Writings

Cam🤍

it was the first day of ninth grade when I saw her. the most prettiest girl I had ever seen.

the teacher introduced her as Cameron Lindsey. I remember the way she tucked her blonde hair behind her ear and casted her brown eyes to the ground; she was embarrassed as the teacher introduced her. I thought that was adorable.

for a year I didn't talk to her. I was too afraid that she'd be frightened by my appearance. I was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome, or TCS.

back in elementary school, kids would tease me for my looks and I didn't want to talk to her. Even though they didn't do that anymore, I was afraid they would start back. And she would just laugh at me too.

my mom and my dad and my brother are amazing. they do things with me that other kids wouldn't do. we have movie nights and they come to my swim meets.

one day I finally gathered the courage to talk to her.

she was gorgeous and her voice was soothing. I could stare at her all day.

she asked me out. of course I said yes. who wouldn't?

we dated for two years. we got to know each other and I became popular.

I asked her to prom and she said yes. we stayed out all night.

I was sure I was going to marry this girl. I was certain she felt the same way that I did about her.

a month before school began for our senior year, she told me she was pregnant.

my parents and my brother weren't exactly thrilled but they supported us.

I was there for everything, even if it meant I was late to school or I had to check out halfway through the school day. I attended all her appointments with her. we did the gender reveal with her mom and my parents and my brother.

a week after graduation, my son was born. perfectly healthy. I was worried so much about him also having my facial deformity.

two weeks later, after bonding with him and even giving him my last name, she told me that he wasn't mine.

it hit me like a bullet. what was she saying? I wasn't his father?

but I had been there for her from the beginning. I did everything with her and even gave him my last name. I was planning to propose to her.

she had cheated on me, a friend of hers had informed me. it happened at a house party that we had attended together. while I was playing beer pong with other guys, she was upstairs with some jock.

I confronted her about it. she said if I had a problem with it, I could leave.

I wasn't leaving. I was staying. I did everything I could to make him my son. biologically, he wasn't mine. but he might as well be.

weeks went by and she stopped picking up her calls. the newspaper showed that his biological father had been killed in a car crash.

the day I went over to her house, it was raining. her mother told me she left town over a week ago in the middle of the night and took the baby with her.

my brother and I went searching for them. after two days of traveling in his car we found them.

the baby was okay, he just had a stinky diaper. my brother changed him and fed him while I looked for Cam. my beautiful Cam. I loved her so.

there was a river by the ditch that we found her car and the baby at. her body was washed up on the shore. she had been dead for a while.

as distraught as I was, we took her body to the morgue so they could determine her cause of death.

she had jumped into the river. she was drunk and jumped. I wondered if she was in pain.

when we got back to town, her mother was saddened. she said that her daughter would never do that to herself. her daughter was smart, she said.

she wanted nothing to do with her grandson. he was a disappointment. at a month old.

my parents took legal action so I could adopt him. and I gave him a name, since Cam never named him. She only called him "the baby."

today I leave for college. he is three months old and is getting so big.

"be sure to call us when you get there," my mom says.

"I will," I say.

I say bye to my dad and my younger brother.

"hopefully you'll enjoy middle school," I say.

he laughs. "my friends and I signed up for basketball."

my dad loads my suitcase and my laptop into my trunk. I have my phone charging on the console in the car.

as I drive away from my parents house, I look in the backseat at the baby.

he's sound asleep in his car seat. and I smile.

my handsome Cameron. my son.