Amor Prohibido | r. martinez

doce

The squad started walking back to the house. This time, everyone except the twins stayed across the street.

"You want some more?"

"Déjame patearle el culo."

The white boy rolled his eyes as he listened to Arcelia. "This is America. Speak English." He said slowly, enunciating every word as he looked directly into her eyes. All Arcelia did was glare and he laughed. "Oh, you think you're hard."

"We're not, but he is." Arcelia watched the red impala pull up to the house and enjoyed watching the soul leave the white boy's body. The second Oscar stepped out of his car, he looked mad. Maybe because of the cholo costume or maybe because someone messed with his siblings. Either way, he was pissed.

Arcelia watched Oscar look the "cholo" up and down from the sidelines. He sucked his thumb and easily smudged off the teardrop, then rub his fingers over his own tattoo to show it's realness.

"This shit's real." He purposely made his voice deeper and the white boy looked close to shitting himself.

"Please, what do you want?" He cried out. No one even touched him so it was a mystery why he was begging like he was being held hostage in a warehouse outside of Freeridge.

Oscar didn't know what to say and looked to his siblings. "Give us your candy. And your mom's pressed juice."

"Oh, and your cheesecake!" Arcelia cheered, a smile on her face as she thought about the desert. She's been to Cheesecake Factory once in her life, but she didn't remember it tasting as good as it did that night.

With a simple glare, the guy and his friends ran inside, moving as quick as they could so the scary cholo outside wouldn't blow the house up. While they did that, Oscar told the kids across the street to get in the car.

"Mr. Spooky, how do all 7 of us fit in the impala?" Ruby asked timidly.

"I don't know, sit in the damn trunk? Figure it out or I'm leaving your ass here." The group of teens nodded, piling into Oscar's back seat. The girls, Olivia and Monse, were upset to sit on someone's lap, but got over it because they didn't want to go in the trunk with the thought of a dead body being there before.

"Here you go." The kids said, handing over everything that was asked for. Arcelia smiled as she held the plate of stacked cheesecake, smiling when she saw an extra cookie.

She would probably regret the sugar in the morning, but she was living her best life this Halloween. The twins went to the front seat, Arcelia in the middle, while Oscar looked at the kid one more time. With a swift punch, the guy fell into his grass and cried.

"That's for ruining my sister's night."

The whole ride back to their hood, they group in the back was talking about everything from the full-sized candy bars to Oscar slapping the soul out of the guy hosting the party.

Arcelia decided to go back home instead of staying over at Ruby's. She took some candy from Ruby and stayed in the impala while everyone else climbed out and went into Ruby's house.

"Cheesecake?" Arcelia offered. With the plate in his line of vision, Oscar reached out and grabbed a piece as he drove down the street to get to their house. "Are you happy I didn't fight anyone?"

"Maybe. The kid deserved to get his ass kicked con su disfraz racista."

"If Olivia didn't dump her juice on his carpet, I would've. You should've seen Seba, he was about to throw him out the window for calling me a... name."

Oscar side-eyed his sister for being so bland, but let it go. "What's up with that fool? Why's he always over?"

"Because he's my friend." Areclia shrugged and stated, but it came out like a question. Oscar hummed like he was doubting what she said. "He has a girlfriend. You don't need to worry about him trying anything."

Oscar nodded as he pulled into the driveway and parked the car. The Santos were still in front of the house, as usual, but they were all just sitting around and drinking. No one was working out, but some of them were still shirtless.

"Aye, girasol, lemme get some of tu dulce." Paco asked, reaching to grab her bag as she walked by. She let him do it because she just wanted the cheesecake and soon enough, the whole gang was pulling out bars of candy. "You should go to Brentwood more often." He said, a mouth full of chocalate as he spoke.

"No mames, you got cheesecake?" Sad Eyes cheered, about to grab a piece until his hand was slapped away.

"You can take the candy, pero esto es mío." She glared.

Sad Eyes eyed the short girl and decided to try his shot by bribing her. "Si me das un poco, I'll bring my mom's tres leches."

"Bet."

× × ×

Arcelia was laying in bed, regretting eating all the sugar because now she couldn't sleep. She was staring up at her Mexico flag, the only thing that didn't match her room theme, and back to the fairy lights above her.

She tried to tire herself out by working out, but gave up after her third sit up. Then, she binged watched some Disney movies. Now, at 1 am, she was getting frustrated. She wasn't sure if Cesar was home or not, so she went to Oscar's room and walked right in.

"Oscar." She whispered loudly into the dark room. When he didn't move from his position on sleeping on his stomach, she walked further into the room. "O. O, I can't sleep."

"Try closing your eyes." He groaned, turning his head away from her and trying to go back to sleep.

"O." She whined as she slapped his shoulder.

"You shouldn't have eaten all that cheesecake." He mumbled into the pillow. "Just lay down." Oscar told her. She happily jumped over him and layed beside him once she was under the blanket.

"We should've went to Knott's Scary Farm."

"Angelita, go to sleep."

Arcelia stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes, before saying, "I miss dad."

Oscar sighed once he realized just how restless she was and turned to lay on his back. "I miss him too."

"Can you sing to me?"

Oscar chuckled, still half asleep with his eyes closed. "I haven't sang you to sleep since you were like 6."

Arcelia hummed and nodded. "Can you?" Oscar sighed and gave in just so she would shut up.

He pulled the blanket up to her chin and quietly started to sing a song their dad always sang to them when they were little and crying during the night.

Less than two minutes later, Oscar stopped when he heard soft snores beside him. Arcelia had her head tilted and it was the only thing outside of the blanket. Like everyone told her, she still had glitter on her face and somehow it got to her hair.

Oscar leaned over to kiss her forehead before he went to his previous position and went back to sleep.

In the kitchen, Cesar was pacing and freaking out about his kiss with Olivia while eating the cheesecake. Come next morning, he would be gstting an earful from his twin sister about touching her food.

My favorite sibling duo 😪