Have You Ever Listened To The Rain At Night?

Chapter 4

With a nicely wrapped package, Camille sneaked into Logan's room on the morning of his birthday. However, she was disappointed to find that the room was empty. She was just considering whether to put her present on the bedside table and then disappear when suddenly the adjoining bathroom door opened and Logan walked in . . . in jeans and shirtless, drying his wet hair with a towel. Camille didn't know whether to draw attention to herself or try to sneak away when Logan suddenly turned around and dropped the towel, startled. "Camille!" Face flushing, he bent down to pick up the towel from the floor. Camille cleared her throat. "Um, I'm sorry, Logan. I didn't mean to scare you. I wanted-"

Logan straightened up and waved off. "It's okay, Camille. I just wasn't expecting a visitor so soon." He walked over to his closet, pulled out a clean shirt and put it on. As he buttoned up, he said, "My parents and Kendall were actually planning to come over later to celebrate with me."

"Yeah, now that you mention it . . . Happy Birthday, Logan," Camille said brightly, holding out her package. But Logan made no move to take it from her. He stared at her in surprise. "You . . . you bought me something?"

"Um, yeah . . . Was that wrong? I thought, well, you were so sad so I wanted to cheer you up with it."

His smile made her insecurity disappear. "No, it wasn't wrong. That's very kind of you, actually. I just didn't expect it, that's all. Can I see it?"

"Yes, of course."

Now he took the package from her hand, checked it briefly before carefully unwrapping it, making sure the paper didn't tear, which Camille thought was a bit strange, but that wasn't anything new by now. Then he looked at the book in his hand. "Shakespeare?"

Camille nodded. "I wasn't sure if you'd read it yet, but I didn't see it in here and I thought it might be something you might like . . . okay, maybe that's not the best word for it, but I hope you know what I mean. Also, I remembered it because we read it in school last year."

"Yeah, no, it's great, thank you so much." Logan flipped through the pages and seemed to forget that Camille was still standing in front of him. When he suddenly remembered her, he smiled sheepishly and put the book on his bedside table. "You said you read it in school?"

"Yes, we even perform a play."

Logan smiled. "Let me guess . . . Romeo and Juliet?"

Camille laughed. "Exactly."

"Did you have a part in the play?" he asked curiously. Camille nodded. "Yes . . . to be honest I even tried to get the role of Juliet but they ended up taking someone else. Maybe I just wasn't good enough and that's why they chose someone better." That was only half the truth. Camille was certain that no other person would be better suited for the role than herself. She had always loved drama and saw the play as her big chance. But in a world like this, the talented but unpopular girl never got the lead. Instead, the role was cast by the school's it girl, who, to make matters worse, was also an extremely bad actress. Camille knew that she was much better than this girl, but sometimes she wondered if the others were right. Maybe she really wasn't good enough. She was just . . .

". . . unique."

Camille flinched and stared at Logan in shock. "Sorry . . . What . . . what did you just say?"

Logan smiled. "It's a quote, actually: The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique. It's from Walt Disney."

"Oh . . . yeah, of course." Camille felt stupid. Of course Logan wasn't able to read minds. She shrugged. "To be honest, I love drama. But life is more about being happy, isn't it?"