Austin Mahone's California Love Story

Chapter 19: Just When You Think...

Camila

After swinging open the door and stopping Carlos just in time I run towards Austin. He's on his knees in the middle of the room with a slight smile on his face along with a busted lip. I skid on Austin covering my body with his to protect him from the hit Carlos was planning on initiating.

"Camila, aléjate de él ahora," He grabs a hold of my arm but I push his hand away.

I bury my face in Austin's neck, "No, if you're going to beat him with that bat then you'll have to hit me too." The room is silent with shock that I would be willing to stand against my brother for this guy.

"He still has ten seconds left." He says through gritted teeth.

I release my hold on Austin's body and jolt towards Carlos, "¿Qué te pasa? What's wrong with you?" I shove him away, "Aren't you satisfied yet? What more is it going to take for you to see? Abre los ojos, open your eyes."

I kneel back down in front of Austin and hold him in my arms. He's weak and practically broken. I hold his head in my hands barely able to look into his green eyes with the swelling closing them. There's a bruise on the apple of his cheek going up to his eyebrow. There's blood dripping everywhere on his face from his eyebrow to his nose. I see that he's wearing the Rosario I gave him under his shirt. It's covered in his blood now. I slowly wipe the blood off his lip with my thumb as he kisses it.

I suddenly hear the baseball bat fall to the ground making a loud echo that spread around the room. I look up at Carlos; he doesn't have anger in his eyes anymore.

"Congratulations you two," He mutters, "You passed."

Austin

"What are you talking about?" Camila says. I never loosen my grip around her waist. I take in the smell of her body and her hair. Her voice vibrating in my ear is like music to my soul.

"It was all planned from when Maria was supposed to tell you about all this to this point at the end of the five minutes."

"Why?" I manage to lift my head up but quickly lands on Camila's shoulder.

"I wanted to see how far you two were truly willing to go for each other," He exhales a laugh, "He was willing to take a beating for five minutes and you were willing to run ten blocks in under seven minutes especially since the only road you could take was the one with the most traffic."

Another smile appears from my face hearing that Camila had to run so far just to stop me from getting myself involved in this. She'd been willing to risk her life for me as I would do for her.

"The way I see it," Carlos grabs a hold of my arm to lift me to my feet, "You two really love each other." He pats my shoulder. It stings but I suck it up in respect for his blessing.

I take Camila in my arms, "Come on, Austin. Let's get out of here." She puts my arm over her neck.

Suddenly we're stopped by a group led by Derek, "How about you let our buddy go and we won't call the cops to arrest all of you for assault."

"How did you find this place?" Alex asks.

Derek looks over his shoulder. Jake comes out from behind him with an apologetic look on his face, "I'm sorry man, but you weren't thinking straight and I didn't want you to get killed." I understand his reasons but he shouldn't have brought Derek of all people.

Carlos and a few others of his friends step up to Derek. "We don't want any problems. He's already survived his five minute beating like a man. If you don't leave your beating will last much longer and twice as painful, entiendes?"

Derek chuckles, "I get it, get a beating and get to bang your sister?" I want to punch the smile off his face and I know Carlos wants to but he's holding back. "I guess I'm lucky considering I already banged your little sister." That's when the first punch was thrown.

Camila drags me away from the fighting that quickly escalates from just between Carlos and Derek to everyone in the room. She puts me up against a wall on the far side of the fight. It's chaos in the room just like a royal rumble with bodies flying everywhere. We watch as every human body went at each other for a long while it seems. Camila tightens her grip on my hand when she sees her brother getting hit but he can handle himself.