Chapter 27: The Girl from the Past
I was left alone on the sidewalk.
The sun was still beating down with the same intensity as before, and the dust from the street stuck to my skin. The men from the workshop weren't even trying to hide it anymore; one of them let out a low laugh and went back to his conversation. I took a deep breath, shoved my hands into my pockets, and started walking with no clear direction.
I didn't want to go back to the house just yet. I also didn't want to stay there, standing like an idiot, processing what I had just seen.
Clay.
The name kept circling in my head. Shorter than me, average body, nothing particularly striking… and yet Sophia had let him touch her with a naturalness that had thrown me off balance. The hand on her waist, then sliding a little lower, as if he had every right in the world. She hadn't pulled away. She hadn't even frowned.
'So she has a boyfriend…'
The sentence came back again and again, each time with a different taste. It wasn't exactly jealousy. It was something more confusing: a mix of surprise, discomfort, and that stupid feeling of superiority that came from realizing that, just because of height and presence, I stood out more than him without even trying. It annoyed me to think it. It annoyed me even more that I couldn't stop thinking it.
I walked.
The town opened up in front of me with that slow pace typical of places where everyone knows each other. I recognized the grocery store where we used to steal candy as kids. The corner where Lila once pushed me and I scraped my knee. The house of the old man who always yelled from the porch. Every corner brought a memory, and every memory made me feel a little more out of place.
Eleven years.
Everything was still here. I was the one who had changed.
I kept walking without a clear destination. The heat pressed against the back of my neck and sweat started sliding down my spine. At some point I stopped thinking about Sophia and Clay. My mind, treacherous, went further back.
To the summers.
To her.
Camila.
I hadn't seen her since they took me away. Back then we were almost the same age. We spent the afternoons near the river, or sitting on the fallen log behind her house, talking about nonsense. I never told her what I really felt. I always stayed quiet at the exact moment, as if putting words to it would break something. She smiled in that way that made me feel both stupid and alive at the same time. And I just glanced at her from the side, keeping everything to myself.
I was never completely honest.
Now, walking alone down the dirt roads, the need to see something familiar that wasn't related to my sisters became almost physical. I didn't have a plan. I just wanted to check if she was still there. If the house was still in the same place. If she still existed outside of my memories.
I turned a corner and started moving away from the center. The houses grew farther apart. More trees appeared, more shade, the sound of cicadas instead of voices. The air smelled different: of damp earth and dry leaves.
My heart started beating faster without permission.
I recognized the path almost without meaning to. The same uneven ground, the same crooked post, the same wooden fence that had always been on the verge of collapsing. Further ahead, between the trees, the roof of the house could be made out.
I stopped for a second.
I didn't know what I was going to say if I found her. I didn't even know if she still lived there. I just knew I needed to see her. I needed something that wasn't the chaos of the house, or Sophia's ass moving in front of me, or some stranger's hand on my sister's waist.
I kept walking.
Every step brought me closer. My heart pounded against my ribs with an absurd force, as if I were fifteen again and about to finally tell her what I had never dared to confess.
The house was already clearly visible between the trees.
End of Chapter 27