Love Potion No. 9

Chapter 2 - Cupid's Arrow

Camila was in decent spirits when she got home, despite the fact that the sight of Lauren all over Matt was rather sickening to her. Lauren in fact had been all over Matt this particular evening.

However her spirits fell when she got home. As she walked in the living room, she could see her parents were standing by the kitchen glaring at each other.

Camila know instantly she had walked in on an argument. Now a days, her parents argued a lot. Especially since it was revealed the previous year that her mom had an affair with her dad's partner Gary.

The marriage held, but only barely. It pained Camila to no end to see how far apart her parents had drifted. From happily married to just plain out of love, to downright resentment. Camila was sure they were still together, just for her and Ariana's sake.

"Did you have a good time at the carnival, Camila." Her mom asked with a polite smile that attempted to cover the tension that was plainly visible in the room.

"Yes, we all had a good time. You'll see I'm home in time." Camila answered as she walked into the kitchen.

"We'd rather you'd have gone Friday, when you don't have school but you've done well in your classes so we thought we'd cut you some slack." Her dad said as he moved to the kitchen table.

Camila went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water and walked to the counter. A moment later her mom had moved to the table as well. Camila knew that the second she'd leave the argument would start right back up. As she opened her water she spotted two freshly brewed cups of coffee sitting on the counter.

"If anyone needs a love potion, it's my mom and dad." Camila thought sadly to herself. A moment later, for reasons she didn't quite understand, Camila poured one dose each of the love potion into each mug, when her parents weren't looking. At this point, Camila would have done anything to save her parents marriage; even pouring a fake love potion in to her parents coffee.

"Better than nothing. Who knows this crazy stuff might actually work." She thought with amusement.

"Camila dear, could you hand us our two cups of coffee please." Her mom asked.

Camila nodded and carried the two cups to the table and said good night, which her parents kindly responded in kind.

As she walked up the stairs she heard her father remark," This coffee has just a hint of mint. I like the flavor. Is this some kind of special blend?"

Camila's mom took a sip. "No, perhaps there was a mix-up with the label."

Camila kept going and just as she got to her door she heard the argument begin to start up again.

"So much for my miracle love potion." Camila sighed as she shut the door behind her.

Camila got ready for bed and went to sleep, lamenting the lack of love in her life and in her parents marriage. The next morning she woke, dressed and got ready as she did every day but when she got downstairs, she noticed something was off.

When she came down at 7, always either one or both of her parents would be there eating breakfast. When they were both there, they would just eat in silence and occasionally glare at each other. But today it was only Arian eating a bowl of cereal and she looked oddly tired.

"Hey Ari, where's mom and dad and why do you look so tired?" Camila asked as she poured herself a bowl.

Ariana looked at her incredulously and pointed to the upstairs. "You didn't hear all that last night, mom and dad kept me up half the night. I finally moved downstairs and slept on the couch. I couldn't stand listening to it anymore."