Camilo x Reader -Broken Reflection

Chapter 27 (Everybody say, "thank you, Camilo")

Camilo's POV

I stormed into her room. Mirabel sat on the edge of her bed, staring at her toes, and for a moment, my anger faltered. For a split second, I could see five-year-old giftless Mirabel sitting on her bed on the day of her birthday. I could see the bow in her hair wilting and her salty tears hit her glasses.

The image was gone as soon as it came.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded.

"Go away, Camilo," She snapped. I let her bedroom door shut behind me.

"What did she ever do to you?" I asked. My voice was less harsh then but carried the same amount of disbelief and anger.

"What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be with her, wiping her fake tears away and telling her how special she is?"

"What does that even mean?"

"You two seem to be getting along like best friends. Forget about me."

I thumped the back of my head against her door and rolled my eyes up to the ceiling with a frustrated sigh.

"You've gotta be shitting my dick right now," I mumbled.

Mirabel said nothing for a while and her room was silent, discluding the faint sound of Mirabel's hushed sniffles.

She was my best friend. I was born only a few months before Mirabel. I knew her for her entire life, and I hated to see her sad. I hated it even more when she was crying. That's why I heaved a little sigh and stepped forward. I placed a gentle hand on top of her curls and patted her head while she rested it on my stomach. She scrubbed at her eyes and her glasses fell.

"Tell me what happened," I said. She hesitated and I told her that I wasn't taking sides. I told her that she and Orchid-head were both my friends and I wanted them both to be happy.

So she told me.

"Isabela said that Abuela loved her more than me. She was talking to Dolores about it and I overheard."

"And you got sad because you think it's because of her gift?" Mirabel nodded once. I gave her head another pat and looked around her bedroom. It appeared to be the same since I was last there. Usually, she came to my room to hang out, and over the weeks that Orchid-head had stayed there, new drawings of the two of them holding hands and smiling found their way to the walls. There was even a drawing of Antonio, Mirabel, Orchid, and I all together on the grass. I smiled slightly, recognizing Antonio's messy drawing skills.

I reached over her and took the paper down, holding it in front of Mirabel's face. She squinted to see the paper.

"Antonio drew this right?" I asked. She nodded. "What's changed since he drew it?"

Mirabel looked at me like I was the stupidest person she'd ever met. And I probably was. Still, she said, "She's got a gift now. It's just me without one."

I gave a little nod. "Is that all?"

"Yeah."

I pressed the paper back onto her wall.

"See?" I asked. "She's still the same person. All that's new is that she's got a gift and has to deal with Abuela pressuring her to do the shit you're blessed to not have to do."

Mirabel laughed at that. And I smiled a little more.

"At least we have a house," I said. "Imagine if you didn't have a gift and a house." She laughed again and I stepped back to take a look at her teary-eyed smile.

"Am I a bad person?" My best friend asked me. I shook my head with my lips drawn in a tight line and placed her glasses back on her face.

"I don't blame you," I told her. "Sometimes I get jealous of you for not having a gift."

"Shut up, Camilo, you've got the coolest gift!"

"But at what cost?" I asked her and wiped a nonexistent tear from the corner of my eye. I heaved an exaggerated sigh and gazed out of her window with a smolder and my hand clutching my chest. "I gaze into my looking glass and look upon society, but not myself," I sniffed.

Mirabel rolled her eyes and got to her feet.

"Anyways," I said and straightened. "Sort out your issues with her 'cus I wanna have a sleepover with y'all"