Roses are red ~ Camilo Madrigal

.Three.

As the years went by, Francesca's mother only got sicker. This in all honestly made Francesca bitter. She had seen happily family walk around the town, some brought a sad smile to her face while others made her want to scream and throw something at them as they took too much for granted. Each day grew as pointless as the last, well it felt pointless to her. She woke up, got ready for her day and then squandered it wasting away in a small antique shop she was told to run.

It wasn't exactly like she could just quit, to do so she would have to sell the shop and find a new job entirely to afford the cost of living. Instead, she spent her days mostly alone tinkering away trying to fix old grandfather clocks and jewelry. Of course it was peaceful, but also very draining. Having to sit and wait for another order, only being able to stare out the window and imagine a life that is somewhat better than her own. Perhaps wishing herself a place in a family as happy and carefree as the Madrigals.

But, today wasn't just a day for her to sit and stare out of a window, in fact, a few minutes into her shift there was no window, well there was, just it was on the floor and in shattered fractals of glass. So, yea, maybe today wasn't going to be the best day. To day the least, Francesca was not happy, at all. Picking up the ball she sighed, looking around for the culprit assuming it was a little child so she couldn't exactly sue them for property damage, and she wasn't going to follow them home to talk to their parents because that's kind of creepy. But as she turned around, she was met with two familiar eyes which had been piercing the back of her skull. Her former classmate, former crush and the current village idiot.

Camilo Madrigal. Who was stupidly given the gift of shapeshifting, which he was using right now, changing between seven people before turning back to himself. Which, in Francescas opinion was a pretty useless gift compared to Julieta or Luisa. And has actually not come anywhere near her since she was in school.

As she walked over to him she let out a sigh, rubbing her temple the ball in her other hand.

"Is this your ball-" She put on a smile, not wanting him to run off or something. In fact, she knew it was his ball, because as she turned it around it said Madrigal, in capital letters, the blank smudged a little.

He gulped before nodding, "Sì, Lo siento- ¿Maria?" (Yes, Sorry- Maria?)He smiled slightly, trying to take the ball from Francescas hands. Scoffing she pulled it away from him, stepping back a little.

"One, that isn't my name. Two, you broke my window and three snatching is rude-!" She pulled on her plaits, turning around and walking back towards her shop. Stopping dead in her tracks as she felt a hand yank her into standing still.

"Sorry! Sorry!" He bit back his words before continuing on. "About the window and everything that happened after- My mami just sent me down into town to do something productive and-"

Francesca interrupted him, a bitter smile on her face. "And you decided to break my window, your mother must be so proud!" She walked off once again, lifting her dress us as she walked over the glass shards, hearing a faint 'let me help you' from behind her. "Don't you think you've dont enough as it is!-"

Camilo ran over the glass, standing outside the shop just in front of her, "Ay, but there has to be something I can do-" To which Francesca nodded, before thinking for a solid few seconds.

"Two things actually- There's two things you can do for me." He smiled hopefully, looking to the football. "One, pay for the damage you did to my window, and two- Well we can get to that later." She smiled contently, knowing he wouldn't be able to pay off her window, which really shouldn't be something she's smiling about, but she was enjoying watching him suffer, especially after what he did to her in the weeks that followed her ending her friendship with Mirabel.

"Woah- That's- Well- Out of my price range sorry!" He held his arms up, a worried expression appearing on his face as he thought about the possible cost of the window.

Francesca shrugged, still smirking. "I guess I should go find one of your relatives, I can't run the shop with a broken window anyways-" His fear only grew as he thought of his family finding out about the broken window, and the possible storm that would come afterwards.

"Ay- Lets maybe not go that far chica bonita. We don't want a hurricane happened do we?" Camilo spluttered out, backing up a little animately moving his hands as he talked. Francescas eyes widened shaking her head,

"So you don't even care about my broken window- You just care about the weather!" She sighed frustratingly enough, she knew that it probably would be a bad idea to tell his mami about the broken window. "You can't just leave it like this. It's how I make a living!-"

"¡Si! I know, but what do you want me to do, I don't have a job or money-" He panicked, running a hand through his hair. She sighed, as a matter of fact, she didn't like the store that much. It wasn't making a lot of money and definitely wasn't very busy anymore. She would've shut it down ages ago if she could afford to. She needed money to buy her clothes and food. So, a lightbulb flicked in her brain.

"How about, you help me?-" She smiled, looking to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Help? I'm not very helpful, unless you have cooked too much food, I can help with that." He stated, crossing his arms and leaning back on the wall, which was a little too far from him for him to lean safely, tripping over his own feet.

"It's to do with food- Since, my only source of income, the shop, has been well, shut down. I need someone to help me, bring me food, well me and my mami." She stated, staring into his eyes.

Stepping forward, Camilo sighed. "How am I going to do that- Tia Julieta doesn't even let me have that many leftovers anymore, and I don't have any money to buy things!" He sighed, rubbing his temple, knowing that if he didn't do something Dolores would.

"You better figure something out Madrigal, because I wasn't the one who broke your window!" Francesca then suddenly walked past him, entering the shop through the broken window, beginning to lock things up in the back room of the shop.

"Frankie! Come on- You can't just make me do that-" He pulled on the door, which hadn't been unlocked. So instead of using his common sense he began to pull harder on it, failing to even get it to move.

"Don't call me that anymore. That isn't my name Idiot." She pulled out a broom, sweeping up the shards of glass which had fallen inside of the shop, putting them into a pile before pushing them into the bin.

Camilo stepped through the window, an infuriated look on his face. "I am not an Idiot!" Francesca shrugged, he had just been pulling a push door that was locked, so that sentence was debatable.

"It doesn't matter anyways, Since the shop is secure I'm heading home, it wont be mine by the end of the week, well, hopefully-" She smiled bitterly at him, locking the backroom, grabbing a small satchel full of money and walking out of the window. "Adiós perdedor." Francesca walked off leaving a rather annoyed Camilo standing in her empty shop.

"¡Vamos Cesca! (Come on Cesca!)" He yelled, causing her to stop, only for a moment before she continued to walk away. Camilo had no idea what to do, he knew that his tìa was way too busy for him to be asking for a whole other meal. But then again, he did destroy Francescas Shop. As she walked away, He only a muttered a small "Come back-" before kicking one of the shards, stuffing his hands in his pockets then walking away. Saying profanities under his breath, despite knowing his sister would probably snitch on him for it.

...
A/n No apology yet, but there is some interaction so (:
Hope you liked this chapter!
What do you think of it so far?

-Percy

(I may edit and fix any mistakes later on, I'm just updating this late bc I need to sleep and don't have time to go on my phone before or during school)