COMING HOME - A Cameron Boyce Love Story

34: smile.

"Daddy?! Daddy?!" Ada screamed and cried as she stared into the front seat, unable to take her eyes from the father as he laid slumped against the steering wheel, blood trickling down from his fitted cap, beginning to soak his gray shirt. She began to hyperventilate as she let out small screams, trying to regain her breath as the glass in her cheek stung her. She could hear the sound of a car horn blasting, realizing it was because her father was laying on it. Onlookers and passengers of the other cars around outside were beginning to cause a commotion, and Ada could hear police sirens in the distance.

"Please! Please! Daddy! Nari, please! Please!" Ada screamed over and over, words just spilling out of her mouth as she desperately pleaded against the inevitable. She looked over at her sister again, immediately regretting that decision as she looked at the morbid scene. She shut her eyes, letting out a cry that came from deep within her.

"Somebody help me! Please! PLEASE!"

It seemed like Ada forced herself awake, tearing her eyes open. Her heart was beating rapidly as her bewildered eyeballs darted around her. She bit her lip as a cry was about to come out, trying to swallow the lump that was forming in her throat before letting out a gasp.

It just seemed so real.

She could feel slight movement behind her, causing her to swiftly look over her shoulder and see Cameron as he shifted a bit in his sleep. Ada's tears clouded her vision as she watched him settle, causing her to slowly begin to get out of bed as her chest heaved up and down as she tried to catch her breath. She kept her bottom lip between her teeth as she stifled her cries. Too afraid to go into the dark hallway, she went into the closet, turning on the light quickly as she softly shut the door behind her.

And she quietly wept there for thirty minutes, on her knees, surrounded by Cameron's shoes that he had messily scattered all over the floor. Grasping loosely at the carpet as she tried not to make any noise. The silence of the house causing her tinnitus to act up, her ears ringing. She kept her eyes wide open, staring at the follicles of the carpet and the weirdly memorizing the details of one of Cameron's Vans that were in her line of sight. She wouldn't dare to close her eyes, her tears blinding her.

And then she returned back to her place in the bed beside Cameron. She laid about a foot away from him, stopping herself from cuddling up with him, no matter how bad she wanted to be in his arms at that moment, so that she would not disturb him. She never went back to sleep, laying there and staring as the white ROKU logo bounced around from corner to corner on the black TV screen in silence for hours, listening to Cameron's light breaths as he slept.

And at around 7:00 AM, when Cameron opened his eyes from his slumber, he gave a soft smile to her as he yawned, reaching over and rubbing her cheek. Ada slowly turned her head to face him, her eyes feeling tired and her body aching from laying in the same position.

"'Morning," he greeted her as he wiped some of the sleep from his eye. He sat up a bit, leaning down and giving her a quick peck on the lips, careful not hit her with his morning breath. "You sleep good?" he asked as he began to get out of the bed to go to the bathroom.

Ada gave a soft nod, still afraid to close her eyes.

______________________________

"Now, we're going to write down five things that we have touched today. Five physical things that we have touched. And that can be with our fingers, our toes, our legs. Any body parts that have touch receptors! This is to help ground us and...-"

Ada let out a small sigh as she listened to the therapist on her laptop screen recite the infamous spiel that she had heard for every Tuesday and Thursday for the past few weeks. The "therapy" sessions that she was going to were virtual, and was just a therapist talking at her and about ten other people that were watching the live stream. It was more like a session of meditation than therapy.