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Chapter 1.

We arrived at the Brown Stone Avenue. In a small town like DarkLane, this was the best place to be in during sunset. Cameron stopped his car, went out and opened the door for me. I stepped out, grabbing the 'take away' coffee box. He took out his coffee and mine, threw out the box and handed my drink back.
"Sun's about to go down. We better head over there." He pointed to a cliff far from the fence.
"You want us to cross over the fence to sit over the cliff?" I asked in surprise.
"It's barely a cliff, Vanessa. And they wouldn't call it the Brown Stone if we were going to sit in garlic scented cafe's." Cameron said. "Nature's better, love." He added. I hesitated. I had never crossed over this fence - no-one was supposed to cross over it, I mean it was supposed to be there to prevent us from crossing over it and heading to the stone. We might just fall down. But there was this stranger that I just met who's completely gone - nuts. I sighed.
"Alright, Cameron. Nature's better."
He smiled, grabbed my hand real tight and ran. "Cameron slow down! I'm going to spill my coffee!" I yelled at him.
"That's why they invented lids." He said. Placing his coffee on a stoned edge, he climbed up, reached his hand for mine and pulled. I dropped down on the stone. I adjusted my coat and crossed my legs. The sun began going down and the sky was just of threads of golden and sapphire red. "That's a kind act." I stared at the sky. I turned to Cameron and found him staring at me. I realized his hands were empty. "Where's your drink?" I asked. He pointed down.
"Why'd you leave it?"
"There's always an alternative." Cameron said as he took out a pack of cigarettes.
"You're going to smoke? Kent?"
He nodded. He lit up and drew it closer to his lips.
I reached a hand to the pack and pulled one up. He laughed.
"Don't laugh. Light it up for me, would you?"
"I'll dare say, this is what bad girls do, love." He said.
"That doesn't make me a bad girl. Besides I tried it before." I raised my head up in pride.
"Obviously. There you go." I got closer, our forehead nearly touched and I looked at him. He looked back. But sooner he smiled and let his eyes down as my cigarette lit up. I tried the first take in and I coughed immediately. I heard him snicker. "Knock it off! Alright it IS my first time."
"Then what? You were trying to impress me, Vanessa?" He gave me a nasty look. I gave him a hard stare.
"No,Cameron. I just wanted to know how it feels like to be bad." I said, mocking him.
"And what makes it ineluctable that smoking makes you bad?" Cameron asked, taken aback by the statement that I randomly stated.
I took another breath from my cigarette. "I didn't say that. I'm not that kind of a judgmental."
"But you're still saying that you're judgemental?"
"What I meant was you can see something for what it looks but not for what it is." I explained.
He stood up, grabbed me by the arm and helped me up.
"What are you doing?"
"Walk along." He said. We did more jogging than walking. We went down and walked through the trees. The stone disappeared out of sight and we started going up a small hill. At last, there we came to a dead end. There was a brick wall. I stared at the small vines there and at an old rusty sofa.
"What do you think?" He asked.
"What is there to think in a - junkyard?"
He moved closer to me.
"Now you're being judgemental." He said.
"You mean - you might look like a bad boy but you're full of surprises?" I asked trying to sound innocent for I didn't get what was going on.
"On the contrary, this might look like a junkyard but - you see something for what it looks, not for what it is." He said. I looked at him blankly. Then he sighed and turned around. He got close to the brick wall and with two fingers he touched one of the bricks and a part of the wall in shape of an entrance fell down. And the view down was magnificent. You could see the sun going down and the trees down at the woods. He smiled at me while we sat together at the edge of the wall and our legs were free down.
"I've never been this close to see the woods down." I said.
"There's a place down, just there. But we're not going there." He smoked his cigarette. "At least not before I'm ready to take you there." Added he.
"Ready? Ready for what?"
"I mean you're still a stranger, Vanessa."
"Says the boy who asked me out on a cup of coffee which he left down by the stone and just let down a wall of bricks." "It's my cryptic place for your information love, so you can't deny that I'm beginning to trust you." Cameron said.
"But- why me? You know there were plenty of girls down at Millano's. And I barely know you."
"I don't know you at all Vanessa, in fact I don't know where your house is, which is something that you need to tell me, because I'm going to drive you home."
And he changed the subject. Damn, he's good. "I live by Oakshore." I told him.
"That's very well." He said.
He placed his cigarette on the grizzly grass and stepped on it.
"Time to go?" I asked.
"Only if you're willing to."
"Well, it's getting late-"
"Then stop pretending you're a vixen, it's humiliating."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Long time jobs, first time she's ever smoked, considers six p.m late..."
"Oh, fine, I get it. But I'm still not judgemental." I nagged.
He stood close to me. Close enough that I realized he wore Lacoste for a perfume.
"I'll decide that when I know what you think of me." Cameron said.
"I don't think you're a cold guy but you just pretend that you are. But I feel you're trouble." I said slowly.
"I won't argue with the second."
Feeling like I ran out of words, I remained silent. His lip twisted in a hast smile.
"Let's get you home."
Cameron and I walked all the way back to the Stone. He picked up his coffee that ran cold from the freezing chill of September. Took it in a fast gulp and we both shoved our empty drink cups in the bin down the street. He took out his car keys and we went inside. It was a fifteen minute drive to my house at Oakshore. The sun had already set and the sky was a mass of blackness, though the only light that was bright was the moon's. He pulled at my drive way when I said "That's it."
I turned to him.
"This is really queer of me to say but.. will I see you around?" I asked spontaneously.
He laughed a short, deep laugh. And his hazel eyes met mine once again.
"Only if you're willing to." He said.
"Thank you for the date, Cameron."
"It was a pleasure meeting you, McAllen." He said.
"Same for you, Lockwood."
He smiled. I turned around and reached for the door handle. But before I went out he spoke up.
"Keep making them."
"What?" I asked, taken aback.
"You know, the cookies, lattes, coffee.. they're good."
"Oh. Well umm - so you'll go for another?"
"You never know." He said. Then he leaned and pecked my cheek.
"Have a good-night, love."
I stepped out of the car and watched him drive away. I looked back at my house that stood still in the dark.If it wasn't for him, today would've been just a routine that I was used to everyday. But I crossed the boring routine the same way I crossed over the fence to the most magical view I've ever seen with a - stranger? It wouldn't have been this way to me except that I didn't know where he lived. What's the story of his life nor the reason he actually chose me. But whatever the reason was, I was glad that I met him. And maybe - just maybe, I would know a way to start telling this story of the boy that changed me, my reality and the end that was the beginning of me. A way that I could actually tell the story of us.