Perfectly Wrong

13. Snowman

“ Camila, do we have any packets of Kool-Aid?” Sofia asks, standing in the entryway covered in snow.

 Camila eyes her sister for a second before walking to the kitchen and grabbing a grape Kool-Aid package out of the cabinet and handing it to her. It’s definitely not the oddest thing her little sister has ever asked her for.

 “ Not purple, we need red.” Sofia says, making Camila return to the kitchen and grab the red one instead.

 “ Thanks.” Her sister says, running outside before Camila closes the door. Sofia and Aaliyah have been outside in the snow for two hours and it wasn’t even nine in the morning.

 Camila takes a seat at the bar to finish her coffee, staring at the bag of junk food she got the day before, no longer feeling excited about eating any of it. Her mother got home seven-thirty after her shift at the hospital, going straight to bed, and Camila knows she’ll only wake up around two. She’s still a little upset with her mother, so that leaves around five hours before she locks herself in her bedroom again.

 Grabbing her bag of junk food, Camila walks to the couch and starts eating some of the chocolate she bought while deciding on a movie on Netflix. She ends up choosing ‘La La Land’ for the hundredth time, keeping her word of spending her weeked with Ryan Gosling. Halfway through the movie, Sofia enters the house still covered in snow and starts pulling her older sister outside.

 “ Sofia, stop.” Camila says. “ I’m not going outside.”

 “ Please? Just for a minute.” Sofia asks again. “ You have to see the snowman we made.”

 “ Fine, but let me get some shoes on at least.” She sighs.

 Camila puts her shoes on and lets Sofia drag her outside as she shields her eyes because of the sun's reflection on the snow.

 “ It’s right over here.” Camila hears Aaliyah’s voice, but she’s not speaking to her. She lifts her head to see Shawn’s younger sister dragging her brother to where Sofia is also pulling her towards. They are both led close to her Jeep, where their sisters position them side by side.

 Camila immediately knows why Sofia asked her for red Kool-Aid, because lying flat beneath her Jeep is a dead snowman. His eyes are small pieces of twig, shaped propersefully to give him a dreadful expression. His arms are two thin branches lying next to him, one of them broken in half under the tire. On his head and neck there’s a trail of red Kool-Aid that leads to a pool of bright red snow close to the snowman.

 “ He was in a terrible accident.” Sofia says in a serious tone of voice before she and Aliyah start giggling.

 Shawn and Camila look at each other and for the first time in a week he smiles at her.

 “ Wow.” He says. “ I need to take a picture of this.”

 “ Me too.” Camila says, walking back inside and returning with her phone, watching as the two girls admire the murder scene before taking a few pictures.

 “ Sofia, let’s kill a snowman with Shawn’s car now.” Aaliyah says before they run across the street.

 Shawn and Camila keep staring at the snowman in a moment of tension before he finally looks at their sisters in his driveway.

 “ They’re lucky to have each other.” Shawn says quietly.

 Camila can’t help overanalyzing the sentence, trying to figure out if it has a deeper meaning or if he’s just simply making an observation.

 “ Yeah, they are.” She agrees.

 The two of them stand there in silence for a while, watching their little sisters build a new snowman.

 “ Well, I better get back inside.” Shawn says, turning away.

 “ Shawn, wait.” Camila says, making him turn back around with his hands in his pockets. “ I’m sorry about yesterday. About my mom.”

 Camila stares at the ground between them, not being able to look him in the eyes.

 “ It’s fine, Camila.” He says, kicking some of the blood-covered snow without looking at her either. “ She’s just doing her job as a mom, you know. Don’t be so mad at her. You’re lucky to have her.”

 Shawn walks back to his house, leaving Camila there feeling guilty. Shawn and Aaliyah only have each other and there she is complaining about her mother. She feels ashamed for bringing it up, but also for being mad at her mother in the first place. Shawn was right, she was only doing her job and that wouldn’t have happened if Camila had told her sooner.

••••

 Camila hears the shower running in the bathroom after she eats her lunch, letting her know her mother is finally up. She heats up some left-overs and makes a glass of tea, placing them at her mother’s usual seat at the bar while waiting for her. Sinu finally walks from the hallway into the living room, smiling when she reaches the kitchen and sees the food.

 “ Is this a peace offering or did you poison my food?” Her mother asks, taking a seat.

 “ I guess you’ll have to eat it first to find out.” Camila says.

 Sinu eyes her daughter cautiously, taking a bite from her food and waiting for something to happen.

 “ I’m sorry, Mom.” Camila breaks the silence. “ I should have told you about it sooner. I was just really upset.”

 Camila turns around and walks to the sink, busying her hands with the dirty dishes to avoid the look of pity in her mother’s eyes.

 “ Camila, I know how much you like him. I do.” Sinu says. “ I like him too, but like I said yesterday, this can’t happen. You have to promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”

 “ I swear, Mom.” Camila says. “ He’s made it clear he wants nothing to do with me. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

 “ I hope not.” Her mother says, continuing to eat while Camila finishes the dishes. She eventually walks back to the couch to decide on another movie to watch.