OH BABY! (Mario Martinez - On My Block)

Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE:

it's such a good vibration, it's such a sweet sensation
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"SO ARE YOU EVER going to tell me about the boy you went home with last night?" Amber questioned her roommate. It was a few hours, and thankfully the blonde girl was feeling a lot better. She sat up in her bed eating the cold pancakes Maria had ended up buying her.

"What are you ever talking about?" Maria replied sarcastically not looking up from her laptop. She had about another forty minutes until she had to sprint all the way across campus for her public speaking class. She stared at the bright screen going over her new paper, mouthing along from the words along it—hoping that she'll score higher on this presentation.

"If it wasn't for your wonderful walk of shame and obvious hickeys," Maria's hand instantly shot to her neck. She didn't think they were too noticeable when she got out of the shower, but she also assumed that even when Amber was exhausted and hungover, nothing could get past her. "It would be because when you left for your shower, your boy toy came over and dropped off your parents." The young adult pointed across the room to where Maria's jeans from the night before were hung.

"Oops, you caught me." Maria jokes, getting up from her spot and grabbing the pants off her roommate's closet door. Did he wash her pants? She noticed that the stain in them were gone. She smiled taking them off the hanger before folding and putting them away.

"I've never seen you smile that hard for a pair of jeans." Amber teased crawling along her bed to drop the, now, empty tupperware on cluttered desk. Maria rolled her eyes ignoring Amber's teasing. "He was cute, I have to admit. Do you mind sharing him?" The hard glare Maria gave her roommate only furthered proved that she may have had a small, teeny-tiny crush on Mario.

To be fair she didn't know much about him. Other than the fact that he was from Freeridge, had a few siblings, a shitty ex-girlfriend, and liked 80's music. It was hard to really judge a person based on such mundane and minimal things.

"I don't have time for this." Maria muttered closing her laptop and putting it away in her bag. She'll just go over her speech before classes start. Ignoring her roommates complaints to "lighten-up", she quickly slipped on a pair dark converse and left the dorm room.

HER SPEECH DIDN'T seem like it went that bad, but her low score said otherwise. Some constructive comments given back were "don't be so condescending", "stop raising your voice", "don't stare so intensely"—was her persona that intimidating? To be fair, her speech was on the necessities of vaccinations and seeing how even the professor didn't believe in them, she couldn't hold back her spite.

It was late now, and she wasn't exactly sure if the dining hall would still be open for dinner. Maria found it ridiculous that it closed before 8:30 every night, when the last class ended at 9. Her stomach growled as she saw that her theory was proven correct: it was closed. She groaned in frustration. All she wanted was a good-ass grilled cheese and some battery tasing Sprite.

Maria knew she didn't have enough money to order out for dinner again, and she definitely didn't have any leftover ramen back at her dorm. She quickly walked to an open couch in common room, and sat in defeat. She was positive she didn't have enough change to get a snack from the nearby vending machines either.

"What are you doing Maria?" A voice called from in front of her. Unbothered, Maria met face to face with the one guy clogging her mind: Mario. He flashed her a crooked smile before joining her on the sofa.

"Trying to figure out how I'm going to afford dinner." Maria sighed leaning further back into the couch. Mario chuckled staring at her. She looked quite amusing sitting like that with her backpack on. He was in a similar predicament, seeing how he brought them breakfast in the morning.

He wouldn't get paid for another week, and his family wouldn't send up money until the end of the month. Suddenly, Mario got an idea. He jumped up and extended a hand to his new friend.

"Come on, I have a panini maker back in my room." He offered to her. "It's nothing special but I can make a mean grilled cheese with it."

It was like he read her mind.

She smiled warmly, taking his hand and allowing him to lead. They arrived at his dorm a few minutes later, unfortunately he had to go steal some slices of bread from the people down the hall (thankfully they didn't mind). Maria sat on the floor besides him as he worked on roasting a sandwich. The two chatted about their evenings, Maria going into detail about how annoyed she was at her grade.

"Have you thought about writing on something that isn't persuasive?" He suggested, now playing the first sandwich. "I think I have that class too on Monday's, and so far I've only read pre-existing work or I write lame stories." Mario shrugged. Granted his own work wasn't as creative as he hoped it would be, it still got him the grade he wanted.

"I never thought about that." Maria said passing him a second slice of American cheese. "Just if I'm talking I want what I'm saying to really resonate with someone. I want to be relatable and passionate—"

"And you can do that without being scary." Mario cut her off.

"I'm not scary!" She proclaimed scowling it him. Mario gave her a knowing look, as beautiful and kind as he knew Maria was—she was pretty scary and cold. Maria sighed in defeat, realizing that he was right. "Let's not keep going about my day, how was yours?"

Mario shrugged, his day was pretty uneventful so to speak. Like most usual weekends he did laundry, napped, and worked on homework. He had a couple of friends on his floor, and sometimes they would go out during the night—but he was busy today.

"Pretty boring." Mario stated plating a second grilled cheese. Unsure of how many Maria would want, he figured making a couple more wouldn't be too bad.

"THIS MIGHT BE THE greatest grilled cheese I've ever had." Maria moaned gleefully taking a second bite of her sandwich. "Either that or I'm way to hungry." Mario rolled his eyes at her teasing as he poured out some hot sauce on his plate.

Grilled cheese and buffalo hot sauce was literally the best combination.

"Want some?" He held out the almost empty bottle towards her. Maria gave him an incredulously stare, repulsed by his action in destroying his grilled cheese.

"You're a monster." Mario rolled his eyes ignoring her insults as he, too, began to eat. After a few bites, Mario grabbed his phone off the charger besides him and quickly logged into Snapchat. "This time get my good side." Maria teased noticing him trying to subtly take a picture of their dinner. Maria picked up her sandwich and held it near her face and held out a peace sign. The two laughed as they went through a couple photos and videos (all which Mario was going post).

The two continued having eating, with some mild banter every few minutes. Maria finished her share first, and she laid back—feeling stuffed. Mario chuckled as she sighed happily and patted her stomach.

"I'm telling you, become a chef." He moved over to lay besides her.

"And I'm telling you, I literally burn water 90% of the time. You just got lucky." Mario propped himself up and leaned closer to Maria, he reached out and brushed a strand of her back behind her ear.

Maria felt her heart skip a beat as she locked eyes with him. His usual warm, inviting eyes were dark and cloudy. She shivered feeling his warm hand trail down her jaw and neck. It was obvious where they both wanted their night to go, so why keep dancing around it.

Maria leaned up, closing her eyes tightly and met his lips halfway.