Ruby's abuelita pulls up along the sidewalk, the gang gets out one by one. Olivia helps Amari who gives her a small nod, awkwardly stepping off to the side near Cesar and Jamal who joked with abuelita. Ruby leans into the window with a huge smile,
"We don't need luck, it's Brentwood. Nothing bad happens here", he chuckles standing up looking to Cesar who scoffed,
"How about OJ? No offense Jamal", he said.
Jamal shrugs it off with a nod,
"Oh, im good. We don't claim him", he comments.
Ruby gazes back to abuelita,
"So, we should be ready around 10:00", he said but she laughed in his face, winking,
"Good for you, but I have plans", she pointed out and drives off with screeching tires.
Amari takes a good look around and she suddenly felt so out of place. The houses were so beautiful, the decorations were unlike anything she's ever seen,
"Were definitely not in freeridge no more", she says gazing around not paying attention to where she was going and accidentally bumped into Olivia,
"Crap", she muttered as Olivia smiled and assured her it was fine. Amari nods her palms grew sweaty, shaking nervously just as Jamal spoke up,
"We've got lots of ground to cover, so... to maximize candy efficiency, let's divide and conquer, then spilt our booty", he suggested, though he seemed like he was up to something.
Ruby nods quickly agreeing,
"Good idea. Olivia and I will go this way. Meet back here around 10:00?...later", he said walking away with Olivia in tow. Amari raised and eyebrow at Monse and Cesar, they're eyes wide and nervous like they didn't want to be in each others presence. She rolled her eyes, if they were only gonna be that way, she should've just went to Spooky's.
"What's wrong?", she asked just as they both spoke at the same time,
"JAMAL!", they chorused but Cesar changed his mind,
"On second thought, I'll go with Ruby and Olivia...Amari you coming?", he looked over at her.
Amari was confused to what the hell was really going on between them,
"On third thought, you should go with Jamal, Monse and Amari", he sassed.
'Ouch' she thought.
"On fourth thought, we're good", Monse retorted pushing Jamal in the opposite direction.
Amari rubbed her forehead not understanding why they had to act the way they were. She instantly regretted going with them if they were only gonna diss and ignore each other,
"You know what, y'all go ahead. I think I'm just gonna sit this night out", she softly said, ignoring their calls. Cesar went to deny her being by herself but she walked away quick.
Amari was not gonna be a wheel in their misery.
🎃👻 🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻
Amari waved at a bunch of cute little kids as they walked by in their costume. They were so adorable. Her heart warmed at all the families that passed by. She wished she had spent Halloween with Sad Eyes at least she would have had more fun with him and the guys rather than her own friends. She spots Jamal and Monse walking over to her and she overhears them talking about Rollerworld and Lil' Ricky. Monse just looked very confused and somewhat sick, in her own world about whatever it was she was thinking so hard about. She waved at them as they smiled widely at her,
"Hey, so, how was it?", she asked Jamal who's nods,
"So, there was a third guy at Rollerworld. Lil' Ricky. We need to find him. Do you think it was little with an apostrophe or little like Lil Wayne or little like Little Women?", he fired questions after questions.
Amari had no answer for him but all she knew was that you can't find someone that doesn't want to be found. At least, that's what she heard.
She jumped as screamed and yelling came from ahead of them and she sees Ruby, Olivia and Cesar who ran past them just as she whimpered feeling something hit the side of her face, then her chest and then her stomach. Jamal quickly grabs her hand and pulls her with him as they run as far as they could.
Amari caught her breath as they ended up about a block down, touching the side of her face, where she got hit with the egg,
"Gross...", she mumbled as there was yolk all over her costume. Sad Eyes was gonna be pissed.
"You guys this was all my fault. I let that asshole get the best of me", Olivia apologized. Cesar quickly texted Oscar to let him know what happened, he felt bad that he had to tell him that Amari got hit as well which didn't sit well in the pit of his stomach as he received a response:
{we're on our way!}
He frowned knowing exactly who else was coming and those guys will get what is coming to them.
"Don't apologize. We just got to get home. Jamal, get a Lyft", Ruby says.
Jamal lifts his hand, his sling falling off,
"My dad said Lyft was only for emergencies"; he said with a dubious expression.
Ruby snapped,
"Seriously? What exactly constitutes an emergency?", he stared at Jamal hard.
"Don't get a Lyft. It's handled", Cesar looks at them, "it's handled!"
Amari felt her phone vibrate, her eyes see the caller ID and she literally froze: ❤️🔥Toniò❤️🔥. Her eyes finds Cesar's who looked at her with a sorry expression,
"Oh god, those guys will die", she mumbled as he turned and walked back to where those college kids were. Amari sees she missed his call. She sighed putting her phone away as she caught up with Monse and the others following after Cesar. Not too far away she seees the college kids all laughing and hanging right on the sidewalk,
"You want some more?", one walked up to Cesar, she sees he was dressed like a cholo and laughing at them,
"Oh, you think you're hard, okay", he says trying to get in Cesar's face but Amari quickly gets in between the two and shoves the boy back,
"Back off!", she snapped as the boy laughed, rubbing his chest,
"Damn little lady, you going diss me like that", he tried to make his voice sound like a gangster but Amari scoffed,
"Back off, now!", she glared as he put a hand on her shoulder which was a huge mistake on his end. Cesar stepped up staring the boy dead in the eyes,
"I'm not...but they are and you just made the biggest mistake of your life", he smirked taking a step back.
Amari froze hearing the rumble of a car and she turns seeing Spooky's car pull up behind them. Her hands became sweaty, her heart pounded dangerously in her chest as Spooky exits the driver side and then an angry Sad Eyes exits the passenger side, his eyes find hers then to the hand on her shoulder.
He dangerously walks over, grabbing the boys hand and pulling him face to face and went to pull out his gun if it wasn't for Amari getting in between and pushing him back away from the boy,
"Stop, it's okay. I'm okay", she says, pushing him away from the situation letting Spooky handle it.
Amari tugs his shirt forward hiding the gun as the crew hides behind her, watching fearful,
"What happened?", he asked, glaring at Ruby who gulped nervously but Olivia raised her hand,
"It was my fault", she said.
Sad Eyes turned back to Amari who had her head down, he steps up to her, hand tilting her chin up to meet his eyes, her eyes glossed over which angered him. Amari could see him reach for his gun but she quickly wrapped her arms around him so that he wouldn't be able to pull it out and use it cause she knew he would.
"Please...what do you want?", they hear the cries of the college boy. Spooky made all of them give their candies, which Jamal and Ruby pretty much enjoyed.
Olivia nudged Monse,
"How long have they been together?", she pointed to Amari and Sad Eyes.
Monse lowered her voice,
"3 and a half years", she replied which shocked Olivia.
Amari gazed up at Sad Eyes feeling him take out the shells from her hair and costume,
"You need to shower Hermosa", he softly said. Amari nods her head, grabbing his hand,
"I'm sorry I didn't answer or call you when that happened. It just happened so fast that....", he stopped her, pulling her body into his,
"It's okay Hermosa. I'm not mad. I'm just glad you're not hurt the way I thought you were", he murmured, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, rubbing the scar on her face. Amari smiled, laying her head on his chest as she wrapped her arms around his waist. She felt him kiss her temple, rubbing her back,
"Come on, let's go home", he pulled her towards Spooky's car.
Amari smiled at Spooky who called out to her,
"Hey Shorty", which caught their attention, he gestured for her to go to him, which she did wearily.
He grabbed the wannabe by the shirt,
"Apologize to her", he demanded gruffly.
Sad Eyes stood beside her, he lifted his shirt to show his gun which made the boy immediately apologize for what he did. Spooky laughed shoving the boy back. Sad Eyes pulled Amari to the car, opening it, he let her in before the others jumped in the back. Amari was relieved, she laid her head on Sad Eyes arm but turned her body to cuddle and hide her face in his chest, feeling his hand rub her back. She knew everything would be okay. That is; till the nightmares haunted her from then on.
