anything (a cameron boyce love story)

fifteen: need you.

"So she's with your parents right now?" Lauryn asked, carefully picking up some shards of glass that was surrounding the slain lamp in Cameron's living room.

"Yeah," Cameron nodded as he spoke slowly. "My mom thinks that Ada should stay with her for a couple of days. She said Ada looked like she was having a... a mental breakdown. She was... hyperventilating. Breathing heavy and screaming. I never heard her sound like that."

Cameron sat the broom down, feeling tears starting to fill up behind his eyes. He had been trying to pick up some of the mess from the chaos that went on just an hour before as a way to calm himself down. But it wasn't working.

"I just don't understand. I really don't..." Cam began as he shook his head, sitting on his couch while Taj sat beside him. "I... I just don't understand what happened. Like... she... was kind of moping around for the past couple of days but she didn't seem that bad, you know? To the point that she would... want to..."

"I know," Taj nodded, seeing that Cameron was having trouble finishing the sentence. He watched as his friend sighed. He and Lauryn had shown up for the get together only to find a distraught Cameron and a busted living room. After learning of what happened, they decided to just sit with him and let him blow off some steam.

"I mean... what exactly would she be upset about though? I was trying to keep her happy. Bought her anything she laid her eyes on. Kept her looking good. Took her out, showed her off. Gave her her own debit card filled with money. And if she ran out, I was quick to put more in it for her. So she never wanted for anything... I kissed her, hugged her, complimented her," Cameron paused, letting out a sigh before he continued. "I just don't understand what she would be... depressed about. I treated her like... like a queen. I did everything for her-"

"I think that's the problem," Taj interrupted as he took a puff from one of the cigars he brought over for what was supposed to be a night of fun.

"Yeah, I think that's the problem too," Lauryn nodded while she was picking up the last of the glass.

"Huh?" Cameron asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

Lauryn let out a short sigh as she carefully sat some glass shards on top of the dust pan. "Ada depends on you for everything. She has no car, can't drive. No job-"

"Why would she need a job? I make more than enough for the both of us?" Cameron interrupted in confusion.

"It's not that she needs a job, you're missing the point. She has no... life. She has nothing of her own. You don't think we see every time us girls want to go out she has to run to you like a little girl for some money?"

Cameron was silent, letting the words sink in. Taj held a cigar in front of him, but he declined it. Lauryn could see that he was having trouble understanding her point, so she elaborated.

"Do you know what Ada does when you're gone? When you leave the state or even the country for months at a time? ...Nothing. She does absolutely nothing. If I don't come over here and chill with her or take her out with me, she just ends up sitting here alone in this big ass condo. She has no hobbies unless it's watching TV and cleaning. Literally her entire life consists of you buying her stuff to keep her distracted while she just sits here until you have enough time to even look her way. 21 years old with no life or anything to claim as her own. I would go insane too Cam."

Lauryn took a breath as she finished, watching as all the realizations physically hit Cameron in the face. She let out a sigh as she sat next to him, putting a hand on his back to comfort him while he shook his head in shame.

"I just... I mean, that couldn't have been what pushed her that far, right? Like... that stuff pushed her to want to kill herself?" Cameron thought out loud, his heart clenching from even having that come from his mouth.