hermosa - ruby martinez

introduction

HERMOSA !

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AND YOU COULD CALL IT CLICHÉ, but the thought of disaster never crossed the young mind of Ruben Martinez when he decided he was in love with the little brown girl he was happy to call best friend. Now, he wasn't sure what love was once he decided this, considering he was only twelve, and was still in the cooties stage, but the overwhelming rush of butterflies when Camila laughed, or helped him with his homework was enough for him to realize he wanted to say the words he heard his loving parents say constantly: I love you. Of course he has said it before to her. Multiple times. All best friends said it, and it was no different when he said it to her. Despite the fact when he said it, he meant it in a way of "I love you so much, that if I jinx you, you don't have to buy me a soda." Jinxing someone was a pretty big deal. So was the soda.

Alas, Camila was in love with another boy by the name of José, who rarely gave her any other look besides a quick once over when she had brushed past him hurridley after she had done something slightly dorkish, or even talked to her, unless it was to laugh at a rude remark given by his crummy 12 year old friends, who still played with beyblades and Pokémon cards.

"Here comes José!" The two friends looked to see the young boy Camila loved while Ruby loathed. Their other friends, Monse, Cesar, and Jamal had headed home earlier, leaving the two on Ruby's porch, Camila drinking Sprite and Ruby drinking Gatorade, which he claimed was a beer to any passers who were around the same age. Camila's eyes looked over the handsome boy, who walked past the house, no interest at all. Camila had an urge to say hi, despite her almost non-exsistent relationship with Jose, eventually deciding against it and adoringly watching him, as he scrolled through his phone.

"Ew, I don't know why you like that little puta." Ruby said, glaring at the boy who had taken the attention of the girl he liked for a long time. Camila shrugged, taking a sip of her Sprite and stirring the straw.

"He's cute and sweet." 

"You've barely even talked to him, how would you know how he is?"

"Observations." Camila was always observing things, as she had an eye for underlying beauty. Whether it be the tags on the walls that overlapped each other messily, or a bee sting Ruby had gotten at the pool, gross and filled with puss yet she had admired it, calling the boy "lucky to have been chosen by nature". Jose had taken her eyesight for quite a while, the beauty she had found in societal wrong doings had become nestled between the balance of wrong and right, and the stereotypical teenage girl things that were meant to be beautiful to her had taken over. Her infatuation with him started as a schoolyard crush, in which she thought he was pretty cute, soon turning into a full-blown soulmate type thing, in which she really liked him. Ruby rolled his eyes, jealously watching the boy. He tried to ignore his peripheral vision, the girl he loved gazing over a boy who had not shown interest. The moment passed as soon as it had arrived, eventually laying over an air of thick silence.

"I should head home," Camila said after a while of basking in the tension. "Mom is working late tonight and you know how Marco gets." 

"He's one year older than us. He doesn't have that much authority."

"In my mom's world, he does. But we can hang out tomorrow like always." Ruby nodded, standing with the chubby girl as she subconsciously pushed her curly hair to her shoulders, doing as much as she could to hide her face without obviously showing it. They awkwardly hugged, giving a short smile as Camila grabbed her pastel yellow Jansport and walking out of the gate, giving one final look to Ruby, a smile that made his heart race.

God, did she make his heart race.

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

HERMOSA !