Antes | Oscar Diaz

august: an interlude.

Oscar wakes up to kisses.

"Mi chero," Claudia mutters against his jaw, and he brings up a hand up to curl over hers. Brushes his thumb against her lower lip like an afterthought. She kisses him there, too, says, "Mi vida. Despértate."

"Time 's it?" he says. Breathes in real deep, wipes at his eyes instead of trying to get her to stop kissing him. He doesn't mind it much at all; can think of few better ways to wake up, Claudia warm against him and stroking his face. He knocked out almost immediately after crawling into bed, her stretched out next to him like always.

Well, maybe not always, but the last month. Or any other time she's spent the night, because she's spent plenty with Oscar since they started dating, coming on two years now. He should start thinking about gifts already. Should start asking about ring sizes and carats, maybe, but that might be a little beyond him. He's pretty sure diamonds are stupid expensive. He should probably also figure out if that's something she wants. Claudia's said they're too young but—

Oscar wants it, anyway. Wants her every day of the week and then some. Wishes there were twice as many hours in a day, sometimes. Like living with her isn't enough.

"Six," she says, and he opens his eyes for real.

"What?"

"Shh," she whispers, "Cesar's still asleep."

"Yeah, I hope so," he says, and blinks at her. She has her head propped up on her hand. Hair slipping from the braid he gave her last night, smiling at him like she's got a secret. She looks so good. "What did you do?"

"Why you acting like I'm a trouble-maker?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. He has to fight to not smile back.

"You run around with me," he says, "and you know I'm trouble, nena."

"They call you Spooky," she says, "am I supposed to find that scary?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I don't," she says, and wrinkles her nose when he pulls her down to kiss her for real. "You said you weren't busy today."

"Yeah," he says, "but. I was gonna sleep at least a little."

"We didn't go to sleep that late."

"Mujer," he says, because she's right, but that doesn't mean it's not six in the morning. "Qué hiciste?"

"Don't get mad," she says, biting her lip like she's trying hard not to keep smiling, "but I have Disneyland tickets for us."

He stares at her. The suns coming in through the curtains already, but it's not that strong this early in the day. Surprisingly, there's not too much noise making it through the window. It's August, so it'll be hot sooner rather than later, and Claudia has Disneyland tickets.

"What did you—"

"I been working," she says, defensive. "I'm not that broke."

"I thought you had to pay for school this month," he says. Feels a little dumb, honestly.

"Yeah," she says, "and I had enough left over to do something fun for us."

"What's wrong with the pool," he says like his head's not spinning. Maybe she sold some shit she didn't need. She raises both eyebrows this time.

"We should do something fun for Cesar," she says. She always tries to spin the things she does into something for Cesar. Likes to say Oscar's the one trying to play house when she's just as bad. Like her doing something for the kid ain't a big deal. Like there aren't a hundred other things they could do, the three of them, that would do all of them good. Things that don't cost as much as Disney.