Back on the Block | On My Block fanfic

Dear Diary

This prompted all eyes to dart back to Jamal, including Tyrone's. He didn't want to seem tweak-y around one of the boys or anything, so he sighed and slid in next to Monse. "I'll see you around, dawg."

After they nodded goodbye, Monse turned back to the table, bug-eyed. "What the hell was that?"

"Jamal's a big old-fashioned, meathead now." Ruby stared him down from across the table and pursed his lips. "Told you there was a lot to catch up on."

"Okay, well, that was really weird, but anyways--," Monse said. She looked down and rummaged through her messenger bag, fishing past the numerous bus tickets and half-used chapsticks rolling around at the bottom. Finally, she produced a worn manila envelope and dropped it into the middle of the table. 

Ruby frowned and picked it up, examining the faded water stains that dotted the front cover. "What is this?"

"It's some kind of manuscript for a book my mom was writing before she died. At first I thought it was just another young adult novel she had been working on, but then I read it and It was a lot more than I was expecting. I don't know how to explain it, there's something else going on in that story."  

Ruby carefully slid a stack of papers out of the envelope and held the manuscript in his hands. It was surprisingly lighter than he thought it would be, considering the fact he was supposed to have an entire novel in his hands. He flipped past the blank cover page and read the first paragraph:

As I sat on the curb of Montana Street, I had an overwhelming feeling that things weren't going to be the same after this. Maybe it was the drizzle of rain that had been coming on and off all night, or the distant whine of police sirens, which had become the disturbing soundtrack of the neighborhood, but I knew that something in the world had shifted. 

"Wait, Montana Street?" At this point, Ruby had stopped reading and looked up. "Isn't that the street like four blocks down from mine?"

"Yeah, it's the exact same street." Monse leaned in. "I've read the whole thing at least three times already, and this might sound crazy, but I'm almost positive it's about Freeridge. I think it's about my mom, a-and what her life was like here before she met my dad."

Jasmin threw her hands up in the air, gold bracelets jangling around her wrists. "Alright, don't be offended by this boo, but you found your ma's old diary, so what? I just don't see the big deal, it just seems like another story. It's not like she went in and wrote something super wack like, 'dear diary, today Mister Monse's Dad hit it soo good!'"

As if summoned by Jasmin's incredibly vulgar choice of words, the waitress appeared with their waters and a notepad in her hand. Ruby nudged her before she could say anything else offensive in front of the poor old lady. However, the damage had still been done, as Magda, their elderly server (who surely had no more than three teeth) scowled as she took out a pen. 

While she was busy taking Ruby's order, Jasmin leaned towards Monse. "Oh my god, your moms really did write that, didn't she?" She whispered. She pulled a sympathetic face and took Monse's hand in hers. "Pobrecito, no one should have to go through reading some nasty shit like that."

Instinctively, Monse pulled her hand away. Magda had walked to another table at this point. "Ew! Jasmin, ew, no stop, I don't even want to think about that." She shivered, frowning. That was definitely an image she did not need to hold in her head. "It's nothing weird like that. But, there was something really sus she wrote near the end of it."

Jamal perked up from his sulking at the edge of the booth. Immediately, he thought of Julio's most recent invasion, a chill-provoking memory he'd fought to keep in the back of his mind for the past few days.  Surely, there was no way the two oddities were related, but something strange was still going on in Freeridge, no matter how much he'd spent years trying to convince himself that the mysteries were over. 

"Monse, what do you mean by 'sus'?" For the first time that day, he sounded serious. 

Monse shook her head and took the papers back, flipping to one of the last few pages in the stack. "Here. You have to read this." She hesitated, scanning the first few sentences before handing it over to Jamal. 

"She says she killed someone. Just read it for yourself." 

.  .  .

*again optional writer's note*

Hey guys! I am loving the support you guys have gave me, I am so grateful to the few people who have been reading my story. Make sure to remember to leave a vote if you like what you've read so far :) Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up soon, procrastination has been biting me in the behind a lot lately (mostly because I've spent every day since school ended binging Jane the Virgin, oops.)