Mistakenly Fallen

8. "Jessica Knox?"

Camila gulped hard, looking at the girl sitting on the round table along with Charlie and the rest.

She had her eyes glued to Camila’s face and got up from her seat, walking towards Camila.

“Jessica Knox?”

Camila tried to confirm it for herself, still unable to believe her own eyes, that it was happening but it was all happening too fast for Camila to even process it all at once.

“Oh my God! Out of all the place, I never thought, I would run in to you here.”

She cheered out loud and hugged Camila, pushing her food tray upwards, making all her food spill over her clothes.

She immediately pulled herself back and removed the tray out of Camila’s hands as well. Her brown wavy hair bounced over her shoulders, as her plum lips shined with gloss and her high cheek bones and dark eyes, looking right at Camila, as her nose ran straight in a shape, making Camila wonder if it was always that linear or if Jessica had something done to it.

“Oh my God! I am so sorry! I am such an i***t, I got so excited when I saw you, I just couldn’t contain myself.”

She grabbed a bunch of tissue papers and passed it to Camila, who looked at her hand for once but took the napkins and began absorbing the sticky food contents and oils off her clothes but it was a near to impossible thing for her to do and Camila knew that she needed to clean herself up.

“Owh! Look at what my stupidity did! I am so sorry. You would need to clean yourself up now. Ugh! Only if I was more composed and had more control over my excitement.” The girl kept on chanting over and over again and Camila felt more agitated by her presence then the fact that she was drowned with grease.

“Oh, Jessica, really? You do have one heck of excitement nerves.”

Camila claimed, as she continued, the futile attempt to wipe herself clean.

“Yo! How do you two know each other, again? It seems like you two are just meeting one another now after years. Because if you two went to the same high school, you wouldn’t be that surprised to see one another.”

Charlie spoke one, intrigued to know who was the girl trying to claim herself as the best friend of the newbie that she herself was planning on getting close.

“Oh, we used to be best buddies in middle school, then I had to go to another city, because my parents shifted, so we lost contact but I am so happy that we finally reunited. Can you believe this, that we are in the same sorority and in the same university? Ugh! This is just so perfect.”

Jessica clapped her hands in excitement and Camila only rolled her eyes in annoyance, “I’ll go and change.”

“Yeah! I’ll ask the cook to keep a warm portion for you.”

Charlie told Camila, getting up from her seat and walking towards the preparation unit, to talk with the cook.

As Camila went back in to her room, she immediately jumped in to her bed and submerged her face in to her pillow, wanting to smother herself to death, due to the cruel game that fate had played with her.

Jessica Knox, was the last person that Camila wanted to see in her life ever again.

Because Jessica was the first person in the world that had made Camila realize that everyone would want to be friends with her only because of her brothers and their charms, or even if they were their best friend, they would eventually turn their backs on her, just to get closer to her brothers.

Jessica and Camila were best friends, ever since play group.

Their parents lived next door.

They both belonged to that rich, protective and over loving families but Jessica’s family always held a nag against Camila’s given to her status and sometimes even asked Jessica to not to hang around much with Camila, as they believed – seeing how much attention and power Camila had at her disposal could turn their daughter’s head against her parents, given that they didn’t have only one but four daughters to share their love with.

But Camila always had a positive impact on Jessica.

As they grew up, she taught Jessica – Jessi, to be very precise, to be a more obedient person.

Jessi listened to her parents more, studied hard, as she would notice Camila working hard as well.

Jessi, would always make sure to share her everything with Camila and even fought with her sisters, just to hang out with her Cami.

But of course, ever good friendship in Camila’s life had to come to an end.

As Jessi grew up and of course turned beautiful, also had boobs bigger than Camila and a sprouting puberty, that made her hips wider than Camila’s it was quite the very obvious that both Lucas and Nicholas started taking an interest in Jessi.

Their sources and reach to other girls was quite limited given to their profound puberty, so they even went ahead and fought each other in order to be with Jessi, who was just as confused, about being with one of the two brothers.

She finally rested her hands on Lucas, who obviously only chilled with her for a while and by chill – in his age and time, it meant to flirt, make out and dump the girl.

After Jessi was dumped by Lucas, she was extremely heartbroken and found consolation in Camila, who was there for her and warned her to stay away from her brothers, as being someone mature for her age, she had already started seeing a pattern amongst her brothers, who were turning in to playboys.

But Camila’s support wasn’t something that filled the whole in Camila’s heart that was drilled by Lucas.

Her eyes turned towards Nicholas, who at first was mad at her for choosing Lucas over him but couldn’t give in to Jessi’s temptations and the two ended up dating for three months.

When they begin their relationship, Cami knew that Nicholas was going to do the same as Lucas with Jessi, if not sooner than later. So, she was worried about her friend, whom she wondered if she could tolerate another heart break.

She termed a condition with Jessi and told her to stop seeing Nicholas and she would have to choose between her and Nick.

Jessi made a quick decision for herself and immediately went with Nicholas, rendering Camila as the heartbroken one this time.

Of course, Jessi also got dumped after three months but a boyfriend wasn’t the only thing, she lost out of that relationship.

It was only the best thing for both Camila and Jessica, that Jessica's parents shifted to Los Angeles and the two did not have to see each other in school anymore, where by Jessica had formed a group with other girls and had started spreading rumors about her, that she was insane and behaved neurotically at times.

But Camila did not care about any of that and in fact, she was the least bothered when Jessica move away.

She was sad over the fact that she had lost a friend but also at the same time, she had then began to see a pattern.

Anyone who would befriend her, only wanted to use her as a social ladder. Jesscia was the first one to make her realize that and the other who came in to Camila's life after that, only disappointed her, they did not surprised her at all.

Her entire high school life was overshadowed by her brothers and their presence around her.

She had moved to Stanford to run away from her past and live a life on her own. Make friends of her own, without being overshadowed by her past.

Slamming the cupboard harshly, Camila grunted in agony, throwing on an oversized shirt and ran made her way back inside the dining hall, unbothered to even dry her hair, as she took a quick shower and made her way back in to the dining hall.

She halted in her footsteps for a second as she noticed Charlie, along with her other friends and Jessi, walking out of the dining hall, as she was making her way back in.

“Oh! Sorry, we just finished our dinner.” Charlie told Camila, “But I asked the cook and she had prepared fresh dinner for you. Why don’t you have that and join us in the lounge room. We will be watching a movie together. Everyone will be there and you can get to introduce yourself with other sorority members.”

As Charlie walked away with Jessi, Camila grunted lowly, understanding that Jessi threw the food tray at her on purpose.

To feign Camila’s doubt, Jessi turned back at Camila at once and smirked deeply, showing it that she was already on the mission to isolate Camila from others.

But Camila was never the one to call it quits.

She immediately stuffed her mouth with her dinner that was actually piping hot.

She hurried her way in to the lounge area, where a huge projector screen was set up with the screen hanging low in front of the book shelves and a laptop fixed to the projector’s device, ready to show a movie.

The girl that Charlie had slammed earlier in the evening had just finished introducing herself when Charlie noticed that Camila had walked in to the room.

“Hey! Cam, why don’t you go ahead and then we will start the movie.”

Camila smiled and nodded with pride, determined to introduce herself to the entire sorority.

She had heard her mother tell the many legends of how she was all alone in her life, until she went to her college and had many girls help her and make friends with her.

Having her hopes up high Camila stood in front of the projector and at the same time, Charlie got up to play the film but Jessi held her hand.

“You sit down! I will do it.”

She walked towards the projector and at the same time, Camila smiled at the room filled with girls.

The lounge was dimly lit, to make the projector more visible and all the girls were slumped down across the room.

Some sat on the couch and some down on the floor and some had grabbed themselves bean bags to relax on.

“Hi, everyone! I am Camila Santiago and I am freshman, majoring in psychology and…”

“What the…”

She heard someone call out from the crowd and felt a shadow behind her.

She could sense the lights on the projector’s screen change and turned around to see a video of her being pushed in front of a huge bonfire. She immediately recognized the place to be her parent’s back lawn and she immediately remembered that it was the party before her final exams, where someone had pushed her off, when she was trying to search for her brothers and ask them to keep it low.

She gasped out loud, keeping a hand in front of her mouth.

It had already begun!

The nightmare of embarrassments where everyone would get to know about her past life and the fact that she was a neglected one throughout her entire high school days.

“Oh my God! Camila, is that you?”

Charlie asked keenly looking at the projector and Camila stood puzzled, wondering where did the video come from.

Her brain immediately followed the direction of the projector device and saw that Jessi had connected her phone with the projector and as everyone looked at Camila for an answer, they followed her gaze and realized that it was Jessi who had connected her phone to the device instead.

“Ops! I was actually searching for this movie that I had downloaded on my phone but I accidently ended up playing this video that I had received from a friend, a few months back. Sorry Cam, I was going to ask you about it, it just spilled out like that.”

She immediately disconnected her phone and pretended that it was mishap when Camila knew it right away that Jessi had done that deliberately.

A sly grin rested on Jessica’s face, as she felt victorious to a battle that she playing on her own.

“Dude! Did you really get pushed, like a wimp?”

Someone in the crowd cooed, making everyone roar with laughter.

“Sshh!” Charlie stood up and shushed everyone up, “Jessica, just connect back the laptop and play the God Damn film that I put previously.”

“That was so embarrassing.” Another girl whispered and their little coos, were definitely getting in to Camila’s ears.

Feeling annoyed, embarrassed and obviously ashamed of her past, she ran out of the room and Charlie rushed after her.

“Cam! Cam…”

She held Camila’s arms just right before she was about to climb up the stairs.

“Hey, listen. There is nothing to be embarrassed about. We all have been through some s**t and…”

Camila cleared her throat and looked up at Charlie and smiled.

“I am feeling really tired and sleepy. I didn’t rest today after the orientation and I have a class at nine in the morning. So, I will just sleep for now.”

“Are you sure, just stay for a few minutes and…”

“I really am tired.”

“Okay!”

Charlie let go off Camila’s wrist and watched as she went towards her room.

She shook her head and made her way back inside the lounge, where she looked at Jessica for once but refrained from saying anything to her, as her mother was actually a friend of Miss Betty and she had seen the two talking like best friends when Jessica’s mother had come by the night before to see her daughter off.

As Camila laid on her bed, she couldn’t help but curse her fate for being so cruel to her.

She knew that one way or the other, her past was going to come in front of her and haunt her down.

She didn’t know how long she laid in her bed and sulked over her sadness, until she heard some footsteps passing by her door and she sat up slightly and heard a pair of girls giggling and standing right outside her door.

“Hey! Isn’t this the room of that push over, right? How come she got a single cubicle while the rest of the freshies are thrown in a room together?”

She heard the same girl, whom Charlie had slammed down earlier in the evening, talking trash about her.

Somehow, Camila didn’t feel bad for what Charlie had done with that girl earlier in the evening and suddenly she realized that Charlie was right about them.

“Oh, she is actually from a very rich family. That’s why her parents requested in a cubicle for her.”

Camila heard Jessica blatantly lie right on her face.

Her mouth hung open as she heard Jessi’s made up story flare her anger.

She got up and almost reached the door to lash out on Jessica for being such a detrimental liar but stopped herself when she heard another girl mock her.

“What a loser! She is nothing but a daddy’s princess who is nothing without her parents’ power and money.”

As the girls laughed and went away, Camila slid down against the door and realized that those girls had made up a mind already and in their mind, they were going to be on Camila’s case for the rest of the time that they were going to live under the same roof as her.

But Camila was never going to quit! She had come so far on her own hard work and she was going to prove herself worthy of achieving all that she had ever desired and worked hard for.

Walking towards her study table, she picked up her calendar and marked down the day that had just passed by.

It is fine!

She told her own self.

I couldn’t get through a good day but it doesn’t matter because the upcoming days are going to be great. I promise myself.

Sitting on her chair, she opened up her laptop and opened her f*******: page where she saw that her mother had posted a beautiful message on her timeline.

Rachel had posted a picture of Camila and hers from her graduation and wrote down a beautiful note.

“I love you and I am incredibly proud of you for going after your dreams. Life can be a little scary at times but don’t worry, I promise – good days are coming ahead for you. I always believed that I had a guardian angel who looked after me and protected me many times and today I wish my guardian angel upon you. Don’t worry, you are safe and you will achieve great success in life.”

Camila’s eyes filled with tears.

Just when she thought that she was alone and there was no on in her life to give her love and support and she had to tell words of encouragement to her own self, her mother’s little wish brightened up her mood entirely.

Posting a thank you note underneath her mother’s message, Camila, scrolled through her f*******: wall a little further, until she saw that her brothers had also posted some pictures of their dormitory rooms and some of them standing in front of their business school building.

She noticed that they wore casual polo shirts and jeans along with sneakers to their orientation, an attire that was way more casual than what Camila had worn.

She suddenly felt irritated to see the fact that her brothers were already doing better than her.

Grunting in agony, she decided to ignore her brothers and scrolled past their post in which they were enjoying their life.

Going through her f*******: feed a little more, her eyes finally landed on the graduation post that Edward had done.

She realized that he had just posted his graduation pics, two days ago and he had mentioned in his post that he was busy, so he couldn’t post his graduation pics.

He had dedicated an entire post to his graduation and had posted some pictures of his orientation at MIT as well.

Excitedly, Camila opened up that post to see how Edward’s orientation went and saw that just like her, he also wore a formal shirt, along with formal trousers and paired them with leather lace boots.

She laughed out loud at the fact that Edward and her, were in fact quite a like.

Going through his pictures, she found herself looking at a picture of her and Edward from the graduation, where the two of them were standing next to each other and holding their diplomas in their hands and showing it off to the camera, who clicked a picture of them smiling.

Camila couldn’t help but smile her own self, as she read the caption that Edward had written over the picture.

‘And this one, helped me get through high school mostly! Reason why she was our valedictorian. The perfect and the best friend, someone could ask for.’

Camila smiled widely, unable to believe that Edward had finally admitted it in the open, that she was actually and in fact a friend of hers.

Maybe, she had made some friends at the end of her high school year.

Commenting, ‘best of luck’, underneath Edward’s post, Camila, closed her laptop and went towards her bed, laying down over her sheets and wrapping herself underneath a blanket.

She closed her eyes, determined to have a day better than that one.

Tomorrow – it was going to be different and Camila could feel it.

---------------------------------

Thoughts on Charlie and Jessica?

Sometimes, some people really say exactly what we want to listen and those are the best people that we need to hold on to. Do you have such a person in your life? In my life, that is my mother and my best friend <3

Thank you for always reading and supporting my work <3