A Mutually Assure Attraction

Decisions

After a few minutes had gone by, Hayden finally spoke.

"I thought you'd think I was giving you space like I had said that night. I didn't realize it would scare you so much that I wasn't coming back this year. I didn't message because I thought you'd talk to Amy sooner and find out. I didn't know you'd wait three weeks before asking. Cam look at me. Please look at me" Hayden pleaded trying to keep from crying.

Turning, I looked at Haydens' image wishing he was right here in front of me so I could hug him. After a few seconds, Hayden continued "I love you, Cameron and I'm so sorry it took this long for you to find out what's going on. Truthfully, even though they said a year realistically I won't be back at school until the beginning of senior year but I promise I'll be home close to the end of junior year. I should be back in time for your birthday next year."

"I love you too and as long as you come home safe I don't care when it is though the sooner the better" I said getting some of my normal mood back.

"Wanna video chat later tonight too? Maybe without the audience" Hayden asked with a grin.

"Yeah, we have stuff we need to talk about later" I said then glancing up at Amy added "thank you for doing this Amy and thank you for worrying about us."

"You're welcome, Cam. Hopefully my idiot brother will learn from this" she said with an annoyed look.

"Oh boy Hayden, I think you pissed her off..." I chuckled.

"Don't you mean we pissed her off?" he said jokingly.

"Okay, are you two love birds better now?" she asked smiling.

"Yeah, we will be. I'll talk to you later Cam. I'll I.M. before I call you. I love you" Hayden said with a hopeful smile.

"Okay, I love you too" I said waving before Amy disconnected the call. A few seconds afterward, Amy asked "so, are you still going date Jon or are you thinking about trying long distance?"

"That's one of the things I need to talk to Hayden about tonight. I'd be willing to do long distance until he gets back if he's willing to try" I said turning to look out the window.

"I guess you'll find out. I can't wait for you guys to finally be together after all this time. I know he wasn't sure until recently but I always suspected he had feelings for you" she said moving to sit beside me on the bed.

"Oh really?" I asked turning to look at her with a shocked and confused expression. With a giggle, Amy said "yeah, specially over the last year when you were suffering in silence and dating all those girls. He looked so miserable watching you when you weren't looking but he'd hide it as soon as you'd look at him. He got pretty good at it until he couldn't take it anymore and said something before the semester began."

"Yeah, I remember that. He said something like 'I know something's been going on with you and I know there are things you won't tell me but I want you to know I know and I'm here for you when you're ready to talk' which completely caught me off guard and I almost told him there and then but I couldn't bring myself to see his face. I didn't want to see his beautiful face twisted in a look of pitty and disgust. I'm glad that he was accepting and understand and even angry when he found out. Part of the reason I said something that day was because I knew he was standing there and because I couldn't see his reaction when I said it" I confided in Amy.

"Yeah, he was fairly upset that day when he came home. I think he felt guilty knowing you were in pain but not knowing how to help you. It tore him up inside" she said remembering how Hayden had acted that day after he'd confronted Cam. Standing, I moved over to the desk and picked up an old photo of the three of us and said "oh, I didn't realize that. I wish he'd have said something but I can guess why he didn't." Moving to stand next to me and looking at the same photo of our smiling faces, she said "who would have ever thought that those smiling kids would be in this situation today. Or that we would've gone through everything we have up to this point." After a few minutes of standing in silence as I put the photo back on his desk, I said "well, I should be going. I have some homework to get done before Hayden calls later. Thanks for today Amy."