Neighborhood Music

Sunshine

The next few weeks were amazing. As September melted into October, Monse and Cesar continued their secret affair. Cesar found himself getting more and more bold, sneaking kisses when Jamal and Ruby's backs were turned, and shamelessly flirting with Monse in front of their friends. No one seemed to notice, and even Monse had become a fan of curling up in the schools supply closet for a quick and dirty makeout session.

So when she didn't seen keen on a slow dance, he was a little caught off guard. 

"Why?" He asked, when she shot him down. 

Monse shook her head, "Because we've never done it before." 

"So? We've been doing a lot of things we've never done before." He teased

She wasn't amused, "Friends don't slow dance, especially friends dodging rumors they smashed." 

"Oh come one," he said, jumping in front of her as she tried to leave, "it's just a dance. 

"Slow dances aren't just dances, they're statements." She explained, "can we talk about this later? 6th period?"

He nodded, "Sure, we can talk, about how slow we're gonna dance, because it's going down." 

Stealing a peck from her, Cesar spun on his heel and dipped out of class before she could say anything else. 

If he had anticipated her throwing a fit at lunch, he would have done a little more damage control that morning, but instead, he was left to contemplate how to convince her to dance with him. He dodged their meeting during 6th period, but of course Monse found him once school was out. 

"Hey," She called catching him as he was heading out, "Why are you dodging me?"

Cesar sighed, "What you said at lunch really hit home. I don't want to objectify you." 

Monse huffed, "I was just... talking about women in general, not me personally." 

"Oh you don't have to back down." he insisted, laying it on thick

Monse looked annoyed, "I'm not backing down. And you don't need to tell me if I can or can't back down, I'm fine." 

Cesar smirked, as much as he loved when she was all over him, he didn't think anything could top riling her up to defcon Solange. 

"Ok," She calmed herself, "What if we skipped the stupid dance? My dad's on a long-haul, which means..."

But he cut her off, "Are you objectifying me?" He asked, reaching to button his collar and frowning at her.

"I know what you're doing, and it's not cute." She deadpanned

Cesar chuckled, "No, it's not. I'm not just your boy toy Monse. Maybe it's a good thing that you're not going to the dance. Maybe I can find a girl who's interested in more that my body. A girl who just likes to dance. SLOOOOW" 

He stifled a laugh as he walked away from her, he was certain he'd be hearing from her in all her rage, but he wanted her to take him seriously, and desperate men did desperate things. 

By 4pm she'd texted him to let him know she was going to the dance after all. 

By 6pm he had showered, changed and was ready to go.

By 8pm the dance had been canceled. 

"What's going on?" He asked, walking up to the whole group

Monse answered him, "Dance got canceled because of a gun. And I was actually really excited about it and ready to dance." 

Cesar could tell she was faking disappointment. 

"Yeah, that's too bad." He replied

Monse smiled at him, "The night doesn't have to be a total waste. My dad is still gone." she whispered

Cesar saw an opening. "That's a great idea!" he told her. 

Then he turned to his friends and shouted, "Yo, Monse's dad's outta town, so party at Monse's"

If looks could kill, he'd be a dead man, but he smiled at her anyway. 

"You said you were ready to dance." 

Monse stormed off, walking toward her house with half the freshman class following suit. 

"Aw come on, don't be mad at me querida." He said softly as he jogged to catch up to her. 

Monse frowned, "I don't understand you sometimes." 

"What's not to understand. I want a dance." He smirked

As soon as they arrived, Cesar plugged his phone into her father's sound system and started selecting songs for a party playlist. Drinks appeared from outta nowhere, some people were in the back yard smoking weed. Cesar waited for Monse to be almost done with her first beer before he played a song they could dance to.

"Play something lit" Olivia told him as she walked away from Monse

Cesar smiled, "On it" 

The music filled the room, and he made his way over to her carefully. Holding out her hand, she downed the contents of her bottle before smiling up at Cesar suddenly a bit more courageous than she had felt a few minutes ago. But fate is cruel. 

Cesar felt his phone buzz and knew it was Oscar, anyone else he'd be texting was in the room with him. 

He looked at Monse sadly, "Hold on, I'll be right back." 

He answered his brother's call in her room.  "Hello?" 

"Oye Mano, where are you?" Oscar asked

Cesar sighed, "I'm right down the street. I'm at Monse's" 

"Do you still have all that cash on you?" 

"Yeah," Cesar replied

"Are you stupid," Oscar snapped, "You better count it and make sure none of it's missing." 

Cesar huffed, "I counted it three times, it's all there." 

Oscar growled, "I don't want any problems" He warned

Cesar rolled his eyes, "I don't want any problems either."

Hanging up the phone, he pulled the wad of cash from his pocket and began counting it quickly.

"Where did you get that?" Monse asked from behind him 

Cesar cursed internally. Today was just not his day. 

"Ready for our dance?" He asked, tryin to distract her

Monse raged, "Are you crazy carrying that around, you're gonna get yourself killed." 

"Don't worry about that." He told her, pulling her into his arms and pecking her lips, "Worry about this." 

He tackled her onto the bed, making her giggle at him. His lips met her's briefly before they heard footsteps. 

"Hey!" Olivia said, she was holding two beers and clearly shocked and the position she found her friends in. 

"Hey!" Monse called back, shoving Cesar off of her, "Perfect timing." 

Cesar frowned, 'Actually it's real shit timing, but ok' he thought 

Monse dragged Olivia over to sit between them and an awkward silence fell over the room. Olivia tried to smooth things over, but it just lead to her asking if they were together. When she asked if they ever thought about it, Cesar almost said yes... but then Monse said he wasn't safe and it was a shit night on from there. 

He left not long after that. Angry as hell at himself and at Monse. 

He knew that things were different now, in many ways, he understood that she had a reason to say what she said. As much as he felt like he could protect her from anything and everything, there was an element of danger involved with her simply being around him. But that didn't mean he was ok with her thinking that he was dangerous. He was certain she knew that he wouldn't ever do anything to hurt her. 

Her words sat with him for days. He ignored her at first, but then Halloween came, and they got into it again. Cesar didn't have the words to explain to her why what she said hurt so much, so he did stupid thing after stupid thing, and when the night was over, he kissed Olivia.