Austin Mahone's California Love Story

Chapter 6: Crossing The Line

Austin

I drive up to the address Camila gave me in the Rover. The neighborhood looks somewhat regular compared to mine, but completely opposite to Derek's neighborhood. I get out the car to make my way up the small steps of the house.

"Hey white boy," I turn considering I'm the only white guy in this neighborhood. A group of guys begin to walk towards me. "Are you lost?" The same guy asks looking at me through his long ear length hair. His tribal tattoo on his shoulder is revealed through his black wife beater and a star on the back of his hand in between his thumb and index finger.

"I don't want any trouble," I say surrendering my hands in the air.

"Any white boy that comes around here has to be looking for problemas." He says.

 "Hey," Camila says coming down the steps, "¿Qué está pasando?" She says to the group.

"¿Conoces a este gringo?" Nowisthe time I knewSpanish. By the body language I'm getting it seems like they're talking about my being here.

She nods her head, "Yeah," she gestures at the house, "Carlos is inside."

The group passes by me up the steps, "Catch you later, white boy." The guy says before heading in the house along with the group.

I turn to Camila, "What was that about?" I ask.

She shakes her head, "That's Alex. He and Carlos are really close. He's likes to consider me a little sister; even though, he has two of his own. Plus, he's just as overprotective."

"Great, instead of worrying about one brother I have to worry about two." We laugh. "So when is the group getting here?"

She points across the street to a group coming towards us, "Oh, here they are." She hugs and greets her friends, "Guys, this is Austin. He just moved here from Texas."

"Alright, the cowboy town," One of her friend says. He steps forward to shake my hand, "I'm Luis." He has a thin layer of hair and a piercing on his left eyebrow along with pierced ears. He's wearing a blue shirt underneath a gray hooded jacket.

"Now that you've met Luis," She points to the rest of the group, "This is Paco, Gabby, and my best friend Maria." Maria seemed to not like me very much. She has a look on her face that says 'I don't trust you.' Hopefully by the end of the day I can convince her I'm not a bad guy.

Camila

I can already tell that Maria doesn't believe Austin. She's been keeping her distance from him unlike everyone else who's been really social with Austin. We take Austin's car in the worry that Alex or Carlos might do something to intimidate Austin from coming back. We decide to go to a bowling alley that is owned by Luis's parents so he lets us play for free.

Two hours have passed since we started playing. The first round we played was boys vs. girls with the girls winning, then in the second round it's a group of two and, of course, Austin and I get stuck together as a team. We manage to pull out a win for ourselves after Austin pulls off a strike. After awhile of playing we take a break from playing to relax.

"How long have all you guys known each other?" Austin asks.

"Ever since sophomore year," Paco replies.

"Maria and I have known each other since middle school." I say looking at Maria sitting across from Austin and I with her arms crossed.

"Sophomore year was the dopest year of our high school life." Gabby says.

"Hell yeah it was," Luis outbursts, "We were the craziest kids at school, always partying and slacking-off."

Austin raises his eyebrows in surprise, "Seriously, what kind of crazy stuff?"

"I remember when Camila came up with the idea to pull the prank on the teachers." I had a feeling that this was going to come up so I prepare myself for it.

"Oh yeah, we filled garbage cans with water and leaned them against the front door of their house then ding-dong ditched then once they answered the garbage would fall and they're would be water everywhere."

Austin turns to me, "You instigated that prank?" He says with shock in his voice.

I shrug my shoulders, "I was young," I did a lot of stupid stuff when I was young and it got me nowhere in life, but trouble.

"Is that when you got the tattoo?" He asks about the tattoo again.

"My cousin did that for her. We all got one the same day." Paco says.

"It's a tattoo that you regret getting but stick with it anyways." I eventually didn't want to keep the tattoo anymore but I can't afford to get it removed so I just got used to it and kept it as a reminder of my past mistakes.

After surviving the conversation of my rebellious past we all decide to call it a night and head home. Austin drives everyone home until it's just me and him left parked in front of my house again.

"Well I hoped you enjoyed yourself while laughing about my past." I say.

"It's not that bad. So you had a defiant side when you were younger so did I. Why did you try to hide it?"

"Because there's more to it than just a couple of pranks and a mischievous attitude," My past is really difficult to understand depending upon who tells it and their point-of-view of it.

"Then tell me what else was there?"

Before I can answer I hear a tap on the windshield and the door swings open. The next thing I know Carlos is pulling me out of the car and up the steps.

I can hear Austin getting out of his car. "Hey,"

Carlos faces him, "Get back in your car and don't come back."

"What's your problem?"

I get in between the two before Carlos made the first move, "Austin, it's okay just go please." I reach for his shoulder and slight push him the other direction.

Without taking his eyes off me he slowly walks down the steps and over to his car. I follow Carlos up to the porch and into the house to prepare for my doom.

Carlos slams the door behind us, "What were you doing with that gringo?"

"We went to the bowling alley with Maria, Gabby, Paco, and Luis." I can already see the overreaction in Carlos's face.

"What is wrong with you? Have you lost your mind?" He shouts.

"Cálmate, gosh you're being melodramatic over nothing." To me, this was a regular hangout day with friends.

"Do you want to repeat what happened your freshman year?" I don't answer him, "Camila, be careful." He wraps his arms around me with a hug of comfort which is something that rarely happens.