Isabela allowed us to explore her room as she showed us all the new plants she's figured out how to make. I end up leaving covered in colorful pollen and some flowers in my hair (if you have short hair it can be behind your ear) along with a flower crown.
Right now, I'm sitting in the kitchen watching Julieta and Mirabel make some snacks when I notice a man walk by. He has curly black hair and a large nose. About my height, too, and I see some rats on his shoulders. As I watch him, he looks over at me and seemingly panics. He goes to run away but gets blocked by Luisa, and when he goes the other way, he gets blocked be Felix helping a lady with light brown hair calm a ... cloud?
I stand up and make my way over to him. He seems nice enough. Once there's no where else for him to hide, he doubles down and sighs. He turns back to me and I smile.
"Hello.." he says. He looks kind of scared if I'm being honest.
"Hi, I'm y/n, Mirabel's friend," I say, putting my hand out for him to shake.
"Bruno, Mirabel's uncle," he says. He seems a bit more confident, but still pretty quiet and squeamish.
"I like your rats, what are their names?" I ask.
This perked some interest in him. He smiles and explains how they're so entertaining. I tell him how my family owns a pottery shop on the other end of town so I've never heard of this family's tale.
"Oh! I can make them little mugs!" I say with a smile.
He smiles really happily in return. He's so relatable on so many levels.
After a while longer, it's time for Alvaro and I to go back.
Later, at home:
"So, did you two have fun?" My mom asks.
"Yep," I say, calmly, taking a sip of water.
"Yeah, y/n got a boyfriend!"
My brother and I spit out our water, some of it went through my nose
"What?!" He yelled. It was silent, except for my coughing. I could feel everyones eyes on me.
"No, no," I begin, catching myself, "it's not like that. Mirabel's cousin, Camilo, is just messing around. We're not dating. And we won't date. Ever."
It was silent, except for the sounds of people eating and forks scraping on the plates.
I get up and clear my place settings. About 2 hours later, im sitting in my bed drawing when I hear a knock at my door.
"Hey," Victor says as he gently opens the door. Yes he may be a jerk, but he was damn great at following boundaries and establishing privacy.
"Sup?" I ask, putting down my sketchbook and looking up at him.
"I'm going to bed, you should too. But I just have a favor to ask you, for the future, ya' know? Nothing big really," he begins. He's so polite. It's times like these(when he's tired) when I tolerate my brother.
"Invite me to the wedding," he says with an evil smirk. Never mind. I'll kill this bitch. My face scrunches up as I grab my slipper from the side of my bed and chuck it at him, just after he shuts the door as a shield.
"What was that?" We hear our mother yell from her room.
"Nothing!" We yell in sync.
The Next Day in the shop (around 11:30):
Right now, I'm back behind the counter after making about 15 rat mugs. I walk back behind the counter and look outside at my brother. He's playing soccer with Andreas. Andres. My childhood best friend, 2 years older than me. I had always liked him as a friend but he liked me more, we joked about how we were gonna get married, but those were all jokes. Then one day, he asked me out and I rejected him. Since then, every time I'd try to approach him he would make an excuse to leave. I guess that's when I really started liking him back.
I feel my face heat up and I instinctively straighten my posture and fix my hair. I turn to my right and see him in front of the counter.
"Hey, what's up?" He asks with a smile.
"Not much, you?" I respond.
"Nothing, just looking around," he says. Hm. He always says, 'the sky.'
I glace to my side and see Andres still playing soccer.
"So, what can I do for you today, Camilo?" I ask.
He turns back and laughs, "You always see right through me, don't you, Precioso?"
"Well, to be fair, youre easy to see through. So, how'd ya' find me?" I ask, leaning over the counter to be a bit more comfortable.
"Oh, a little bird told me..." he says.
"Okay, so either Antonio told you, Delores heard and told you, or you over heard."
"One of those. You're a clever girl, aren't you?" He asks, leaning on the counter himself so that we're face to face. He has that dumb smirk on his face and we're just staring at one another. I'm trying to read his facial expression's while he's just studying my features. I figure it is the last thing I listed moments before and I focus on his features. They really compliment each other. Soon, it turned into an intense staring contest. He looks down at my lips for a second before looking back into my eyes as he smirks a bit and raises his eye brows. I feel my face go bright red. HOLY SHIT. nope, no. Do not let him get the best of you. He's just mindlessly flirting with you.
"Hey, y/n," I hear from my side. I turn quickly from the voice. I see Andres standing there with an awkward smile on his face.
"Hey, what's up?" I ask.
"The sky. Am I interrupting something?" He asks.
Before I can answer, Camilo chimes in, "Nena, who's this?"
"Andres, nice to meet you," he says, holding his hand out to shake. Camilo returns the gesture, it looks like he's crushing Andres' hand.
"So, uh, are and you and y/n... y'a know... together," he asks.
"No! No, no we're not dating. He's my friend's cousin. That's all," I chime in before Camilo gets the chance.
"I know who he is, don't worry. I didn't know you were friends with a madrigal. Which one?"
We catch up for a minute or two before he goes back out to his house.
Soon enough, I spot Mirabel in the distance with a bunch of little kids. I check the time and notice that Victor's shift is about to start.
I open the door to my house and yell in to Victor, "Hey Victor! Your shift is about to start, so hurry your ass up!"
Camilo looks around the shop at all of the work.
"These are really cool, you made these?" He asks as he points to a set I made.
"Yeah, I probably made most of these, I finished that one last week," I respond as I take off my apron. And hang it. Victor walks through the door and puts his apron on.
"As much as I loved this conversation, im going to catch up with Mirabel," I say as I make my way out. Camilo follows suit, but goes over to a group of girls and starts chatting them up.
"Mirabel! Hey!" I yell as I run over with a smile.
"Y/n? y/n! You live near?" she asks.
"yeah, just finished my shift at my family's pottery shop, just down the road. whatcha doin'? i ask.
"just telling these kids about my family."
"so, who else in your family is out here?" i ask.
"pepa, delores and her boyfriend, camilo, antonio, my dad and bruno. the village is finally warming up to him again. why, have you seen anyone?" she asks
"it's nothing really, camilo just played me a visit at the shop so i didn't know if-"
"he what?! He wasn't a bother, was he? he can be a jerk sometimes," she states.
"he met my childhood friend, andres. it was kind of intense between them. but that's it really," i say, quickly remembering the staring and the lip glances as i feel my face warm a bit out of embarrassment.
"oh, okay. as long as he didn't cause you too much trouble," she says and we continue walking and playing along with the younger kids.
After a good while of playing, I spot bruno in the distance.
"I'll talk to you later, I have to talk to Bruno real quick," I say as I make my way over.
"Bruno!" i yell over to him. he jumps a bit and goes to run away but relaxes a little seeing that it's only me.
"Hi y/n, is everything alright?" he asks.
"Yep, I just finished the little mugs for your rats this morning, if you wanna come see?" i ask.
"Oh! Uh.. yeah, sure!" he says hesitantly.
we make our way over to the shop and I remember to bring up, "these are on the house, by the way. we had extra clay left that needed to be used soon, so it was perfect."
"oh, thank you!" he says as we get in.
"Hello, welcome. is there anything you're looking for in particular, need made custom, or are you just browsing?" my brother asks.
"Oh! no, no I have an order for him, pre paid," i say as I take the mini mugs and set them into a bag full of tissue paper to separate them.
"Here you go!" I say as I hand it to him. He takes it graciously and gives me a hug in thank you.
We part ways and I make my way over to Mirabel again. I smile and wave and we talk for a little bit. I turn over to look at camilo and see him flirting with another girl. This girl, R, in particular, was my best friend. She's really nice, we didn't get off on bad terms, just kind of drifted apart. Now, she has a boatload of friends, and her beauty is that of a flower; she could match Isabela when she was our age. I'm just glad she's happy, I haven't seen her in a while.
"Y/n, you alright?" I hear Mirabel ask.
"Uh- yeah!" I say quickly, "just saw an old friend of mine."
"Old friend? Are you still friends?" She asks with a hint of curiosity in her voice.
"I don't know, she's super sweet. But wherever she goes, drama follows. Don't get me wrong, it's not her fault. People are just jealous of her," I say in her defense. I haven't seen her in a long time. I wonder if she's still the same person.
"What's her name?"
"Valentina."
HIII I HOPE YOU ENJOYED AND THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE LOVE!! I don't really know where to go from here, so the next chapter might take a while. if you have any suggestions for next chapter, please put it into the comments and I will consider it! (Don't put too much drama cause we're unproblematic people please)
Words 1855