Warning: RWB spoilers ahead.
Some say the best love stories often take time.
Emery Chernychevsky has had a crush on Cameron Brooks since he can remember. Watching him date different girls all throughout high school was nothing if not pure torture...
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Week 9: The Accident
Cameron started to love driving when he was sixteen and his dad gave him the family's old Corolla.
It was the first car his mom and dad bought after they got married. His dad told him it was older than Cate, and Cameron remembers joking about it and asking if it was crankier than her, too. They had a good laugh about it until Cate overheard and made Mom send them on a long drive to Stowe. It was her way of sending her kids on a timeout, and her husband, occasionally.
It was probably one of the last times Cameron had quality time with his dad before they both got too busy for father-son road trips. Since then, he'd only driven himself to places, which is why by the time he was eighteen, he was already used to, and frankly fond of the silence that comes with being behind the wheel.
"Did you guys know skateboards originated in California as an alternative to surfing?"
That was Asher's twenty-fourth question since they left the grocery store. Cameron wished he was exaggerating. He remembers a time when Asher hated small talk when being driven places, and sometimes, he wonders if this vacation may be actually costing Sanders a few years off his life expectancy because the way he sees it, the saltwater breeze and all those video games with Blake is turning his friend for the worse.
"Beaches probably got too boring for them," Cameron muttered, looking busy and uninterested as he drove.
Asher didn't need to know that Cameron being stoic was only because he was trying his best not to look at Emery every .5 seconds.
Emery hasn't said a word since they left, despite him earnestly asking Cameron to talk once they get home. Maybe he meant it literally. When they get home. Cameron's an impatient man and he's not proud of it. For the last ten minutes, he's done nothing but fret and pretend to listen to Asher as he tries to come up with something to say to Emery to start a conversation. What'd you have for breakfast? How are you feeling? Am I driving too fast?
Asher's voice traversed through his thoughts. "In 1978, Michelle Pfeiffer was voted Miss Orange County in the State of California..."
Cameron growled through his throat. He'd promised himself a minute ago that he was one more trivia away from confiscating Asher's phone, and just as he was about to, he heard a soft giggle from the passenger seat.
Asher might live another day after all. "What's so funny?" Cameron whispered to Emery. He didn't want Asher to hear and inject himself into the conversation.
"He's turning into Blake," Emery answered, facing him briefly before darting his eyes back to the window.
"Don't let him hear that or he'll shoot himself out of this car."
Emery laughed quietly, cheeks red from the cold, and Cameron managed to take one glance at him to notice the timid way he was clutching the edge of his shirt. He's cold. When he was packing, Cameron operated on the assumption that it'd be hot everywhere he went, so every shirt he brought either had no sleeves or had fabric that was thinner than both Ian's patience and Blake's self-preservation combined.
