Camping on the Borderline (Completed)

Chapter 5: The One Thing That Mattered

After I left the cemetery Zac offered to drive me home, but I refused. I really needed to sort things out by myself. I walked subconsciously down the known path towards my favorite coffee shop, but suddenly deviated and walked into the small bookstore next door. It's funny how a place that made me happy, now repealed me.  

I was too far to walk back to my dorm and I was not going to take a bus, at least not now. I walked into the bookstore and it was gloomy and unwelcoming. This place was reflecting exactly how I was feeling. There were no customers and one cashier who didn't even acknowledge my existence, but for that I was actually grateful. I was not in the mood for small talk or seeing someone else smile. I didn't want to see anything that would further emphasize how miserable I was.

I floated in a daze to the darkest corner of the store. The shelves reached the roof with books and a dim light bulb flickering above a table, like an interrogation room out of one of those old black and white crime movies. I dropped myself on the abandoned arm chair and sunk in. I put my head down on my knees and I stared at the spotted darkness the back of my eyelids displayed, daring myself not to cry. I wanted to keep staring into darkness but, like a movie all the memories of Jarred and I started to flood in at once. I wished it would stop. The day we first met in the cafeteria, all the nights we stayed up talking after Zac left, the times we snuck out to sleep under the stars, and all the times we would just sit in the coffee shop in a comforting silence. Then suddenly the bad memories started to rush in like a wild fire burning every happy moment. The times we fought, when days went past without a phone call, never telling me where he had gone. How could I have been so stupid?

My eyes began to sting again. I took deep breaths and tried to control myself. My heart wanted to tell me there was still hope that Zac was lying, but things just made too much sense know. The mysterious calls, the late nights, he had been playing me all along. I loved him and he broke my heart. He knew how much I suffered to get over Zac, and he came and shattered it all again. He was the only person in the world I trusted would never hurt me.

It was already getting dark outside when I woke up. I had fallen asleep on the couch and it was evident that the cashiers had changed shifts, and now there was a girl with blond hair filing her nails on the cashier's stool. I had to call someone. I was a wreck. My phone was off so I pulled it out of my pocket and wiped the screen off. My eyes began to water again and the lights from the phone gleamed causing all to blur. I had twenty missed calls. One call and voice-mail from Zac, and the rest from Cameron and Jarred. Jarred must have told Cameron that I was missing. I knew what all the voice-mails were going to say.

Maddy, pick-up the phone! Maddy, Where the heck are you? Maddy, are you okay? Maddy, if you don't answer this phone I'm going to call the police.

I can always count on Cameron to be there for me, and right then he was the only one I had.

"Maddy, where the heck have you been?" A familiar voice rang though the cell phone speakers after the first ring. I could tell his emotion meter was high. I could hear the relief and anger in his voice, and immediatly I felt bad. Cameron didn't deserve to worry like that.

"Cameron can you come pick me up?" I said, a little weaker then I expected to sound.

"Maddy are you okay?" Cameron asked urgently through the phone. He must have heard how bad I actually sounded.

A small sob escaped my mouth. "No." I started sniffling.

"Maddy where are you?" He asked again sounding overwhelmed with concern.

"At the bookstore near the coffee shop we go to." I said barely able to speak. I was so tired of crying and angry because I still freaking cared.

"I'll be there in five minutes, don't move" Cameron commanded.