Bad Things

3. Worlds Collide

Even the best fall down sometimes

Even the stars refuse to shine

Out of the back you fall in time

I somehow find

You and I collide.

- Howie Day.

____________________________________________

Three weeks had passed since that night.

Three weeks, and Camila was no closer to putting a name or face to the boy who'd taken her virginity.

Tonight was the tournament game for the city championship between the Whitecastle's Knights and the Ashford's Jaguars. Camila's father could think of nothing else, speak of nothing else, except handing Roy Mendes his ass on a silver platter. There were signs and decorations up everywhere declaring which team each household or business was rooting for. Predictions were being made all across town, most going to Ashford, which pissed Camila's father off even more. But he really couldn't spin a convincing argument. Ashford had an advantage over every other team in the state. Their quarterback, Shawn Mendes, was the best the state had seen in twenty years.

Camila didn't know him, had never seen him off the field or out of uniform, though she'd watched him play in every game against Whitecastle in the past four years. She had to admit, he was phenomenal. The Knights had a lot of work ahead of them if they wanted to best Mendes's arm. He would, no doubt, be awarded the MVP trophy for the fourth year in a row, even winning out over her own brother, Carlos, two years prior when Mendes was only a sophomore. This was the biggest game of the year. Everyone who was anyone would be there, sporting their team's colors and waving banners over their heads.

But Camila didn't care about football or championships or MVP player awards tonight. She couldn't concentrate on any of that because all she could think about was the fact that she was eight days late.

She tried to reason with herself, that eight days wasn't that bad. She'd been late before, but before she never had cause to worry.

"You're probably just stressing yourself out," Hailee had told her. "Relax and I bet it'll come."

But as the days passed, Camila felt none of the usual cramping, bloating, or fatigue, not a single headache or bout of dizziness. She didn't need a test to tell her, because deep down, she already knew. But she peed on the stick anyway, and now, twenty minutes before she was to leave for the biggest game of her dad's career, she paced in front of her tiny attached bathroom, wringing her hands in front of her, the tiny timer on her desk clicking away the longest three minutes of her life.

Hailee sat on Camila's bed in her matching white and gold cheerleading uniform, her face drawn. Camila knew Hailee didn't know what to say or how to comfort her. But Camila didn't want any of that anyway. The only thing she did want was for her gut to be wrong.