·39·

"The Perfect Present"

Camilo lets out an exaggerated groan, continuously hitting his head with his notebook. "Why did I even actually decide to do poetry?" He asks himself, having trouble writing and thinking of words.

Sitting on a rock, he sighed and hugged his legs, closing his eyes to rest his aching head.

"The things I do for you," He whispered to himself, referring to the girl he likes.

In the woods, surrounded by nature and its beautiful sights with its peaceful, natural sounds, Camilo takes a break by reminiscing about some of his past memories. Like the day before he got questioned by Dolores because he was too stupid to figure out that he was actually starting to like Estella in a romantic way.

It was just a normal day for him that time – he did his chores, teased Isabela for the day, snuck a bit of food out, y'know, the usual mischief.

He was just walking along the street when he randomly decided that it would be fun to play a little harmless prank on Mirabel.

On his way to cause some mayhem, he happens to have crossed paths with a girl whose hair was tied up into a lazy and messy half bun, rushing off somewhere.

Her excessive giggling and excited running piqued the boy's interest.

She was carrying a bag with her, it looked new. He thought that maybe it was a birthday gift since her birthday just passed a few days ago. But that wasn't the thing he was curious about.

It was where she was headed – into the forest.

Why would she want to go there? He questioned, deciding to follow her only to lose track of where she went and immediately got lost in the time span of at least a few minutes.

Turning to look in multiple directions and getting anxious because his brain refuses to remember where he came from, Camilo scratches his head in frustration.

Unlike him, Mirabel and Estella knew almost every inch and corner of the place. So as soon as Estella saw the frustrated boy in the distance, she decided to give him a helping hand.

After, pulling a little prank, of course.

What's life without a little bit of payback, right?

★ No, I was just kidding with that one line. Don't take it seriously, I'm just a bad influence 😂 ★

Estella threw a rock in the opposite direction of where she was going to go, making Camilo get startled, looking somewhere to the left.

Grinning mischievously, Estella tried her best to walk quietly along behind the plants and bushes, stopping and avoiding Camilo's line of sight like a professional ten-year-old prowess.

"Wrrraaahhh!" Estella yelled, almost roaring like an animal with her hands raised up as she pounced from nowhere before getting hit in the face.

"Ow! Okay, that wasn't what I planned–," Estella muttered, covering her face as Camilo's jaw dropped to the floor the moment he realized he just hit a girl.

"Estella, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you, I just thought you were a hideous, hungry, viscous beast," He said in a hurry, his hands running frantically all over the place, not knowing what to do.

"Hey! I look far from a hideous, viscous beast," She said, crossing her arms, before adding, "But I could eat," as a joke.

She smiled warmly at him, letting a feeling of relief wash over the boy since she wasn't upset or that bothered about what just happened but still disappointed at himself for hitting her. Camilo smiled back, only to notice something dripping down her nose.

He screamed and took an involuntary step backward, surprising her and causing her to flinch. "What? What is it? There's no real beast behind me is there?!" She yelled in a panic, not wanting to turn around herself to take a look.

"Your nose is bleeding! Dios Mio, Camilo what have you done? I didn't know I was this strong," He said quickly, also in a panic as he takes hold of his one hand and looked at it like it was a hand of a monster.

Estella wiped her face with her sleeve, noticing that there was, in fact, blood. But just a little. She's got a bit of a sensitive nose.

"Oh," She let out, a bit surprised to see the red stain on her sleeves. "And I thought you screamed like a girl for something serious..." She told him a bit disappointed, narrowing her eyes at him.

"'Stel, Its blood. How is blood not serious? Plus, you're forgetting the fact that I just hit you!" He pointed out, making her stifle her laughter, annoying him with her sudden carefree attitude. "Why are you laughing?" He breathed out exasperatedly.

"It was just an accident. I'll be fine!" She shrugged, adding, "Besides, I'm having too much of a good day to get worked up over a little–"

Estella cut herself off, turning as she shrugged and continued, "Well, accident."

Confused as to where she was walking, the boy decides to follow her again, asking why she was so happy in the first place.

"I just am," She answered simply, "I have a new bag, I hung out with Mirabel this morning, I drew pretty flowers on my sketchbook, and my Mama is making my favorite food for dinner."

"Oh," He said, blinking at her reasons. "I guess today is a good day for you."

"What about you? Aren't you having a good day?" She asked as the two of them continued to walk with each other.

"I was until I hit you," He admitted, making her look at him from the side, "It's in the real-men-code-that-i-totally-didn't-make-by-myself to never hit a girl, you know."

"And, Mami told me so," He added, whispering the words bashfully under his breath.

Estella sighed and stopped in her tracks to face him, almost causing him to crash onto her if he hadn't stopped in time, their faces facing each other perfectly since they were still pretty much the same height at the time. Actually, Estella was most likely even just an inch or two taller than him too.

"Boop," She said, flicking his forehead out of nowhere.

"What was that for?" He asked, surprised as he placed a hand on the top of his head to protect himself.

"So you'll forget that you hit me and go back to having a nice day," She said, shrugging. "I just used magic on you."

"That doesn't work that wa– ow!" He exclaimed, getting flicked again as soon as he let his guard down.

"It could if you let it," Estella told him, stretching and flexing her arm to prepare for another flick.

"Alright alright, I'll get over it," He said, giving up, lying to her and to himself a bit.

Over time, he added mentally.

"Good, now stop whining about it like a baby," She huffed, starting to march forward again.

"I was not whining. I was just making annoying sounds while talking," He said, stopping at almost every other word, not able to think of a snappy comeback in time which makes her laugh.

"O-kay," She said in a deep, mocking voice, making him scoff.

"Anyway, here we are, Señorito Camilo," She teased, doing a little curtsy as she put her arm out to gesture for Casita in the distance.

"How'd you know I was, uhm, getting lost?" He asked, looking at her. The girl tilted her head, "uhmm," she kept saying before she shrugged.

"I just assumed you were?" She smiled awkwardly, scratching the back of her head as she added, "You just looked like you were lost. If that makes sense."

"Oh."

"Well, Adios amigo," She said, starting to skip back into the woods about to leave him confused.

"You're really happy today, aren't you?" He asked, smiling at her especially cheerful aura.

"Mhm," She replied, stopping to turn around and ask with a tone of uninterest, "Got something else to say?"

The boy laughed at her expression, "You're mean."

"Just with you," She smiled, showing her pearly white teeth as if what she said was her being nice. Although it was meant to be a joke.

Camilo smiled and yelled at her walking back figure, watching her march away, "Bully!"

"Troublemaker!" She yelled back, not bothering to turn. But even though he couldn't see her face, her smile was still present in her voice.

He laughed at her remark, starting to walk back to their house – casa Madrigal, with the image of Estella's smiling face stuck in his head.

"Just with you."

And as soon as he realized he was smiling at himself while thinking about her, he stopped in his tracks and furrowed his brows confusedly.

"Why am I smiling again?" He asked aloud to himself, confused about what his mind is doing; suddenly thinking about his cousin's best friend.

Estella was walking along the forest, looking for a certain seventeen-year-old, skinny, teenage boy somewhere, after being told to by Dolores.

In an indirect way.

And when I say in an indirect way, I meant that she popped up from nowhere and told Estella that Camilo was in the forest trying to think of something important she could help with.

The girl didn't really dig much into it after Dolores squeaked and left with her betrothed, she just shrugged it off and went out to try finding him.

Good thing her siblings take afternoon naps.

Estella sighed, seeing his yellow ruana and his auburn hair stand out from most of the earthy colors around like the green plants, the brown dirt, and the grey rocks. . .

"How am I supposed to know what to put next?" Camilo asked himself aloud, pausing shortly at every syllable in frustration as he glares at his paper.

Closing in the distance, Estella pops up from the side and spoke, "Maybe I could–"

She takes a step back in surprise, getting cut off by Camilo's surprised yell.

"...help," She managed to finish, eyeing him suspiciously, making him laugh nervously.

"Oh, hey," He said, smiling awkwardly at her as he fixed his posture and dusted himself before almost having his back fall on the ground.

Camilo noticed the girl's eyes slowly drift to the piece of paper he was holding. Pointing and about to ask what that was, Estella opened her mouth only to make the boy panic and end up crumpling the piece of paper and putting it inside his mouth.

"Camilo, what the fu–"

★ ★ ★

Estella laughed heartily, her booming laughter filling Camilo's ears as he frowned and hid his face away from her in embarrassment after telling her what and why he was doing what he was doing.

The girl wiped a tear from her eye, letting out a heavy breath from all the laughing she's been doing. "Whew, okay," She let out, along with the last of her giggling.

"Sorry, sorry," She apologized, placing a hand on Camilo's shoulder. "It's just...cute," Estella said, not able to find the right word, smiling sheepishly at him.

"You do know if you find it cute you can just say that," He joked, looking at her and tucking her hair behind her ear. "Just say it's ridiculous, I'll take it like a man," The boy added, making her chuckle.

"It's not "ridiculous", okay? I like your thoughtfulness," She confessed, making him grin. "What else do you like about me?"

Laughing at his transition from embarrassed and bashful to smug and flirty, she shoves his face aside, infecting him with her laughs.

"Well," Estella started, trying to talk poetically to tease the boy a bit, making him frown at her. "I appreciate your thoughtfulness and honesty, but I need not for such sophisticated poetry."

"It sounds fancy and it rhymes," He gasped. "How do other people make it look easy?" The boy questioned dramatically.

"You dork," She giggled before speaking softly as she started to explain her thoughts. "What I'm trying to say is that I appreciate your efforts," She said.

"But?" He trailed off, waiting for her to continue."But," She nodded slowly, adding, "Just getting to hold your hand is more than enough for me."

"No matter how cheesy that just sounded," The girl said, asking herself why she was like this, making the boy smile smugly.

"Really, is that all?" He grinned, lightly nudging her side as she started blushing. "Nothing more?"

"Yes, nothing more," She mumbled, letting her hair fall down her face as she looked away, grateful that she was too lazy to tie it decently at all today.

"Okay," Camilo smiled, brushing her hair away from her face and giving her a small peck on the cheek before standing up, which only made her blush more.

"I'll hold your hand as long as you want," The boy said, offering her his hand at her and once she took it, he plants a kiss on her knuckles as he looked at her in admiration, making her heart pound inside her chest.

The girl "lightly" punches him on the shoulder, making him laugh at her aggressiveness – it happens a lot to the point where it actually starts becoming her way of showing her affection. Or at least that's what he thinks.

"Whatever, let's just go," She grumbled, quickly marching forward, dragging him along with their hands holding on each other like before.

"Have I ever told you that I love it when you drag me around?" He asked, almost yelling in the loud tone of voice he was using, trying to catch up with Estella's fast-paced walking.

"Shush," Estella hissed, getting redder by the minute as Camilo simply giggled giddily at her like a simp.