You are a madrigal

Part 3

Dolores and Isa are 16, Luisa is 13, Mirabel and Camilo are 9. the adults are 44, and Abuela is 69

~

About 3 years had passed and more of the same had been happening.

The adults were kept busy away from their own minds. Luisa's workload started piling up, Abuela had Isabela following her every move, and Mirabel being out of sight. Occasionally she would be with Camilo playing around in the house or in town.

Dolores met with Alejandro almost every other day and listened to him play, and when she didn't, she would be able to hear him when she's outside her room.

After that night she decided to subtly watch over her mama for any change at all. 3 months had passed before she noticed she heard something that she hadn't heard since before Mirabel was born. A heart beat, a small one at that. It had caused her eyes to widen as she stared at her mother.

It actually happened. She was expecting another child. Pepa had felt her daughter's eyes on her and gave her a weird look. "Lola, que pasa, mi amor? is everything okay?" Her eyes shot straight up to meet her mothers and she shook her head before getting her act together.

"Everything is fine, mama, I was just lost in thought, that's all." Pepa gave her a nod before walking off to the living room leaving Dolores to stand there and contemplate what this meant.

As time went on she slowly got used to hearing the beating and became fond of it. That was until 2 months later. She was coming back home from one of her regular trips to the river when she noticed thunderclouds forming everywhere. Something told her that she needed to hurry home because something was wrong.

When Dolores finally arrived back at Casita, it started raining Hard. She looked around for anything out of place and noticed her mother was nowhere to be found. It didn't do anything to calm her nerves and then she heard it or more so what she didn't.

Dolores couldn't hear the beating anymore and then a sob broke out. A sound so broken and in pain that it was clear what happened. She gasped at the realization with tears in her eyes before she ran up the stairs and into her room too emotional to be around the others.

Days faded into weeks and weeks into months before the clouds were finally gone. Every time she saw her mother she had red eyes and a smaller thundercloud would appear occasionally, to which if abuela was around she would tell her daughter to fix her mood.

Felix stayed around Pepa almost every hour of every day to keep her calm and Dolores' heart would pull in her chest so much that it hurt. She wanted to do something to help but didn't know what.

As the years went by it became less painful and Pepa's cloud rarely came. Dolores would occasionally hear Abuela try to tell her mama to try again but Pepa would refuse. On those days the cloud would come back if only for a little while. Dolores spent more time at the river with Alex on those days. He became a person she trusted and cared for deeply. She never told him what exactly was going on but he would let her relax next to him as he played songs on his guitar to calm her down.

Just as she was doing now. Dolores laid on her back with her eyes closed as she listened to the way he played his music.

This was her safe haven, where everything that was bad in her life couldn't hurt her. She turned her head to where she knew Alex was sitting and looked at him making her heart beat just a little faster.

Over the years the feeling of friendship that she had for him grew into something more complicated. She blushed when his eyes met hers and he smiled. "You're doing it again, muneca."

She looked away as she smiled back at him. "I don't know what you are talking about." he stopped playing and moved his guitar to the side before climbing over her to see her face and smiled. "No?" she shook her head before laughing as he started to tickle her.

"Alex no!" he laughed in return as he continued tickling her wait making her squirm. "Alex, yes. Admit it, you were staring." He tickled even harder causing her to squeal and give in. "I- Okay! Okay, I admit it, I was staring, Alex please!" he let go with a triumphant huff before laying on the other side.

"See, isn't it better to admit when I'm right?" Just then his face was met with her hand and pushed back. "No, because you rarely are." he pouted as he grabbed her hand and placed it on his chest. "Why must you wound me so, princesa."

She rolled her eyes at him "Eres tan dramatico." When she didn't get a response she turned to see him staring, "What?" He gave her a sad smile. "I need to tell you something." She hummed and laid the back of her hand on his face. "What is it?" He grabbed at her hand and kissed it as he stared at her eyes. "You want the good news or bad news first?"

At that she sat up to look at him a little alarmed. "Bad.." The dark haired teen sat and placed his hands on his knees. "Papa got some news about a job opportunity that pays pretty well. If everything goes as he plans I will be leaving in 5 months." her eyes widened at the news. He would be leaving Encanto. Leaving his home, Leaving her. She put up a strong face and stared at the grass underneath her. "Oh...well that's something."

He nudged her shoulder with his to make her look at him. "Wanna hear the good news?" he moved his hand so that he held her head up by her chin as she nodded. " Te quiero, Dolores. I have for a while, and maybe if you are willing, we can make the next 5 months the best of our lives..."

She sat there in shock before a smile was brought to her face. " Yo también te quiero, Alejandro. I would love to try." he smiled back at her before he wrapped his arm around her and lightly pushed her over with a laugh before kissing her lips.

When she got home Pepa noticed how much of a good mood she was in, and gave her a light smile as she passed her by.

Dolores would continue that way for the next 5 months.