°•.˜"*°•𝓞𝓷𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓰𝓲𝓯𝓽𝓮𝓭 •°*"˜.•° (C. Madrigal X Reader)

Chapter one hundred and seventeen: The right choice

Camilo and I shared a lot of classes together so I got to see him a lot even if I was still focused on my studies. For most of the day, he seemed nervous about something. I took that as confirmation that he was going to tell our friends about his plans to leave Encanto. He wasn’t nervous in a bad way, he still seemed happy in general, he just kept on sinking deep into his own thoughts. Then again, he always daydreams in class. 

Eventually, lunch time came around. We all shared classes together but lunchtime was the only time where all of our friends would be gathered together in one place. As we made it towards the elevated area in the cafeteria that we usually sat at during lunch, Camilo held out his hand. It was a silent offer to hold hands. I smiled at him before taking his hand. 

“Camilo! Y/n!” Ruben yelled as he waved at us.

I waved back with my free hand and we eventually made it to the elevated area. Camilo and I sat next to each other and I felt him squeeze my hand extra tight. Hugo and his friends were at our table too. They actually spent most of their lunch times with us and sometimes, we even waved to each other in the hallways.

We had learned a lot about the other group and I’m sure they learned a lot about ours. For example, none of us knew that they all played piano competitively. That’s actually how they all met. They had other interests too of course, we learned about their hobbies and what they do outside of school and other things like that. 

Enzo revealed that he was a painter and commissioned portraits for the more well off families in the Encanto. Emilio and him geeked out about art things every now and then which sometimes made Ruben jealous. Rafael confirmed that he was the one who won all of the sports related awards that we saw when we went over to Hugo’s house but was still somehow failing P.E. due to lack of participation. 

All of us were just chatting about random topics, nothing too heavy or important. Camilo stayed oddly quiet and the others picked up on it too. 

“Oi, Camilo,” Rafael said, causing Camilo to jump a bit. 

“Huh?” Camilo responded, processing the situation. 

“You haven’t been talking much” Rafael continued “Is something botherin’ you or something? 

“Oh, um…” Camilo said “I have something on my mind, I guess…”

Everyone was looking at Camilo, waiting for him to tell them exactly what he meant by that. Camilo took a deep breath and I felt him clutch my hand just the tiniest bit tighter. 

“I have something to tell you guys” Camilo began “I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I’ve finally decided that…I’m going to leave Encanto.”

There was a silence as the others at the table processed what he had just said. Camilo casted his eyes downward as he waited for someone to say something. Eventually, the silence was broken by the sound of Lydia giggling quietly. Everyone turned to face her. 

“I’m sorry!” Lydia said in between giggles “I just- There’s no way, right? There’s literally no reason for you to leave. The Encanto is the closest us humans are ever gonna get to paradise.”

Camilo stayed quiet.

“Camilo?” Enzo asked “You are joking though, aren’t you?” 

Camilo stopped staring down at his own shoes and looked up to face everyone at the 

table. He hesitantly shook his head and lowered his eyes again. It finally internalized that Camilo had actually decided to leave. Nobody spoke for a long time. 

“Camilo, did-” Emilio said after a while “Did something happen?”

Amelia gasped before reaching across the table to grab Camilo’s free hand. 

“Show me your hands!” she said, already having them in front of her. 

She examined his hands and her face contorted to a shocked and horrified expression when she saw Camilo’s hand bandaged up. 

“Camilo, did you…” Amelia said before trailing off. 

Ruben and Emilio were now looking at Camilo with concerned expressions while everyone else just stared at us in confusion. 

‘oh’ I thought as I realized ‘They think that Camilo hurt his hand smashing mirrors again.’

“Oh, no!” I said, answering for Camilo who seemed very anxious at the time “It wasn’t like that, he cut himself on a broken plate and I bandaged him up.”

Amelia sat back down with a relieved sigh before looking up at Camilo again. 

“So was there something that did happen to make you want to leave?” she asked. 

“No!” Camilo exclaimed frustratedly “Nothing happened! I just want to leave!”

Everyone was shocked for a moment, Camilo wasn’t the type to actually show his frustration. 

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t-” Camilo began to say before being interrupted. 

The bell rang, signaling that lunch time was over and that we all had to start heading to our next classes. Everyone at the table got up from their seats, then shot a concerned look in Camilo’s direction before quickly walking off to wherever they needed to be. 

I stayed with Camilo for a while, I didn’t really care if I was late for my next class.  

“Camilo, are you okay?” I asked.

“No” he answered bluntly “My friends are mad at me for wanting to leave. Maybe…Maybe I’m not making the right choice here…”

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Ugh, back to school time y'all...

For any readers that are still in school (that should be most of you considering Camilo is a minor), how was your first day?

-Kolour