Asphyxiate

.15

After riding almost every ride in the amusement park. The sun sets and Cameron finally admits he can't take it anymore.

"Please. Let's just buy a corndog and sit somewhere, I'm going to be sick." He pleads as he clutches his stomach. I laugh at him but I comply.

After buying the corndog I drag him out to the harbor nearby. We sit down at the edge, with our legs dangling from the dock. Cameron decides to lie down, granting him a better view of the night sky.

"Big tough Cameron is actually a baby. Huh. Who knew that." I said while I laughed, Cameron sits up.

"Hey, I'm not a baby. I just can't handle all of those consecutively. I'm not a ball of energy like you." He playfully nudges me. I chuckle.

"Suuuure." I say while rolling my eyes. He lays back down and I join him this time. "Thanks for coming." I tell him without looking at him.

"You technically dragged me here, I didn't have a choice, really." He chuckles, I laugh with him.

"Am I forcing you to be my friend?" I ask seriously.

"Honestly. I would never let anyone drag me around anywhere or force me to do anything. The reason I come with you is because I actually want to hang." He tells me while he looks at me. I look at him for a brief second and I smile but look away.

"I knew it."

He looks back to the sky and we emerge ourselves in a comfortable silence. I close my eyes to relax, only to hear his deep voice.

"So, your story?" I chuckle a bit but then agree.

"Well. Like I said, I am from Oregon. My mom's a housewife, but she loves staying at home. Dad's a corporate lawyer and I have a brother named Quentin."

"That's Q, right?" He interrupts. I agree. He's heard me talk to the phone a lot but I've only ever used Quentin's nickname. "Carry on." He urges.

"Anyways, yeah, so Quentin's older than me but he decided to go back to school to finish Med School. It's always been his dream. I honestly didn't have a hard time growing up, my parents always made sure we were comfortable and that we were raised to be humble. Even though we're well off, not to brag."

"I don't mind." He says.

"Even though we're well off, we only have this cozy little home that fits only the four of us." I smile at the thought. "As you might have realized by now, I am this ball of energy and I am really friendly, that's what they say though."

"You are." He tells me.

"Yeah?" He nods. "So yeah, my mom used to be a redhead before she dyed her hair brown but that didn't help me in NOT getting that genetic. So I came out a ginger."

"It works for you though."

"Are you going to let me finish or are you just going to keep interrupting me?"

He laughs. Sexy. "Carry on."

"Being the only redhead in the family, my brother always teased me that I was adopted." I laugh at the memory. "Yeah, I was really bothered by it so I begged my mom for a DNA test in high school, but turns out all's good. I came from her womb. Q was duly punished though. Serves him right. Anyways, so somewhere around senior year, this new guy comes into town and enrolls in my school."

"You don't have to include that part." Cameron says as he knows where this is going.

"It's okay, my life story wouldn't really fall together without him." I smile at him and he nods. "So yeah, since I was in the welcoming committee, I was assigned to be his buddy. Long story short, we became more than buddies. Next thing I know, his family becomes like a family to me, and I'm in way too deep. College rolls around but that doesn't stop us, and that's when I thought he was really the one, because we made it without a scratch throughout college. We actually went to the same university so that might have helped. Anyways, he proposes to me one day and I was thinking "Wow, everything is falling into place." But then you know the rest, he left, I got promoted and moved to Santa Barbara and I met this idiotic guy who is now my friend and life is good." I conclude with a smile. I look at him and see he is also smiling.

"I guess everything really fell into place then?" He asks.

"Yeah. I guess so." I smile at him. "Your turn."

"What?" He asks me, dumbfounded.

"Don't play dumb with me son, don't expect to spill my life story to you and expect nothing in return." I menacingly chuckle. "You know me better than that."

"Okay fine." He sighs. "So I am originally from Boston." He starts and I nod. "I was born there, so was my sister. She's actually my older sister just incase you didn't catch on."

"I sort of figured it out, thank you very much" I say sarcastically which he chuckles at.

"Okay, anyways, it wasn't always just the two of us. We were from a really happy family. Mom was a nurse actually, and dad was a salesman. I wouldn't say we were well off, but we weren't poor either. Like your parents, my parents also made sure we were comfortable." I could see the sad glint in his eyes and I immediately knew his parents were a touchy subject. He continued anyways. "One December night," I sensed something private was about to be spilled.

"Wait. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I tell him. He smiles weakly at me.

"It's alright. It's been a while since I found someone I could share this to, it has always been just my sister." I nod at this and let him carry on.

"One December night, I was 8 then and Nat was 14, my dad went to pick up my mom at work, it was right around 11 in the evening. Me and Nat were waiting up for them. Apparently the road was really slippery but I know my dad, I know he'd drive really cautiously but apparently drunk drivers don't. Next thing they know is they're at the bottom of a hill, dead." He says with zero emotion. His eyes dead. I find his hand and envelope it in mine. He looks at me and smiles sadly.

"I'm sorry." I genuinely say.

"Next thing that happened was we were sent to live with our Aunt Edie here in Santa Barbara. It was okay, nothing compared to the home we had with our parents. Everything started to go downhill from there, my aunt Edie had cancer though and she didn't have anyone but us to take care of her. We did our best to be of service to Aunt Edie, she let us finish high school too. She was really nice. I worked really hard in school so I finished with flying colors, believe it or not." He smiled, obviously proud of himself. I found myself smiling too. "Years later Aunt Edie died, and Nat just spiraled down. She started drinking, smoking, going all out until one day, she came home, told me she's pregnant. Imagine me, blazing mad, breaking things, punching walls. Plus, Nat's baby daddy ran off soon as he heard the news. What a dream, eh? I didn't want any more crap like that but I had to take everything in my hands, I sold Aunt Edie's house and moved into our small apartment, I worked a lot of jobs to provide for Nat and her TWINS. How lucky. Nat eventually got herself together and also got part-time jobs. I didn't get the chance to go to college but I really wanted to finish school so I applied for a scholarship in the community college and so that's why I go there. Then I meet this incredible girl, who is so annoying, she forces me to be her friend and now we're here." He concludes with a smile, looking at me.

"You love me and you know it." I meant in the most platonic way ever but I don't know, it had me blushing when he just smiled and nodded. "Well you make me feel really bad that my biggest problem is a guy leaving me." I pout and he laughs at me.

"It's all good little bee." He tells me.

We lie there for a little longer.

Forgetting the world behind us.