All These Years | Camren

You're thirteen

During your first years of middle school you rarely talk to Camila. The only times you can remember, were 2 second conversations of her asking for where her mom is, or minuscule "excuse me miss Lauren", for the times where she helped Sinu with work during the weekends. Nevertheless, if someone asked you about what Camila's been up to? You would know the answer in a heartbeat; she's done it all.

The thing with Camila is, she's extremely well rounded. The girl went from scoring the winning goal in the junior soccer championships to being selected for the school season musical.  She's been in science fair competitions, cheerleading tryouts, annual decathlon, rock climbing club, and so on, all over the place. And you know this because you listen. Not to her saying it to you, directly, but you listen when she comes running home and catches her mom while she's in the middle of cleaning something, all excited and jumpy, just to show her the gold medals, the callback sheet, heck, even her first detention slip. You always listen, because for some mystical reason, you're always nearby when it happens. At the beginning, you would throw in some polite smiles and subtle eye contact. You swear she waits for you to be right next to her mom just to run up to her and announce her new accomplishment.

It's all shy and cute, innocent and simple... until the day you learn that your older brother pays attention to more than just his gaming device.

He's the first one to call you out on it.

You're 13 years old and even though it's barely two months in the semester, you've already memorized Camila's expected daily arrival times to the house. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays she arrives before you, because you have Ballet rehearsals until 7:00pm. Tuesdays and Thursdays you arrive at 4:00pm and she arrives at 5:00pm, because the bus isn't as fast as Alfred. So every Tuesday and Thursday  you go to the backyard and you play fetch with your dog, Dash, you've had him since you were five and even though he's old, he still wacks his tail like crazy when you bring  some chew toys to play with him. But nothing gets him more excited than when he sees Camila.

And you get it.

Dash runs up to her as soon as he hears her opening the fence at the side of the house.

And it always happens like this. She picks him up and lets him lick her all over her face. After that, she sets him down and then practices the sit command. He immediately sits down and she pets him and says, "Good boy, Dash!"

Then, as always, you look at each other, and then, she always goes first, "Hi Lauren."

"Hey," that's always your reply, and obviously you inevitably look down and use Dash as a distraction. Then, she usually walks towards the entrance of the guest house. And you don't exchange anything else.

It's been like that since she started class this semester. And even if it's something so simple, it still becomes what you most look forward to on Tuesday and Thursday.

The thing is, today, Camila didn't immediately walk towards the guest house, she stays there and it makes you look back at her.

"I like your braid, it's very pretty" she says pointing to the fish tail braid you have on to the side of your neck. You never thought you could feel a color, but you definitely felt red rushing to your cheeks. You give her a small smile telling yourself to calm down, she just likes your braid. Just like you like her flower pattern bow.

She turns to walk towards the guest house, but you're you, so you stop her by saying,

"I like your bow!"