The Uprisen

Chapter 22

Despite being in California, Cameron is absolutely freezing.  Even though he did just fly to the other side of the country, he had hoped that the temperature would be warmer than the freezing temperatures of Boston, but he was wrong.

"I thought you said we could go surfing out here," Joseph complains.

Cameron shrugs.  "I thought you liked my Foo Fighters CD."

"Not when you're playing all of the depressing songs.  Haven't you two been split up for like a month now?"

Cameron decides to ignore his question by turning on the radio.  An odd electronica song starts playing, and he immediately turns it off.

Joseph sighs.  "You've gotta talk about it eventually."

"How far are we from Crescent City?  Mallory said that that's where the map had the Water symbol."

Clearly not getting anywhere on the topic of Waverly+Cameron=4ever, Joseph checks the GPS on his phone.  "Only a couple of minutes."

"Good.  You hungry?"

"I could eat.  Just no fast food.  Trying to keep my figure for the beach babes...oh that's right, we're not going to the beach, because it's freezing!"

Cameron rolls his eyes.  "If you don't shut up about the beach, I'm going to drive up to the ocean and leave you there so the sharks can eat you."

Joseph scoffs.  "Everyone knows that the odds of getting killed by a shark is like one in a million."

Using the most cynical voice he can muster, Cameron says, "Just like being an elemental is one in a million?"

He clears his throat.  "Whatever.  There aren't any statistics on that."

"That's because most people don't know we exist.  How are you going to conduct a consensus on the number of elementals when the world doesn't acknowledge the fact that we're more than some cartoon on the television?" Cameron asks, slightly annoyed.

"Jeez," Joseph mutters.  "What crustacean crawled up your leg and bit you where it hurts?"

Without taking his eyes off the road, Cameron reaches over and grabs Joseph's winter jacket.  "If you mention the beach one more time, I'm going to take all of the air out of your lungs and blame The Seekers on your slow and painful death.  Understand?"

Joseph looks at his friend pitifully.  "You know she'll come right back to you once all of this is over?  She's not going to just move on with some other guy."

Cameron's grip loosens on Joseph's jacket.  He lets go, and squeezes the driver's wheel out of frustration.  "I know," he says sadly.

Nodding, Joseph looks at his phone again.  "Take the next exit.  There should be a diner just off the freeway."

"Great," he says.  Cameron takes the exit and parks in the parking lot to Fisherman's Restaurant.  Before getting out of the car, he looks at Joseph and says, "Thanks, man."

He smiles.  "Hey, no problem.  Now come on, I'm starving."

After a few minutes, Joseph and Cameron are seated in a booth by a window by a friendly waitress named Beth who hands them a menu and gets their water.

"Let's see what's on the menu...fish, fish and chips, clam chowder—"

"Fish, fish, fish, and fish," Cameron finishes.  "Great variety."

Joseph shrugs.  "What'd you expect?  It's called Fisherman's Restaurant.  You don't come here for burgers."

"Actually, they have burgers.  I think I'll get that," Cameron smiles sarcastically.