Mistakenly Fallen

4. Which Meal You Wanted For McDonald's?

“She is not wrong.”

Cami stated suddenly making everyone in the room go silent.

Aurora stepped ahead, understanding how harsh her daughter’s words were to hurt Camila.

“Cami, I am sorry for Ariana and…”

“No! Don’t be sorry.”

She looked at her, with eyes filled with tears and her voice shaking up.

Everyone in the room felt startled to see Camila tearing up, something that nobody had ever seen happening.

She was a very emotionally strong and mentally determined girl, who didn’t let anyone see her tears but suddenly she couldn’t hold herself back anymore.

She was putting her dreams out on line, assuming that her family would care about her and allow her to pursue whatever her heart desired of.

That little hope came to her in the light of the fact that her parents cared enough to not to ever let her feel alone and threw her a graduation party and she assumed that her brothers would also support her in going to Stanford and take a stand for her in front of their father but in that night, she had suddenly felt left alone as everyone around her had nothing to give her at all.

What they had done that night, had suddenly scarred her and opened her eyes, making her realize that no one cared about her in any way.

“You don’t have to be sorry for her. She is not wrong.”

With that Camila walked away from everyone and feeling baffled by her words, Lucas was the first one to jump down the stage and rush after his sister.

“Where are you going? Cami, what happened?”

He asked, realizing that something deep was bothering his sister. He grabbed on to her wrist and held her back from walking away.

She shrugged off his hold on her wrist and Alejandro also walked in to stand next to his son.

“Cami, what happened? You have been acting strange all night. You weren’t anywhere to be seen in the crowd and …”

Rachel put a hand over Alejandro’s shoulder, stopping him from speaking any further and walked ahead to grab Camila’s face by patting her cheeks.

“Tell me honey! Is everything alright.”

She looked at her mother and realized that she was completely dense towards her.

Aurora was the first one to walk towards Ariana and grabbed her by her arm walking her out of the hall, ready to give her an earful and reprimand her for what she had done but Ariana shrugged her mother’s touch away.

“What are you dragging me for? She is a crybaby and a selfish person. We all gathered her tonight for her and she is acting to inelegant just because she didn’t get her due attention.”

“Ariana enough!” her father Luka, finally spoke up, shaking up Ariana’s soul.

She wasn’t much afraid of her mother but her father, he held a very intense personality that was enough to scare the living daylights out of Ariana.

Ariana looked down, not wanting to match her father’s infuriating gaze but listening to her words had ticked off a wire inside Camila, making her lose all her mind and energy, all of a sudden.

“No! let her speak.”

She pushed past her parents and stood in front of Ariana.

“Say, what more you have to say about me and my pathetic life! Go ahead and say it. What else is it that you have to say about me? Huh! I mean you must have a lot of anger bottled up inside you, right? For how many years, I have made you grind off your ass to come to all these pity parties that my parents have thrown me and you, who obviously thinks that she is way better off then me had to attend all those parties, because it is my fault that I am a loner right? Or do you ever even realize how much of a hypocrite and a two faced crook you, yourself are.”

Camila yelled on top of her lungs, not caring anymore about how much her words might get to someone.

She was always careful with about using her words carefully and walking on eggshells around people in order to not hurt anyone’s sentiment and not to break anyone’s heart but suddenly she wasn’t that kind of person anymore.

All those things that she had bottled up had suddenly been let lose by the events that had occurred in the night, coupled with Camila holding back her urge to define what she really wanted to do in life.

“You think are so great and so better than everyone else, right? When in reality you are nothing but a scared self centered and an abominable woman, whose self destructive behavior scared the s**t out of your own self. If you were such a better person, who is better than me, then why didn’t you ever tried to be friends with me, when I tried several times to reach out to you. You never hung out with me or even called or texted me back and yet you have the audacity to call me a loner or weird. Keep your words to your own self.”

Rachel was completely stunned to find her daughter lashing out on Ariana.

Her daughter was always calm and composed but something about her daughter told Rachel that Camila wasn’t going to be stopped at nothing but she didn’t intervene.

“Camila, that would be enough…”

Rachel stepped ahead grabbing Camila’s shoulder but she pushed her mother away.

“Oh please! Now don’t pretend that you care as well.”

“Camila!”

Rachel daunted her daughter, wanting her to stop at once with her vicious anger, that Rachel wasn’t prepared at all for.

She had never seen her daughter in such a furious state even when the mother and daughter duo were alone and seeing her in such a situation in front of the whole family and the extended members of the family as well, seemed quite a huge shock to Rachel.

“What? Now suddenly I am the bad person, right? I knew this was always going to happen, only if for the shortest amount of time, I showed my frustration and anger.”

“Nobody asked you to keep it within you.”

Lucas stepped ahead, trying to confront his sister, who in his point of view, was only acting out of some unknown reason but seemed generically pathetic to him, which made him angry.

“Of course! Nobody asked me to keep it within me just like nobody ever held any expectations from you and Nicholas.”

“You don’t know what we…” Nicholas tried to speak up but Camila cut him off, not seeing any other person’s presence in front of her or basically not caring who was sitting in front of her.

“But wait! You are right. Nobody asks anything from me but I thought that you guys were asked to attend this party tonight, which was a sham to my name. but it turns out, nothing in this house is for me. I was such an i***t to think that this was a pity party for me but it turns out, it wasn’t.”

Seeing that her daughter was well aware about why the parents had thrown the graduation party at the first place, Rachel felt disturbed. A string inside her felt pulled, where her skills and empathy as a parent towards Camila seemed suddenly challenged.

“Camila! What are you even saying?”

She tried to scold her daughter, in order to stop her from saying anything but Camila was too hurt to see anything beyond her own wounds.

“Oh, please Mom! I thought you know that I was smart. Why else would you guys throw a party for? Of course these two get to do everything but me! They get to roam around, party, drink, dance and do whatever the hell they want to but not me because you guys have caged me and I obviously know that these yearly post result parties that you guys threw was just to make me feel better that I never felt left out. When you guys clearly never even bothered asked me what I wanted and always imposed your orders and your wishes on me. What about me? What about what I have wanted? Did you guys even bothered asking me that?”

“So, we have caged you?”

Alejandro spoke up for the first time.

He had silently listened to his daughter’s complaint, trying to think of the fact that maybe he did fall short on serving as a good father, which he always feared would happen and only wondered if he was a terrible father.

Camila stood back quiet, after listening to her father speak up.

Not even once in her life had she spoken back to her father and she contemplated her options for being a rebel and yelling back at her father as well but even in her worst state, she couldn’t bring herself to it.

Sensing that Alejandro was then going to get involved in an heated argument with his daughter, Luca and Aurora were the first ones to grab their children and empty the place, especially when their daughter had acted a trigger of anger towards Camila.

Stephano and Greta also shared a well known look, as Greta stepped ahead and grabbed Salva’s arm, pulling him away from Nicholas, but he remained adamant at staying back.

He was almost like Alejandro and Rachel’s fourth child, always staying at their house more than his parents but Greta gave him ‘that wide eyed, threatening scary look’ and Salva immediately shut up, walking away with his mother.

Nicholas looked at him and he made a fist bump sign, urging Nick to stay strong, who rolled his eyes away at Salva’s attempt to make this thing look as if it was a huge survival fight.

Selena was also held by his father Anthony and his wife Martha, as they walked away and out of the mansion, everyone feeling nothing but utterly awkward about what they had just witnessed.

“I asked you something!”

Sensing that the room was finally empty and that Camila would like to speak to her father for once, Alejandro rose his question back again.

“I will not be answering that.”

With that she took a few steps to walk out of the room but Alejandro didn’t allow her to.

“This conversation is not over! Until I say so.”

Suddenly his domineer changed from empathy to interrogative. He wasn’t simply looking ahead to see what his daughter felt about him. He then wanted to know what exactly sparked such a rude behavior from his daughter.

“Why? Why are you forcing me to have a conversation now?”

“After the way you behaved, I have every right to know why did you act this way. I know you Camila, you are my daughter. I know there is no way you would act out of anger and…”

“You don’t know anything about me or what I like or what I want. So stop pretending that you care about me. Because tonight, if I got to know one thing, then it is truly the fact that nobody cares about me.”

“Oh my God! Will you stop renting like a little baby! Boohoo! So what if mommy and daddy didn’t make you feel like a princess?”

Nicholas grunted in annoyance.

“Seriously? Just because one night wasn’t about you, you created a whole drama and for what?”

Lucas was the second one urged by his brother to call his sister out.

“Why? Why does every night has to be about you guys? You two are dumb enough to not have an opinion, so it is not my fault that I have opinions and could feel hurt because I don’t have the luxury to be free like you two!”

Camila didn’t hold herself back and fought with equal arguments with her brothers.

“You two don’t get to tell me if I feel bad about one night not being about me, because it is literally, the only one night, that is actually about me. When else does anyone ever cares about me? And don’t you think, I don’t know what you guys get to hear from the rest of our cousins behind my back. You guys, knew it very well all along that I am never considered a part of your little cousin’s group. You guys have conversation groups without me. You guys hang out all the time without me and because of what? Why? Because I study well and because of me you guys get compared to me and that makes me annoying? Have I ever told any of the parents, have I ever told Mom and Dad what you guys do when you get together? Then why, do you guys don’t call me to your hangouts, have I ever done something to any of you? Then, why can’t I even complain about one night, what I thought was really about me and you guys just showed up to cheer me up or even just barely make up as part of your ignorance towards me, was not even it and you guys felt nothing but forced and hated me for that.”

Lucas and Nicholas, both went completely silence, as they heard Camila’s words falling upon their ears. They both were guilty somehow, of never telling Camila what their cousins talked about her behind her back and how they never actually told her the truth about how the rest felt about her and had actually stopped calling her to their hangouts and eventually had cut her off.

“Again! I am not a bad person and if you guys are really that much of good people and are better than me, then why didn’t you guys ever tried to be my friend? But no! you guys enjoyed watching me left alone because for once, I was good at something and better than the rest of you. You guys antagonized me for nothing. I could never make any friends in real because of you two. Anyone who would ever be with me, would just want to be next to my cool brothers. How many times, did I ever complained about that? For once, for once I speak up for myself and I am a cry baby?”

“Why did you feel caged?”

Alejandro once again rose his point, making Camila go quiet once again.

“You have always known that I can not allow you to go alone or anywhere because I am concerned about you…”

“Your concerns suffocate me! They make me feel worthless. Your orders, your instructions and your commands are nothing to me but a way for you to impose your choices on me. I never said anything because I was an i***t to think that you do all of this to care about me, but you don’t! you do not care about me. Is that what you wanted me to say? Is that what you wanted to listen? Is that why you kept on asking me again and again, why I felt caged? Have you gotten your answer yet?”

Suddenly Camila didn’t even care, if she was speaking back to her father in a rude manner or not. She wasn’t that shy or obedient Camila anymore. She was out for her rights and she was getting out, everything that she had bottled out for once.

“I don’t care about you? It is exactly why I care about you that I make sure that you never get hurt! I make sure that you are safe and protected. That is because I love you and I care about you.”

“If you really care about me, then you would’ve at least asked me once in my life what I truly want? Have you ever even for once, asked me that question? Can you even remember the last time what I wanted?”

“I asked you literally last week, which meal you wanted for McDonald’s.”

Alejandro tried to defend himself with a very poor preposition, that made Rachel groan in anger, whilst Nicholas and Lucas snickered at their father’s words.

Camila felt nothing but completely blown away by her father, trying to take the situation so lightly, whilst she was literally fighting for her future at that moment.

“Oh my God! I didn’t mean for you to ask me what I want to eat but I mean it with my life! Like my goals! That is literally what I am complaining about but you are honestly, mocking me up here. I am not going to talk to you anymore when you don’t even have the basic understanding of what I am going through.”

Alejandro couldn’t argue with his daughter anymore, he felt exhausted and looked up at Rachel.

“Is she having her periods?’

Lucas stepped ahead and asked Rachel and feeling completely belittled in a way when her own brother blamed her tantrums on her hormonal state, instead of actually owning up to his mistake, felt like a point break for Camila, who finally burst out in to tears, that she had been holding back for a while.

“Oh God! Look at you guys. You are amazing Dad!” suddenly Alejandro had also become a point of attack for her, “Look at how amazingly you just ignored me and my problems but invalidating them and making them unreal. That is how you all invalidate my feelings as well.”

“Invalidate? What… what are you even talking about. What wrong have I done?” he looked at Rachel and Camila felt annoyed once again.

“Can’t you see that I am the one talking to you. Why do you keep looking Mom for an answer? Why does she have to translate everything come out of my mouth? Can’t you understand English now? You call yourself a my father and yet here you are looking at Mom, just to communicate with me and then you wonder how come you don’t ask me about my wishes and what I want?”

“Okay! Tell me what do you want and… and how do I make you feel invalidated?”

Alejandro asked, urging his daughter to speak up to him one on one and as if it was exactly what she wanted to listen from her father, she felt her mouth open wider like a drum bursting open as she yelled back at her father.

“Have you ever even asked me what my dreams and ambitions are? You are literally forcing me to go to Harvard with Lucas and Nicholas, in the name of keeping me protected without even realizing that you are making me give up on my dreams.”

“What dreams? Children out there literally fight for their lives to go to Harvard and you are telling me that you don’t want to go their, what I have worked so hard to get you and your brothers in?”

“First off! Your sons are the idiots who need your help to get in any university and yes it is a miracle that with a micro brain like theirs, they had been able to get in to Harvard, when I was pretty sure they wouldn’t make it anywhere…”

“Hey!”

“That is rude!”

Both Lucas and Nicholas felt offended by Camila’s harsh words, that carried no filters.

“Secondly, you never asked me if I wanted to go to Harvard or not. You just asked Lucas or Nicholas, which school they preferred and you assumed that I would go with them because that is what you had always been doing, forcing me to join them in their ventures and forcing me to what they have always been doing.”

“What did you want?”

Alejandro finally asked the question that Camila had been dying for him to ask and what Rachel assumed was only a rhetorical statement, actually turned out to be a very valid question for Camila, who yelled back at Alejandro.

“I want to go to Stanford.”

“Stanford? How can you go to Stanford now? Sweety all the admission are closed and…”

Rachel tried to hold her daughter back but Camila was in no mood to keep secrets anymore.

“I already got in! because I already applied on my own.”

Silence!

Nothing but sheer silence echoed after she announced the truth of what she had done.

Everyone in the room had gone completely still and for a moment, even Camila realized that she had broken out a piece of information that was actually too much for everyone to take.

Of course, everyone was shocked because she was never the one to go behind someone’s, especially her family’s back to do something and with her, actually have done something to gallant and bold, shock seemed to be the only appropriate response coming from everyone.

“When… when did you apply?”

“During the application time.”

She stated with a meek tone.

“And when did you receive your acceptance letter?”

“Last week.”

“Oh my God!”

Rachel was enthralled at what her daughter done.

It was amazing yet scary at the same time.

To her, it felt like she didn’t know anything about her daughter and the girl standing in front of her was completely someone else.

“I thought, that if I got really good results, in my finals and graduated, top of my class; Dad would get really happy and ask me, if I wanted something as a gift in return and then I would tell him that I wanted to go to Stanford but this is just useless now.”

Taking out a folded up letter from the pocket of her dress, showing it to everyone.

When Selena had come in looking for her in her closet, Camila had only thrown away the envelope of the letter but had kept the rest of her letter in the pocket of her dress, one of the reasons why she chose to wear a dress with pockets at the first place, only to give the letter to her father, any instance he would ask what gift she wanted.

“But now it seems useless…”

With that she threw the letter on the ground and walked out of the room, leaving her family in silence and complete confusion.

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Well isn't it irritating when you are demanding something from someone and your life depends on it and they just make it in to a big joke!

You guys will get to see a lot of Alejandro and Rachel, your favorite couple in this book for sure!

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3