F a l s i f i e d

Chapter Six

Dolores rushes from the door, hoping nobody saw her. She opens the door to her bedroom and closes it quietly, hoping that the silence would help her think.

She knew what he could do, but she had no idea what to do as a counter.

Sighing, she gets up from her bed and contemplates opening the door before deciding to leave a note and sleep it off. She'd deal with this tomorrow.

Hopefully.

— f a l s e —

The morning comes and the sun shines through the window directly on Dolores's face. She yawns quietly as she gets up, and for a moment, is blissfully unaware of what happened the previous afternoon.

Sighing miserably, she removes her nightgown to shower, and dries off to put on her usual dress.

Opening the door, he finds Pepa (her mother) crying as she held her hermano in her arms.

Dolores takes in Camilo's new look with a look of slight relief, though on the inside she felt uneasy.

His Ruana was a red instead of its usual yellow, and the sleeves under it were black as were his pants.

"Where were you?" her Madre asks between sobs, rain drenching everyone in water.

Camilo doesn't respond.

Dolores sees Antonio behind their Padre, confused as to what was going on.

Dolores considers telling him, but decides not to as to avoid him getting upset.

She takes a deep breath and lets it go, before walking to her Hermano.

Maybe, everything was okay. At least he was alive.

Right?

— f a l s e —

Mirabel looks at Camilo, relieved. He was missing for a week and she was beginning to worry that he wasn't even there.

And although he acted a bit...off... it wasn't a big difference so she assumed it was okay. And, hey, he's alive and well so whatever, right?

Mirabel watches as the day passes by, with many surprised people reluctantly stepping out of their homes. Camilo comes into the nursery and locks the door behind him, and sitting beside Mirabel on her bed, they begin to talk.

TWGUILT-TRIPPING

"Hey Mira~" Camilo smirks, resting his legs on the bed frame.

Mirabel turns to him, a smile evident on her face. "Hey. Where have you been?" She quickly asks "well you don't have to answer but I'm a bit curious." She laughs awkwardly.

Camilo, despite this, looks a bit offended.

"Wow! I come to talk to my favorite prima and she doesn't even care I'm here?" he shakes his head and Mirabel quickly jumps to defend herself.

"No no- I really do care and I really missed you I just-" She pauses as Camilo begins to speak.

"Ah ha ha- I'm just joking! No need to be so sensitive!" He laughs. "Anyways, what happened while I was gone? Other than a ton of flooding I mean."

"Nothing much, since nothing can really get done outside when theres constant thunder." Mirabel sighs, recalling the past week.

"Um... that's rude but anyways, wanna hang out with me for a bit? We still have lots of time until the remaining water is low enough to continue chores!" He smiles.

"Oh sure! Wanna pla-" Camilo quickly interrupts Mirabel.

"Can I choose, I mean we haven't done anything in forever and you've had a past week to do whatever you wanted, right?"

"I guess you're right... what do you want to do?"

Camilo gestures her closer to whisper in her ear, and from under the bed, Antonio strains his ears to hear it.

"Got it?" Camilo asks, and if he wasn't scared of getting caught, Antonio would've said no.

"m'hm!" Mirabel nods, though she sounded nervous.

"Okay then~ me first."

Antonio plugs his ears to avoid listening to the cruel game Camilo had thought up.

The entire premise was basically ruining Mirabel's confidence and making it sound like he just being honest.

"Thats a little mean..." Mirabel whispers.

"I'm just being honest." He rolls his eyes. "But it's not like it matters to me- i'll always be here for you, kay?"

"Oh...kay."

The two are silent.

"Aren't I so nice to you?"

"...Yeah."

After that?

Not at all.

Antonio watches from under the bed as they leave the room, and after waiting a bit, he gets out of it and waits until he thinks they're far.

Running out of the room, he runs into Dolores who was also seemingly listening to their conversation.

"Antonio?" She looked surprised, though not at his presence.

Her shock was caused by the look on his face, which was both mortified and scared. Tears pricked the corners of his eyes and Dolores realized he was listening to the two as well.

Sighing, she leads him to her room and gets some earmuffs so that if he begins to cry her ears wouldn't hear it.

After a while, Dolores realizes this was getting out of hand. She wasn't standing by any longer.

No. She was going to do something.

She was going to fix this.