Chapter 9

Camila

"Thanks Josh, I'll email you the rest of the information"I say to the blonde boy staring at me through the my laptop.

"Sure, we'll talk later"he says waving his hand with a smile.

I smile then ended the Skype video call. I rubbed my eyes and winced at the pain in my right arm, I rolled up my sleeve and looked at the black and blue bruise that once was red, it covered almost half of arm. I had to wear hoodies and long sleeved shirts around the house.

My mother indeed got her revenge, she couldn't wait until it was just us in the house. I wanted to go out but my father ordered me not to, I really knew better than to go against his orders.

"You're up early"Emilio says walking into the kitchen.

"It's only 5 in the morning, and why are you up anyway?" I ask looking at him closely.

He looked like he was just coming from a party, from his wrinkled clothes to his messy black hair. He definitely was coming from a party.

"Guest of honor"he says pointing to himself and yawning.

"Don't get that energy over here please!" I say fanning him off.

I was already up and I didn't need his sleepy energy to come all the way over here. I would only be tired and want to sleep. I already had gotten a few things done for Josh and I had lots more to do, I've been up from 4 with Josh, going over some stuff, I already couldn't sleep so we just decided to do that.

"Sorry, what're you doing anyway?" Emilio asks walking over to me.

I closed my planner and journal slowly, "get me an ice pack"I suggest before he could he any closer.

He nods walking toward the refrigerator and that gave me enough time to change my screen Netflix. He walked back to me and handed the ice pack to me, he sat down and turned my laptop to him and started to scroll through Netflix for a movie.

Rolling my sleeve up all the way, I put the ice pack on it, I winced in pain but kept my cool.

"Whoa, do you play in NFL or something?" Emilio asks looking at my arm.

"Shhh, I fell off the bed last night"I tell him while adjusting the ice pack on my shoulder, my mother really knew how to use her shoe.

"I see"he replied eyeing but didn't say anything else.

"I can make us pancakes" I suggested even surprising myself.

"I'm more of a waffles kinda guy, come a little better than that if you want to win my heart"Emilio says taping my nose.

"I don't want anything to do with you or your heart, I was only being polite, so you can starve because pancakes it is"I say tapping his nose in response.

The audacity of some people, I can't even go out without someone catching a picture of me. And in less than five seconds, it was posted on the internet. I couldn't go out to eat in peace without anyone asking for a picture, I don't mind, I just don't like the fact that they always said they wished they had my life, all I could do was smile and say you're the lucky one.

Now, as Mira and I walked through the mall. I could see a few cameras pointed at us and snaps of pictures. I really wished I could bury myself, people are in love with my life without even knowing the true story.

"I hate them"Mira says taking a sip from her milkshake.

"Just ignore them"I say rolling my eyes in response.

"It's hard to Cam, sometimes I wonder if their hiding in my bathroom or have cameras stuck inside my toilet"she says in frustration, causing a laugh to erupt from my throat.

"I'm sorry Em, but isn't that a tad bit much?" I ask giggling.

"You know what I mean!" Mira says as her cheeks went red.

I smile at her and we continue our walk out of the mall. We decided to take a girls day out today, it was Saturday and Elijah said he was busy with work and asked if I had anything else to do other than to sit in the house all day. I called Mira and she was more than excited to come over and we just decided to go out.

We've been out for merely two hours now, so far we've been to Venice, our favorite place in LA. We didn't get to go down to the beach though, because we never planned on going.

We walked along the parking lot where some guys were playing their guitars and other instruments as people danced and some just stood there and watched.

"Let's go a little closer"Mira suggests, I could feel the excitement as she jumped up and down like a child.

"Okay, okay!" I agreed grabbing her arms and calming her down.

We stood there and watched them play, Mira had started moving along with the music as I just stood there awkwardly. A guys dressed in nothing more than beach trunks pulled me toward him with a a playful smile.

"Dance with me!" he says as the music changed to something with more rhythm.

"Do it!" Mira laughed seeing my discomfort.

Heck, you only live once, I might get in trouble but I don't get to have fun, maybe take some more chances.

Mira and walked into the house, greeted by Elijah as he descended the staircase. A smile played over his face when he saw us laughing.

"I see you two had fun"Elijah says meeting us at the bottom of the staircase.

"You could say that"Mira says letting her words hang in the air as she walked away and toward the kitchen.

I scratched my arm furiously, it had been bugging me all day, I tried so hard to not scratch it around Mira, she would have freaked out. But now, I thought I could do it, not realizing that Elijah was still standing there and looking at me.

"It's burning hot outside, and you're wearing a hoodie?" Elijah asks raising his eyebrows at me.

"I'm not that hot"I shrugged walking off but he grabbed the back of my hoodie and I stopped in my tracks.

"Did she hit you?" Elijah asks pulling me back to him.

I stayed silent, I don't know why I thought I could hide from him with a hoodie, he became a little more questionable lately.

"No"I lied scratching my arm again.

"Right, you fell off your bed"he says and I closed my eyes, Emilio really couldn't shut up for a minute.

"It's not a big deal"I say attempting to walk away, only to get pulled back.

I turned to look at him and he matched my annoyed gaze, we both stared at each other in annoyance. Elijah was already way taller than me, he was around 6'4 while I was only 5'3, he was very tall compared to my height.

We stared at each other for what felt like minutes, no words, just eyes, and if that didn't freak me out, I don't know what did.

"Elijah, your father said he wants to see you"Quinn says from somewhere. She always sounds so desperate and needy.

"Tell him I'm busy"Elijah replied, he spun me around and wrapped his arm around my neck, pushing me toward the kitchen.

I heard Quinn let out an angry scoff before her heels were heard on the tiled floors.

"Take it off"Elijah says shoving me to sit at the island.

"Hey, this is the kitchen, take your kinky stuff else where"Mira says with her mouth filled with berries, she hasn't even been here whole ten minutes and she as already stuffing her face.

"Shut up Mira"Elijah says glaring at me.

"Did he just?" Mira asks herself but didn't say anything else, even though I could see her fighting the urge to reply.

I saw that Elijah wasn't gonna leave me alone so I removed the hoodie, at first there was pure silence, then came Mira's loud mouth.

"That dirty-....", her words were cut off by Chef, putting some more berries in her mouth.

Elijah walked closer to me and inspected my arm, he looked so focused for a good three minutes before he stepped back.

He didn't say anything, he just looked me in the eyes then turned and walked out. I looked at Mira and she shook her head.

"They ticked him off, tsk tsk tsk"she says chewing her berries.

I did agree to getting along with Elijah, but that didn't mean I needed him to fight my battles for me.