Always been you

2013 (14)

Camila's extended family wasn't around. Her parents moved out of their hometown when her dad got a new job offer and she was just a two year old baby. It was tough, she had heard. Her mom took care of her while her dad worked and it was only the three of them for a long time. They had nice neighbors but no one that really felt like family. That until Camila started school and Sinu met Karen. They were acquaintances at first, but they had a lot in common and Karen took her under her wing in no time. Now that Sinu was going through a rough time and her family wasn't around, Karen had her back.

Camila's mom was supposed to be in bed for at least a week to recover from the spontaneous miscarriage and all the other wounds, physical and mental, that that carried. Three weeks had gone by and she was still there.

Shawn knew, because of his mom, how things were going down at Camila's place and he knew that even though she tried to look like everything was fine, it really wasn't.

"Mila", Jess whispered to Camila and she looked up to see all her friends were looking back at her.

"What?", she asked confused.

"We want to hang out after school today, are you in?"

"What are you going to do?", she asked softly.

Shit. They looked at each other trying to come up with a plan, they wanted to distract her from her problems for a few hours but they hadn't thought of a plan.

"Frozen yogurt. We're going to that place you like", Shawn intervened quickly.

"Oh", she seemed to think about it. "I'll let you know".

It wasn't a no, but it wasn't a yes either. Her friends sighed subtly and looked at each other clueless. Camila was always the social butterfly, the life of the party, and they didn't know how to act around this version of her.

"Hey", Shawn jogged to Camila's side before they went their separate ways to class. "I can walk you home after the frozen yogurt thing. My mom is probably at your place anyways".

"Yeah...", Camila said slowly. "I don't know if I'll go, though".

"You can think about it, no problem. But if we go, we could buy some yogurt for Sofi and Aaliyah".

That seemed to catch Camila's attention. She would do anything to cheer her little sister up just a bit. She was young and she didn't quite know what was going on around her.

Shawn had never been so explicitly kind to her. He wasn't an ogre or anything, but they didn't have the closest, most affectionated relationship so she knew he was really trying now. She appreciated that. The last days had been gloomy enough at her house that she hadn't paid attention to anything else. She couldn't think or focus on trivial  things when her mom was heartbroken and no one seemed to know how to fix that for her.

Jess jumped and clapped when Camila met them outside school and told them she was going. Just for a bit, she had said, but her friends were taking any time they could get to make her smile.

They all ordered and got their yogurt before moving to a table outside. It had been just Shawn and Luke on one side and Camila and Jess on the other at first, but since Shawn and Camila spent so much time together, whether they wanted or not, their other friends became close too. Nick transferred schools and he happened to be pair up with Luke on a chemistry project and since Luke sucked at science, Nick saved his ass. Luke felt in debt with him and he and the rest adopted him into their group. They all had other networks outside their friendship, of course, but they innevitably went back to each other on the most crucial moments. Moments like this one right here.

"I heard there's a substitute teacher for the Spanish class", Nick commented. Making small talk was getting harder every time.

"Yes, because Ms. Lopez is about to have her baby", Jess said and the mention of a baby make them all stiff. Shit. That didn't go as they wanted.