Camerons POV
The first thing that I saw when I walked into our new house was a mass of pink.
"Mom, you can't see me if that dress is in my face," I said.
Once she stepped back I got a real look at the dress in her hands. It was a large dress that resembled an XXL tutu.
"I'm not wearing that."
Her light eyebrows furrowed in confusion before shifting in disgust.
"Oh I would never," she said as she folded the dress and put it into a box.
"Then why do you want me?" I asked.
I was still wondering why she had interrupted my conversation with Jesse.
"I need you to take these clothes to charity for me."
I'd been here for 2 hours and already had a chore.
"Why can't Teo do it," I whined.
"Because I asked you to do it," she said it in such a tone that meant this conversation was over.
"In going to do it tomorrow," I said stiffly and walked up the stairs into my new old room.
It looked nothing like I remembered it. The owners before us had painted it a bright green and the wall was dotted with grey marks from posters. My bed was currently dissembled and I was too tired to fix it so I just lay on the floor and started using my phone.
I checked up on my old friends to see what they were up to without me. First I called my best friend Sierra. We sit there and talk about all the drama I'd missed in a day and when we were going to see each other again.
"How about that old friend of yours, Jessie."
"I saw him earlier today and he looks a bit bori-"
"Jesse's a guy?" she screeched into the phone.
I rolled my eyes at her slowness. She was supposed to be the smart one.
"Mhm."
"Is he hot?"
I snorted at her bluntness. She used to drill me about how I should lead to my questions instead of popping them out of nowhere.
It felt like we had been on the phone for minutes but when I looked up, the sun was already setting.
I heard a knock on my door and before I could reply the person opened it.
I quickly got up from my laying position and started rummaging through a box to make it look like I was doing something.
"Cameron, you need to go now, I'm taking my car tomorrow."
"I'm busy tonight," I lied blatantly to her face.
She still had no expression -because she didn't want to get wrinkles too early- when she said, "Good evening Sierra."
Through the phone, my supposedly best friend obnoxiously yelled out.
"Hey, Mrs. Jones."
My mother didn't bat an eyelash as she left the room, Leaving the scent of her expensive perfume around my bedroom.
"Its Ms. Loft now," I said quietly into the phone
"Oh I'm so sorry, I completely forgot, I just-"
The conversation was a bit awkward now.
"It's ok, I'm going to go do the thing now."
We said our goodbyes and hung up.
I grabbed my jacket and went downstairs to grab the boxes one at a time and put. them into my mother's small grey Mercedes. On my third round getting the boxes I saw my brother entering the house.
"You weren't here the whole time?"
"I know."
"Where were you?" I said as I folded some clothes into another box.
He smiled at me sheepishly and put his hands through his dark hair.
"Just saying goodbye to some...friends," he said.
"Some?"
"Get out of my business cam," he said as he started going up the stairs.
Before he could get out of earshot I yelled out,
"You can't screw your friends Mateo"
He replied by slamming his door.
I was all alone in the entrance hall. No surprise there. I'm usually alone when I'm at home. My mother was too busy organizing events for fancy people and my brother was always out with his friends and 'friends'. I couldn't blame them though. I was always out as well. I didn't know why our house was so big when we're never really in it.
I grabbed the last box and put it in the trunk. I got in the car and was about to drive off when I realized that I didn't know the closest donation center.
I heard a thud from Jesse's house and decided to ask him if he knew. I didn't want to drive alone either. But I wouldn't tell him that. I got out of the car and knocked on the door until it abruptly opened while I was mid-knock. It was Jesse. He was standing above me and was sweating slightly.
"You again," he observed
"Where's the closest donation center?" I asked.
He kept looking behind him so I repeated myself.
"Oh um, don't you have a GPS or something?" his voice was rushed as if he couldn't wait to stop talking to me.
"No"
I did have a GPS.
"I'll put the address on your phone GPS then."
"My phone is getting fixed."
It was in my pocket.
"Um well, I can try to tell you."
He was standing by the door gap as if he were hiding something. I leaned a little bit to the right to see inside but he stepped to hide it again.
"Why don't you just come with me?"
I figured I could find the donation center with a GPS but I didn't feel like driving alone in the dark. Not that I was scared. I just didn't like the sound of silence.
He looked surprised.
"I'm kinda in the middle of someth-"
"Great. It's the gray car."
His eyes darted quickly to the gray car as if it wasn't really of any importance.
"I'll just go change," he sighed.
I was about to reply but he slammed the door on me and went back into the house. While I waited for him in the car I thought about how nervous he seemed at the door. Almost scared. I wasn't that scary.
The passenger door opened and Jesse entered the car.
"You're wearing the same clothes," I said without thinking
"Huh?"
He seemed distracted.
"Never mind, which way is it."
Something about his distracted demeanor and how his mouth was set in a grimace, told me not to test him at that moment. I could pull off that face easy when I didn't want anyone to talk to me. But his seemed like it was just there naturally.
"Which school do you go to now?"
"Westbrook," he said absentmindedly as he fidgeted with the frayed thread on his old washed out jeans.
"I'm going there too.But I used to go to Albridge high," I paused for a response
Nothing.
"The people there are really over-"
He pointed to the window and said,
"Turn here"
"I said in this town," I said, sharply breaking the relaxed vibe we had going on.
"What?"
He raised his head from the window to look at me as if he had just realized I was there.
"You're taking me to Rockmount," I said.
"You asked for the closest."
"I said in this town."
"You said closest."
"Even if I did, which I didn't, I obviously meant in this town."
We quarreled over what I had said until I had accidentally missed the turn.
"Oh no, look what you made me do," I said sarcastically.
"Rockmount is literally five minutes away," he wasn't as distracted now.
"The universe doesn't want it to happen, Jesse, now tell me the directions," I replied.
He sighed and looked around as if he were thinking.
"The one in this town is closed so we're going to have to go to the one in Northbrook."
My hands slipped from the steering wheel and I lost control of the car for a second.
"The universe clearly doesn't want that to happen," I said.
"Unless you want to go back to Albridge."
"No."
"Then I don't know Cammi- Cameron," he went red, either from frustration or from the fact that he almost called me Cammie.
"I should've just gotten a GPS instead of a brace-faced dork," I muttered and turned the radio on.
He looked at loss of words. He must've gotten insulted a lot. He lowered his head back to the window and looked outside into the streets.
"In getting them removed next week."
I didn't realize that he would be so offended. I used to tease him all the time. I guess things had changed. I don't remember Jesse being this... dull.
"I was just playing around Jesse, I didn't think-"
"In not," he cut me off. "Now do you want to go back home or drive around in circles like we've been doing for the last 10 minutes?"
I was surprised he wasn't angry, I had a tendency to vex people easily. But he seemed calm and collected.
"Let's go to Northbrook."
We didn't say anything else the whole car ride. Jesse stopped telling the directions when he realized that I knew exactly where I was going. How could I not? I just followed the roads where I was told never to go through.
We never ended up reaching the donation center. We were so close when I heard the roar of motorbikes coming from in front of me.
"What the hell are they doing?" Jesse said in confusion. He didn't seem scared. Yet.
I didn't say anything and hoped they would just drive past. Of course, I should've expected this to happen.
"Cameron you need to stop. Their driving the wrong way."
"I realized," I muttered.
"Which is why it'd be a great idea to pullover right about now," he yelled.
"Why the fuck are you yelling," I said calmly
"I don't know Cameron. Definitely not because you're driving straight at a mob of bikers at full speed!"
"They won't hit us," I said quietly through the noise on purpose.
I didn't want to tell him that just in case they ended up doing just that if they recognized my face. I scooted lower into the seat and put a bit of my dark hair over my face.
Jesse stopped his yelling for two seconds to look at me.
"What the hell are you doing, we're about to die and you think now is a good time to look like Samara Morgan."
"Who the fuck is that!" I was starting to panic now.
"That girl, from The Ring," he said.
"Ok who in the world of fuckery calls the ring girl by her actual name?"
He was about to reply but he noticed something from the distance.
"They stopped."
I looked ahead to realize that he was right. While his face was full of delight mine was of sheer horror.
"Shit."
"Shit?"
"Absolute shit."
ns 15.158.61.48da2
