Time: 9:00 A.M. Date: 2 weeks later. Location: My room.
"This has gone on long enough." Libby said barging into my room. "You've ignored all of us all week. You've missed your birthday. And we know you've been sneaking out to visit James."
"I'm sorry." I said rolling over on my bed to face her. "Wait, did you just call him James?"
"That's how I knew him." She told me sitting down on the end of my bed.
"Are you guys friends?" I asked her sitting up.
"You could say that." She said softly then turned to make sure the door was closed. "If I tell you something, you can't tell the others. Only Nibs knows." She held her pinky out to me and I accepted it.
"I won't tell." I promised.
"We're not as much friends as we are exes." She admitted.
"Are you serious?" I asked with a smile. "Spill."
"A while after I joined the ship he noticed the crew being a bit handsy with me then told them off and he started inviting me to dinner every night. We got to know each other and one thing led to another. We were together for a few months but things just didn't work out. I broke up with him when he started to be distant. We aren't on bad terms, we're just awkward. But that's really beside the point. You don't need to sneak around. I'd so much rather know that you're going to see him than not know where you are. What has been going on with you?"
"Peter is never going to trust me as long as James is around, but James and I are friends. Peter doesn't even look at me anymore. You all look at me like I'm some sort of abused animal that you aren't sure how to approach. I just feel horrible all of the time." I told her.
"We're just worried about you. And as far as Peter, he's in just about the same shape as you are." She said. "Please just talk to him."
"If I talk to him will everything go back to normal?" I asked.
"The only way we'll know is if you do it." She smiled then stood up. "You might as well get going. Time's wasting away." She left my room but not before I saw her give a thumbs up to someone outside. I peaked around the corner and saw her hug Nibs.
"You're wonderful." He told her. She smiled and kissed his cheek.
"You're wonderful." She said then they walked down the hall to the meeting room. I followed a few minutes later.
"And here we have the Camo bear, rising from her hibernation." Binky said mimicking Steve Erwin. I flipped him off. Mary punched him on the arm.
I walked over to Peter's room and knocked on the door.
"Nibs go away!" He groaned.
I rolled my eyes then pushed open the door. Peter was lying on his bed with his eyes closed. I shut the door behind me.
"I said to go awa-" He sat up in bed. "Oh, it's just you." He flopped back down on the bed.
"Apparently we need to talk." I said sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Did Nibs get to you too?" He asked facing away from me.
"Libby." I said.
"Those two are lethal." He sighed.
"Yep." I said.
"What do you want?" He asked sitting up.
"I guess I could ask you the same question." I remarked. His face fell then he sighed.
"You left and I thought Hook might have taken you and taken advantage of you. I saw you come out of his room and assumed the worst. And then when he said you were there willingly, I...I got jealous. Now you're sneaking around, very poorly I might add, with him and you aren't talking to any of us. Well, you weren't anyways." He said staring at his hands which kept twisting around each other.
"You were jealous?" I asked.
"Really Camo out of all the things I said, that's what you got out of it." He half laughed even though we both knew nothing was funny.
"James and I are friends. You're going to have to deal with that. I'll stop sneaking around when you stop freaking out about him and me hanging out." I told him. "You're just going to have to get over it."
"Do you love him Camo?" Peter asked, the pain was obvious in his voice.
"What?" I asked completely shocked.
"Do you love Hook?" He asked again looking into my eyes.
"No." I answered. What kind of a question was that? Relief flooded Peter's face.
"You were really afraid that I loved him?" I asked dumbfounded.
"Yes." He responded. He looked so vulnerable. This is not the Peter who I had come to known so well. The cockiness and playfulness was gone.
"Peter?" I asked.
"Mh-hm?" He asked.
I cupped his face in my hands and kissed his lips softly. He seemed surprised at first but then quickly recovered. He kissed me back but with more aggression. I wrapped my arms around him and he did the same. I pushed him back onto the bed and well...you can imagine what happened next.
