In Search of Tomorrow ✓

Thirty-Two

A/N: If I ever repeat the same image up top please yell at me so I can switch it.  I have an endless supply of Evelyn + Cameron photos and I sometimes lose track of which ones I've already used :)

When I got back from visiting Clare at the hospital that afternoon, my happy glow had completely evaporated. She had been lying in the bed, lifeless as always, the machines still beeping and the nurses still taking notes. Would anything ever change, or would she lie like that forever?

I climbed out of Cameron's SUV and my backpack suddenly felt too heavy for me. It took too much effort to swing it over my shoulders and then help Maddie out of the car.

"Evelyn?" asked Cameron, twisting around in his seat to look at me as Maddie hopped out onto the pavement. "I'll be back at six, okay? I'm taking you out to dinner. Also, I talked to my aunt about your job. She said you don't have to come back if you don't want to."

Running my hands through my hair and making it stand up in weird places, I said, tiredly, "Thanks. But Cameron? Can we go for a walk or something instead? I'm sorry, I just...I don't really feel like dinner."

"Hey, don't apologize, okay? We can go to the park and take a nice moonlight stroll."

I had to smile at that, even though my heart was breaking, and he winked at me before putting the car in reverse and backing out of the driveway.

When we stepped inside, a headache immediately began to form. Three seven or eight year old girls had taken it among themselves to play tag inside the house, and they were running around screaming, their footsteps pounding the wooden floor like gunshots. My temples pulsing, I climbed the steps up to the third floor and shut the door to my room, locking myself inside. I could still hear faint yelling, even from where I was.

Maddie had stayed downstairs, so I unpacked my backpack and began working on homework alone. There weren't that many assignments, but I also had to make up the work I'd missed while I'd spent Monday in the hospital, and I had a test in Spanish the next day that I had to study for. Even though everything seemed to be going wrong, I wasn't willing to let my grades slip down again, especially when they just begun to level out.

At six o'clock, Sara came into my bedroom, looking frazzled. "Evelyn," she said distractedly, "There's a boy out on the porch saying he's supposed to be taking you out on a date. And do you know where Jocelyn went?"

I didn't even know who the heck Jocelyn was. Quickly, I packed up my bookbag and tossed in on my bed, shaking my head in answer to her question. I finger-combed my hair quickly, rubbed my lips together, and then hurried down the three flights of stairs.

Cameron was leaning against the wall just inside the house, his arms crossed. When he saw me, he straightened and enveloped me in a hug. For just a second, I breathed in and allowed myself to take comfort, but then I stepped away and cleared my throat. If I'd let him hug me any longer, I knew I'd start crying.

He took my hand and led me out to his SUV, and when I looked inside I saw there was a familiar-looking picnic basket in the backseat. He opened the passenger door for me and then went around to the driver's side, saying, "I figured we could have a picnic, just you and me."

"I think I could manage that," I said.

We drove the short way to the park in a comfortable silence; Cameron kept his left hand one the wheel and held my hand with his right. The sun was setting so that his blue eyes seemed to sparkle.

Once we'd arrived at the park, he set up the picnic blanket (which was a traditional red and white checkered pattern) on the grass and then began unpacking sandwiches and bowls of fruit. I took a grape, inspected it, and popped it into my mouth before asking, "Did you make all this yourself?"