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.

"Do you have any competitors," I decided to ask curiously. If Andy and my brother had some unknown beef then that would really blow my mind. I knew no one f-cked with the De Palma family, but maybe there was some sh-t underlying that I didn't know about.

"No. We're not a real gang. Sure, we have a crew, we have connections and we sell drugs but nothing too big. We're just doing what we have to do to get money. We're underground. We're no De Palma Family. Now, those motherf-ckers are badass. Kai West and Andy De Palma actually know each other, and I'm getting my drugs from Kai so I doubt Andy and I would have beef. As for the other gangs around here, I'm not really worried about them. Like, I said, I have big connects. If I need backup, I'm sure Kai can put in word to Andy to help me out." Well, this was awkward. Camilo didn't know I was dating Andy. He was standing beside one of his main connections to Andy in Santa Monica.

I wasn't going to tell him though. I didn't want to get pushed into the complicated gang world. All I needed to know was that there was no beef between Andy and Camilo and it seemed like there wasn't. They basically didn't know each other which was phenomenal. "Enough about me and the sh-t I do, I know you probably don't want anything to do with it. You're going to be a doctor and all. I bet it sucks finding out what I do."

"No, it's fine," I told him as I laughed ironically. "I may have been raised in a gated community with rich, white parents but I had a taste of the hood. My best friend, Mia, is from a rough neighborhood and I was at her place more than I was at my own. So, I guess you can say I've got the best of both worlds."

"Do you chill it out, take it slow and then you rock out the show?"

"Are you sure you're not gay because no straight guy would randomly start singing a Hannah Montana song." I teased my brother and pushed his shoulder. We were actually getting along pretty well. The chemistry between us was crazy. I felt like he wasn't a complete stranger even though I didn't know that much about him. He was a genuine, nice guy and I could tell he was going to be a good brother as we got closer.

"My wife owns every f-cking season on DVD so I think I deserve a pass, plus Hannah Montana was a bomb ass show! Speaking of my wife, I never showed you a picture of her or my daughter." Camilo pulled out his phone and showed me his lockscreen. I almost squealed when I saw the adorable picture. Camilo was sitting down at the kitchen table with his little girl in his lap and his wife was standing behind him with her arms draped around his shoulders. Their smiles were beautiful and filled with love. The picture made me smile myself. His wife was gorgeous and they made a such a pretty little girl. I couldn't believe I had a f-cking family. Here comes the waterworks. "Come on. Why are you crying," he asked me with a joking laugh.

I laughed at my own stupid tears as I wiped my eyes. "Nothing. It's just I never thought I would have a niece or a step-sister or a f-cking brother! It's all so unreal. What makes it even crazier is that you're honestly so sweet and I can't believe we missed so many years from each other. It's just not fair that we were split apart for so long." Camilo stopped walking and took my hand as I sniffled.

"All those years don't matter. We're together now. Brother and sister. We're getting to know each other, slowly but surely. This makes our story even more interesting. We didn't grow up fighting or annoying the crap out of each other, but now we get the chance to do everything we never got the chance to do. We're still young as hell and have so much more life in front of us." Camilo wiped away my last few tears and I felt like such a lame ass for crying in front of him. It was that time of the month and before we even met up, I saw a sad viral dog video plus Mia and I watched the Titanic last night, so all of that was just piling up.

I knew I shouldn't have asked the next question. It would just make me cry even more if the answer was 'yes', but I still did. "Do you have any pictures of our parents?"

Camilo looked at me with his soft brown eyes for a few seconds before nodding. "Yeah, but we should sit down." I nodded and sat down in the sand as my brother stood there awkwardly. "Um, I didn't mean right here," he said as he looked around. I laughed aloud and patted the sand beside me. "My butt is going to get dirty," he whined.

"It's f-cking sand," I called out as I yanked his arm down. He toppled down on the sand beside me and frowned at the feel of sand on his body.

"People actually like this," he asked with his face scrunched up. He picked up a handful of sand and watched it fall between his fingers. I couldn't believe he was this unaccustomed to a beach. He lived in f-cking Santa Monica.

"Are you telling me you're never going to take baby Camila to the beach?"

"She's two years old. I think we'll take her to the beach when she's twelve."

"What the f-ck, Camilo!? I'm taking mi sabrina to the beach one day, way before she's twelve! She's not going to be beachophobic like her father."

"I didn't graduate from high school, but I'm pretty sure beachophobic isn't a word. And, do you want to see our parents or not," he asked to change the subject. I put my hands up as in to surrender the teasing argument of his hatred for the beach. It took Camilo a few moments to find a picture of our parents, but when he did, he smiled before passing me the phone.

When I saw them, I almost forgot to breathe. My hand shook as I held the phone as my other one covered my heart. My parents looked amazing, young and full of life. My father had a badass vintage mustache with a salt and pepper youthful haircut that made him look even younger. He had an athletic build and his muscular arms wrapped around my mother adoringly as they stood in front of the Eiffel tower. My mother was so f-cking beautiful. The smile on her face and the twinkle in her eyes showed the upmost happiness. Her figure was curvy and her hair flowed down her back effortlessly. I could see me when I looked at her. My eyes began tearing up again. Those were the people who made me.

Camilo's hand rested on my back and he rubbed it soothingly. "That's from a couple of weeks ago. It was their 25th anniversary. Dad surprised Mom and took her back to Colombia to relive old times and then they went to Paris. They just got back actually."

I sighed with a mixture of emotions. My mind was scattered. I was upset that I didn't get to know them as I grew up, but also happy to see what they looked like. I was happy that they were happy but pissed off because they didn't want me. But at the same time, I was glad that they weren't selfish. They knew when they had Camilo and I that they couldn't afford to take care of both so they tried to give one of us a better life. It was f-cked up, but I knew where they were coming from. I couldn't hold it against them. They were trying to make things better and I've had lots of opportunities because of my adoption and my adoptive parents were great people.

"Where have you guys been? Have you lived in Santa Monica this whole time or back in San Francisco or somewhere else?"

Camilo let out a deep sigh, but not from annoyance. From the look on his face, I could tell he didn't know where to start. "Well, after they had us, they decided to go back to Colombia. Our parents were only in San Francisco because one of dad's brothers lives there. Mom and Dad were just visiting and we came a bit earlier than expected. So, from what I know, they gave you to Dr. Hershey and we stayed with Uncle Sergio for a month and then went back to Colombia. You didn't miss much. We lived in a sh-tty neighborhood in Bogotá. It wasn't technically the slums but we were still poor as f-ck. The neighborhood was so bad that I didn't make friends, because I knew within a few weeks they'd get gunned down. Gang violence was crazy but mom and dad worked every single day. They worked two to three jobs each until they got enough money to move back to San Francisco. We stayed with Uncle Sergio and mom and dad got jobs until my dad slipped up and got pulled into something a bit deeper. Drugs. At this point, I'm 15 and Dad starts selling drugs. When I was a teenager, I was a hardheaded and hotheaded. I was always getting into it with Uncle Sergio's wife and it was obvious that mom, dad and I needed to get out fast. When I was sixteen, I dropped out and started selling drugs too. We then moved here to Santa Monica that same year and we've been here ever since."

That was way too much to take in at once. So, Dad was in the drug game too? Camilo bit his lip and winced at the thought that he may had pushed me away. "So, you and dad sell drugs?"

"Yeah. Well, dad technically doesn't sell drugs anymore. He's too old for that, but I do."

"So, what does dad do?"

"He's living off of me and old drug money. I take care of him and mom because they did everything they could do to take care of me," Camilo told me simply.

"You're a really good son, Camilo. I feel like I missed so much."

"Don't worry, you didn't. Basically, we were dirt poor and now we're doing well for ourselves. Honestly, our life is just now starting. Dad and Mom are just now exploring places and I'm starting a family. We're at a new transition to a better life especially with you in the picture now." I smiled and hugged Camilo as he chuckled. "I know you're not ready to meet them now, but whenever you are I'm sure they'll be eager to finally meet you."

The rest of the day at the beach went with less catching up and more fun. I taught Camilo how to build a sandcastle, convinced him to let me bury him in the sand and I got him to at least put his feet in the ocean. The day was fun and I felt like a kid again. Camilo asked me to hang out later in the week and I agreed. Little did we both know was that I would end up spending nearly every day of the rest of the week with him.

-

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