CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
"Tía we want ice cream," Little Lupe turned to Nina with a small pout forming on her lips and her twin brother doing the same.
"Okay, Lupita. Let's go get ice cream," Nina smiled grabbing their little hands as they walked over to the ice cream stand just outside the restaurant.
It was that time between Christmas and New Year where time didn't really make sense to anyone. Both Nina and Oscar were still staying in the house Victoria had given them over the holiday. No doubt the two of them were having the time of their lives living in a house they weren't even paying for. But Nina kept missing her family, not that it was something that bothered Oscar.
Nina had this great idea to go to Disneyland for the first time ever with Victoria and the twins. The twins even brought along Bella, the puppy that Oscar had gotten them for Christmas. After their trip to Disneyland, Victoria and the twins would be staying at the house with them overnight.
Now here they were, in the middle of lunch in one of the parks themed restaurants. They had already gone on several rides but they hadn't been on one all together because they had to watch Bella. After their lunch they were going to see a few shows and go on a few more rides before leaving Bella in the doggy daycare.
"I can't believe you got us a puppy," Victoria said looking down to a smiling Bella who was on her lap. Waging her little tail like there was no tomorrow. "The twins love her so much. I mean how could you not?" she cooed rubbing the puppy's head.
"It's no big deal. One of the cholos were giving away some of his puppies. They couldn't take them in anymore so I decided to get one," Oscar explained with a small smile on his face before taking a sip of his soda
"You know, when Nina said she wanted to have kids with you I don't think she meant a puppy," Victoria teased still playing with Bella on her lap.
Oscar snorted. "What's not to like about a puppy?"
"True," Victoria nodded before glancing to look at him.
"Oscar?" she called looking up at him. Oscar only replied with a hum before putting down his phone.
"It's Nina's birthday in a couple of weeks, I don't really know what to do for her," Victoria admits with a shrug. "Do you have any suggestions?"
"Well, what do you usually do on her birthday?"
"Stay in. Watch movies. Dance party with the twins. Drink a bottle of red the moment they're passed out," Victoria listed with a hint of disinterest in her tone. However, in truth, it really did become a routine for Nina to spend her birthdays like that.
"Yea that sounds like her," Oscar chuckled a little agreeing to her list.
"Well, you know her, clubbing isn't really her thing plus we had to look after the kids back then. Heck I even teased about getting her a stripper for her 21st birthday," she replied making Oscar shoot her a look.
"But obviously that's out of the question because she... has you," Victoria swerved gesturing to her sister's novio. "And since you're here and you've done nothing but make her happy I figured... you know... we should probably do something for her birthday," she shrugged.
Hearing the routine that Victoria had listed made him realize that what Nina did on her birthday was nothing really different from any of her weekends. Oscar loved Nina a lot and thinking about it, he did what to do something special for her.
"I guess we could throw her a party at the Santos house. She's friends with the Santos anyway and the Santos love her," Oscar began but he knew deep down that a simple party just wasn't going to cut it.
"You guys had friends back in the barrio right?" he brought up as Victoria nodded.
"Yea, I mean you may think it was just me and her but we had our own crew and everything," she explained. "What about it?"
"Is there some way you could make them come here? Just for her birthday. Although that could be really expensive with flying and all that shit. Then there's the hotel," the more Oscar tried thinking about it, the more he realized it wasn't as feasible as he thought.
"You know what? Forget it, that just sounds impossible-"
"No, no, no, mano that's a great idea!" Victoria interrupted.
"I mean we got a few weeks to plan it we can try to make it work while we still can. And they don't really need a hotel they could just crash in with us! It'll be like old times. Shit, you're a genius!" she added in praise.
"Who's a genius?" Nina cut in. The two of them failed to notice at first as Nina sat back down next to Oscar while the twins sat next to their mom.
"Nothing," Oscar smiled putting an arm around Nina as she took a bite of her ice cream treat.
"I got you one too," Nina smiled handing Oscar an ice cream treat in the shape of Mickey's head.
"Gracias, amor," Oscar said kissing the side of her head before taking the ice cream.
"Papito, you're a mess!" Victoria said quickly grabbing a napkin and wiping his mouth making the rest chuckle a little.
"We got you an ice cream too mama," Alex said giving her the same treat. Victoria took it gladly after she was done cleaning his face.
"So what were two talking about while we were gone?" Nina asked as she continued to eat her ice cream.
"V, was talking about the rides we should go on," Oscar said causing Victoria to glare back at him. She had no idea what to ride considering it was their first time here.
On the bright side, Victoria was able to come up with random things to say that hopefully made sense about their plan for today. After eating their ice cream, they noticed that crowds were beginning to pile up on the streets as the parade for that afternoon were about to begin.
The twins were having the time of their lives watching all the characters dance and sing as the floats came by. Alex was holding Bella as him and Penelope were dancing a long and even waving at the characters who came up to the. However, little did they know about the three adults who felt like they were kids again.
"Baby, it's Simba!" Oscar shook Nina's shoulders a little getting excited to see the characters of Lion King. "Look, it's the little Simba with the little Nala," he cooed like a child.
"I forget that you like Lion King so much," Nina admits looking at her boyfriend who was so in awe by the characters singing the Circle of Life on repeat.
"Baby," he whined shaking her a little bit more causing her to laugh, his eyes still twinkling looking at Simba on Pride Rock.
Oscar would look at Nina who was grinning from ear to ear in excitement. Nina would look at Oscar too and never had he seen him smile so much in public. It was like Spooky never even existed that day. Victoria couldn't be happier as well thinking about all those promises her parents made of taking her and Nina here when they were kids.
All in all it was a pretty happy day for everybody here.
After the parade Penelope really wanted to take pictures with some Princesses before they could bring Bella into the daycare. They went about exploring the Magic Kingdom in the hunt for some princesses. Even Nina and Victoria had pictures with some of the princesses.
Oscar couldn't stop looking at Nina who looking like a princess herself. She was wearing a red Disney sweater and a pair of jeans and sneakers. What was evident was the huge smile on her face. The way the sun had hit her just right made Oscar so mesmerized by her beauty.
They eventually get Bella into the doggy daycare and they spend most of their time in Tomorrowland. Nina kept geeking out seeing the stormtroopers and Kylo Ren. She also freaked out when Loki walked by saying everyone to kneel like he did in the Avengers movie.
"Shit, I would kneel for him any day," Nina whistled lowly checking out the guy who cosplayed as Loki from afar.
"Hey," Oscar called her out furrowing his eyebrows together as he looked at her. "I'm right here."
"What? I got on my knees for you last night," Nina whispered back to him but he still wasn't having it.
"How would you feel if I checked out Snow White or something?" Oscar cocked his eyebrow putting on a hard expression.
"Ay papi," Nina frowned kissing his Santos tattoo on his neck. "You know I only got my eyes on you," she smiled afterwards but Oscar was still pouting.
Nina chuckles before grabbing his face for a short sweet kiss. "You know I love you fool," she smiled pulling away making Oscar smirk a little.
"I love you too, fool," Oscar nodded before kissing her back again. "But damn, if you gonna kneel for Loki might as well do it for me too," he whispered to her pulling away.
"But I just did last night and my family's coming over," Nina blushed answering him back in a low tone.
"Then I guess we just gotta be quiet, mami," Oscar smirked before pecking her lips and her neck making her blush even more.
"Tía, it's Spider-Man!!" Alex called making both Nina and Oscar freak out a little bit.
They kept going on rides from that point on. The five of them having the time of their lives, especially when all of them went on Hyperspace Mountain. Though, Oscar seemed to have much more fun in the Astro Blasters ride. As expected him and Nina had a bet on who could win the most points. Oscar won to Nina's disinterest.
After Tomorrowland they had crossed the park going to Frontierland so see a Lion King show. Nina couldn't stop looking at Oscar who seemed to turn into a five year old seeing everyone singing on the top of their lungs to all of the songs. He held her hand as he sang all the songs under his breath. It was a first time seeing him like this and she loved it.
They went on the Jungle Cruise after. Again, Nina had never seen Oscar get so excited with animals. They weren't even real. At one point he had even panicked a little asking if there was a real crocodile in the water. For a guy who seemed to lowkey love animals, he seemed afraid of most of them. He was more scared of certain animals than holding a gun.
They went around Frontier land a little bit more, even going on that Indiana Jones ride, before taking a different route back to Magic Kingdom. The twins wanted to go on It's a Small World. It's not like the adults had any choice about going. As a matter of fact, the three of them may have underestimated the amount of walking they were going to do. It came to a point where the three of them might have passed out during the ride.
The day went on with riding a few of the chill stuff in Magic Kingdom. What happened after was that they decided to take pictures of the place and trying all the different food in the park.
As Victoria took the kids to meet Winnie the Pooh, both Nina and Oscar were eating a bag of Mickey Mouse beignets. They were sitting on a near by plant box with the rest of their family not too far from them.
"This shit taste good," Oscar hummed taking another bite.
"Dude, you got powder sugar all over your face," Nina giggled wiping his beard and mustache with the pad of her thumb. "I could make this shit you know," she added proudly as she was done wiping.
"This warm, soft, and fluffy?" his eyes twinkled at the powdery treat.
"You bet your ass I can," Nina smiled back at him.
"Aight, bet. You got the rest of the holidays to impress me with this piece of beautiful goodness," Oscar said before taking a bite.
"Damn, I can't believe you just went down on a beignet like that," Nina smirked watching her boyfriend just do what he did.
"And I'm about to do the same to you later tonight," Oscar said lowly looking over at Nina, already blushing and acting demure.
"Why do you act so shy about it? We've done more before," he pointed out moving closer to her. "All of which were firsts, not that I'm complaining," she pointed out feeling her cheeks burn.
"Shit I can't believe I made you freaky like that," he mused as Nina shushed him. "¡Cállate!" She sneered. This pendejo forgot we were in a children friendly theme park?
A few hours had passed until they were crowding a long the people to watch the fireworks display. The twins wanted to get Bella for the fireworks. It took V to explain that dogs were afraid of fireworks so they would have to miss Bella for a little bit more.
All the lights on main street began to dim until the sound of music and magic started booming from the speakers surrounding the crowd. It wasn't long later until everyone saw Tinkerbell flying across the castle and the first boom of the fire works went off. As expected everyone was in their own sense of awe of what happened.
The medley came on as the sky lit up with all sorts of colors and lights. Everyone was stuck in the moment as all the favorite Disney songs came on. But Nina absolutely fell in love when I See The Light from Tangled started playing. For a moment everything felt so magical and she had felt like crying. The buildings were covered with yellow lights resembling the lanterns from the movie. Yellow sparks of fireworks lit up the sky and Nina simply fell in love.
Oscar caught the look in her eye looking up at the dark sky being lit up with all the fireworks. There he was watching her again, much like that scene on the boat. As Rapunzel marvel at the lights from the lanterns, Eugene could only look at her. Only her.
He wraps his arms around her waist catching her attention. Nina smiles before kissing his cheek causing him to smile as well. They held each other as they watched the sky explode with color. All they knew in that moment was that they had to come back here and fall in love with the place all over again. Where they could act like kids and forget for a moment that things were never like this back in Freeridge.
-
"Damn, that's wifey right there!" Oscar said proudly as he pointed at Nina. As promised she had made him a batch of beignets, a replica of the one's from Disneyland.
"I told you I could make them," Nina said with pride before taking a bite of her own cooking. "Never doubt me again, Diaz."
"Never again mamas," he nodded with a side smile showing off his dimple. Nina adored him, she really did.
"I mean it's not as magical but it's special because you made them. You're right I'd marry you for your cooking," he added taking another bite of the beignet.
"So it's not because you love me?" Nina raised her eyebrow at her novio.
"Nope," Oscar teased popping the p. Nina sighed and began to walk away before hugging her from behind. "Mami, I'm kidding. You know how much I love you."
He kisses her neck before setting her on the on the counter where they were having their breakfast for the last time. A few days had passed and they were going back to Freeridge later that day to prepare for the New Year's. Oscar was hosting his first New Year's Eve party ever since he came back from prison. It was a tradition that the Santos always did.
"You're lucky I love you too," Nina glared at him as Oscar shook her head before pecking her on the lips.
"It really sucks that we have to leave," Nina began sadly as she placed her half eaten beignet back on the plate. "I mean look at this place," she added gesturing to the house they were in.
"How can one afford to live in a place like this with it's big ass kitchen and the stupid piano in the living room? And a chandelier in the foyer. Each bathroom has some fancy soap and shampoo, like I have never smelled sooo bougie in my entire life," she rambled looking down at her lap just before taking Oscar hands into hers.
"I'm gonna miss this really nice place but let's face it, this place ain't home," Nina concluded shaking her head.
"But you gotta admit, it would be nice to have a place like this," Oscar pointed out looking around the house. "A big kitchen for me. A huge study room for you and all your books. A piano where V could teach our kids to play. And just the space for our family. Think about it, amor," he imagined kissing Nina's hands.
"Because this is the life you deserve," Oscar said softly making Nina look into his eyes. "You deserve to get out of Freeridge. Get your engineering degree. Make a shit ton of money and build a home somewhere else-"
"Home," Nina cuts in. "Home is wherever family is. Wherever V and the twins are. Wherever you are," she smiled squeezing his hands a little.
"Home can be back in Freeridge or here or freaking back in Washington Heights. Home is where my heart is, and my heart belongs to you and my family," she added getting all cheesy. She hated it but what she said was true.
"Face it, Oscar, it's not like I'm getting out of Freeridge anytime soon. It's not like I'm getting that engineering degree anytime soon nor am I making a shit ton of money but then again," she paused to caress his cheek.
"What's all the rush?" Nina offered him a soft smile. "Sure I wanna marry you and have kids with you. Am I rushing into it? Maybe. But right now we got all the time in the world and I wanna savor it."
Oscar smiled at her. "You really want a future with me?"
All Nina could do was nod and smile sincerely.
"You really are my ride or die, huh Nina?" He mused looking into her big brown eyes he had fallen in love with so hard.
"Mos def, homes," she teased making Oscar shake his head smiling.
"C'mere," he whispered before placing a hand on her cheek and kissing her with so much passion. He really did love her with all his heart. And he wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with her.
And if only they could stay like this forever. In this house where they had forgotten about the outside world and how fucked up Freeridge actually was. For the past days they had spent together, they could only talk and tease each other about the future and what they hoped it could be for the both of them.
But little did they know that the moment they would step out of the house, things would never be the same again. If the universe had granted them another chance, they really should've just stayed inside the house.
-
It was the Santos New Year's Eve party, Victoria was in the Martinez house for a dinner. Here Nina was drunk as hell, dancing and being joined to Oscar's hip the entire night. It wasn't until Sad Eyes had to pull him away from her saying they had a problem in front of the Santos house.
In the middle of washing her hands in the bathroom, she taps her cold wet hands on her face and neck to cool her down a little bit. She sighs heavily as she gripped on the edges of the sink to hold her up a little. Her eyes travel to the trash bin not so far from her and she sees the pregnancy test she took not too long ago.
No doubt, a few people had already seen them. Maybe one of the reasons why she went a little wild with the drinking was because she was around two weeks late on her period. She was due for her period a few days after she and Oscar decided to fuck raw the entire day. Probably everyone here had already seen the test. It was only a matter of them guessing on who owned the pregnancy test.
Sighing, she walks out of the bathroom only to be face to face with Crystal. "Congratulations," she smiled at Nina. She had a headache and was nowhere near feeling a hundred percent. She didn't need this shit from her. Who invited her anyway?
"It's yours right? The pregnancy test?" Crystal followed her, keeping a cool and soft voice. "I mean why else would I be congratulating you?"
"Leave me alone, Crystal. I don't need your shit," Nina spat going back to her place on the counter.
"You avoiding me only implies that it's are yours," Crystal pressed leaning up against the counter next to Nina.
Nina rolled her eyes, damn maybe she needed one more drink. Until then she had to settle with this pitcher of water. "It's negative anyway so what's your point?"
She had yet to take another and hope it too came out negative.
Maybe joking around about having babies went a little too far. She wanted to have kids with Oscar but she meant it when she said she wasn't in any rush. Yet there she was not too long ago, blabbering about wanting to make babies with him. The alcohol hit her hard making her forget about her pregnancy scare. At least it did for a little while.
"Exactly. I'm congratulating you for not needing to be tied down to a guy like Spooky," Crystal clarified before taking a sip of her drink. "He's cute and all, I mean trust me I should know. But getting pregnant by that son of a bitch? That's a stretch."
"What the fuck do you want from me Crystal?" Nina asked getting impatient. She really did not want to deal with Crystal's shit.
"Nina, I'm just making plain conversation. I thought the New Year was about starting clean?" Crystal smirk trying to make Nina look at her.
"The year ain't over yet," Nina muttered under her breath as she gripped on the edge of the counter.
"Well," Crystal sighed looking at her drink that was beginning to run on empty. "I'm really happy for you and Spooky. It's amazing how you still keep up with his ass despite what he did to Cesar."
"He did it for the Cesar's sake and the Santos," Nina replied harshly. What was this bitch still doing here?
"Oh fo sho but making that teen kill Latrelle? I mean what was Spooky thinking?"
Nina was out of her mind so maybe her own ears could've deceived her at that moment. "What?" she asked softly as if she had suddenly lost her voice.
"Spooky made Cesar kill Latrelle but the pendejo couldn't do it that's why his friends got shot. That's why Spooky had to kick him out. Cesar's practically homeless but I think he's been chilling at his bitch's house this whole time."
The more Crystal explained what really happened the more sober Nina began to feel. But her heart was beating so fast and her palms began clammy. She couldn't be hearing this right. What kind of a brother would Oscar be to force Cesar to pull a gun on another teen?
"I mean that's not even it. Spooky made the Santos beat Cesar up for not being man enough to finish the job but of course you knew that right?" Crystal continued before taking a sip of the drink. Internally smiling to herself as Nina finally looked at her.
The despair in her eyes. Nina was slowly beginning to realize that Oscar had been lying to her all this time. Her heart broke and she felt betrayed. But it's not like she was going to believe all that bullshit coming from one of his crazy jealous exes.
"Oh my God, he didn't tell you?" Crystal acted shock as she sat up straight. "Oops, look Nina I didn't mean to-"
"¡Cállate!" Nina seethed taking a step closer to her.
"I mean, he's handling the same business outside if you wanna see for yourself."
Crystal kept blabbering but Nina didn't let her finish as she bolted towards the door of the house. Her heat shattered seeing the view on the front lawn. The Santos we're ganging up on the poor beat up teen as they drove him into the street. Nina couldn't actually believe that for once Crystal was telling the truth and the love of her life had been lying to her all this time.
"Do you really want me sleeping on the streets?" Cesar cried out in front of all of them. Not noticing Nina who stood by the front porch.
"As long as they're not ours," Oscar replied with a hard tone. They all stood there for a moment before Oscar turned to walk away.
Cesar hung his head low and began to walk away until one of the Santos started barking like a dog at him making the poor boy flinch a little. The harsh sounds coming from the cholos made Nina jump but she could now only look at Oscar who kept his eyes to the ground as he walked back to the house.
"Oscar?"
---
SHE FINALLY KNOWS!! Which means shit's about to go down. I'd like to apologize that this chapter had a lot going on since this was supposed to be more of a filler in prep for the next. But in the original writing, this chapter was TOOOO short while the next was way too long. But ye shit's about to go down
LOLOLOLOL THEIR FUN LOVE LASTED A CHAPTER AHA! I mean, I told y'all the cutesy stuff was coming to an end at some point. But y'all sorta forced my hand a little and since I've never really done this Imma start small... I'm desperate for more engagement...
Tell me what you guys think :)) 5 comments for the next chapter!!!
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