Malibu | j. parker

treinta y cinco

For the past few weeks, about a week or two less than Mariposa and JJ's breakup, Asher has been living with Layla.  At least until last night. After a robbery at Layla's house, which Mariposa slept through, Mariposa woke up to Asher blowing up her phone.  With her eyes closed, she moved her hand around her nightstand to find her phone and answer the call before laying it on the side of her face.  "Welcome to Good Burger."  She mumbled out.

Asher pulled his phone away from his ear in confusion, but shook his head to continue the conversation.  "Mari, remember when you said you owed me one?"

"I've never said that sentence to you in my entire 16 years of life.  What do you want, you scammer."

A sigh was heard from the other side of the line as Mariposa waited for a response.  "Um, Layla kicked me out and I don't want to sleep in my car.  I just need a place to stay for tonight and I'll be out by morning."

"You realize both of my parents are Mexican, right?"

"Well, I've known you since you tried to bury me alive in a sandbox in first grade, so yes."

Mariposa recognized his obliviousness almost immediately and let out a sigh.  "You're outside my house already, aren't you?"  Asher stayed silent on his end of the call, giving Mariposa her answer.  "If they kill me tomorrow at breakfast, I'm haunting you first.  And I'm changing the code for the gate, but I guess I'll let you in."

Despite it being around 1am on a Monday, Mariposa reluctantly rolled out of bed and quietly walked downstairs to let Asher into her house. All he had was a duffle bag from his car, a blanket, and a singular pillow. "I owe you one." He said, but gratefully so.

"You owe me like twelve but okay." Mariposa yawned. "I'm going to bed, you know where the guest rooms are, and if you eat the last box of pop tarts, I will personally shove my fist so far down your throat that you—"

"Okay! I won't touch your pop tarts." Asher whisper-yelled, cutting off Mariposa because he was both shocked and appalled.

Satisfied, Mariposa smiled and hummed. "Goodnight, Ashes. Don't get eaten by roaches."

"You don't have any bugs in your house because your mom's scared of them." Asher mumbled, but after Mariposa had turned around and looked down at him as they were walking upstairs, he shut his mouth. "Goodnight, and thank you."

The two of them continued walking in the same direction, despite saying goodnight, and had Mariposa actually been fully awake, she'd describe it as an awkward silence. Instead, Mariposa was basically sleep walking and left Asher to find his way to the guest bedroom he had slept in so many times. "Don't steal our pillows." Mariposa yawned, pushing her door open while Asher kept walking down the hallway.

"We'll see."

× × ×

The next morning, in the middle of breakfast before school, the Zavala family went quiet when Asher walked down the stairs. For a moment, everyone stayed silent and looked around the table each other, with the exception of Mariposa who chose to avoid everyone's gaze.  "Quién olvidó cerrar la puerta?"  Casimiro asked, looking at everyone in confusion because the family had a gate you needed a code for, security cameras, and a home alarm system.

"Necesitaba un lugar para dormir, sólo por una noche."  Mariposa spoke up, silently praying that her mom wouldn't kill her with a butter knife for sneaking a boy in.  Then again, said boy has been in their house numerous times.

Asher didn't understand a single word they said, his Spanish 1 and 2 classroom knowledge not doing him any justice.  All her knew was that after Mariposa spoke, Fabiola stood up to walk him over to the table and make him sit while she got another plate and more utensils.  "You guys eat breakfast like this every morning?"

Everyone nodded, continuing their conversations like there wasn't a new person at the table who wasn't used to the environment. "Breakfast gives glucose back to your body so when we leave the house, we have energy and are more aware of our environment. And it tastes good." Casimiro explained to Asher, who was still trying to wake up as Fabiola started piling his plate with food like he was her own child.  Casimiro held up a glass pitcher out to Asher with both of his hands and a small smile on his face.  "Juice?"

Before Asher even had the chance to answer, Mariposa reached across the table and grabbed it from Casimiro.  "I want some."  She said, but it was quickly followed by Fabiola hitting the back of her head for talking before swallowing and being rude to the guest.  "Wha— he's been coming over since third grade.  I don't think he still qualifies as a guest."

"Yes he is, stop being rude." Fabiola hit Mariposa again, this time with one of the oven mittens used for the skillet. Meanwhile, Asher was smiling at the treatment, which Mariposa felt was his way of mocking her. "You guys still have 30 minutes until you have to leave, eat."

Everyone was already dressed and ready to head out the door, so for the first time in a long time, Asher got a sense of what it was like to eat as a family.  Despite it not even being 8am yet, the family was very energetic already and their energy somewhat influenced Asher's mood because one minute he was half asleep, and the next he was almost just as hyper as the rest of them. At some point, Fabiola had gone to the kitchen to check on everyone's lunchbox, and Eladio followed shortly after, trying to convince his wife to let him pack the lunchboxes.

"So you guys do this every morning?"

The Zavala kids had somewhat calmed down to continue eating, but all turned to Asher with similar facial expressions. "You mean eat?"

"Well, eat... together."

The three nodded their heads, taking notice of the look of curiosity on Asher's face. "It's like our family bonding because everyone's busy during the day. If my body wasn't still broken from the car accident, I'd have sports. Reina has her art shows, Casi makes robots and is trying to start a robotics club, and sometimes our parents work later than usual. Breakfast is the only time everyone is completely free." Mariposa explained. "Oh we have school."

Reina and Mariposa stood up with their plates and cups, and started walking to the kitchen to get their lunches. Asher followed them, and a moments later, so did Casimiro. The three had a little routine where they'd pick their lunchboxes off the counter, get hugs and kisses from their parents, and then start heading outside; Casimiro usually waited a little bit because Fabiola drove him while Eladio stayed behind to clean the kitchen. With Asher thrown in, he expected to just stand on the sidelines and wait to walk out with everyone. However, Fabiola handed him a brown paper bag, since he didn't have a lunchbox, and he received the same treatment, minus the kisses.

"Have fun at school! If you get in a fight, make sure you win!" Fabiola waved to the high schoolers, and Eladio rolled his eyes at the last statement as he stood inside the house and put the code in to open the gates for everyone.

With the gates opening and Fabiola helping Casimiro into her own car, Mariposa and Reina turned to Asher expectantly. "Do you need a ride or is your car on the street?"

"It's on the street, but I kind of...ran out of gas."

The two girls sighed, opening up their doors while waving Asher over. "You can ride with us, Ashes, but you're getting the Carpool Karaoke mic first."

mariposa really said charity work 😩 her and asher were barely in this story, so this what u get until next chapter 😈

besties our stuffed animals could make a gang and rob ppl 👁👁... but have yall seen the sienna mae drama bc PLS rhis so messy

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