BEAUTIFUL DISASTER ➸ OSCAR DIAZ [2]

EIGHT

TWO WHOLEASS WEEKS, of non-stop partying with Demetrius. I don't know if going back to my old ways is the best decision, but it sure is fun as hell. I haven't talked to Oscar in two weeks either. Now that I think about it, I haven't even seen Ruby or Mario in two weeks. I've basically been living at Elijah's place with Demetrius.

"Hey," Demetrius says, yanking me out of my thoughts. I turn my head to look at him with a raised eyebrow, slightly squinting due to the bright sun above our heads. At least the weather's nice today. "What're you doing tomorrow night?"

"There's this stupid Valentine's Day dance at school, I'm going there." I sigh as I tie my hair up in a messy ponytail. Today might be the only day that me and Demetrius are sober, but neither of us can do anything because we have absolutely no energy.

Demetrius pouts as he rests his arm on the back of my chair. "Aw, I was gonna ask you to go watch a movie with me." He purposely sighs loudly— a tactic that he uses to show how upset he is, to persuade me into doing whatever he wants— and turns his head to look out at the street. "I guess I gotta take Elijah now."

My lips lift into a small smile as I watch his charade play out. He drops his arm from my chair and shuffles his chair across the grass to put some space between us. He's such a child. I really missed him for the last few months. "Tri I would but I literally can't. My brother's going and I promised my mom that I'd go and keep an eye on him. He's not doing so good since the shooting."

"What about you?" Demetrius asks as he moves his chair back, so he's closer to me. "How are you doing?"

I exhale a breathy laugh before chewing on my bottom lip. How do I even answer that? Do I tell him the truth? Do I lie? "I..." My voice trails off as I shake my head. "I don't know, Tri. I'm not as bad as he is. I'm not having really bad panic attacks all the time. But I think that's mainly because I'm pretending like the shooting never happened. I don't like to think about it."

Demetrius nods his head, clenching his jaw tightly. "If I see Latrelle again, I'll put a bullet in him myself." He says angrily, looking down at the grass of my front lawn. "You know, Elijah almost killed him when he found out you got shot. You should've seen him, he was so fucking angry. I've never seen him like that before. I had to pull him off Latrelle. But he told him to leave Freeridge and never come back. So, let's see how that goes. I mean his girl still lives here, and I doubt that he'll leave her alone for too long."

I blink several times as I try to process the new information that Demetrius just threw at me. Elijah's confusing; no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to figure him out. "Well, the quickest way to a man is through his hyna," I say quietly as I fiddle with my hands.

"Good point." Demetrius says amusedly as he leans back in his chair and looks up at the sky. After a few seconds of silence, he says, "You sure you don't wanna come watch a movie with me?"

A soft laugh passes my lips as I roll my eyes. "Yes, I'm sure Demetrius."

He raises his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I was just making sure."

I roll my eyes with a smile on my face as I rest my head on his shoulder. We sit like this for a while, both of us lost in our own thoughts, never saying a word aloud. I guess we're both alike in many ways; we don't like to talk about the stuff going on in our heads and we're both absolutely hopeless.

"Hey, Cami," I hear a familiar voice say. I lift my head and see Mateo walking up the driveway, and towards me and Demetrius.

"Time for me to go." Demetrius sighs as he stands up and stretches. "See ya later babe," he says with a smirk, ruffling my hair. I swat his hands away and fix my hair as I stand up as well.