COSA BONITA~RUBY MARTINEZ

4

The silence of the walk was rudely interrupted when a boy with long curly jumped from off some stairs, she heard ruby mumble next to her. "Shit, it's Latrelle" "Tax time bitches, hands up money out." Kim was very confused when all four of her friend's hands went up, were they just going to surrender like this? "How can we take our money out with our hands up?" Ruby looked very distressed. "Oh, so now that you gotta new bitch you wanna act tough." Kim wanted to protest but something told her that he wasn't the one to mess with. Jamal shook his head "She is definitely not his bitch." "Oh so you single girl, come holla at me when you want the real thing. And I know ya'll got that back to school Guap." Monse chose to speak up at that moment, "It's orientation day so technically we're neither back to school nor out of school, we're..."

She didn't get to finish her sentence before Ruby covered her mouth. "We don't have any money." "What about that 20?" answered Jamal before giving Ruby a guilty look. "It's okay, here." She handed him a crisp 20 dollar bill which he took with haste. They all stared at her in shock. "Why did you just give up your money like that?" Ruby questioned her "Well, I didn't want you to give up your's so I gave up mine. It seemed like you needed it." Monse rose her brow, "Whats that supposed to mean, that we're poor or something? Just because we have a much lower income as an economy it doesn't mean you can rub it in our faces." 

"Of course not, I would never do that. I just meant that he looked like it was for something important." Ruby put his hand on her shoulder "It's okay, you don't have to explain yourself it's Monse who needs to calm down." She rolled her eyes at him and continued to walk away. Kim could tell that Monse didn't like her very much and could understand why, so she made a mental note to get on her good side even if they could never be good friends.

 *** 

Ruby had left because his mom had called him home which left Kim, Jasmine, Jamal, and Monse. They had been walking until Jasmine said she had to get home as well, Kim made sure to get her number knowing that they would be on the phone tonight before walking along with Jamal and Monse. They came to a house with many men out front. Jamal had started to panic "Are you high! I'm not hashing shit out." he yelled at Monse, while Kim was quite confused. Why were they here? "Ceaser might have joined the gang."

"Sorry, not to interrupt but who's Ceaser?" Jamal smiled at her "Oh he's our former friend and he's sitting right there." He pointed to a boy that looked about our age sitting on a sofa that was on the front lawn. Monse chose to ignore the question and continued to talk, "He's not stupid, he's affiliated yes because of his brother" "and his cousins, his uncles, his dad, even the gay one." Personally, Kim had never heard of a gay gang member but that was none of her business. "I know," "Wait you knew about the gay one I mean he goes by the name Bananas, it's not that subtle."

After they continued to argue Monse made up her mind that she was going to talk to him. "I'll come with you, in case anything happens." "No, not you too Kim you don't know them like we do, they'll kill you for sure." "Oh don't be so overdramatic I've been dying to meet your Ceaser friend anyway." Monse grabbed her arm and pulled her across the street to where they stood in front of the boy. "I need to talk to you." "I'm listening," he said before glancing over at Kim.

"Who's this?" He asked making all eyes turn to me. "I'm-" "Doesn't matter we need to talk. Privately." "We could go inside." A guy cleared his throat and Kim knew that that meant they couldn't go inside. "But uh, if you wanna sit on my face you gotta put that mouth on pause so I can concentrate." Kim's mouth flew open and glared at him, was this supposed to be their friend? because she knew that she would never talk to a friend that way. Monse glared at him before tugging on her hand indicating she wanted to leave.

Jamal followed them until they came to his house where he rolled on the ground "trying to get into character" his dad was watering the garden before he saw the three walking towards him. He greeted Monse warmly and Kim introduced her self. "So how was practice?" "Yeah, how was practice?" Monse said through gritted teeth, Kim was confused Jamal didn't go to football but She knew when to keep her mouth closed. "I don't know ask all those DUI scouts who were all up on me." 

Jamals' father gave him a strong pat on the back which made him wince. And turned to go inside "I didn't know you played football, Jamal." He shook his head "I don't, but my father has wanted me to play football since I was in diapers I can't let him down." "Ahh, I know how you feel my mother wants me to be apart of my dad's business but I don't want to I'm not sure I want to be involved in anything that my father is doing."    

"What did Ceaser say!" Monse shouted and made Kim jump. "I can't tell you." "Okay then if you don't tell me what Ceaser said then I'm ratting you out to your dad" Jamal gave Monse a stern look. "No" "Oh Mr. Turner-" Jamal then proceeded to cover her mouth before she could say anything else. "He said you let him hit it before you left for camp." 

You could tell that Monse was hurt her face said it all. Kim decided this was when she should step up and say something before things started getting out of hand. "Uhh, I don't mean to pry but are you okay?" Monse shook her head and stormed off leaving her and Jamal staring after her. 

"Well I have to get home Jamal but here's my number in case you need anything. It was nice meeting you guys." "It was cool meeting you too I just wish it wasn't during bad times." "Oh don't worry I know all about drama just look at my family for example." she laughed at her own joke even though Jamal hadn't the slightest idea of what she was talking about, he didn't know that rich people had real drama he just thought it was all in the movies and that rich people were perfect but then again Kim didn't seem like the typical rich girl to him. 

***

When Kim got home it was almost 6:00 and her mom was already home both her and Paula were passed out on the couch with wine glasses on the center table and floor. The television was on and was still playing the Novella that they were watching the previous day. Kim smiled to herself knowing that her mom really needed this with everything that was going on with their family. She wished that she could get in contact with her dad but the last time they talked was a year and a half ago. 

He didn't seem like the type to want to be bothered anyway but she knew she had to do something eventually so she took her time going up the stairs making sure not to wake anyone up and snucl into her mothers room where her phone was sitting on her bed she opened the phone and took her time going through the contacts making sure that she didn't miss anything. At the very bottom was her fathers' name and she smiled because she hadn't heard it in so long she took the number down and proceeded to exit the room, she knew she couldn't let the situation go unhandled.