Sunflower | C.M

VI

Few days have passed since the rebuilding of the La Casa Madrigal, since the argument, and since Francesca last set foot off the house.

Camilo's words about her being stubborn and egoistic stuck on her mind for so long that she forgot to water the flowers. Now she's in her garden, sitting on the ground, looking at her dear flowers still in the process of growing. The sunflowers still stood amongst them,glowing and blooming.

Her family bombarded her with questions, but Francesca ignored them. Later, they noticed her behavior: talking little, eating little, slept late in the night but woke up first, and sitting on the flat ground facing her garden. That's where they knew that something bad happened to her, similar to the event where her ex-friend insulted her flowers.

As much as Karlos and Juana wanted to stay and comforted her, they have work to do. They bid her a goodbye after breakfast, which Francesca didn't say it back, and left her with her favorite foods on the table.

"Yow, you.... uh okay?" Pablo asked as he sat beside her hermana. Francesca was shocked to see him, but she kept her posture down. "Pablo? I thought you're going with abuela?" "It's not on my schedule today. More time to sleep."

He lied.  He didn't want his hermana to be alone by herself.

Whenever Francesca's sad, Pablo's heart crushed, but he didn't show it unlike their papa and abuela. Pablo might joke and tease her, but he cared for her.

"Did something bad happened?" Of course something bad happened, duh!, Pablo thought. Even he thought to himself that he's dumb enough to comfort someone, like asking an obvious question, he'll give his all to make his hermana happy and that's what matter the most.

"Y-yeah, actually." Francesca's voice cracked, but cleared her throat right after.

Silence fell the two. Both the Castro siblings' wavy hair and the sunflowers danced as the windy breeze flew, as well as Pablo's thoughts in his mind. Is my hermana's situation as same as with her ex-friend? Who would've do such a thing?

"I know what you're thinking, Pablo, and no, the situation is not as same as with her." Francesca nudged Pablo's side. "Today's..... a little bit different." Her voice cracked again. Pablo stared at her with sad eyes. "If you're comfortable, you can talk about it. You can't force yourself to talk about it if you're not. "

Francesca avoided his gaze and focused on the sunflowers, while huffing a sigh. She debated herself whether she would tell him or not. Just a sight with her familia getting worried for her made her sick in the stomach.

Memories started to flood through her mind, and one of them is Little Francesca telling about what happened with her and her little ex-friend 3 days after the incident happened. Her familia was so worried, including her late mother, and right on the spot, little Francesca muttered sorry and cried. She hated seeing them with their worried expressions.

"I had an argument with Camilo."

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Righ after Francesca explained about what happened, Pablo sat there, speechless. It took a few seconds for him to react.

"Really? Shouting? I didn't hear it. All I could hear were people talking and working." Pablo put his hand on his chin while looking at Francesca, who was rolling her eyes. "Really? That's your first reaction?"

"I'm still in shock! I'm sorry that happened to you. But he's right. It's neither of your fault, but your words are like adding more fuel to the fire." the younger sibling said.

Francesca groaned. "Ugh! Not you too? You're siding on him?" Pablo was confused and stood up. "I'm not siding on anyone! Hermana, please listen just for once. Like I said earlier, you're the one who made your argument worse. Camilo was trying to explain, but you didn't listen! Of course, he'll snap! What kind of person who wouldn't listen anyway?"

She groaned again and averted her gaze from her younger brother.

Francesca recalled the event from Antonio's ceremony; focused on her brother, Camilo bumping to her, and Camilo's expression when she looked at him after noticing his foot on her boquet.

Camilo's expression.

The regret of accidentally stepping the boquet was plastered on his face was plastered on his face before her tears bluring the view. His expression when explaining yesterday, sad and hurt. He truly mean it. He wasn't lying.

That hit her so hard that she stood up, burrying her face with her hands while sniffling. Pablo shifted towards her and pat her back. Muffled voices were heard, but he swore he heard the word "sorry".

She removed her hands, revealing her face filled with tears and sniffles. "I'm sorry Pablo. I'm such an idiot." "Well, you're already an idiot." Pablo chuckled, which made her slapped her arm, then chuckled after.

Pablo seeing his hermana realizing her mistakes made him proud.

"Well, what are you going to do now?"

"This might not be easy for me, but I'll apologize."

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There's no turning back now, as Francesca was now infront of the La Casa Madrigal.

She repeated the words on what she's going to say to the shapshifter, while fiddling her hands. After one last recital, she huffed a sigh and went closer to the house.

She  noticed there's a man behind the door, with rats on his back and an arepa on his left hand. He looked at her, which made Francesca blink. "Hola.", he greeted before chewing the food. Who is this man? "Oh, um, hola. Is Cami-"

"Tio Bruno! Why are you eating my arepa? I'm eating that before heading off somewhere." A figure was running towards them, his ruana and his curly hair bouncing. "Is this yours? I'm sorry I was really hungry." "There are other arepa- oh." Camilo stopped as he noticed Francesca infront of them.

"Hi."

"Hi."

"I should probably leave them." Bruno muttered, still chewing Camilo's arepa  and left the two teenagers.

Silence falls between them. Camilo looking everywhere but her, while Francesca stared at him, fiddling her hands.

Both of them can't handle this awkwardness. They stared at each other and said the same words at the same time, which leave them in shock.

"I'm sorry."

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Heyya! It's been a while since I last updated cries

Last week was a very busy week and I'm glad it's over :)))

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