Malibu | j. parker

treinta y siete

With Asher no longer living with Layla, leaving her alone, and her house just getting robbed the previous night, Olivia and Mariposa went over to keep her company. The house was still empty since the police came was still working on retrieving all of her stuff, but she still had some of her bedroom stuff. "This is like a sleepover." Mariposa smiled.

The girls were currently doing a self care routine so they had green and pink face masks on while sitting on Layla's bed in robes. They were painting each other's nails to pass the time, so Mariposa and Layla were currently painting Olivia's. "It's probably going to be a long sleepover."

"You don't have to stay here, you know? We all have big houses and guest bedrooms, so if you get lonely or scared, we have empty rooms." Olivia explained.

"And you can stop eating Hot Pockets, peanut butter and jelly, and cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner." Mariposa justified.

"Yeah, but if you come to my house, don't expect home cooked meals every day. My mom gets lazy sometimes. Mamá cooks religiously."

Mariposa nodded proudly because her mom's love for cooking was the reason her and her siblings are basically mini chefs. Like Masterchef Junior, but less professional. Casimiro was still learning, of course, but for a 7 year old, he knew a lot; both school and cooking wise.  "That's why I brought so much food."

"I'll figure something out, but I will take your offers into consideration. Enough about me, did you finally handle everything with JJ?"

Mariposa painted Olivia's last finger nail and then nodded as she gently put Olivia's hand down.  "I talked to him after school because Jordan said he was bugging everyone.  Apparently he's dating all the Beverly girls with brown, curly hair and taking them to Clyde's, so the team thought he was losing his mind.  I just told him to move on and to stop getting mad when I do it."

"Hold up, move on?  With who?  When?"

"No one and not yet. Jojo said I moved on, JJ found out Asher slept over, and made his own little rumor in his head." Mariposa explained.  "High school couples breakup all the time, I'll be fine. Especially when I go to Mexico for Christmas and New Years because now I'll be single and able to have fun at parties."

"Are you sure?  I mean, yeah it was a high school relationship, but it was really serious.  Like I'm pretty sure your guys' parents were planning your wedding already."

Since her nails finally dried down enough, Mariposa reached into the box of Cheez-Its and pulled a few squares out to eat.  "I will be.  I can't just fall out of love with him overnight, but it's definitely not the same anymore.  Maybe I'll have my hot girl winter in Mexico, then come back to try and move on.  Or, who knows?  Maybe I won't move on until we graduate.  Point is, I'm moving because we both finally got closure." Mariposa ranted. Both Layla and Olivia knew her well enough to know that she wasn't as fine as she says she is, but them staring at her told her that. "Cheez-It?"

× × ×

When the weekend came rolling around, JJ had sent a mass text, including Mariposa, about a party in Crenshaw.  It was a little weird, seeing as how Crenshaw was the school to beat for the state championship, but no one really questioned it because a party means a party.  Reina wasn't allowed to go to high school parties for another year, and since she normally went with JJ, Mariposa was just going to go with Olivia and Jordan.  A few hours before the party, Mariposa went over to their house since she was ready and bored.  She had a key to the front door, so she just let herself in and after checking downstairs and seeing it empty, she went upstairs to Liv's room.

The door was half open, so she slowly pushed it open in case Olivia was asleep or changing, but instead she saw the twins and Laura hugging on the bed.  Without asking any questions, Mariposa joined the hug and wrapped her arms around Laura since she looked to be the one crying.  "Why the tears, mama?"  Her voice was pretty quiet, to not disturb the tension, but full of curiosity.

The Bakers were quiet for a moment and Mariposa felt arms tighten around her before Olivia quietly said, "Dad had an affair with Grace James."  Mariposa's jaw dropped as she looked at the three in sympathy before she leaned up to kiss Laura's forehead and hugged her tighter. 

The four sat on the bed in silence, all of them still trying to process the situation at hand.  There was the occasional sniffle since Laura had barely finished crying, but other than that, everyone was silently dealing with the issue. After a while, Laura sighed and carefully wiped under her eyes to make it look like there weren't any tears to begin with, but her puffy red eyes told a different story. "Aren't you guys going to a party tonight?"

"We don't have to. We can stay with you, watch movies and bake cupcakes again." Mariposa offered, to which the twins nodded their heads and agreed with.

"No, you guys should go and have fun. I think I need alone time for a little bit anyways."  Laura looked at the three endearingly while slowly unwrapping their arms from around her.  "I'll be here when you guys get back."  Laura started walking out of the room with her head down, making her way to her bedroom. 

Mariposa, Jordan and Olivia all watched her, and when she disappeared from their sight, Mariposa pouted.  "Well, now I'm not even in a party mood."  Mariposa turned to Olivia, and before she could scoot away, Mariposa wrapped her body around Olivia's and trapped her in a hug.  "I'm sad now."

"I need a drink."  Jordan announced to the two.

"Me too."

Mariposa's head shot up and she looked to Olivia with her eyebrows furrowed, arms and legs still wrapped around her to prevent her from moving.  "You aren't breaking your sobriety, so we're drinking Caprisuns and lemonade."

bye bc mari saying "breakup with me for football and we'll never get back together" is making me choose between her finding a new bf/gf or ending the story with her being an independent woman🧍🏽‍♀️ but i highkey still dont know if i want them back together or not

been thinking of mari and liv ever since this

VOTE AND COMMENT FOR NEXT CHAPTER ‼️😐