Cam needs a little more love and his listener has been MIA for A While™.
“Come in,” I said distractedly, not looking up from my book.
The door to my room opened. “How are you feeling?” a familiar voice asked. I dropped the book.
He lifted a grocery bag in his hand. “I brought some cookies. My... my mom made them,” he said.
I held my hands out for him. “Come give me a hug! I haven’t seen you in like a week!”
He crossed my bedroom and set the grocery bag on my nightstand before giving me a hug. For such skinny little arms, he was strong. I held onto him tight, putting my forehead on his shoulder. “How are you feeling?” Cam repeated.
I wiggled my hurt ankle. It still ached and throbbed—hence why I hadn’t been to school in a week. “Comes and goes. Doc told me to keep my weight off it for about ten days. And crutches suck so I’m not going to school until those ten days are up. Shouldn’t be much longer now. Mel visited, though. That was really nice. How was prom?”
Cam’s eyes turned down to my wrapped leg. “It was fine. Woulda been better if you’d gone.”
“Cameron,” I said seriously. “Look at me.” Slowly, his eyes met mine again. “What happened?”
“What? Who said anything happened?” he asked evasively.
I raised an eyebrow. “You’re avoiding looking at me, and now you’re avoiding the question. I’m not an idiot, Cam. Something happened at prom, and you don’t want me to know about it. What was it?”
Cameron reached into the grocery bag and pulled out a paper plate covered in cling wrap to protect the cookies on the plate. He took off the cling film, gave me a cookie, and took one for himself. He sighed after taking a bite of one. “Jace and Noah shoved me into the pool and closed the cover before I could get out.”
“What?!” I demanded. “That is it. I am going to give that moron a piece of my—”
“Easy, now,” Cam said, putting his free hand on my knee. “I’d rather you get better from this first.” He pushed the cookie in my hand closer to my mouth. I rolled my eyes and took a bite. It was freaking delicious. It had the taste and internal texture of chocolate cake, but had a crisp cookie shell. I stared at it in alarm. Cam laughed. “Like it?”
“This is amazing,” I said, covering my mouth so I could speak around the cookie without being too impolite.
He smiled. That sweet smile. “One good thing did come out of prom night though.”
“Oh?” I asked, raising my eyebrows and finally looking away from the cookie.
“Yeah. I, uh, I made a friend.” He twisted his hair between his fingers. “Do... do you know Zeke Graves?”
I blinked several times. “The tall, blond bully with the Zombi T-shirts?”
“I mean, I know his reputation more than I know him,” I replied. “You... you made... friends with him?”
“He and his date came and rescued me from the pool.”
“Sorry, I hate to get off topic here but he took a date? Apart from the fact that in all the years we’ve been at Westhaven he’s never even gone to prom, suddenly he turns up with a date?”
“Yeah. You know our classmate that he usually picked on? They’re dating now.”
I set the cookie down on my leg, opening and closing my mouth like a fish, trying to figure out something to say. “I... somehow I do and do not want to know how that happened.” I thought about it for a second, cleared my throat, and shook my head. “Anyway. So the two of them got you out of the pool and you made friends?”
“Well, that’s nice,” I said. “Maybe when this gummed up leg of mine heals, you can introduce me to them and we can do, like, a double date at the bowling alley or something. Play some arcade games, get some pizza. Something like that, you know?”
“That would be fun! Zeke is a lot nicer now—I think you wouldn’t want to hurt him the way you want to hurt Jace.”
I snorted. “Good to know. But, hey, I never got to tell you that you had some fancy techniques when you finally punched that stupid idiot right in the face. You probably did some serious damage. To his pride and his bones.” I didn’t want to mention the way his voice had gone echoey and Jace had backed off immediately, like he couldn’t resist Cam giving him an order. I’d been thinking about that for a week and still hadn’t figured out how it was possible.
Cam chuckled nervously. “Yeah... my dad was in the military and he put me and my brothers through the same training. I’m a lot tougher than I look.”
I whacked him on the knee with the backs of my fingers. “You look pretty tough to me,” I said. His face turned almost the same color as his hair. “Anyway, how’s war-game prep going? Obviously I’m not making it on the team this year with this stupid leg. How’s the Givers’ chances?”
“I mean... Judah and Ronnie are both really athletic, so my first instinct is to say we’ll probably do okay... but the Hunters have Jace, Noah, and Zeke.”
“Yeah but the Givers have you. And you’re, like, a secret weapon.” I smiled and took another bite of my cookie. “The fact that you’re small means people will underestimate you. And, if you choose your moment, you can use that to your advantage.” I swallowed. “Plus, Zeke may be—have been—a bully, but he and Jace never got along. I doubt they’ll play well together on the same team.”
Cam considered my words for a few moments, munching on his own cookie. “Maybe,” he said. I brushed a bit of hair that had escaped his ponytail from his face. He met my eyes with his own widened.
“I’m tired, Cam,” I said. “Tired of pretending we’re just friends around everyone else. I mean—I mean why are we even doing it?”
“Because people pick on me for my hair and I don’t want them to pick on you for being with me like that,” Cam said softly. He tried to look away from me but I moved to stay in his eyeline.
“I don’t care if people pick on me for being with you. It’s not like I can’t handle it.”
“I know you can. But... but I don’t want to put you through that pain.”
I scoffed. “Cameron. Gregor. It hurts worse to... date you secretly or whatever the hell it is we’re doing now than any mocking from our classmates ever could. I want to be able to hold your hand at school. I want to not have to worry about anyone from Westhaven ‘catching’ us out on a date. There’s nothing to be scared of. Nothing they say would make me want to leave you. Ever. Got it?” I grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard.
He nodded, more resolutely. “Okay.”
I smiled, leaned forward, and kissed his cheek. “Good. Glad we’re in agreement.”
Cam cupped my cheeks in both hands and gave me a deep kiss on the mouth. “Yeah. Yeah. Definitely in agreement,” he said breathlessly.
