Another Lifetime

Chapter Twenty-three:

Spooky's POV:
Venom's wearing my hoodie and we're sitting on her bed. "How about an alliance instead of a truce? It's not like we need a truce, we don't fight." She suggests. "They're gonna wanna fight when they realize it's you." I remind her. Venom wanted to run the Santos and Cuchillos endorsed it... until they fought. When Venom won Cuchillos wanted her dead. "You still convinced I'm the bad guy?" She laughs. "I never thought you were anything but good, hyna." I smile and she kisses me. "Especially not now. You know I recognize some of them. You saved girls that I got jumped out... you sure they wanna work with me?" I ask her. "We all agree the worst Santo is better than the best Prophet." She shrugs. "Come on Venom, I'm not the worst." I laugh. "You are but you're really good at other things." She gets on my lap. "You know you don't have to call me that, right? All these girls call me Venom now and it doesn't feel as sweet as it used to when you were the only one who called me that." She tells me. "No problem, Ava." I tease her and she slaps my arm. "Don't say it like that." Ava rolls her eyes.

Monse's POV:
"Thanks." I smile when Cesar hands me a cup of coffee. "So, you sure you don't even wanna think about being a Santo?" He asks and I shake my head. "I'm not gonna put you or your crew at risk." I tell him. "We can-" I stop him. "I know... I know you can handle the Prophets but I don't want you to have to." I say. "I don't want random gangs rolling up on you." He says. "Cesar, can we please talk about anything else?" I ask and he smiles. "What?" I furrow my brows. "Homecoming's next week." Cesar reminds me. "Yeah." I nod. "We should go... together." He says and I look at him like he's crazy. "Hypothetically, if I did go of course it'd be with you but we can't. What if Latrelle goes and someone gets hurt?" I ask him. "A few days ago you were telling me how badly you wanted to be a normal teenager. Homecoming is normal." Cesar holds my hand. "Fine." I shrug. "It's kind of a yes or no question." He loves annoying me. "Yes, I'll go to homecoming with you." The second I finish my sentence I get a phone call. "We gotta find you a dress! Maybe something with long sleeves so no one sees that ugly ass Prophet tattoo." Jasmine says through the phone. "How did she know?" I mouth the words so she can't hear me. "Girl... I see all, I hear all, and I know all." She tells me. "Sure, we can go shopping this weekend." I agree before I hang up. "You owe me." I cross my arms and he kisses me. "I know how I can make it up to you." He smirks.
When I wake up he's still in bed with me. "Morning." I smile. "Morning!" Jasmine pops up outta no where. "What the hell?!" I cover myself with the blanket and wake up Cesar. "What's Jasmine doing here?" He asks me and I shrug. "When I said this weekend I didn't mean this morning!" I tell her. "Knowing you we're gonna need all the time in the world." Jasmine throws me one of Cesar's flannel. "Hurry up, I brought a vision board!" She spins out of the room. "Ok, wow your friends are a lot." I tell Cesar and he nods. "Yeah but she's your friend now too." He laughs. I put on the flannel and crawl over him. "Shit, you look good in that. I mean you look good in everything but the Santos colors were made for you." He smirks. "Drop it. I'm not getting jumped in again and I'm not joining any crew." I say and he puts his hands up. "We can find something else for you to do besides getting jumped in." Cesar laughs and I roll my eyes. I walk out of the room and go brush my teeth. "Damn, you weren't kidding about the vision board." I say when I go to the living room. I look around and rip off a picture of a snowsuit. "Not funny. I'll cover my tattoo with makeup or something." I tell her. "Yeah just like you covered your bags?" She crosses her arms. "I just woke up!" I defend myself. "I think she should just wear this." Cesar walks up behind me and squeezes my thigh. "I mean I could wear this if we'd just stay here like I want." I look back at him and he shakes his head. "It's our senior year and I'd bet my chain that you've never been to homecoming... or any dance." He says. "Hand it over." I reach behind me and he actually put his chain around my neck. "A Santos cross and a Prophet tattoo... sending all kinds of mixed messages. "Yeah, maybe she'll finally pick the right side." Cesar, still standing behind me, wraps his arms around my stomach and pulls me closer to him. "Girl you could've at least put on some pants." Jasmine covers her eyes and I pull down the flannel. "Wait." Jasmine drops her hands. "I'm so stupid." She looks me dead in the eyes. "Y'all finally had sex!" Jasmine jumps up and down. "It's not a big deal." Cesar says. "You should've heard this girl, she was thirsty as hell and all she wanted was a tall glass of lil Spooky." Jasmine is the queen of embarrassing me. I'm about to say something when she moves my hair away from my neck. "You're gonna need to cover up a little more than just a tattoo." She laughs. I'm about to say something when Spooky walks in. "Walk of shame." Jasmine points and him and he looks at her so quick he probably got whiplash. "Never shoulda let you get jumped in." Spooky shakes his head. "I'm gonna go get ready so we can get all this homecoming stuff over with." I kiss Cesar and he smiles. I throw on some jeans, my black and white vans, and a crop top. I decide to keep on his flannel even though I don't think it's a good idea. "Here." I start to take off Cesar's chain and he stops me. "I like it on you." He says.
*****
"Ooo what about this one." Jasmine hands me a short black dress with rhinestones on it. "Listen I didn't wanna say anything in front of Cesar but I don't have any money to pay for this." I admit. "Right, you lost your source of income... it's cool I got it. Pick whatever you want." She shrugs. "You don't have to-" Jasmine stops me. "I know, I'm just nice as hell." She starts looking for more dresses. "I'm gonna go try these on." I grab the black one and a blue one she picked for me. "Damn, you always look fine as hell." I hear Latrelle. I look over and he isn't talking to me... he's with some hoe. I guess I stare for too long 'cause he walks towards me. "So you a Santo now?" He asks. "No." I say quickly. "Really?" He pulls on the chain around my neck. "Looks like you're a Santo." Latrelle whispers. "Get the hell away from her before I beat your ass all the way back to the shit hole territory we gave you." Jasmine pulls one of his braids and walks him right out of the store.