August

day twenty-three | it was never mine

Camila stares at Shawn’s text for the hundredth time saying he’s okay, wishing she was there to take care of him, even though he insists the damage her father did on him was not what was bothering him. Her father didn’t even let her say goodbye to him before he kicked Shawn and his friends out of the family’s resort, but Carlos made sure to help them find a hotel nearby to stay these last few days.

 She’s been stuck in her bedroom the whole day because her father won’t let her out of his sight even for a second, meaning she can’t just run away to where Shawn is without him stopping her. She also didn’t leave her room in hopes to not see her father’s face. She’s still really angry at him, but she knows she’s not getting anywhere by acting like that, even though that’s what he deserves from her at the moment.

 At some point she just can’t take the view of her bedroom walls anymore, so she stands up from her bed and makes her way downstairs, hoping to steal some ice cream from the kitchen. She’s able to get a bowl of strawberry ice cream, stopping by her mother’s piano to maybe practice a little instead of being depressed in her room.

What she finds, however, are two men carrying the piano outside of the room as her father gives them orders on where to take the instrument. The glass bowl she was holding falls to the ground in pieces, leaving ice cream on the wooden floor as a shard of glass cuts her feet.

 “ What the hell are you doing?” She says loudly enough so her father can hear her.

 He turns around to look at her, not seeming to care that he was doing the last thing he needed to make in order for her to hate him completely.

 “ I told you I was selling it.” He says as the two men take her mother’s piano away.

 “ You can’t be serious.” She says in shock. “ You had to take the two things I cared the most about.”

 “ It’s just an old piano, Karla.” His voice sounds cold and she wonders what happened to the man that a few days ago was happy about introducing them to his fiance. That man actually looked like he might have a heart, but not this one.

 “ It was mom’s piano.” She chokes out as tears start falling down her face. “ Did you ever even love her? You keep acting like she was nothing to you. No wonder I remember you two fighting all the time, she was probably sick of you.”

 “ You didn’t know your mother like I did.” He says, stepping closer to her with clear anger in his eyes.

 “ Then tell me! What did she do to make you hate her so much?” She yells, making some guests look at them.

 “ I’m tired of you always putting your mother on a pedestal. She was going to leave us that night, she was far from perfect.” Camila can finally see hurt in his eyes as he says those words.

 “ You’re lying. She would never do that.” She says, shaking her head.

 “ She chose her career over us. She was leaving that night to finally pursue her dream of playing professionally around the world and a family would only get in the way of that.”

 “ You’re wrong.” She whispers, feeling someone's hands holding her arms.

 “ Camila, honey, you’re hurt. Why don’t you come with me and I'll help you clean this up?” Meredith’s voice makes her look away from her father and focus on the floor, where the blood from her feet is mixing with the ice cream she dropped.

 She nods her head, feeling too weak and emotionally drained to argue, so her father’s future wife guides her to the nearest restroom and sits her down on a chair. The tears keep falling freely from her eyes as she watches the blond woman clean up her cut and bandage it.

 “ Why do you like him?” Camila asks. “ Are you marrying him just for the money? Because there’s no way someone as nice as you can love a man that acts like that.”

 “ There’s a lot more to your father than just that, but he lets you and your brother see the worst parts of him.” Meredith says with a sad smile. “ Just for the record, I think he’s wrong about you dating and I talked to him about it. But about your mom, I think maybe you should ask your grandmother about it. She knows a lot more than I do.”

 She helps Camila stand up and walk to the sink, where she washes her face and pulls her hair up in a ponytail. Camila looks at the blond woman through the mirror, trying to understand why she was still there after seeing her father act the way he did, but nonetheless she was grateful for it.

 “ Thank you for being so nice to me.” Camila says with a smile, turning around and hugging the woman before slowly leaving the restroom.

She makes her way outside and Carlos is there, waiting to see if she’s okay, then he helps her upstairs to her room and she calls the one person she knows we’ll help her get some clarity in her mind: her best friend.