Woman - Chapter Six

                                    

                                          
Cesar shut the door, smacking his hand against his face, embarrassed. "I'm so sorry! I should've knocked!"
"It's fine!" Nani shouted from the other side of the door. "Don't worry about it." 
Cesar took a step back, walking away and back into the living room where everybody was sitting. He stood in front of them, scratching the side of his neck awkwardly. Everybody looked up at him, puzzled. "Why is Nani here? And why didn't anyone tell me she was in the bathroom?" His cheeks were red, he had seen everything that his brother had claimed as his. 
Ruby stood up. "Did you walk in on her? She was showering dude." 
"Yes! I did. I didn't mean to, I didn't know she was in there." He sighed, falling back into the couch, covering his face with his hands. "Why is she showering here?" 
"I thought you knew, given you're Oscar's brother." Ruby laughed, nudging Jamal who kept a straight face at the mention of Oscar's name. "She's living here, with us." He smirked. "With Ruben." 
Cesar raised his eyebrows, completely caught off guard. "What?"
"Wait." Monse inputted. "You didn't know?" 
"No." He shook his head. "Neither does Oscar. How long has she been here?"
Ruby shrugged. "Like a week, maybe. Oh and, just wondering, asking for a friend..." Cesar furrowed his eyebrows, looking over at him, he had a weird smile on his face. "Are her and Oscar still a thing? Like I hear her crying sometimes and she never really leaves the house, so like, do they even see each other?" 
Cesar was taken back. "No, they broke up. Like officially, she yelled they were done in the middle of the street. I mean, technically they only had one date and my brother was scared of his feelings so he stopped texting her back–" He cleared his throat, he had said too much. "You guys didn't know?" 
"Apparently nobody in here knows anything." Jamal fell back onto the sofa, he didn't want to listen in on the conversation anymore, just incase there were secrets involved, he wasn't too good at keeping those. 
"What?" Mario's jaw dropped as he popped his head out of his bedroom.
"You gotta stop eavesdropping." Ruby shook his head at him. "It's starting to get weird." 
Mario ignored his little brother, walking into the living room. "They broke up?" 
Cesar nodded. "Yeah like a week ago, haven't seen much of Oscar these past days either, he's never home."
Monse crossed her arms. "So then where is he going?"
"No idea." Cesar shrugged. "I've just been holding down the fort, I honest to god thought he was going to see Nani at her primos place." He bit his thumb nail, another question occurring. "Why is she staying here?"
Ruby shook his head, shrugging a shoulder. "Not sure, she hasn't left. She gave my mom a brief story about how she got into it with Josh and that she didn't want to work with him anymore, so as soon as she could she was leaving Freeridge, going back to Texas or Nebraska or something."
As if on cue, Nani walked out of the bathroom, her hair in wet strings sticking to her face. "Hey." She nodded at the group of teens.
"Hey," Cesar said, shifting awkwardly. "You have clothes on now." 
She furrowed her eyebrows at him, laughing softly. "Yeah." She shook her head, continuing in a soft giggle. "So.. do you guys do drugs or why are we all so confused?"
Mario rubbed Cesar's back. "She has that effect on a lot of people bro, don't sweat it." 
Cesar sighed, contemplating his entire life. "I really didn't mean to walk in, Nani. I didn't see anything, I swear." 
"Cesar it's fine." She chuckled. "Don't worry." She grabbed an apple from the fruit basket on the coffee table and walked back into the bedroom without another word.
Later 
Cesar walked into his house, Oscar was on the couch, a forty ounce in his hand. He was staring at the tv, blankly. Cesar could tell he was high from where he was standing. He shut the door behind him, catching Oscar's attention.
"What's up mano?" He nodded at him as a greeting, taking the bottle to his lips. 
"Hey." He swallowed, nervously. "Can I ask you something?" Oscar looked back at the tv, saying nothing. It didn't mean yes, but he didn't say no. "Did you know Nani was staying at the Martinez house?" 
Oscar looked up at him, completely confused as his face contorted. "What?" 
"I ran into her when I went to hang with Ruby, the crew told me she'd been staying there for a while now. I told them that we had no idea."
Oscar stood up slowly, setting his beer down onto the coffee table. "Why is she there?" 
"Ruby said something about her getting in a fight with Josh. She quit her job and she's gonna leave Freeridge." Cesar said. "Are you guys still a thing?" Oscar gave no answer, ignoring his question to pull out his phone and dial Nani's number. 
Meanwhile, at the Martinez house, Nani noticed her phone vibrating on the dresser so she walked towards it, picking it up. Just by glancing at the contact picture, she knew she wasn't answering. 
"Did she have her phone?" Oscar looked at Cesar, his eyes filled with anger. 
Cesar shrugged a shoulder, genuinely clueless. "I'm not sure, hermano." 
"She's not answering her phone." He threw his phone to the side, with an angry sigh.
"Maybe she's not answering because she's mad." 
Oscar rolled his eyes, growing impatient. "You think?" 
Cesar pursed his lips at his brother's tone. "I'm just trynna help, you don't gotta take my word for it, but I think this is something you gotta do in person. That way she listens to you whether she wants to or not." 
Oscar thought about what he said, he didn't want to go though. He didn't want to kiss her ass. Even if he was into this girl. The three weeks he spent dealing with her were far from what he was use to, and he was okay with that. But beg for her to come back? Not happening. 
Or, at least that's what he thought.