on his block.

OCHO

Cesar cracked his knuckles as Jamal spoke to over the phone Monse.

After what happened, she refused to talk to him, even after telling her what they'd done and how safe he was.

After telling his friends what really happened, he felt some kind of safety and content as he sat there, knowing he'd gotten his friends (apart from Monse, he was working on that) and his brother back.

Although, his brother looked like shit.

Oscar had bags under his eyes, almost as if he hadn't slept. He had been drinking non-stop since Cesar came back.

At first he thought it was a celebratory thing. Then he thought that it was the stress of the gang on him, eyeballing him and giving him a mouthful about what would happen if the plan didn't work out. Then he realised that Oscar was drinking away his problems.

What problems? Cesar had no idea.

"Hey Spooky, you good?" He nodded at his brother.

Suddenly all attention turned to Spooky, Jamal moved the camera to face him.

Monse stared at him hard on and he glared back at her.

"Is there a problem?" He growled at her.

"You're sick." She scoffed, "Really sick."

The room went silent and Cesar could feel the tension between the two. He had no idea what had happened while he was away and why they were acting like this.

"Hey Monse what's–" he started

"Someone tell their friend that I'm not talking to him." She cut him off.

"Monse, I'm really sor–"

Then the line went dead. She didn't want to hear from him and that broke Cesar's heart. He clenched his fist and Oscar laughed.

"You're not the only one with woman problems kid." He slapped Cesar on the back and walked out of the kitchen.

Cesar furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

Ruby waited until Oscar was out of sight, then called Monse back up.

"Wait! Don't hang up, I have a question!" He said.

Jamal raised an eyebrow.

"Word on the street is that Oscar and Xaviera are together." He whispered.

Jamal and Cesar exchanged glances before laughing.

"Never. Xaviera is a total babe, she'd never go for someone like Oscar." scoffed Jamal.

Cesar agreed, "Yeah and plus, the crew would never allow that, she's a Prophet."

"Ex-Prophet." Ruby pointed out.

Cesar shrugged, "Regardless, they wouldn't let that happen."

They all hummed in agreement. "Wait, Monse. Isn't she staying with you?"

Monse remained quiet and looked away, "No..."

"Hey Monse! I'm going to the store, do you want anything–" Xaviera's voice trailed off as she entered the room, seeing Jamal, Cesar and Ruby in Oscar's house.

Her eyes zeroed in on Cesar, "You're home......"

Monse snapped around, "We're not talking to him, remember?!"

"No, Monse, you're not talking to him. I'm not talking to Oscar. He isn't Oscar." She pointed at Cesar.

Monse growled and dived into the pillow.

"So you are having problems with my brother? Apparently, you guys are sleeping together?" Cesar looked at her, hoping she would say no. Through his childhood, he'd have to put up with Oscar and his range of women. Screams and grunts coming from the room next to him as the bed hit the walls. He was hoping she wasn't a notch in his belt.

"It's complicated. But to answer your question, we are having...problems..." she said.

Jamal pointed at her through the phone, "You answered the most irrelevant question."

Xaviera was about to retort when Oscar came in and slapped the back of his head.

Xaviera felt her heart stop, quicken and slow down at all the same time. When he finally drew his eyes from the boys to look at her, Xaviera felt tingles move along her skin. It was like an electric current flowing through her body when he looked at her.

He rubbed his tattoo and Xaviera's legs nearly gave out.

"Bonita." He nodded at her, then he looked down, "I have your stuff packed away in a box, just tell me when you need it and I can bring it over."

He never once looked at her. Xaviera nodded like he could see and he trudged away.

Jamal let out a half snort, half laugh, "Did you see that? You make him nervous! Dude! I could feel the heat radiating off him! Damn, I never thought I'd get to see the day where Spooky, the Spooky, got nervous."

Ruby nodded, "What you had must've been real, huh?" He looked at Xaviera.

"Something like that.." she let out a smile but the smile didn't reach her eyes.

"Alright! Enough of this sappy rubbish! Xaviera, you said you were going to the store!" Monse moaned.

And with that she cut the line.

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