A1: The Don (GirlxGirl)

Chapter Twenty-Three

After weeks of waiting in anticipation, Camilo was back in town. Excitement and nervousness filled my body at the thought of getting to know my brother. He seemed so nice and cool over text messages but what if he suddenly turned into an asshole? What if he was nothing like I thought he was? The stress of getting to know him made me want to turn my car around, but I knew I couldn't. I couldn't punk out. I had to stare at my brother in the face and know what I missed out on for twenty-two years.

I sat in the car for a few minutes among parking twiddling my thumbs and thinking about every bad scenario that could happen. The text message lighting up my phone screen is what caught my attention. Where are you? I hate this place. I laughed a little. For our first meeting, I told Camilo that we had to go to the beach. For some reason, Camilo hated the beach and was deathly afraid of sharks. I promised him we didn't have to get in the water but he was still extremely nervous about going. I thought putting him out of his comfortable zone would make me a little more relaxed and in control. It was kind of mischievous and selfish of me when I really think about it.

My brother sent me another text, stating that he was by a red beach umbrella and a bunch of annoying kids playing soccer. I thought the description was pretty vague but once I walked onto the sand, I spotted him out almost instantly. He stood out with his open, bright blue Hawaiian dad shirt and khaki shorts. Looking down at his phone awkwardly, his body would unintentionally jump every other time the waves would hit the shore. His back was facing the ocean but every few seconds, he would timidly look back as if a shark was going to wash up on shore and eat him whole.

When I approached him, he looked up from his phone and gave me an over joyous smile. I was surprised that he greeted me with a tight hug. He looked a little different from when I last saw him. He cut his long hair into a trendy short one. His dark hair was pushed back and he had a light stumble. It was crazy how much we looked like each other. We weren't spot on the same, but man, did we look like brother and sister. It was surreal.

"I can't believe you got me to come to the beach. We could've met up at a nice restaurant or bar or something," Camilo said as he pulled away from the hug.

Right at that second, some kids kicking a soccer ball screamed, "Heads up!" Camilo swatted the ball away before it could hit me in the head. Thanks to his quick reflexes, I was saved from embarrassment and a face full of soccer ball prints.

"See, I told you. The beach is dangerous," Camilo told me as he pointed at me.

I laughed softly. "Thanks for saving my ass, but the beach isn't all that bad. I mean, look around. Everyone's having fun."

Camilo squinted his eyes as he looked around the beach. He looked back at me with a hilarious frown. "It's hot. Loud. And the sand is irritating to walk through."

"Oh man, you complain more than I do." I told him as I began walking, he walked beside me as he tried to shield his face from the sun as he laughed. "So, how was your vacation or whatever?"

He shrugged as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his shorts. "It was more of a business trip I guess you can say. I went alone with a couple of my homeboys to Chicago. We met up with our new business partner Kai West to get some product to push, if you know what I mean?" I completely forgot that my brother was a drug dealer. Nearly everyone I talked to now was affiliated with some illegal sh-t. Lisa, Andy and all of her friends and now Camilo, next thing I know Mia is going to start selling drugs too.

"Kai West? Do you mean Kanye West," I tried to joke about the subject.

"Dude, I wish I could be close to Kanye West but no. Kai West is a bad b-tch. Like, you don't want to f-ck with her. She's the biggest drug lord in Chicago and she's not even affiliated like that anymore. She has a wife and kids now so she doesn't do much, but she went out of her way for me and my boss to obtain some drugs to sell here in Santa Monica." I was going to bring up Andy, but I don't think the first thing I should be bonding with my brother over was gang affiliation.