Mas Adelante | Ruby Martinez

Mas Adelante - Chapter Twenty

"There she is!" Oscar handed his homie the balloon in his hand, walking toward his little sister with open arms. "Hermosa!" He plopped a big, sloppy, beer covered kiss to her forehead and she shrieked, shoving him away.

"Arturo!" Lola wiped her forehead carefully, trying not to smear her makeup. "It's literally eight in the morning and you're already drinking."

"Breakfast." He shrugged, lifting the can of beer in his left hand to his lips, "just this one and I promise no more 'till the party. Church is just so long and I gotta stand with you and all this ther extra shit that I aint done before. This why you not getting married."

"Puto." She mumbled. giggling when he gave her a playful scowl.

"Speaking of married!" He gleamed, waling over to a girl who was helping Cesar tie balloons into the odd shape. He grabbed her by her wrist and she gave him a nervous look as he dragged her toward his baby sister. "Baby girl, I want you to meet someone very special to me." He kissed her head, wrapping an arm around her. Lola raised an eyebrow, "this my other baby girl. Say what's up chula."

"Tatiana." she held her hand out, giving her a genuine smile.

Lola tried to smile but she couldn't, she felt the bile rising in her throat as something kicked her from the inside of her uterus. Lola set a hand over her stomach, smiling widely. The couple watched, confused. Then she became really nauseous, so she ran inside pushing past Jamal and Ruby who were walking toward the front door. Oscar was the next one to run in but Ruby stopped him.

"I got it, I'll check on her. Make sure everything's ready for us to go, we'll be leaving soon."

Oscar gave him a confused stare, but nodded nonetheless, "make sure she's okay, compa."

Ruby followed her into the restroom, sitting next to her on the floor as she threw up. "Lola?"

Finally, she wiped her mouth with a piece of toilet paper, fluffing her dress as she sat next to him. "Hmm?"

"You're gonna have to tell him. Soon, you're past the point of being able to... get rid of it. I mean you're showing for gods sake!"

"Ruby." She swallowed, causing her to grow nauseous. "I felt it kick."

He turned to look at her, "really?"

She nodded, "like I've felt things before, like butterflies or taps. But this was a kick, like it felt so weird, it made me nauseous."

"Tell him." Ruby stood, offering his hand. "Or I will."

"You have no right to do that." She stood on her own, shoving his hand away.

"What?" He exclaimed, whisper-shouting, "I am the father Lola!"

She huffed, "just stay away from Oscar until I can find the right time to tell him, please."

He nodded, defeated. "Okay." He kissed her cheek, "brush your teeth and meet us outside, we're gonna be late." He left and she stood still, staring at herself in the mirror.

It took everything she had not to start crying and ruin her makeup. So Lola continued by brushing her teeth then applying a layer of lip gloss and walked out of the door. She decided it would be best to keep her distance from Oscar for like two seconds because she felt bad she couldn't say hi to his girlfriend. She'd talk to him in the church, he couldn't yell at her in the house of god right? Right. She nodded to herself, taking in a big breath of air as she sat in the back of one of the homies Escalade.

"You look nice, mama."

"Thank you Sad Eyes." She looked up, glancing at him through the review mirror, "can I ask you something?"

"Of course." He set his turn signal on, "you can ask me whatever you want."

"How long has Oscar been seeing that girl?"

Sad Eyes chuckled, resting his arm on the open window. "Tati?" She nodded and he shrugged, "damn, Oscar and Tati go way back. I mean, back to highschool, she was a dancer and Oscar, man. Pinche vagabundo, that vato was in love. But he always had his priorities straight, you guys were the number one thing on his mind. If y'all ate, or if y'all were gonna be able to eat that night. So when he dropped out to watch over y'all when Jefa died, que en Paz descanse." He did a cross over himself, kissing his hand at the end. "He said goodbye to Tati. But hey, I'm happy to see they reconnected."

"You're not making me feel better, puto."

Sad Eyes turned in his seat, glancing at her. "Cesar's right, you do love that word huh?"

"You should know." She mumbled, looking down at her dress.

"Nah, don't hit me with some shit like that, we aint talked in like five months and you know why." He shook his head at her through the review mirror. "You blocked me on everything."

"I had to, Oscar would've killed us if he-"

"We're done talking about this." He reached for volume knob, turning the music up all the way.

She sighed, nodding softly. "Okay Christian."