RIDE OR DIE ➸ OSCAR DIAZ [1]

NINETEEN

"What do you think?" Olivia asks as she steps into the living room, almost instantly grabbing everyone's attention. She's dressed as a sexy cowgirl with her hair up in two pigtails. I glance over at Ruby and smile when I notice his flushed face. He's so obsessed with her.

"That looks nice," Ruby says awkwardly, swiftly grabbing one of the pillows on the couch and putting it on his lap. I roll my eyes and turn around to face Jamal once again, shutting out everyone behind me.

"What do you know so far?" I ask Jamal as I rest my elbows on the table. He grins widely at me and unlocks his phone.

"I need your boyfriend's help." He says, swiping his finger across the screen.

"Oscar?" I raise an eyebrow. He nods his head, looking over his phone at me. "Why?"

"I need to ask him some questions about a guy named Lil Ricky." He pauses for a second and then gasps. "Or you could ask him!"

I scoff and shake my head. "Nope. You're the one that wants to talk to him. You ask." I am so not getting roped into this again.

Jamal huffs in frustration. "But he'll tell you!" He whines, putting his phone down on the table once again.

"No Jamal," I say sternly, glancing over my shoulder at Ruby, who's practically having a meltdown.

"Why can't we go somewhere else? There's got to be other places?" Olivia asks. Jamal gets up and leans over the sofa she's sitting on.

"Brentwood." He whispers making me laugh. He won't rest until he finds that money.

"How about Brentwood?" Olivia says, taking Jamal's suggestion. Jamal gives me a mock look of surprise which makes me laugh once again.

"Great call Olivia!" I exclaim, going along with Jamal's plan. He grins at me, and I smile back.

"I'm down." Cesar and Monse say at the same time. They glare at each other before looking back at Ruby. I frown, what the hell is up with them?

"No, it's a bad call!" Ruby exclaims. "Great idea though. It's just, Brentwood's super far and we'd have to take public transpo, which sucks." My younger brother says, trying to change the mind of the girl he's infatuated with.

"No need," Jamal says, looking up from his phone. "I got us a ride." Everyone smiles at Jamal except Ruby, who gives him a dirty look.

"SO, WHAT'S UP with you and Monse?" I ask Cesar as we walk down the sidewalk behind Ruby and Olivia. My abuelita dropped us off, which was surprising but then Jamal explained that she's the one helping him out with the whole RollerWorld situation, which is why he wants to go to Brentwood in the first place. But before Jamal and I could rush away to one of heist member's ex-girlfriend's house, Cesar had claimed me and Monse had claimed Jamal. And before we went our separate ways, Jamal promised he'd tell me everything that he found.

"Nothing," Cesar says hastily, furthering my suspicions. "Why do you ask?"

"You two are acting weird around each other," I say as we follow Ruby and Olivia up someone's driveway. "Cesar, just tell me what's going on."

He sighs loudly, looking down at the concrete ground. "It's nothing Camilla, I promise. We're just... figuring out what we want to be." I nod my head, placing my hand on his shoulder.

"I get it. Do you want me to talk to her?" I ask as a middle-aged white man gives all of us full-sized chocolate bars. Cesar shakes his head, and we follow Ruby and Olivia down the sidewalk once again.

"We'll figure it out. We gotta do this on our own." He assures me with a small, incredibly fake smile.

"If you say so..." I trail off, bumping into Ruby. He turns around and rolls his eyes. "Why'd you stop walking?" I ask, looking over at Olivia and following her eye line to the lively house across the street.

"Olivia wants to crash the party," Ruby mumbles, a look of annoyance on his face as he gestures towards the house across the street.

"Then let's do it," I suggest, looking around at the three of them. Cesar and Olivia's faces light up and they walk across the street before Ruby even has the chance to object. "Come on Ruby," I playfully bump my shoulder against his. "Show Olivia what a badass you are."

"Why would I do that?" Ruby asks, pretending to be confused but the blush on his cheeks states otherwise.

"I know you like her." I roll my eyes and grab his wrist, before dragging him across the street. "Show her who Ruben really is."

A/N : the awkward moment when your mom likes your boyfriend but you have to say he's only a friend otherwise she'll be angry.

also, I'm doing good so far with the whole updating on schedule thing. look at me goooo. and I just want to thank all of you for reading/voting/commenting on this story. it honestly means so much to me and it really does brighten my day up to know that there are people out there who enjoy my writing.
-h