continued from here ( @lostxones )
Cameron froze for a second, the easy smirk faltering just enough to let the hurt flash in his eyes. Of course she wasn't impressed. She never had been. Not by the hype, not by the cameras, not by the jersey with his name stitched across the back. She'd only ever wanted him. "Yeah..." He said quietly, the bravado draining from his voice like air from a deflated ball. "Me neither, if I'm being honest." He looked down for a moment, kicking at the edge of the sidewalk like it might give him an out. But there wasn't one. Not from this. Not from her. Not from the guilt that still hung around his neck like a chain he never quite managed to shake. "The Cameron Steele you knew..." He lifted his gaze again, shoulders lifting into a nonchalant shrug. "He left chasing something he thought he couldn't live without. Thought he had time to figure it out, to come back and make it right." A bitter laugh followed, but it came out short and dry. "Turns out you don't get to just rewind things like game tape." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, the one that still smelled like home, like salt air and regret. "But you... You were always real, Liv. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about you every time I came back home." Cameron didn't ask for forgiveness, nor did he expect it. But damn, if he didn't wish Olivia would look at him the way she used to, like he was just Cam, the boy who brought her coffee with too much sugar and kissed her under Spanish moss, not the guy who left her behind in the rearview.
