mute - shawmila

chapter 5

the girls made their way downstairs once they were called down to dinner. the table had already been set, but once again alejandro would not be joining them.

"dad's working again?" sky said, trying her best not to sound offended. she would be leaving for college soon and he didn't even try to spend time with her.

"yes, he's been busy. he'll be here all day tomorrow and spend time with you" sinu said softly.

skylin sighed and attempted to not make a scene as they had a guest over. if she felt betrayed by her dad who was never home, she couldn't begin to imagine how her little sister felt, where no one truly made an effort to communicate about what happened or her lack of speech. 

they ate their dinner in mostly silence, sinu attempted to make conversation but it didn't seem like her eldest daughter was in the mood right now and the youngest.. well she never seemed to be in the mood. that was, until dinah spoke up.

"ms. cabello, camila told me you would like for her to start driving herself to school?" dinah said cautiously. 

"yes mija, sky is leaving to college already and i go into the office so early no one can drive her. she has her license and sky is leaving the car so it would just make sense." sinu said softly. it's not that she wanted to force her daughter, it's that she really had no other choice, and maybe this would be a good way to move on from what happened.

camila, of course, stayed quiet during this conversation but she would be lying if she said her heart wasn't beating faster than it should be. 

"it's just- she told me she's still scared so i thought maybe i could give her a ride every day?" dinah said. 

"dinah we all appreciate that and we love you so much but i can't make your mom drive all this way just so she won't drive. camila will get over it."

camila sighed. she will not get over it, especially with how pushy her mom was being.

sensing that sinu wanted to drop the conversation, dinah nodded and kept eating her dinner.

well that went well camila wrote on her board when they were back in her room.

"i'm sorry mila but she seems so set on her decision. she really does think this is how you will move on" dinah tried to reason.

well its not

"i know that. but i really am sorry. driving is not that bad, you know? and the accident was not your fault."

camila tensed at the mention of the accident. she knew it was the reason behind this whole mess but she still wanted to forget about it. the guilt still ate her up. the accident had been her fault and she knows that. 

dinah felt her tense up and knew it was time to drop the subject before she worked herself into a panic attack. "okay, let's worry about this later. i'm in the mood for some disney movies" she said, turning the tv camila had in her room on.

camila smiled. dinah was never in the mood for disney movies. 

- - 

shawn was just finishing up unpacking another one of his boxes when his sister came into the room.

"hey aaliyah" he greeted her. she was 12, and was attending the middle school that would eventually lead to the high school he attended. his little sister climbed on his bed and sat down and he laughed.

"hi" she said, admiring how his room had been decorated.

"how was school?" he asked as he set up his guitar. 

"eh. i don't really have friends yet" she said.

"it's only your second day, you'll make friends eventually aaliyah" he said, flopping down on his bed with her. they stayed there for a while until alessia came into the room. 

"hey shawn, your dad asked if you wanted to go pick something up for dinner?" she said. although she was only months younger than shawn, she had yet to learn how to drive and relied on shawn for transportation.

"yeah, just google to see what restaurants are around here. takeout?" he asked. 

"yeah" she said, and pulled out her phone to search for food.

"there's a chinese takeout place a few minutes away, five stars. you wanna go?"

"yeah let's go. you coming aaliyah?" shawn asked the youngest sibling.

"yeah i'll go"

and with that they drove off to their destination.

"can i get aux?" alessia asked when they got into the car. shawn nodded and passed her the extension chord so she could plug it into her phone. ain't it fun by paramore began playing from the car speakers and they sang along.

halfway through the short ten minute drive shawn spoke up. "do you think you can ask dinah for camila's number? i forgot to catch it from her" he said.

alessia smirked. "do you like her?" she asked playfully.

"no!" he laughed. "i need it for that project, but i've known her for literally two days." 

before alessia could answer aaliyah spoke up, "shawny has a girlfriend?!" she spoke from the backseat. 

"no, shawny does not have a girlfriend. she just interests me and seems to need more people there. we could be more people. no dating. not yet." he said. dating someone wasn't on his plans, he had a girlfriend, lauren, back in toronto and letting her go was hell. and since he doesn't know if he would like to stay in america or go back to canada after senior year, relationships weren't really his priority.

"whatever. yeah, i'll text dinah for it right now."

"what do you think happened to her? i mean, you heard conan. she used to be so lively and just stopped talking one day. what do you think happened?" he asked.

"i have no clue. i just wonder- is she not talking because she can't? or just won't?" 

"i wish i knew"

- -

dinah was saying her goodbyes to camila because her mom was outside when she got a text message from an unsaved number.

[unknown] 

hey it's alessia!:) shawn was wondering if you could pass camila's number so they could work on the project? thank you!

she smiled at the opportunity to tease camila once more before she left.

"mila, loverboy wants your number!" she teased. she laughed even more at the sight for camila blushing. 

"he wanted it for the project, not to have phone sex with you or anything" dinah said and camila slapped her. "can i give it to him?". camila nodded and dinah sent the number she had known by memory.

and your loverboy? camila asked.

"well that's enough questions for the night. goodnight mila!" she said, giving her a hug and walking out of her room.

camila stood there with a confused look on her face.