Amor Prohibido | r. martinez

cuarenta y dos

Arcelia held up two dresses in front of Ruby to help her pick which one to wear to the dance. "The red one looks better with your hair color."

Arcelia pulled back the dress to look at it better. "You're right. That's why you're my stylist." Ruby smugly smiled to himself and watched Arcelia hang the light blue dress back in her closet. "I'm gonna change, I'll be back."

Arcelia left the room so Ruby pulled out his phone and started playing Fun Race while he waited for her to come back. "You're still here?"

Ruby jumped and looked up to Oscar who stood in the doorway with his arms crossed as he leaned against the door frame. "Yeah, Arcelia's changing." He said. "I can wait outside if you wa-"

"I don't care where you go, just leave this door open."

"O, leave him alone. He knows the rules already."  Arcelia bumped Oscar's thigh with her hip and walked pass him with the dress Ruby picked.  "Oh, can you get that shoe box?"  She pointed up to her top shelf, knowing damn well neither her or Ruby would be able to get it.

"How did you even get it that high?"

"I threw it."

× × ×

Arcelia and Ruby walked into the school gym hand-in-hand and the music was already blasting with a crowd of people clumped together near the DJ's table. 

Jasmine approached the couple as happy as she always does.  "Oh, you guys look so good!"  She complemented, looking at how Ruby's bow tie matched Arcelia's dress.  "I brought your shirt that matches my dress for the contest."

"You have it where?"

"Hanging in an empty classroom."

Arcelia was going to ask Jasmine how she opened a classroom, then decided to leave it alone.  Jasmine ended up seeing some other friends and ran off, leaving Ruby and Arcelia alone in the crowd.  After some walking around, they found Cesar and Monse dancing. 

"I'm getting punch before someone spikes it!"

"It's already spiked!"

"I said I'm getting punch!"  Arcelia yelled, still walking awsy from her group of friends and going to the table with all of the drinks.

The dance quickly became full and lively, so much that when Arcelia was walking back with her punch, someone bumped into her and spilled the whole cup on her dress.  "Seriously?!"

"Watch where you're goin- oh, sorry Arcelia."  The girl stuttered, quickly wishing she could take her words back.  "Please don't tell Spooky."

"You would like that, wouldn't you?"  Rather than waiting for an answer, Arcelia stormed away and went to the bathroom to clean herself up before the punch dried and more of her dress got ruined.

The bathroom was surprisingly not packed so it was pretty easy for Arcelia to get to a sink without having to move people and their makeup.  With the help of water and some paper towels, Areclia was slowly getting the punch out of her dress and off of her chest.  When she did, it just looked like her dress was wet, so she went to go stand by the hand dryer.

For no reason, drying the water off took longer than it needed to, but by the time her dress looked normal, the dance competition had already started, so she ran over to get a good view.  Unbeknownst to Arcelia, she missed the whole ordeal where the football coach was finding his phone.  Now, she was just watching the 2nd to last dance and cheering when everyone else did while she waited to see Jasmine and Ruby's dance.

The music died down along with the cheers so the DJ announced the next contestants.  "Okay, now, everyone give it up for The Great Jasby!"  Everyone cheered, Arcelia especially loud, and waited as Jasmine and Ruby got onto the stage where the DJ had his table on.  Once it looked like they were in their positions, "Look At That Butt" blasted through the speakers and it was like Ruby and Jasmine became entirely different people. 

Arcelia stood in the front beside Jamal and loudly cheered for her boyfriend and one of her best friends as they did their thing down the walkway everyone had made solely for the contest. 

The dance lasted about a minute and was hands down the most choreographed and put together dance in the whole competition.  It ended with Ruby squatting down as Jasmine's hand held the top of his head and everyone cheered for them.

Arcelia could hear Jasmine yell over the crowd, "We did it!"  She continued clapping and cheering with everone as she waited for the DJ to decide on the winner, but it all died down when Ruby grabbed Jasmine's face and pulled her into a kiss. 

The whole gym became quiet, and a lot of people turned to look at Arcelia who now had a blank face.  Just when she thought it couldn't get any worse, Jasmine grabbed Ruby and pull him into a second, deeper kiss.  Not even waiting for them to pull apart, Arcelia pushed her way pass people and ran out.  For wearing heels and a semi-tight dress, she moved fast because by the time Cesar got into the hallway, his little sister was no where to be found.

Everyone else in the gym watched Ruby and Jasmine pull apart and as the DJ announced the winners, no one made a sound, which confused the DJ.  Jamal and Monse just stared at Ruby and Jasmine, who were still smiling, before shaking their heads and walking out to find Cesar and Arcelia.

"What's wrong?"