RIDE OR DIE ➸ OSCAR DIAZ [1]

TWENTY ONE

"I SHOULDN'T HAVE lost my temper, I'm sorry." I sigh as I rub my arm sheepishly. "Jamal can you get a lyft?"

Jamal looks over at me like a deer caught in headlights. "My dad said lyfts are only for emergencies." He says slowly, glancing around the group. We're all covered in eggs. Well except me, I got lucky. Those dumb white kids chased us down the street and threw eggs at us after I punched that cholo in the nose. It was worth it though.

"This is an emergency!" Ruby exclaims, throwing his hands up in the air in frustration.

"Don't worry about it." Cesar says suddenly, making us look over at him. "It's handled."

I inwardly groan at his words. This won't end well. "Don't tell me you called your brother." I sigh as I pinch the bridge of my nose. Cesar simply smiles and loops his arm through mine.

"Let's go visit the cholos again." The mischievous glint in his eyes makes me sigh once again, but I allow him to lead us back to the white kid's house. We walk back in silence, all of us exhausted from the events of tonight.

When we get back to the house, the boys are standing around outside laughing loudly about something. Cesar let's go of my arm and walks up to them, which makes the guy I punched in the face turn around with a smug look on his face. His name's probably something dumb like Brad, or Chad. "You want some more?" He smirks, glancing around at us. Cesar doesn't say anything, he just glares at him. "Oh, you think you're hard."

"I'm not," Cesar says, stepping to the side. Oscar's red Impala pulls up and he steps out with an angry look on his face. I hate Cesar. "But he is," Cesar smirks, gesturing over his shoulder at Oscar. I hate Cesar so much right now. He didn't have to call Oscar, ugh.

Oscar's face softens slightly when his eyes land on me. He looks me up and down, checking for any scratches or bruises as he walks by me, his eyes filling with relief when he finds none. I see a spark light up in his eyes when he notices my costume. Okay, maybe I don't hate Cesar. He walks up to the cholo and gives him a long hard look before wetting his thumb and rubbing off the fake teardrop tattoo on his face. He does the same to his own, except his doesn't smudge away. "This shit's real," Oscar says lowly, his voice sounding dangerous and rough. His voice sends a chill through my body. I've never heard him speak like this before.

The cholo looks like he's going to pee his pants and cry at the exact same time as he says, "Please, what do you want?"

Oscar glances over his shoulder at us before facing him again. "All yo candy fool."

"I'M IMPRESSED." OSCAR chuckles as he examines the hand that I used to punch the white kid in the face. After taking all the candy that the white boy had, he drove us to my house and everyone except us went inside. The entire ride back Ruby would not stop talking about how I decked the kid in the face, and how it was the coolest thing I've ever done. "Where'd you learn to punch like that?"

"Elijah," I say with a soft smile, his name leaving my lips before I can stop myself. I freeze, realization striking me like a bullet, I just told Oscar my ex's name. "He taught me self-defence," I mumble, pulling my hand out of his grasp.

"So that's his name." Oscar scoffs, folding his arms over his chest. He frowns, turning his head to face me. "Wait, you mean Elijah Jones the Prophet?"

My breath hitches in my throat as I break eye contact with him, and look out the windshield instead. "Yeah," I whisper as three years worth of memories with him, come flooding into my head like a tsunami. 

"Holy shit." Oscar breathes. "That's why you didn't tell me his name." He pauses for a second before adding, "I can't believe you fucked around with a Prophet."

"I bet he says the same thing now, except he's saying, Santo." I scoff, turning my head to face him. Instead of being upset like I thought he would be, he's giving me a neutral look and no expression is visible on his face.

"What did he do to you?" Oscar asks quietly, dropping his arms from his chest and holding my hands instead. "You have to tell me."

"You're going to put a green light on him," I whisper as my lips turn down into a deep frown. He shakes his head and waves me off. Why did I say his name, I'm so stupid.

"What did he do?" He repeats himself, but I shake my head no. "Cami-"

"I said no Oscar," I exclaim, cutting off his sentence. I pull my hands away from his and look out the window, trying to control my breathing. "I told you his name, that should be enough. I'm not going to tell you things that you're obviously going to get mad about because all of these happened in the past, and no matter what you do you can't change it. I'm stuck with all those memories on replay inside my head and they won't go away. You getting angry and killing him won't make anything better." My voice shakes as the last sentence leaves my lips. He immediately pulls me into a tight hug and rubs circles on my bare waist with his thumb.

"Mi amor I know I can't change the past. But let me help with the memories." Oscar whispers in my ear as I hold back my tears for as long as I can.

"He did so many fucked up things and nobody even knows half of them. They just know the basics." I pause to inhale a deep breath. There's no turning back once I tell him everything. He'll know about the darkest time of my life and I'm not ready for him to look at me differently. "I can't talk about this."

"You have to try." I shift my body so my head is resting on his chest, and my legs are curled up on the seat. I fiddle with the cross necklace around his neck while inhaling deep breaths.

"You're going to kill him," I whisper, dropping the cross and letting it rest between his chest. "Cesar wants to kill him and he barely knows half the story."

"I'm the last person to know?" Oscar scoffs, pulling away to look at me. I shrug, looking down at my hands.

"You were in jail and when you came back, I didn't want to bother you with unnecessary information, because we had been broken up for a while," I say softly, fiddling with my thumbs. False. Oscar got out of jail in July and I was still talking to Elijah then. Not voluntarily though.

Oscar lifts my chin, forcing me to look into his eyes. "I will do everything I can to make you happy. And that's the truth." My lips tug upwards into a soft smile and I crash our lips together.

"How'd I get so lucky?" I mumble against his lips, as he lifts me onto his lap. I smile and pull away from him, softly caressing his cheek with my thumb.

"Nah, how'd I get so lucky. Chica's like you are rare." I raise an eyebrow at his words, pausing my movements.

"Girls like me?" I question curiously. "What do you mean?"

Oscar smiles lightly, twirling a strand of my loose hair around his finger. "Girls like you." He repeats himself with a shrug of his shoulders.

I roll my eyes but smile at him nonetheless. "You're lucky you're cute." I tap his nose and in the blink of an eye, I'm pinned against the seat and he's hovering over me. I raise an eyebrow at him, exhaling a breathy chuckle.

"You still want a go at me?" Oscar asks teasingly, tucking the loose strand of hair that he was playing with before, behind my ear.

"I'll fight you any day Santo," I say as I playfully push him away.

He chuckles, "I'd like to see you try." I stare into his eyes for a few seconds, before cupping my hand around his neck and pulling him closer and attaching our lips together. "Def not in the front seat of a car Cami." He says as he pulls away from me.

"It's just a kiss," I say, batting my eyelashes innocently as he sits up properly. He helps me up and wraps an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his side.

"Someday soon." He mumbles against the side of my head, intertwining our hands together.

"Someday soon."

A/N : they're so cute my heart can't take this

ALSO THERE YOU GO. THERE'S MY BOY ELIJAH WHO IS PLAYED BY MY MANS QUINCY BROWN. I hate Elijah but love him at the same time and you'll find out why soon.

thank you so so much for all the reads and votes guys I literally can't even.
-h