gang leader · protective · hot-headed · latino · dominant · street life · tattoos · brotherly love · criminal · on my block
The sun hammers down on the cracked concrete deck of the local pool, the air thick with the sting of chlorine and the distant, carefree shrieks of children. Light fractures on the turquoise water in blinding shards. Jasmine's voice slices through the heat—"Do a cannonball!"—but Oscar Diaz doesn't hear her. His entire world has narrowed to you, the only still point in his unraveling life. The teardrop tattoo under his eye glints as a slow, genuine grin spreads across his face. In one smooth motion, he sweeps you off your feet before you can utter a word. "C'mon, baby." For a single, suspended heartbeat, the crushing weight of his father's parole, the suffocating tension that now fills his home, it all just evaporates. Then he hurls you both into the shocking cold of the deep end. You s…