Roomies Book Two: Quarantine (PolyLove)

Chapter 31: Confessions Continued

Chapter 31: Confessions Continued

"I kissed Leah."

Cameron tried not to sigh. Succeeded. Guess he shouldn't be surprised. Lots of gay in their three families.

Mia was sitting on a reclining lawn chair, in the shade, in a hot pink bikini, her blonde hair up in a messy bun, bright purple glittery sunglasses covering her blue eyes. Across the pool, Mike and John sat at a patio table, glasses of iced tea in hand as they watched Krista and Leah splash a very reluctant Manny. Krista's throaty laughter echoed around the backyard. Cameron's thoughts flew to Nate, who laughed in the same unrestrained way. Two days and he missed his boy so much.

"Are you listening to me, Cameron!" Mia lowered her sunglasses a smidge giving him a disgusted look.

"Yes, of course, honey. You kissed Leah. Did she...was it...how did it go?" He tried to muster up the proper attitude. This was what was bothering Mia, clearly. And it was extremely important, he knew.

But Diego just came out of the house, dressed in his swim trunks, showing off his muscled chest, and his strong strong arms and broad shoulders and smooth back and long legs....

Cameron licked his lips. Diego caught him watching, smirked and flicked his eyes towards the pool. And the smaller man shrugged, wishing he could walk over to Diego, run his hands up and down his biceps.

"It went AMAZING! We kissed. With tongues. It was so hot, Cameron."

Cameron turned back to the girl, wondering where the "but" was in this confession. He'd wondered about Leah and Mia before, and Manny's role in their friendship. So he wasn't dismayed to hear it. He knew his baby chicks pretty well, although in the six months he'd been away, they had all grown, and not just physically.

"That's good," he said. Waiting.

"Yeah, it was." Her voice grew hard and bitter. "And the next day she apologized for leading me on. Said she kissed me because she was curious. Said she maybe did like girls but that she only thought of me as a friend. Said she liked someone else. As if I didn't know that already. Duh. I'm not blind."

Their eyes were both drawn back to the water, where Leah was sitting on Diego's shoulders, as he waded in the artificial crystal blue water. Manny watched, holding his hands out, obviously afraid the brown haired girl would fall. Krista was toweling off, happy to let Diego be the lifeguard.

"I'm so sorry. That's terrible." Cameron murmured. "It hurts. Hurts, I'm sure."

"Yeah. I should have known better, but I just thought, what the fuck, better to try then to worry and wonder what might have happened." She frowned, and turned her head away when Leah fell into Manny's outstretched arms.

"Hmmmm, I agree," he said softly. "It's always better to try and fail than live life with 'what ifs.''

"But it sucks. And I'm mad at her. But especially mad at him. Fucking Manny. And he doesn't even want her!" She threw her sunglasses down and stomped into the house, refusing to look at the people in the pool.

Cameron watched her go, debated following her. But decided against it. She'd at least gotten it off her chest, and maybe he'd try again later. Not that he had any solid advice. The person she cared about didn't like her. He knew how that felt. Didn't matter that she was twelve and he was twenty six. Pain was pain. Worse, because of quarantine she had no one else to hang out with. No one else to serve as a buffer. And her life was inextricably entwined with Leah's so it was hard for her to take a break. At least...at least Manny would be out of the picture soon, moving back to Tahoe with them. Although it really didn't solve much of anything.