SATIVA ✞ ON MY BLOCK [OSCAR DIAZ]

II. FOUR

Ximena stood next to Oscar as he turned the food on the grill. Ruby stood on the other side, cutting up the fruit.

Oscar chuckled at the boy struggling to cut, "Learn how to cut a lime. You cut like a serial killer."

He showed him the correct way to do it, handing him a better knife afterwards. Oscar took a piece of octopus off of the grill handing it to Ximena, who unconsciously ate it from his fingers. He stared at her while her mouth wrapped around the food, slowly taking his hand away. She chuckled uncomfortably, wiping her mouth.

Oscar took another piece, handing it to Ruby, who shook his head in disgust. "Come on, taste it."

Ruby shook his head again, groaning, "mm."

"Expand your palate, homie."

Ruby took a bite, spitting out the seafood as soon as it hit his tongue. As he tried to resist gagging, his phone began ringing. He took it out of his pocket, sighing as he saw the name light up the screen, "Get off me already. It's my mom."

"What is it?" Ximena asked, continuing to clean the shrimp.

"She was on me about going to church, on me about hanging out with my friends. Now she's blowing me up wondering where I am. Now can I just be left alone already?"

Oscar shook his head, "Pressures of the privileged."

"Privileged?" Ruby scoffed, going back to his previous actions, "I live in a house with bars on the window."

"With two parents inside and a college future waiting outside," Oscar snapped, his voice becoming more stern, "Don't whine to me about your mom. No one took care of me and Cesar when my mom was out there."

Ximena looked up from her hands, "Oscar, he didn't mean to-"

"What?" He cut her off, "Be ungrateful? I get that he got shot. But why do you think no one came to finish the job? Because of me! And think about how fast that truce happened. Me, again!"

Ruby soon became scared, his throat closing like he wanted to cry, "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"There's a lot of things you don't know. Like what it's like to walk into a job interview with a record. You think Walmart's gonna hire someone with two strikes?"

Ruby chuckled, trying to lighten the mood, "See, I wouldn't work there. They have poor employee satisfaction.

"Are you joking? This shit's real! That's the kind of stuff that makes a man snap!" Oscar moved his hand away to gesture to himself, but accidentally moving the cutting board. Ximena's hand slipped, missing the shrimp and into her palm.

"Ah!" She screamed, dropping the knife. She began clutching her hand as it heated up like fire.

"Fuck," Oscar groaned, grabbing a rag on the table. He grabbed her palm, moving her other hand away, "Let me see." Ximena shook her head.

"Let me see," he dabbed the rag on the wound, making sure to keep pressure on it, "look, you're fine."

He held her hand up to his mouth, kissing her wrist, "You're fine, you're okay."