Different | Oscar Diaz (On hold)

Chapter 1

3rd person

‼️(Sorry for anything that is misspelled or if a word is missing along the way)‼️

"So, are you coming by the house later? I could continue to teach you those slang words you were having SO much trouble with." Cesar leaned back on the couch Laughing as he sat on the floor of Selami's living room. It was normal for them, every since she moved to Freeridge a couple months back. He's been helping her improve her English, even though she was good already. She just spoke too formal and so he's been teaching her the lingo in Freeridge.

"I don't know, I am currently interested in this show you've shown me.." She replied while eating popcorn and focusing her gaze on the television in front of her. Cesar has shown her When They See Us on Netflix  early that afternoon and she hasn't been able to stop watching it since. She never understood the reason that so many people have so much hate in America. When she was younger, her mother would tell her that one day, they were going to move to America and live in a nice house and live the "American Dream", but she never thought that this dream would consist of so much hate. It's not that she's ungrateful in fact, she's very grateful for the house her mother had bought with the money she saved from working at the store down the street. When they first came to America, her mother had no idea where to go, so she would take the Selami and her sisters to local homeless shelters until she could find somewhere stable. Eventually, her mother decided on Freeridge and even got a job. While she was working, she would save as much money as she could so she could rent a decent house for her and the girls. So that meant that sometimes they would have to skip some meals. But with the help of Mahogany's income from her job, her older sister was able to help her mother rent the house. And now here she is, in her beautiful new home with her best friend, or only friend at that.

"Come on, Selami. It's time you finally get out this house. And have you noticed that you don't have not one friend since you've moved here?" He stood up and turned off the tv, along with the PS3 he gave her and dragged her to her room. "Change." He demandes and turned around and left. Selami sighed and began rummaging through her closet for a decent outfit. It was hot outside but she can handle it. She decided on high waisted denim shorts, an oversized black T-shirt and some old skool black vans. She went over to her floor length mirror and tied her wild curls in a ponytail. As she was walking out  her room, she noticed Cesar on his phone with an unreadable expression on his face. When he ended the call, she decided that she was going to ask what that was about. "Are you okay?" she asked worriedly. He looked up at her and quickly nodded and regained his composure. "Y-yeah I'm fine, I just....I just got a call from one of the homies that My brother is back." Cesar briefly told her about his brother but never went into full on detail. All She knows is that he went away somewhere and that Cesar was pretty sad about it. She grabbed Cesar's hand and pull him into her embrace.
"That's great! I know how much you've missed him. Let's go so you can see him!"  She was happy for her friend and wanted him to see his brother as soon as possible. As she was dragging him out of the house, he stopped walking, causing her to halt and look at him. "What?" She looked at him confused. "I-i think you should wear something less...that" he motioned to her shorts. She always had a some problems finding the right shorts, being that she had thick thigh that Cesar said could save lives, she didn't know what that meant but if could help people, she was willing to help. Her backside was larger than most, but not too big. She felt self conscious at what he was implying, but she ignored his request and pulled him outside and on the side walk.

The commute to his house wasn't that far, but Selami was paying attention to everything, being that she has never been to his house, he's only been to hers. As the reached his house, she noticed how many scary looking guys were sitting outside. When Cesar and Selami walked to the yard; she heard whistling and purring coming from the men.

"Hola, morenita!" "Hey, mami!?" "You lookin like a fine ass hyna!" She couldn't understand one word these guys were saying, like at all. But from the look on Cesar's face, she didn't think it was good. He grabbed her hand and pulled her up the steps of the porch and into the house. When they entered, they heard voices coming from the kitchen. Cesar began walking in the direction on the voices without even looking back at Selami. She stood there for 30 seconds deciding whether or not to follow him, but being that this is her first time at his house, she went in the same direction as him.

"Uhhh, Cesar?" She seen him and two other guys sitting at the table, talking. When Cesar noticed her come in, he stopped talking. "Damn, mano. This You?" The guy who looked a little like Cesar asked while licking his lips, staring at her. She immediately looked down, feeling uncomfortable. "No. It's not like that. At all. This is my friend Selami." At the mention of her name, the other guys started busting out laughing. "Selami? Cesar I don't have time for jokes." He leaned back in his chair and looked at Cesar, amused. "What do you mean? Her name is Selami, like Sea-lami. She's not even from here." He sighed and put his head on the table. The guy look at Selami and got up from his chair. He made his way over to her and put his finger under her chin so he could make eye contact with her. "Where you from, morenita?" He stared into her eyes directly and Selami couldn't help but stare back. His eyes were hazel and he had long eyes lashes. She's never seen any boy who even looks like him ever. And it was refreshing and intriguing to say the least.

"Eritrea. It's in the northeastern part of Africa." She spoke lightly, her accent making its way to the light when she spoke. She seen something cross his face, but it went away quickly and was replaced with a blank stare. "Interesante... ¿ así que es una chica negra?" He said while continuing to look at me. "Si" Cesar said behind the guy. I was getting slightly uncomfortable in his stare so I looked down and stepped back while rubbing my arm.
(Interesting... so she's a black girl?/yes)
"Nervous?" He smirked and leaned against the nearby wall, studying me.
"ربما ... أحتاج إلى العودة إلى المنزل. I mean, I need to go.." I turned around and made my way towards the door, with Cesar hot on my tail.
(maybe...i need to go home.)

—-Hope you guys like this chapter. To be clear, I am not expertly educated on Eritrean culture, so if you guys know things like certain food and customs, that would help a bunch, also, I looked up the official language in Eritrea and they don't have one, but the can speak Arabic, Tigre, and Tigrigna as well, and I decided to go with Arabic just because i can do better translations. But I'm not a perfect writer and I've been wanting to make this story for a while.—