious fake Hispanic accent.  "I heard you're from the 'ridge too.  Yo, check it," he started showing them his outfit: blue flannel buttoned at the top, eyedrop tattoo under his eye, and backwards hat.  When the three stood there in utter silence, he laughed in their faces.  "Ah!  Just clowning!  Yeah, I'm straight from B-Wood.  Westside!  So, what do you think of my fits?  And my tat?  It's pretty dope, right?  Moms works in hair and makeup.  I mean, it's like life imitating art and art imitating life, right?"

His question was cut short by Olivia, who walked into their small circle with a green juice in her hand.  Cora's chest was already rising and falling at an uneasy pace.  "Hey."

"Hey.  Where'd you get that?"

"From the fridge," Olivia innocently answered.

"That's my mom's pressed juice," the gringo answered, no sight of the ridiculous smile he had been wearing a short moment ago.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"She's on a cleanse.  She knows exactly how many bottles there are."

"I had no idea.  I just wanted a drink and I just assumed—"

"What?  That you could just go in and take it?"

"Maybe she could put it back?" Cora chimed in, though it sounded more a hopeless question than anything.  Cora liked to think she was just as tough as Cesar — if not more — but she had to admit that she didn't mind the way he had bounced to his feet the moment the white guy looked her way.

"There are drinks everywhere," he was getting angrier now.  "There's a whole bin of soda right there.  Why were you in the fridge?" he asked Olivia.

"I was thirsty," Olivia meekly answered.  "It's just juice.  It's not a big deal."

Cora winced at her poor choice of words because even if she was right, he surely wasn't going to take it lightly.  "Don't tell me what's not a big deal, okay?  Do people go in your house, take stuff out of your fridge?"

The friends looked at each other before answering in sync.  "Yeah."

"What the hell is wrong with you people?" he asked in disbelief.

"You people?" 

"Hey, just let it go."

"Don't you have any respect?"

"Respect?  Says the white boy dressed like a cholo."

"Nah, she's got a point there," Cora added.  "Sorry, not sorry."

"Excuse me?" he asked, stepping forward and closing the space in between them since the girls were standing closer to him than the guys were.  

"Back up dude, that's my boyfriend and he'll kill you!" Cora threatened, knowing she would also surely throw her own manicured punch at his face if it came down to it, but she loved using the tough boyfriend card.

"Thanks, Cora," Cesar groaned.

"Right after I kick your ass!" she added.

"Excuse me?  Excuse me?"

"Hey, we don't want any problems," Ruby said, which was practically like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound.

"Exactly," Cesar nodded.

"You know, I got her," Ruby offered up.  "Let me pay for the juice."

"Okay."  The white boy nodded.  "Okay, it's 52 dollars a bottle, and then another 20 each for all the food and drinks you had."

"We don't have that kind of money on us," Olivia stated what was on Cora's mind.

"Of course you don't," he scoffed with a smile.

Cora clenched her jaw.  Great, more obvious stereotyping.  "What's that supposed to mean?" Olivia asked.

"I'm just stating the obvious."

"Now you're just being a dick."

"Oh."  Ruby and Cesar scrambled to create space between the girls and the white guy along with his friend group as they realized the situation was increasingly getting worse.

"Dude, you better control your bitch," the guy spat at Ruby.

"Dude, he thinks she's my bitch."

"You better apologize," Cesar said as he ignored Ruby, stepping in front of the other three so he was face to face with the white boy.  God, it was scary how things had escalated within a matter of minutes.  But Cora wasn't scared at all, if anything, she was standing behind Cesar with a smile.

"No.  He doesn't have to apologize."

"Exactly."

"So, how are we gonna settle up?"

"Like this," Olivia said, turning over the bottle of juice and dumping it's contents all over the floor of the guy's living room.

⋆ ⋅ ☆

[ HIIIII 🥰🥰 ]

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
1,495 words

PUBLISHED july 14, 2022