Camilo's Journey

Chapter 19:

The next few days were full of flowers, curtesy of Isabella. As well as a lot of tears and hugs and preparation for Abuela's funeral.

A day before the funeral, completely numb and tired Camilo was basically ordered out to the caterer's shop to pick up food. And of course Spencer insisted on coming despite his sleepy state, having been roped in to writing out the funeral announcements all night by Isabella and Mirabel because Spencer's handwriting was "cutesy".

Camilo had started telling his cousins off but Spencer insisted he would do anything to help out and that none of them should be handling the stress. His cousins ended up leaving Spencer to do it himself, then he had to finish telling them off.

He had stormed into Isabella's room where he knew they both were.
"Stop using Spencer, you know he's a healer so of course he's going to offer to do everything he can to help, he won't think about how it will affect him. So please don't use him." Camilo was surprised how emotional he'd gotten, but he guessed he shouldn't have been.

"Camilo, relax. He's not a child, he knows his limits. Admire the protectiveness but chill." Isabella said with her usual sass that Camilo was just not having today. He felt his lip curl and he was about to do some yelling when Mirabel stood between them.

"What Isa really means to say," Mirabel glares at her sister who flips her hair and rolls her eyes. "Is that we would never intentionally use him 'milo, and we're sorry if we did. We get how much he means to you okay, and we won't take him up on all of his offers."

Thank goodness for Mirabel. Camilo would have had some words with Isabella if she weren't here. What was usually playful banter between them had turned sour, they were all in terrible places, he guessed that was expected.

Mirabel pulled him aside. Her hand on his shoulder.
"None of us would let anything happen to him Camilo. At the end of the day we are all looking out for him, so try not to worry too much."
She said and gave his shoulder a squeeze.
He'd thanked Mirabel and then his mama sent him on the catering pick up job.

But that explains Camilo's view of a yawning Spencer who can barely keep his eyes open right now and he's not happy about it.

"Coffee!" He exclaimed making Spencer jolt then smile.
"That sounds wonderful."
Spencer tried to take his hand but Camilo was wary of Delores' warning about the people in town and just brushed his fingers across Spencer's and put his hands in his pockets.
He saw Spencer deflate a little and put his own hands behind him.
Camilo shook off how bad the whole thing made him feel. He couldn't hold the hand of the boy he loved.. in his home town. It was so unfair but he didn't want anyone to hurt them, especially not Spencer.

He bought coffee for himself and Spencer and they walked on towards the caterer's.
By then the hand holding issue was still clawing at Camilo so he reached out took Spencer's hand. Spencer have him a tired smile and dropped his head onto Camilo's shoulder.
"Not worried anymore?" Spencer asked.
"No, anyone who has a problem can shove it." Camilo said confidently. The stares and whispers started pretty much immediately, Camilo wasn't surprised, he was Madrigal. Anything they did was the talk of the town.

Spencer on the other hand tried to drop his hand.
"Only do that if you want to, don't let them get to you Spence." Camilo whispered to him. Spencer clung tighter to Camilo's hand. Even if he was doing what he did when he was nervous, which was staying close to Camilo's side, Camilo was proud of him.

"I love you." Camilo whispered.
"I love you too." Spencer whispered back.

They had to cross through an ally way to get to the caterer's and it was away from watching eyes, so Camilo took the chance to kiss Spencer. He'd been wanting to all morning and finally they had a moment to themselves or so they thought.
Poor Spencer in his tired state stumbled a bit after their kiss and bumped straight into someone behind him.
"S-sorry." He spluttered.
"S-s sorry." The person mocked him. Spencer shrunk into himself.