sanctuary. [oscar diaz]

[8] broken windows.

When we arrived at her house we walked into the already open front door. The house was quiet except for the sound of things dropping and being thrown coming from the back of the house. Oscar and I followed the noise, which led us to a cracked bedroom door. I pushed it open, revealing Catalina who was looking like a mix between angry and sad as she dug threw a pile of junk on her bedroom floor.

She must have felt our presence because she looked up. "Good, you're here," she said, standing up and picking up a box from her bed. "Hey, Spooky," she nodded as she pushed the box into my arms, making me lose my balance and stumble backwards, but Oscar grabbed onto my arms and steadied me. The action made my mind wander to the moment we first met, but I quickly returned back to the present.

"Cat, what's going on? What are you doing?" I asked, looking into the box. It was half full of random junk. Pieces of paper, CDs, shoes, magazines, weed grinders and even a couple of pipes.

"Breaking up with Antonio," she answered, throwing a framed picture of her and him into the box. "I'm cleansing myself of him, and if I don't do this quickly I'm afraid I'm gonna go back on my word, so we need to hustle."

A proud smile crept onto my face at the news. Catalina had come a long way in the few weeks I've known her. She abandoned the red lipstick and now she's breaking up with Antonio. It felt good watching the girl shed her baggage and the weights that held her down.

"What made you come to this realization?" I questioned, handing the box to Oscar, who looked at me surprised. Although, I paid no attention to his expression as I walked over to Cat and began helping her sort through the junk on her floor.

She shook her head, "I'm just tired. Tired of wondering what he's doing, who he's with. If he even loves me like I love him," she sighed, sadly. She stopped sifting through the pile and looked at me. "Do you know how that feels?"

"Yeah," Oscar's voice sounded from the doorway.

I turned my head to look at him to see he was already looking at me. Our eyes stayed on each other's for a moment before I cleared my throat and turned back to Cat.

"Okay, so what's the plan? You're just gonna go to his house, give him the box and tell him its over?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking."

"Something tells me Antonio's not just gonna let you do that without putting up a fight," I said, taking a seat on her bed as I looked down at her.

"She's right," Oscar interjected. "As long as you guys have been together you should know Bane's not the type to just get dumped. He won't accept it, especially not from you."

"Well, he's gonna have to accept it today," Catalina shot back, throwing another piece of paper in the box.

"If that's true, we need some back up. You know, in case he starts wilding out," I said.

Catalina scoffed. "What back up do we have?"

"You got me," Oscar offered.

Catalina looked at him. "You would go against him for me? He is in your gang, isn't there some sort of loyalty rule you guys have or something?"

"When it comes to enemies and business," he shrugged. "But I make the rules, Sangria."

I smiled at the man holding the box. He really was trying to do better. The pride I felt for both the people in the room was infinite in that moment. I knew weeks ago Oscar wouldn't have even thought about standing up for Catalina. Him laughing at her weekly humiliation in front of the Santos was proof enough. But here he was, about to stick up for this girl who wasn't even apart of the Santos to someone who had been a loyal member for years.