❝ ARISTOCRATS ❞

CHAPTER ELEVEN | ♕

[𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 : 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐄]

" 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐈 𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐄
𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀 𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓
𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋? "

✯✯✯

𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀 𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐀𝐋𝐖𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 a silly thing to Camila Bellamy. It was odd how one person could make butterflies appear and in your stomach and make you act like a totally different person.

That's how Hudson used to make Camila feel. She used to be topsy turvy, butterfly making, head over heels in love with that boy. Only he wasn't just that boy anymore. He was that boy with hopes and dreams, charming smiles, and to die for looks. A dangerous combination.

"Remember how I used to give you a rose every year on the first day of school?" Hudson asked her as they laid on the floor of the entry way in Camila's house. It had a cathedral ceiling with colored glass pictures in the skylights.

"Yes, I remember." She tried looking at him, but he was laying right opposite of her.

"Look." Hudson reached up and handed her a white rose.

"Did you have this the whole time?" She sat up, leaning on her elbows.

"It was in my bag." He patted his brown messenger bag which held his books, "I bought it before I came here."

"Well, it's beautiful, but why is it white?"

"I don't know... I haven't seen in you two years and everything's always about new beginnings, right?" He sat up also, "White is different. It's something new."

"Ooh, I forgot how cute you were." She stood up, "Anyways, come on, I have some things to discuss with you in over some ice cream."

The two moved into her kitchen which Hudson swore had gotten even bigger since he last saw it. Camila walked to the fridge and began scooping them ice cream.

"I want to throw you a welcome back party." She smiled widely like it was the best idea ever. Hudson wasn't all the way on board yet.

"Party?"

"Well, not party, but just a little get together between us and our old friends. I have a penthouse in the city that where I can throw it. I'm thinking the dress code would be dressy casual so the girls could wear nice dresses and the guys wouldn't show up in sweats."

"Okay," Hudson answered slowly, "That actually doesn't sound to bad. It would be good for us all to hang out at one time."

Camila nods and they don't speak for a while until she finished getting them ice cream.

She began thinking back again to when she found out Hudson like Bethany. It wasn't an immediate heart break.

It was more of her feeling like she didn't hear him right and asking again if he liked her for confirmation. She didn't even think he noticed how she was trying not to cry or how disappointed she was. Not at him, but at the fact she had convinced herself so much that he liked her that now it sounded pathetic.

"I've missed you over in France, Cammie," He took a bit of ice cream, "The girls over there aren't like you."

"Yeah? How?" She pressed on.

"You and I are different. We're so alike that when you put us in a room it like we're magnets toward each other." He glanced down at his bowl, smiling, "You know you've always been my sunshine? On my darkest days, like when my parents were fighting or when they finally ended up getting divorced, you were there for me."

"Aw, come here, Hudson." Camila walked around the counter to hug him.

"Sorry if that sounded cheesy. It was better when I thought it... in my head."

"Yeah, I got that." She laughed softly in his ear.

Hudson wasn't the first one to let go. He never was.

The first time he fell in love with Camila was in the first grade when she sat next to him on the first day of school. The next day he saw cut a red rose from his mother's garden and gave it to her at school, and he thought it made her very happy. Then he saw she put it in her desk and she never brought it home.

The second time he fell in love with her was in the fifth grade when he watched her climb the tallest tree on the playground as the rest of the grade watched. It was amazing to him how she never cared what others thought.

The third time was in the seventh grade when she danced in the talent show. She looked so beautiful up there he had thought, but so did half the boys in the grade.

In eighth grade he wanted to asked her to the end of the year dance. He had a poster and everything, but when he showed up to school he saw someone else had already asked her, so he put on a smile and acted like he was happy for her.

That's when he started saying he liked Bethany Dalton instead. Sooner or later that lie started coming true as he hung out more with her. She was blonde, rich, and pretty, something that he thought was supposed to be right for him. Camila never treated him more than a friend, so he convinced himself she didn't like him and  he had to move on.

"I'm so happy you're back, Hudson." Camila finally pulled away from him and looked into his eyes.

"I'm happy I am too." He replied, and she couldn't help but blush as she tucked a short curl behind her ear.