Mistakenly Fallen

11. 'A'?

Tapping her flipflops against the white tiles of the convenient store, Camila chewed on the bubble gum inside her mouth and held the oversized hood of her sweat hoodie on top of her head, that read Stanford.

She was definitely going to flaunt the fact that she went to her favorite university and in fact, she had kept that hoodie safe inside her closet ever since she bought it at the souvenir shop from the campus but recently, she couldn’t feel the excitement and passion for her college life in her nerves anymore.

Her sorority was toxic and shitty and everyone around campus was simply rude and hated her for now reason.

Standing in the long queue at the cashier, she craned her neck ahead and saw that the line had been stuck due to a tall guy in a trench coat, standing over at the cashier.

The hippie cashier of the nearest convenience store of the Palo Alto neighborhood, to where Camila’s sorority was, grabbed his head, as he tried to argue with the man in front of him.

“Dude! We just don’t have the cigarettes that you want.”

Camila could see the man’s back only and wondered what a man like him, wearing a Burberry coat, in the descending winters of Palo Alto was trying to do. As he rested his neck low, his coat moved back and revealed the high neck that he was wearing underneath his coat.

His hair were slicked in a perfect puff, resting on one side of his head and his streak of light brown in his brunette hair told Camila that the man held a different and a stylish maneuver. She was intrigued to see a man going around in such a lavish attire. Most of the guys around his age, barely bother to wear a sweat shirt and pair of those jeans shorts that they so proudly call jorts. She hadn’t seen a single guy with a good sense of style and dressing, something that Camila found to be a huge turn on for her.

Because her favorite model was David Gandy and her favorite actor was Brad Pitt, someone who jolted her insides with their dressing and aura of style.

“Just show me the cigarettes of the other brands that you have, with less nicotine.”

Listening his thick British accent, Camila smirked to her own self that she had hit bull’s eye, when she had predicted that the man wasn’t from around, as the people around the town, didn’t bother to put up that much of a good look.

Camila looked down at her cart and felt confused thinking whether or not she added juices to her carts, as she searched inside her cart and made sure that she had everything, she once again heard the cashier and the mysterious man argue.

“Dude! I am telling you, these are the only ones that we have and this…” he picked out a particular pact and showed it to the man, “This one has the less nicotine, who much less do you want? Have they started making some cigs without nic, just tell me dude?”

“Oh come on, just buy whatever they have!”

“Yeah!”

“We have been waiting for too long, now!”

People in the line began complaining out loud and the man sighed in agitation, realizing that he will have to go to another store and wait in a long queue just to get what he wanted. He asked the cashier one last thing.

“Is there any other store around that might have the cigarettes that I am looking for?”

Still keeping her head submerged in her basket, Camila answered mindlessly.

“There is one two blocks behind this store. They have the ones with less nicotine.”

“Are you sure?” the man turned towards Camila but Camila couldn’t see his face, as she was still making sure that her basket was well stocked.

“Oh yeah! The girls from my sorority always buy those cigarettes that store has a huge stock of them.”

Everyone in the queue laughed out loud as Camila had rendered the man slightly embarrassed and he huffed in annoyance, storming out of the store and Camila finally looked up to see that everyone in the store was looking at her and laughing.

“What? What did I do?”

She asked but no one bothered to answer and simply had their products bagged.

Clearing her bill, she walked out of the store and began wondering what was everyone fussing about inside the store.

Reaching the end of the street, she halted by the signal and picked out her phone, seeing that her brother had texted her.

Lucas: “Almost here.”

She noticed that the message was around fifteen minutes ago and her brothers may have reached and might be waiting for her.

She looked up and saw that the signal to walk had turned green and she chimed, crossing the road and looking down at her feet, until she felt a shadow speed towards her.

Her eyes turned wide, as she looked up to see a flash of a light approaching her a blinding speed.

She squinted her eyes at once, to see what the flash was approaching her but she suddenly realized that it wasn’t a flash but in fact a head light and not just one head light but in fact, two head lights of a sports car.

She stood frozen to her spot as the car approached her at a high speed.

Her brain felt paralyzed as she didn’t know what she should do anymore.

Her legs shook with high impact and her brain felt completely useless along with her peripheral nervous system also wrecked down completely, suddenly everything in her body going out of order.

The car honked loudly and approached her with the same speed but both Camila and the approaching car, remain stubborn on their agenda, not caring who will get hurt in the process.

As the car got closer and closer, the head lights shun brightly openly Camila’s face, blinding her vision and it only seemed a matter of a few seconds, before it finally hit her.

But she felt two firm and strong pair of arms, clasping around her waist and enclosing her body in to those firm arms, as she felt being pushed in to a hard wall.

The wall stumbled backwards, pulling her along with itself.

Camila closed her eyes shut, feeling the impact of her body, as she clung on to the cloth that covered the arm of the structure that pulled her with one hand and her other hand grasped on to something thin.

She knew that was safe, because something helped her move finally. She opened her eyes at once, as she still clung on to what she could assume was a man’s body, who was also her savior.

She felt the car push past her in a high speed, blowing air on to her body, not holding down on its speed, even after seeing that someone was standing in the way and the signal was still red for cars.

“Sorry!”

“Just move aside!”

“Don’t be so dramatic!”

“Were you standing here to die!”

Frat boys, jumped out of the roof of the car and instead of admitting their mistake they tried to paint the picture that it was Camila’s fault that she was standing in the middle of the road.

Furiously, fisting her palms, she turned back towards the passing by car that had now slowed down only to give an earful to Camila but she was in mood to take any piss from anyone.

Furiously walking towards the car, she held her middle finger out.

“You just ran over a red light! Should I call the cops on you? Don’t you know the traffic rules? I was crossing by when the light was green on the cross walk and what did you do? Is this even your own car?”

She yelled out loud at what she immediately recognized to be as frat boys and they felt frightened seeing Camila’s furious and raging reaction. Taking her phone out of her hoodie’s pocket she flashed it to the boys.

“Do you want me to call the cops? I have noticed your car’s number.”

She pointed out towards the number plate, that made the young trouble makers, slip back in to their cars and sped it right away.

“Yeah, that’s right! Run away like little p*****s, you scared pieces of big flapping vaginas.”

With that she smiled to her own self, that she was able to scare the trouble makers, who would definitely think twice before causing any trouble and speeding towards another person on the road.

She sighed in relief and shook her head, realizing that there was someone who had previously saved her and she turned back to thank that person but saw no one in that moment.

Her eyes opened wide in horror, as she saw no one near her.

“What the hell?”

She looked around the entire street, moving her face both sides and realized that the street was entirely empty.

“Where did… where did he go? He was just here a second ago.” She looked around the entire lane, walking towards the corner of the building which was present at the very end of the street and looked towards the other side of the road, trying to spot if she could find any man wearing what she could assumed to be a coat.

“Gosh! I should’ve thanked him first before fighting those idiots.” She grunted in annoyance and ran a hand across her hair, only to realize that all the while her hands were involuntarily fisted and she was in fact holding a thin silver chain in her hands that had a pendant attached it.

She looked down at the pendant and saw that it was a silver reflecting pendant in the shape of a half broken heart, seemingly looking like it formed a half of what would be an other wise a complete locket if the other shape of the pendant would be attached to it. The cracked shape of the heart had a thin lining over it, showing that it was detachable and Camila was quick enough to judge the fact that the heart was indeed detached from the other end as well.

She turned it around and found herself amazed as she read the initial ‘A’ engraved in a black cursive over the locket.

‘A’?

She wondered to herself, wondering if the person who saved her, had his name start with the letter A or if his lover’s name started with an A, because the locket seemed quite to be quite an intimate gesture from someone’s loved one.

Camila smiled, keeping the locket safe in her hoodie’s pocket.

She was going to make sure to keep it safe and find her savior and thank him properly when she will get to meet him.

Of course, she wouldn’t find him on the streets the next time a car will attack her but she would definitely find him one way or the other, when she will advertise about the lost locket in Stanford Daily, the guy who saved her would definitely come to take it and then she would get to thank him properly.

She immediately held high regard and respect for him and couldn’t wait till to meet him and show him how grateful she was for him and his immediately quick thinking that saved her life.

A smile rested on her lips as she made her way towards her sorority but paused when she heard loud screams and hoots coming in from inside her sorority and several cars were parked right outside the house.

It wasn’t a huge wonder for cars to be parked right outside the mansion as many people who came in for the frat parties, around the block, usually parked miles away and most of the times in front of the sorority, in order to attend those parties.

Craning her neck, she looked towards Alpha Psi Gamma, the fraternity in which Jeremy lived in and saw that many young boys and girls lines up inside the house and the house was having a party of its own, right before Spring break.

She looked back at her sorority house once more, wondering what was going on and her eyes bulged out of her socket as she realized what might be going inside.

Rushing in, she ran inside the lounge of the house and sighed in frustration when she realized that her fears were just about right.

It was her brothers.

They sat right in the middle of the lounge area with some of their other friends, surrounded by the sorority girls, who were swooning over her brothers, as if they were living pieces of fresh salmon that had come to their house for a live sushi cooking show.

And obviously, her brothers were enjoying the attention that they were receiving at the hands of fifteen girls at once.

“What are you guys doing here?” Camila grunted in annoyance and Lucas looked up at her, surprised to finally see his sister.

“Hey!”

He cheered and got up, hugging her at once and Camila held her anger inside her veins and hugged her brother back, as she looked over his shoulder and found Jessica and Charlie amongst the crowd that was surrounding her brothers.

Looking at Jessica’s heinous face, Camila could tell right away what Game Jessica was trying to play with her.

Jessica knew how much Camila despised the girls around her who leeched on to her brothers, therefore, she had drawn her brothers inside the house, even though she hated them before she began hating Camila.

“What are you doing inside the house? You should’ve waited outside and called me.”

“Oh, we were waiting outside when we ran in to Jessica here. You didn’t tell us that you and Jessica are in the same sorority” Nicholas pointed out towards the woman, who was grinning out from ear to ear towards Camila.

Camila ignored her expressions, not wanting to look at her and give the satisfaction of ruining Camila’s mood for the night.

“Oh, look at you remembering about the girls in your life.” Camila snorted at Nick, throwing a curve ball his way, that he was definitely not able to dodge.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he mumbled lowly under his breath.

“Let’s go outside and talk.” Camila grabbed Lucas’s hand and signaled at Nicholas to follow her out but Charlie emerged in the middle of the crowd and held her hand up on to Nicholas’s shoulder.

“Wait! Where are you going?”

“I need some privacy to talk to my brothers!”

Camila pointed out and Charlie smiled back at her, trying to act the nicer self of her that she was before turning her back on Camila when she refused to put in a request in front of her father for Charlie.

Seeing that smile emerging back on Charlie’s face, Camila simply shook her head in disappointment, understanding it clearly well what Charlie was up to.

“You can talk with them later. I mean, they are your brothers. Let them stay with us, we just got to talk to them and it is fun.”

“Charlie, are you trying to throw a party in here? They are boys and they are not in allowed in our sorority. Out of all the people, you should know this the most, you are the sorority president.”

Charlie realized that she couldn’t fool Camila with her sweet smile anymore, therefore, she held on a stiff expression on her face, going back to the wench she was actually supposed to be.

“Hey! Everyone here can have a good time because of your brothers and Miss Betty has also gone on a early vacation today. So, no one will know what happens in the sorority if everyone just keeps their mouth shut which I am pretty sure that everyone is willing to. So, let everyone just enjoy.”

“No boy is allowed in the sorority. The rule states it clearly well.” Camila lowly warned Charlie, who wasn’t willing to back down as well.

“Ya! Didn’t I just tell you that we don’t need to follow any rules and besides, people of other genders can be allowed inside the sorority if they are a relative to someone living inside the house.” Charlie challenged Camila back and she decided to stop her argument with Charlie, as it only seemed to be in vain and a waste of time.

“Luke, Nick! Do you guys want to stay here?”

Nicholas seemed to be quite hesitant at first but Lucas didn’t wait even a single second before jumping in.

“Of course we do.” He looked at his friends, who cheered on as well.

Camila snorted out loud and rolled her eyes as the realizing dawned upon her.

“You guys, didn’t come here to meet me did you?” she asked her brothers in a tough tone.

“Stop being so melodramatic.” Jessica was the next one to try and invalidate Camila’s feelings.

“Did I talk to you?”

Camila didn’t hold herself back either, she was full of anger and fire. It was her second time during a period of thirty minutes when someone had called her over dramatic for a fault that was clearly not hers.

Her mind was spinning with rage and if she was going to get down in a physical fight with anyone, she wasn’t going to hold herself back either.

“Hey, relax.” Lucas held his sister’s shoulder and made her look up at him.

“We are only here to enjoy, so let’s not ruin the atmosphere and...”

She shrugged away Lucas’s touch and stepped away from him.

“You didn’t come here for me but you and your friends came here to get in to a sorority, right? And what else could’ve been a better way than to exploit your sister’s name.”

“You really are being over dramatic.” Nicholas told his sister, eyeing her to calm down but Camila wasn’t just feeling angry but betrayed by her own brothers and the other members of the sorority who obviously chose to party with her brothers, over supporting her.

“Fine then! Enjoy your night! I will make sure to not to be over dramatic.” She taunted her brother back for his insolent and obviously insulting behavior and rushed towards her room and closed the door behind her, throwing her groceries on the floor in an agitated manner and slipping against the door of her room.

She couldn’t believe her own self that her brothers had found a way towards her sorority and they were probably going to taint that place with echoes of their memories, as everyone after that night was going to remind Camila and make her feel embarrassed of what her brothers had done.

They were a wreck and lose bolts when it came to partying. They didn’t realize what kind of mess they left behind them each time they partied hard with girls and slept around with them. It was going to be the same around that time as well.

Camila couldn’t help herself but cry to her pathetic situation.

What angered her even more, was the fact that her brothers and their friends, jumped and drank with the girls of her sorority, with whom Camila shared the same roof.

She didn’t want to stay inside the house anymore, she felt suffocated and choked, as she spent more and more time inside that house.

She couldn’t just sit inside that place anymore, as it mentally exhausted her beyond her tolerable limit.

Getting up from the floor, she grabbed a sleeveless black dress, that ended right beneath her torso. She usually paired it with dark stockings but that night, she was in no mood to listen to her good conscience and wanted to make decisions that she didn’t usually made.

Every single thread inside her mind, that kept her sanity in her, felt like breaking one by one.

Wearing her ankle boots, she picked out her black leather jacket and walked towards her vanity table, throwing on the slightest amount of make up that she could in that given period of time.

She looked out the window and being in the very corner room of the house, she found that the party in Alpha Psi Gamma, that was at the corner of the block was still going on.

She paused for a moment, contemplating her choices of how needy she required herself to look but at the same time, she was in no mood to make wise decision.

She was in mood for some wreckage and act a little toxic, given to all the bad radiations that she had collected over the past eight months.

It was the night before the spring break, so Camila wanted a taste of some spoilage and wreckage in her life and let out all the toxicity that she had accumulated inside her.

Putting on a burning hot red lipstick, Camila grabbed her jacket and made her way out of the sorority, passing by the lounge room, where her brothers were busy, dancing and drinking with Charlie, Jessica and the rest.

She paused back for a second, wondering if her morals, values and her sanity was more important to her than those people who were determined to ruin her mental peace and looked at the close door of the lounge area for once.

She closed her eyes and tried to stop herself one last time before she left the house. Because she knew that once she walked out of the door, there was no way she was going to come back inside the house with her sanity intact.

She could feel something twisting around her guts and she didn’t know whether it was her anxiety warning her to stay put or her guts, finally breaking free of all the shackles of morality and prudence that kept her in her good girl mode.

As she held her eyes closed, she couldn’t help but heard Charlie and Jessica, screaming out her brother’s name, each time they took a body shot off any one of them.

It disgusted Camila to her core and there was no way she was going to let those voices determine her night.

Finally, coming up with an answer to her problems, Camila turned around towards the door and opened it up, finally walking out of the house with the determination to not to come back until the night was over.

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Welps! Something fun is coming up in the next chapter :P

And all of you, who are worried that Camila would not get any good friends, don't be worried :P

She is definitely going to get some good friends, just hang in there.

Always remember that good times come after the bad ones are over, right? :)

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3