Hope °slow updates°

Chapter 3

"Hey Hopey." Mario greets me as I open the door.

"Mario!" I pull him into a hug. I hug him like I haven't see him in ages even though it's been only a few days.

"Jamal we have lots to discu-. What the hell are you doing here?" Ruby says frowning at Mario.

"Is that how you greet your older, much better looking brother?" Mario laughs at him. He puts his arm around my shoulders.

"Y'all are impossible." I shake my head and remove Mario's arm from my shoulders.

I left them bantering in the living room. Mario and I have gotten really close ever since he tried blackmailing when he saw me making out in Oscar's car. Mario is good guy, but from time to time he lacks common sense which leaves him in the most awkward and strangest situations. Like the one time he woke up at a Alpha Phi Alpha party in a grass skirt. Ever since Angelica dumped his ass, he's been even more clueless. They might have been cringy as hell, but they brought out the best in each other.

I sit out in the backyard, you can hear the cheers from tia and abuelita because Mario is home. My mind wanders off to parents. Were they okay? Was dad eating his oatmeal because the doctor said that his cholesterol was through the roof. Did they miss me as much as I missed them? Did they they want to me to call them as much as I wanted them to call me? More and more questions popped up in head, fuck I need a blunt. Unfortunately, I left mine with Julia, and I know abuelita is going to notice if I take any of her's.

I pull up WeedMaps on my phone and look for the closest dispensary. There's three a few blocks away here, but only Green Jewels sells my go to strain, Skywalker OG. I change into some jeans and slip on my sneakers. I grab my wallet and check that my medical marijuana card is in there just in case.

"¿A dónde vas?" abuelita asks me as I try to walk out without being noticed.

"I'm gonna do a quick errand. It'll only take like an hour tops." I said leaning onto the door.

"Okay mi'ja. Te cuidas." Mt tia says dismissing me.

I decide against driving and just walk over. It's less than half a mile. In less than ten minutes, I'm here. It's a small shop located conveniently between a 7-Eleven and Angelina's Mexican Snacks. I walk in. twenty-five different smells of weed surge through my nose. Shit, I might not need the weed after all.

"What can I help you miss? Oh shit Esperanza, how are you." Christian, the clerk and old friend of mine, says.

"Hey. Long time no see." I smile at him. I met Christian through Julia back in middle school. They were a thing for a bit, but neither one of them wanted to get more serious. Well actually, he didn't want anything more serious. But Julia respected his decision because he was still a pretty good friend to her.

"I'll say. When's the last time you were here? Like 6 years ago. Right?" he asks.

"Yeah right before I left for Berkeley." I say. I look over the counter looking for my baby. "Do y'all have some Skywalker?" I asked him.

"Shit that's what almost six years ago?" he asks. I nod. "So you want just Skywalker or the OG one?"

"OG. But yeah six years feel like forever. Especially without seeing all of y'all." Especially Oscar, I think to myself. He walks to the back. He comes back with a jar.

"How much?"

"An 1/8th." I watch him add a few buds to the scale. It was one of the fancy scales I used when I was taking chemistry at school.

"The ironic thing was that I was talking to Jules the other day about it. She was like 'Espe and I are coming back to LA.' I obviously didn't believe her because you know she has her job and shit, so I was telling Spooky about it this morning. Even he didn't believe me." he says casually.