The next morning, Camila woke up to the smell of sizzling bacon. Her eyes shot open and she jumped out of bed. Yawning, she ran downstairs only to be met with an odd sight.
Her mother was in the kitchen...cooking?
Camila narrowed her eyes and slowly walked into the kitchen.
"Good morning, mija," her mother greeted her and quickly turned her attention back to the eggs she was making over the stove.
"Morning, mom...why are you up making breakfast instead of sleeping till noon like you usually do?" Camila raised an eyebrow. This was really weird. Her mother shrugged.
"I just felt like bacon and eggs this morning," she said simply, flipping an egg in the pan. As she did that, Camila noticed the deep shade of purple and blue that surrounded her mother's left eye.
"Mom!" she gasped, studying her mom's eye more closely. "Where did this come from?" she asked, worry laced in her tone. Her mother, Sinu, swatted her daughter's hand away.
"It's nothing, mija. Don't worry about it," she walked over to grab a plate.
"Did he do it again?" Camila held her breath, waiting for her mother to respond to the question that she already knew the answer to. Sinu sighed, stopped what she was doing and walked over to her daughter.
"Camila, I need you to stop worrying about me," she paused and took a deep breath. "I want you to focus on your studies and give yourself a good life. You deserve it."
Camila sighed. Letting her hands fall to her sides, she accepted defeat and decided not to ask anymore of her mom right now.
"So how has school been by the way? Wasn't this the first week of new classes?" Sinu changed the subject. Camila nodded.
"It's been good so far I guess..." she trailed off.
"You guess?" her mother questioned, putting her food on her plate and walking over to the table.
"Yeah, I mean it's...average. Like school always is," Camila shrugged. "I did make some new friends though."
Sinu's head shot up.
"New friends, huh?" she said excitedly. Camila nodded again and sat down at the table with her mother.
"They're in my film class."
"What are their names?" Sinu asked, taking a bite of her food.
"Well first there's Dinah. She's hilarious and huggable," she giggled. "Then there's Normani, who's basically Dinah except with the greatest facial expressions ever. Ally is a ball of sunshine so she's nice to have around on a cloudy day," Camila paused before continuing. "And then there's Lauren," she smiled at the thought of the green eyed girl. "She's so smart and creative. She's humble too. She's actually the one who drove me home on Monday night when she saw me walking from Ally's house."
"She seems like a very special girl," Sinu said. "Keep people who care that much about you around because once you reach my age, you realize it's far too late to make real friends and you wonder where the old ones are."
Camila looked at her mother with such sadness. She's been through so much in the past and she just wants to give her happiness. Sadly, that's something you can't just wrap up in a box and hand to someone. She did the best she could do right now and leaned over to give her mother a hug.
"You deserve better, mom," she whispered, a tear falling from her eye.
"I love you, mija," he mother said, pulling away from the hug and looking into her daughter's eyes. "And I'm proud of you for being strong throughout all of this. Things will get better for us, I promise."
