More Than What Meets the Eye-Oscar Diaz-On My Block

52

As I rouse from a heavy slumber I am first aware of the coolness of the air and it's loamy fragrance. Within seconds of realizing I had fell unconscious in the car, I opened my eyes more, dreams not just forgotten but erased. I am drinking in the feedback of all my senses, especially the pain that shot through my arm.

I winced and hissed at the pain of my arm and glanced at it noticed that my wound was less disgusting from before but I could feel that the bullet was still in there. It was at that moment I began to looked around my surroundings and noticed that I wasn't even in the hospital.

The only source of light was from the windows above my head. The windows were gaping holes for the wind to rush in and out through and the door hung on it's hinges at a jaunty angle, although now it was really just a frame. It was a rotting heap, bowing down, subservient to the elements. Everything about this room screamed a prison more than a normal room.

With that my thoughts were disturbed when the person who I least expected to see entered with a bunch of things in his hand. I snapped back to reality, but the haze in my eyes remained. I glanced at my mess of a arm, particularly my shoulder and grimaced. He could hardly stand upright.

"Where am I?" I questioned a bit hoarse considering that my throat was very dry.

"My room in my house," Oscar answered as he set the stuff down and pulled a chair up to my side, "I called Ruby's grandmother to help me with some stuff and she is coming to help me stitch you."

"Hm," I simply said as I pulled myself upwards so that I was leaning against the weak bed post and reached for the knife on the post.

"What the hell are you doing?" Oscar asked as he grabbed my wrist.

"G-getting this bullet out my shoulder," I replied trying to get my hand out his grip.

"Are you crazy or stupid?" he asked.

"Both," I replied, "Now let go so I can get this out."

"No," Oscar replied, "I fucking cleaned it and you want to go in there with a knife."

"Just fucking let go!" I yelled.

"No!" Oscar yelled back, "You fucking hiding a bunch of shit and when me and Cesar do this trade with the Prophets so that Cesar can go back into the graces of the Cuchillos, I see the person that I greenlighted and love at the same place with a fucking bullet wound in her arm-protecting my family. Do you know the fucking bind that you are now putting me through!"

"1. I didn't even know Cesar was there and 2.You could have left me there because no one told you to take me with you," I replied, "Besides, I didn't even know you gave a damn!"

Oscar grunted and soon shook the knife out of my grip and pinned me to the bed post. I swear if this bullet wasn't in my arm and this pain wasn't searing through me, I would have reacted.

"Selena!" Oscar yelled, "I. GIVE.A.DAMN. BECAUSE I FUCKING LOVE YOU!"

"You can't love something you want to kill," I replied, "You said it yourself, you know who I am since Cesar probably told you and you put a greenlight on me. You had kicked Cesar out of the gang for him failing to do a mission because you wanted to be in the graces of cuchillos, so what are you going to do knowing you need to follow through with the hit on me?"

That shut him up completely. He was conflicted and he didn't know what to do. But one thing was super clear....our feelings for each other were requited.

The door to his room opened and in stepped Ruby's grandmother with a kit of her own.

"I came as soon as you called," she replied, "Selena, what are you doing here? Does Valentina know about this?"

"No," I mumbled, "And if we can keep it a secret between us that would be great."

"Secrets don't come cheap," she said as she walked over to the same side Oscar was and set her kit down.

I sigh knowing that bring her in was going to be an added problem. But then if Oscar had left me...would I have bleed out? Ugh! Why couldn't it be another house or another day that I had to drop the money or that Cesar and Oscar's little plan could have happened. Why the fuck did my shit align with his bullshit.

"Let me see, let me see." Ruby's grandmother said as she looks over my wound. I let out a whimper as she started to clean my wound.

"Ah, puncture wound. Went deep. Nicked the artery." she said then he reaches out to grab something while I look over at Oscar as he comes up to my left side.

"I'm right here," He whispers to me, assuredly, and he takes my hand in his as Ruby's grandmother started to pour a liquid on my shoulder. "I need to put pressure on it," she whispered, gripping my his arm tightly.

My hazy eyes suddenly focused, and I regained a bit of composure. My locked gazes with Oscar's, frowning, but said nothing as Oscar neared me and hesitantly rested a hand on either side of my shoulder: one hand on my shattered shoulder blade, and the other on my shattered clavicle. I flinched and barely suppressed a pained grimace at the slight pressure.

"This is going to hurt," she whispered.

I scream out in pain and squeezed the sheets on the bed into my hand, a few tears slide down my face.

"Hey, hey, look at me." Oscar whispers and I look into his brown eyes as Ruby's grandmother got to work on my shoulder. For a second, I looked over at her to see that she took a blade and stuck it into the wound causing me to scream out in more pain and gasp for air. Oscar looked at me and grabbed my hand in his to try in a way to comfort me. I mean me screaming was going to happen regardless.

"AHHH!" I yelled while throwing my head back. The blood poured out as if in slow motion. It came as a red fountain to spread over my shoulder. I started trembling beneath my hands, my face streaked with sweat and blood. I groaned, breathing so heavily that she was sure it hurt. All this blood lost allowed for dizziness to settle in.

"There," Ruby's grandmother said as she went down to the floor and picked up the small bullet.

With very little energy, I moved my eyes and head slightly to see the bullet responsible for the numbness I had now felt and the shock that is about the settle in. That little kinetic projectile was responsible for piercing my skin and this wasn't the first time, considering this was how my parents had died.

Ruby's grandmother soon began to stitch up the wound as I soon felt too numb to even react. I knew that I was probably going to pass out again and that probably concerned Oscar because he soon yelled at Ruby's grandmother.

"Why the fuck is she not reacting?" Oscar questioned.

"She is in shock," Ruby's grandmother said, "She probably lost too much blood and needs to rest with the amount of stress that she had exerted."

Soon Ruby's grandmother finishes up on the sutures and bites down on the string and turns her head spitting out and heads to her kit. "Make sure to give her this when she wakes up again. She needs to take four. It'll give her energy, help with the pain." She informed Oscar as I barely could understand the words that were coming out of their mouths after.

I then began to think on how we were literally going back and forth a second ago and for months and it took for me to get shot for us to get together again.

"Abuelita got shot and we got together...now I got shot and we confessed...This really got me wondering if I am really cursed."