Stay

2

On my way to the Santo party, I decided to stop by Jamal's to see if he was ready.

N: Yo I'm outside

J: Coming out now.

Jamal came outside and shook his head at me.

"What?" I asked.

"Still not used to your new body. You sure you wanna go to this party? There are going to be a lot of gang members there. I'm totally fine having a movie night instead." Jamal replied.

I sucked my teeth at him and started walking.

"Don't puss out Jamal. You know Tito wouldn't let anything happen us anyway. Everyone else is going to be there. Let's go." I said.

"Ugh fine. But I swear, if anything happens, I'm leaving." Jamal replied.

He and I walked to Monse and then Ruby's before heading to the party. Part of me was nervous about going, but it was my senior after all. It was time I lived it up the way I should.

The moment we arrived, Cesar had met us outside. It was my first time seeing him since our little situation so it was awkward as hell.

"Nati... Wow... Its nice to see you" Cesar said.

"It's nice to see you too." I awkwardly replied.

"Are you ever going to tell us whyyyy you two have been acting so weird lately." Ruby asked.

I put a fake smile on my face and gently nudged Ruby.

"Shut up. Nothings wrong you guys." I lied.

"Yeah we're good." Cesar added.

"Great now let's go inside. I could use a drink" Monse said while grabbing Cesar's hand and walking away.

"You sure everything is alright?" Jamal asked as we followed behind them.

"Yeah we're good. Sometimes you just out grow people I guess" I nonchalantly replied, knowing that wasn't the truth.

"I guess that makes sense, you are older than us." Jamal said.

We finally made it inside and I was in disbelief at how many people there were inside the living room. Everyone was smoking and drinking while others were dancing and making out.

"So this is what a Santos party looks like on the inside, huh?" Jamal said while looking around.

"Nati! Come here" a voice yelled.

"Fuck me, my brother just won't let me live" I grunted while walking away.

"Yes Tito?" I asked.

"You look better. I just want you to be responsible tonight. Oscar and I had a lil talk and I been too hard on you. You gonna be 18 next month. You grown Nati. And maybe I just ain't ready to accept that. But its not my choice. Point is, I'm sorry for earlier. I want you to have fun but I want you to be safe." Tito said.

My mind paused for a second. Did my brother just tell me that Oscar gave him advice on how to deal with me? I couldn't tell if he had too many drinks or if he genuinely meant it. But I decided to take it for what it was.

"Thank you hermano. I appreciate that." I replied.

"Good. Now go have a drink or something with your lil friends." He said with a smile.

I gave him a quick hug and walked back to Jamal and Ruby.

"That looked like it went well. Usually you two are bickering" Ruby said.