Perfectly Wrong

25. She Needs Me

A few hours later, Maisie’s car pulls up to Camila’s house and she takes a deep breath before stepping out and saying goodbye to her friends. 

 “ Camila, call me later.” Maisie says. “ I want to know everything. Good luck.”

 “ Thanks. I will.” Camila says, walking to the front door and just standing there for a few minutes, preparing herself for the fight that’s about to happen.

 When Camila walks inside, her mother is lying on the couch and she immediately jumps up when she hears the door. She expects her mother to start yelling at her, but instead, she runs and wraps her arms around Camila.

 “ Camila, I’m so sorry. I should have told you.” Sinu says, crying while holding Camila. “ I’m so sorry.”

 Camila frees herself from her mother and walks to the couch, sitting down while looking at all the tissue papers over the table. There’s no doubt Sinu has been crying a lot.

 “ Dad and I were going to tell you before he-”

 “ Dad? You were seeing him before dad even died?” Camila says, standing up. “ Mom, how long has this been going on?”

 Camila is waiting for her mother to defend herself, but Sinu is just staring at her.

 “ Seeing who?” Her mother asks, clearly confused. “ What do you think is going on?”

 “ I don’t know who. Whoever wrote you that poem in your nightstand. Whoever you’ve been going to see every time you run errands. Whoever you’ve been saying ‘I love you’ to on the phone. I don’t know who and I really don’t care who.”

 Her mother walks to her and places her hands on Camila’s shoulders.

 “ Camila, I’m not seeing anyone.” Sinu says. “ You’ve misunderstood everything. All of it.”

 Camila can see in her eyes and hear in her voice that she’s telling the truth, but she still needs some answers.

 “ What about the note? And those papers from the bank? We’re not broken, Mom. And you never even sold the house. You lied to us to drag us up here. If it was not for some guy, then why? Why are we here?”

 “ Oh god, Camila. I thought you knew.” Sinu says, sitting back down on the couch. “ I thought you figured it out.”

 “ Apparently not.” Camila says, feeling frustrated for not knowing what could be so important that she had to drag them away from their lives. “ So tell me.”

 “ Sit down, please.” Her mother says.

 Camila sits down on the couch again and waits for her mother to explain everything.

 “ The note is just something your dad wrote one night and left under my pillow, so I kept it.” Sinu says. “ I loved your dad, Camila. I miss him so much. I would never do anything like that to him. There’s no one else.”

 “ Then why did we move here, Mom?” Camila asks. “ Why did you make us move here?”

 Sinu takes a deep breath and grabs Camila’s hands in hers, the look on her face making Camila’s heart sink. It’s the same look she had when she told Camila the news about her father's death.

 “ Camila, I have cancer.”

 Suddenly, Camila feels like she can’t breath.

 “ Your father and I were going to tell you. After he died, you two were so devastated, so I couldn’t bring myself to tell you. When I started getting worse, I wanted to move back here. Amelia begged me to, she said she would help take care of me. She’s the one I’ve been talking to on the phone. There’s a doctor an hour away from here that specializes in lung cancer. There’s where I’ve been going.”

 Lung cancer. The name makes it all very real in Camila’s mind.

 “ I was going to tell you and Sofia tomorrow.” Sinu says, squeezing Camila’s hand. “ It’s time you two know, so we can all prepare.”

 “ Prepare… for what, Mom?” She feels her mother wrap her arms around her and start crying, but she pushes her back. “ Prepare for what, Mom?”

 Sinu can’t look her in the eyes and that’s enough for Camila to know the answer. She doesn’t remember walking out of the house or crossing the street. The only thing she knows it’s that it’s midnight and she’s knocking on Shawn’s door.

 He opens the door and wraps his arms around her without asking any questions, her face is enough to tell him she needs him.

 “ Camila, what’s wrong?” Shawn asks as he pulls her inside and closes the door behind them.

 Camila can’t answer him, she can’t even breathe properly. Shawn just holds her tighter as she starts crying and collapsing to the floor. She has her head under his chin as he melts to the floor with her and rubs her hair, letting her cry in his arms.

 “ Tell me what happened.” Shawn whispers after a while.

 Camila hesitates. She doesn’t want to say it out loud because it’ll mean it’s real.

 “ She’s dying, Shawn.” Camila says between sobs. “ She has cancer.”

 Shawn squeezes her tighter before picking her up and carrying her to his bedroom. He lays her on the bed and pulls the covers over her, kissing her forehead as they hear the doorbell ring. Shawn leaves the room and Camila can hear him speaking in a low voice, but she can only understand one thing he says.

 “ Let her stay, Sinu. She needs me right now.”

 A few more words are spoken, but Camila can’t understand them. She hears him closing the door and walking back to his bedroom, then feels him laying down next to her and holding her while she cries.