SWEETENER (Camila x Ariana)

Chapter 10

~Camila's POV~

The lie was necessary. I didn't want to lie to her, but I had to. She was better off not knowing. She was better off without me which was why I stayed away. Last night was one of the most stupid drunken decisions I'd ever made. Going up to her room, begging her to sleep with me again...

What was I thinking?

If I didn't do that I wouldn't have owed her any kind of explanation. I could've scared Mac away and left. She could've said thank you, and I could've said you're welcome. That could've been it.

She was bold with a temper. She was passionate about what she believed in. I was going to kiss her, but decided against it when I saw the clogged toilet. I wasn't afraid of her drowning me in it, because I knew she wouldn't, it just didn't seem right to kiss her in the bathroom.

I followed Ariana up to her room because I was really worried. She had a past with someone who had a past with my father. My father didn't know people just to know them. If he knew you, it was for a reason. I needed to know the reason.

You shouldn't feel guilty. I said to myself. Technically I did tell her the truth. My father was the head of a business. It was an illegal one, but business is business.

I really didn't know Mac before meeting him that morning in my room, and I definitely didn't know the past he had with Alejandro.

I wasn't my father either. He was a cruel man. I was the only one who got away with anything, because I was his daughter and I guess he loved me...maybe he just wanted to carry on the family name. I heard a rumor once that he had killed his own brother. How a man could be that heartless was beyond me.

Was I short tempered? Yes I was. Have I killed before? Yes I have.

But I had a purpose. Alejandro, well I'm convinced that he does it for sport. I do what I need to do to stay alive. I would, in a heartbeat put a bullet in you before you put one in me. That's the way I was raised.

I didn't want to take over my father's position. I didn't want the constant danger, the paranoia that came with the job, I didn't want all of that blood on my hands, I didn't want the responsibility of keeping everything and everyone safe and secret. None of that appealed to me.

I didn't want to confess any of this to her either. Ariana was the picture perfect girl next door, the golden girl with the pretty face, the rich parents, she came from a family of class, the complete opposite of me.

For the first fifteen years of my life I lived at an estate in Miami filled with guards and guns, whores in skimpy outfits, shipments of drugs day after day...

Of course everyone respected me. They had to. Alejandro would get rid of them without giving it a second thought if he found out someone disrespected his daughter.

I needed to find out more about Malcolm McCormick. Her connection with him scared me senseless.

I was beginning to fall for this girl, and I refused to let my past interfere with my future.

Was I never going to be happy just because my parents forgot to use a condom? I was never supposed to be born, but it wasn't my fault that I was. I didn't deserve to be punished for someone else's mistake.

I got up to retrieve my cell phone from my skinny jeans pocket. I had made plans to go out with Sean and his family this evening, but there was no way I could go now.

Before Ariana fell asleep on me, she made it very clear that this wasn't just a smash and dash situation. If we were going to fuck I was supposed to stay the night.

"You see this?" She had asked, picking up my Calvin Klein bra. "I'm going to whack you with it if you're not here when I wake up."

"Oh, kinky?" I laughed. She smirked at me with dark eyes, and so round two begun.

*hour or more later*

"Hey, I can't make it tonight." I said quietly into the phone.

"Aw come on Karla! I don't want to spend the whole night alone with my aunt." He whined.

I giggled. "Why don't you just cancel?"

"Because unlike you, I don't cancel at last minute. When I commit, I commit." Sean grumbled. What a load of shit, he was allergic to commitment. "Where are you anyways? Why are you whispering?"

I didn't say anything. He'd figure it out on his own.

"You hooked up with someone, didn't you?" and there it was. "Don't tell me that it was that Ariana girl again."

I smiled through the phone. "I'm hanging up now."

"HAHA!!" He laughed. "Well good luck with that. I told you you'd-" I hung up before he could finish talking.