MISS MONEY MAKER, jamal turner

S2 • New Year's Party

"Is she for real?" Monse asked Ruby. "I hope so." Ruby replied.

"Okay, um, Thank you, Amber. We--We appreciate that." Mrs. Martinez gave a fake smile. "Mama, this all looks amazing."

We all gasped as Mario cleared his throat. "Jamal, can you pass the bread?" Mario asked quickly. "What bread? I don't have any bread!"

I looked at him and grabbed the bowl of bread handing it to Mario. "Thank You, N/n." Mario gave tight lipped smile to my obviously judgey look. I nodded and turned to Jamal.

"He meant the real bread not your Roller World cash." I whispered to him. "Why are you so jumpy?" Jasmine asked.

"I'm not hiding anything." Jamal defended. "She never said you were." I snickered.

"Good, because I'm not. I'm not hiding anything hidden or found or finding anything found or hidden. I'm living my best life out in the open. I have NO secrets." Jamal replied. I chuckled and shook my head.

"I do." Amber announced. "This is gonna be good." I muttered and slouched in my chair.

"And I feel like I should clear my conscience since we're about to come into the new year, and uh I'm about to be a mother to a whitina." She sighed. "Girl-" Everyone was CLEARLY annoyed.

"A what?" Abuelita asked. "A white Latina." Jasmine clarified. "Okay, so there were not a lot of POC in my high school, which is really such a shame, because there's a lot to learn when you just break those cultural barriers. Anyway I can't believe this is part of my personal history, but-"

"Babe, right now is probably not the best time-" Mario muttered but Ruby covered Mario's mouth. "Continue." Ruby grinned.

"Gracias. So, I had this friend. He was Latino or Hispanic. Which one is it? Whatever. It's all the same. Right, babe? Anyway we called him Ockie and I thought it was short for octopus, because he had an extra finger, it wasn't about the finger. It was because every time a teacher took roll, he'd go AQUI!" Amber explained.

I put my hands on my face and laughed. "The finger was just a coincidence. Is that effed up?" She finished.

"Mario?" Geny called.

"M-hmm?" Mario responded nervously. "Can you help me in the kitchen please?"

"Jamal, we need to talk."

We both got up and walked to the hallway. "How'd you know I found the money?" Jamal asked. "I didn't but now I do." I winked. "Wowww, you just-"

"Yup. When the hell did you-"

"I miss you." He blurted out.

"I love you way more than I can explain and I was being a jerk." He revealed. "But you said-"

"I know, I just was mad. I made a bad point to myself, and then I just wanted to be alone."

"Do you still love me?" He questioned, talking softly now. "Of course, I do."

"But I still can't believe what you said. How could you say that, especially to me. I didn't need saving." I told him. "I know. It was stupid."

"Jamal, that's not how you apologize. Okay, look I still love you with all of my heart but I can't do this."

"Please. Another chance. After everything we went through-" Jamal covered his mouth instantly. "WE? We went through! You mean I! If you couldn't see Me, Ruby and Olivia are the only ones who've went through this and got shot!" I scolded.

"Olivia fucking died! And me and Ruby are traumatized! My brother kicked me and Cesar out and all I can worry about is if Cesar is okay because those prophets aren't fucking around! Every single time I hear screams, or loud noises I remember that night! The night my best friend or his girlfriend shot me! Every night before I sleep the guilt of me not being fast enough to push Olivia and Ruby out the way so I'd only get hurt and not them takes a huge toll on me. So it's not WE it's me! Not you and me, but me and my brother and Ruby!"