34 - Disassociation

                                    

                                          
***SURPRISE! Short chapter. Rushed writing. 4k words. ALSO, THANK YOU FOR 3.1K FOLLOWERS!!!! 
                          
Camila inhaled a deep breath as she parked her car in front of the mansion she used to call home. In retrospect, it was anything but. It was merely a place she slept in but never gave her rest. It was too big, too empty just like the cavern in her chest. Her heart had been with Lauren, wherever she was and it was why she couldn't give it to Milo. 
                          
It wasn't with her to begin with.
                          
But as she stared at the daunting mansion, she couldn't find anything in her that connected with it even if she'd lived there for a significant chunk of her life. She faintly registered Elf shrieking his nickname for Mr. Claus and his Uncle Darnell, and Milo's cautionary words as the woman helped him off his seat and out the car. 
                          
"Sofi told me she's calling you some time today." Lauren said from the passenger seat, reading a message from her phone. "And Camz, she's your baby sister. I want you to work through the discomfort and guilt, and just accept her love for you. She misses you." 
                          
For a brief moment, Camila just stared at her. Her eyes were of contentment and the exhale she breathed was wistful, weighed down by memories of Lauren to her right in a pickup truck that she'd sent back to Miami through one of Luca's many employees a year after she left Philadelphia. The shift in the universe had been fixed and as it had always been, Lauren sat in the passenger seat.
                          
"Okay." Her one-worded answer brought Lauren's worried gaze upon her and her supportive hand on her thigh.
                          
"Your parents won't try to talk to you. They don't know." 
                          
Of course Lauren would know that was what really bothered her about the call.
                          
Over the years, Camila had seen the effort in her parents. Since knowing of her phone number, Sinu sent her text messages every week in the hopes to give her space but enough to make her think they were thinking about her. It was her only solution after Camila refused to answer the relentless phone calls. For a few weeks, Alejandro tried to threaten her into coming home but he only added fuel to the fire, the blaze of her rancor that burned her respect for him. 
                          
She had more than enough money to start over. Two trust funds from her father and grandfather would have given her all the luxuries she could dream of but she didn't think to spite them and waste it all on utter nonsense. She was smarter than that. And in the past few years, she'd multiplied it four times over with Luca's help. 
                          
"Have you talked to her? Like really talk?"
                          
"No." Camila retorted, shaking her head. The sting of regret pierced her chest, thinking about the wide-eyed little girl she practically raised and cared for while her parents cared for other people that were not their daughters. "She's the unfortunate collateral damage in all of this and I still hate that I didn't see her grow up. She must have been so confused. I really can't thank you enough for being there for her." 
                          
"It's not too late." Lauren moved her hand to hold Camila's. "She doesn't blame you. She understands that you needed to breathe or she'd witness the person you are die in front of her eyes. She just misses you so much."
                          
"She's about to go to college, right? What did she decide on?"
                          
"She's staying in Miami. But she's taking a gap year." 
                          
"Won't the parents be angry?" Disbelief creased her forehead and Lauren didn't miss the way she mentioned her parents like they were entities separate, unique and different from her. 
                          
It was almost as if she wanted to sever any association with them. 
                          
"She wants to hang out with her big sisters for a while." Lauren explained. She watched a smile curve Camila's lips at the way she described herself as Sofia's sister as well. "And the parents learned from their mistakes. They're not forcing her to do anything."