Thunderstorms (Camren)

Chapter 1

Camila watched as blurs of colours sped by, meshing into one as each car rushed to get home. She took a drag of her cigarette, exhaling deeply and watching as the wisps of smoke blew away in the gentle Miami breeze.

She tapped the stick lightly to get rid of the embers at the end of it before bringing it between her lips again, proceeding to take another drag. Her brown eyes flickered back and forth, trying to keep up with each vehicle that passed.

As the smoke filled her lungs once again she felt herself relax more, the heels of her Doc Martens collided with the bricks of the wall she was perched on. They made a dull thud that barely reached her ears due to the din of the vehicles speeding down the highway across from her.

The wind picked up ever so slightly causing Camila to readjust her hoodie so that she was warmer. She liked the cold, but she couldn't afford to get sick, not now. She pulled the comforting fabric closer to her body before reaching up to retrieve the cigarette from her mouth, observing the faint white tendrils that escaped her lips.

Camila spent some time watching the highway, the amount of cars speeding by began to thin out significantly until only a few vehicles drove by every couple of minutes.

She hopped down from the wall, landing expertly on her feet –she spent a lot of time in that particular spot– before dusting herself off. She released a final drag before dropping the cigarette to the ground, crushing whatever was left over with the toe of her boot.

Her hands found residency in her hoodie pockets as she began to stroll down the dark path located under the highway. She listened intently to the quiet buzzing of car and truck engines above her and admired the hues of orange, purple and yellow that painted the Autumn sky above her.

It cast shadows on the narrow path that she was walking down, on her walks home she would often try to guess what the shadow was depicting, it helped calm her and kept any worries or stressful thoughts at bay.

Well, at least for the short amount of time that it took for her to walk home.

One hand left her hoodie pocket and started to pat her jeans' pocket in search of the packet of gum she kept on her at all times. Once she found it, she began to chew on a piece of it as her feet continued their steady rhythm on the cracked stone path.

She made a quick turn once she saw her neighbourhood coming into view, knowing she needed to turn to get onto her street. Her eyes took turns admiring the sky, which was rapidly changing from cool oranges and lilacs to shades of dark reds and violets that blended together perfectly, as if they were on an artist's palette, to admiring the cracks, stones and grass that ordained the sidewalk.

She breathed in a deep lungful of air as she crossed the road to reach her street, at the same time the streetlights flickered on in unison, as if they had been awaiting the Latina's arrival.

The plain white houses with their identical brown tiled roofs were bathed in the warm yellow glow of the streetlights. It gave the street a calm and almost serene look, like something straight out of a movie.

The Cuban turned a slight corner, her house that looked extremely similar to all of the neighbouring houses coming into view. The only way she could identify the house as her own was because of the, in her opinion, obnoxious garden gnome that resided in her front lawn. It's bright colours were quite the eyesore and she had complained to her parents about it countless times, they refused to removed the dreaded gnome.

Camila strode towards her house, noticing her dad's car wasn't in the driveway. Typical. She retrieved the house key from under one of the potted plants that stood at either side of her front door and unlocked it before setting the key back in its hiding place, closing the door behind her.