When you're ready

25. Your shower hates me

Shawn looked down at his phone for what was probably the tenth time in just a few minutes, wondering why Camila wasn't answering his texts. He could tell she was nervous when he left her home, but she also didn't seem like she would tell him anything. That unfamiliar blue car at her aunt's driveway seemed to be the reason for her uneasy state, but he once again had no idea what that was all about. He was trying his best to be patient, but that didn't mean he didn't worry about her. Whenever she seemed this edgy, he wondered if she was about to reveal to him whatever it was this thing that kept her from talking to people, and that that possibility scared the hell out of him because he had no idea what she would say.

" I'm still beating your ass." Brian's voice made him look up from his phone and realize he had lost one more round on the stupid soccer game his friend had made him play. " Maybe if you kept your eyes off your phone."

" I'm just checking on Camila, okay?" Shawn said, standing up and walking to the kitchen to look for something to eat.

" She's ignoring you already?" Brian asked and Shawn noticed he forgot to lock the screen of his phone before leaving it on the couch. " I thought you said things were great with her."

" Things are great." Shawn said as he found some snacks in the cabinet. " Now stop reading my texts, please."

Shawn placed two bags of chips on the kitchen counter and as he opened the fridge to look for something to drink, the doorbell rang. He couldn't imagine whoever that could be. There was a storm outside and no one in their right minds would step foot outside in that weather. Brian told him he would get the door and a few seconds later he heard something he wasn't expecting.

" Camila?" Brian asked in surprise.

" Camila is here?" Shawn asked, confused. She didn't answer his texts but now she was there?

Shawn walked out of the kitchen and the second he put his eyes on Camila at the door he felt his heart sink. She was completely drenched from the rain, shaking because there was no way she wasn't cold and on top of that, he could tell with just a simple glance at her that she had been crying. The rain had made a good job of hiding that, but not from him.

" Hey, what happened?" He immediately wrapped his arms around her and pulled into the house as Brian closed the door, not minding that she was getting water all over him and the house. She buried her face on his chest and he could feel her shaking, at first just from feeling cold, but then he realized she was crying again. It eventually turned into sobs and she looked up at him trying to talk, but her words kept being swallowed by more tears. " It's okay. I'm here. Just breathe."

In the meantime, Brian had gotten her a towel and Shawn wrapped it around her, trying to dry her up and make her breathe.

" My parents." Camila finally said out loud. " It was them. The car. They want me to go back."

She said her words in short sentences that probably wouldn't make sense to anyone else, but Shawn had an idea of what she was trying to tell him. Shawn saw Brian was staring at them in shock because he didn't know Camila could talk, but he would deal with that later.

" You can tell me later. We need to get you out of these wet clothes before you get a cold, okay?" He said in a calm tone of voice and she nodded.

Shawn made Camila walk with him to the bathroom and left her sitting on the edge of the bathtub with the towel around her, looking for clothes that she could wear. He took one of his old shirts, but instead of getting one of his shorts or pants, he went into his sister's bedroom and stole a pair of shorts from the pile on the box over the bed that he had been meaning to give away. His sister had been a lot younger than Camila, but Camila was so tiny that he didn't have a doubt the shorts would fit her. As he walked back into the bathroom he expected Camila to be exactly where he left her, but that wasn't the case. Her wet clothes and backpack were thrown at the floor as she stood in just her underwear, trying to get hot water out of the shower.

" Your shower hates me." She stated quietly, making him smile at her because she wasn't crying anymore. She didn't even seem to care he was seeing her in just underwear. Shawn helped her adjust the water and left the dry clothes there before leaving.

Brian was back on the couch when Shawn returned to the living room, and as soon as he sat next to his friend, the questions started.

" She can speak?" Brian asked, still in shock.

" Yes." Shawn said after a moment of silence. It wasn't like he could deny it at this point. He had heard her speak loud and clear just a few minutes ago.

" She's been speaking to you this whole time?" He asked in curiosity, to which Shawn confirmed. " Now that explains a lot."

" Please, just don't start asking her a bunch of things." Shawn finally told him. " It's a delicate subject."

" Sure." Brian said, both of them looking up as Camila suddenly showed up in his t-shirt that was completely covering the shorts that were under it. Her hair was wet, falling over her shoulders as she held the towel in her hands.

" Can I put my clothes in the dryer?" She asked calmly as if she hadn't just been crying.

" I can do that for you." Shawn stood up and walked to her, taking the towel from her hands. " Why don't you just lie down a little?"

"Okay." Camila whispered, getting on her tiptoes and kissing his cheek before walking to his bedroom and closing the door behind her.

Shawn went back to the bathroom and collected her clothes from the floor, putting them on the dryer by the door that led into the garage. He took all her stuff off her backpack, trying to save whatever hadn't been touched by the rain, but noticing a lot of her school stuff had been ruined. She must have been really desperate to just run out into this storm like that. It seemed her parents wanted her to come back home based on the few words she managed to tell him, but somehow he knew there was more to why she was freaking out like that.