Cam Cameron // Summer Again

6

"Gracie?"

"I'm sorry. I just— shit i'm so sorry. I forgot it was today and I completely spaced out," I stammer through my apology. His face. It's colder than usual. When did he start looking so tired?

"It's okay. I just got these tickets ahead of time and I wish you would've told me you had other plans," he says sadly. Cam had gotten us tickets to the new museum in my hometown for the weekend he was visiting but I told my parents we would house sit for the neighbors while they were away this weekend.

"I know i'm so sorry," I take his hand. What am I doing? He looks so hurt. Because of me. It's all because of me. "Cam?"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe... maybe you staying this weekend isn't a good idea..."

"What? What are you talking about?" he tries to laugh.

"I mean— I think you should go," the words fall out harder than I mean for them to. I drop his hand and he looks down and back at me worried.

"Gracie if this is about the tickets it's okay I'm not mad. Maybe I overreacted—" I interrupt his panic.

"No Cam. You didn't. In fact you should be more mad. I haven't paid attention to you at all this whole time. I'm so stuck in my head grieving right now that— that I can't treat you right..." I hold back my tears. This isn't about me right now. It's about Cam. It's about saving him from me.

"What? Gracie I don't care you're hurting and I just want to be here for you," he tries to salvage us and his pain slips through the cracks in his voice.

"No! Don't you get it? The more you do that the more we'll hate each other!" My breathing shakes.

"Gracelyn I love you!" tears start to fall on our faces and it kills me that I can't wipe his away.

"We're done, Cam!" I finally release. "Please. Just go home..." I swallow hard. He says nothing and simply does so. I spend the rest of the weekend sobbing in a house that isn't even mine. Alone.

~

"Wait, are we in trouble?" Jeremiah asks. Cam pulls his eyes away from me and looks to Jere.

"Oh, I mean officially there's no horseplay on or around the rock wall," he explains as if he had to memorize it for a test. "But unofficially, it's the... most exciting thing to happen all day..." he trails off realizing how pathetic that sounds actually said out loud. Belly crosses in front of me and nears Cam.

"What are you doing here? I thought Nicole said that you were doing some internship on a fancy whaling boat?"

"That... fell through," he says getting quieter.

"I'm sorry to hear that," she replies. He simply shakes his head and smiles before looking over at me where I get a clear view of his face falling all over again. An arm wraps around my shoulder and I look up to see Conrad watching the interaction with a stoic expression.

"This uniform though? Very cool. Super official," she says trying to brighten the mood again.

"Thanks, Belly," he replies. She invites him to join us in our Showdown and he becomes our referee and emcee of sorts. We cheer on Taylor and Steven as they race up the wall and unfortunately Steven makes it up before Taylor. They come back down and I watch as Steven teases Taylor nonstop. We walk along to the arcade where Jeremiah and I go against each other in Dance Dance Revolution.

"Don't you think you have an unfair advantage?" Cam asks me. I jump a little at the fact that he's talking to me.

"What makes you say that?" I ask nervously.

"Your mom showed me pictures of you dancing as a kid. She said you were dancing before you could even walk," he laughs sadly. I smile sadly at the fact he even remembers that.

"Well you say 'unfair' and I say 'skilled in my craft'..." I raise my brows as I get onto the platform. "You're going down," I say turning to Jere.

"Oh please, I am a great dancer," he scoffs. The music starts and just as I predicted I hit the arrows on time scoring more and more points while Jeremiah has a hard time coordinating his feet with what's on the screen. My team cheers me on while the boys yell at Jeremiah who is panicking because he is unsure on how to do better. The song ends with me and my team laughing while the boys hit Jeremiah playfully as he tries to defend himself.

"Nicely done," Cam tells me as I step off the game.

"Thanks, Cam," I smile awkwardly. Taylor pulls me away as the group walks outside to the Shoot your Shot basketball game.

"So... you and Cam again?" she nudges me.

"No... I don't know..." I shake my head confused. "I think he's just being nice so this isn't awkward," I sigh. "I can't imagine how bad I hurt him Taylor."

"Well I don't know Cam that well but from what I do know, he's a pretty forgiving guy. I wouldn't give up. I'm still team Grayson," smiles at me. We arrive at the Shoot your Shot and we watch Belly take down Conrad. The shoot off is intense and they take turns watching each others shots. In the end, Belly wins and asks for a giraffe. Her and Taylor walk off laughing and I come up behind Conrad and punch his shoulder.

"You're staring," I laugh. He rolls his eyes and ruffles my hair as we walk along the boardwalk some more. We stop at a guessing booth where Belly pushes Skye and Liam to compete. The point is to guess how many jelly beans are in the jar. The boys cheer on Liam and he guesses 624. Skye picks up the jar and looks at it all around before guessing 483. The guy working the booth stares in awe and asks if Skye is cheating. They guessed the exact amount. We lose our minds and celebrate with a high five. Skye is coming out of their shell.