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Chapter 3.

"Vanessa, honey, breakfast is ready," Mom said as she woke me up. She drew the curtains aside and a thread of sunlight entered my room. I could smell the usual lilac scent which Mom used every morning to refresh the house. Hmph. I sat straight in bed and rubbed my eyes. "I didn't hear you coming back home last night." Mom said suddenly as she opened my bedroom's door and went downstairs to the kitchen. I beamed a little after remembering last night. I had always thought that pubs were a place where only 'The bad guys' hung around. Only yesterday, Cameron had proved it wrong. "Hmm, pancakes." I said as I smelled the delicious smell of pancakes wafting around the kitchen. Mom poured some blueberry syrup on top and placed a piece of butter.
"So, who's the guy?" Mom asked, spreading a smile across her face.
"What guy?" I replied back with a question feeling myself blush.
"Oh come on, don't even deny it. You've always been a punctual. Now you come home late, Millano calls and says you missed your work yesterday so, who's the guy?" She kept on asking. Sometimes it really is annoying to be questioned.
"Well, his name is Cameron. Cameron Lockwood. He lives on the next block."
"Lockwood you say?" Mom went silent, probably recalling each neighbor she visited, offering her some of her varied tarts that she makes and staying over for coffee.
"Ah, Katia's son? I thought Katia Lockwood and Stefan Lockwood got a divorce a long time ago and the family parted-"
"Yeah, Cameron moved in with a cousin of his and I don't know what happened to his parents. But he's staying alone now because his older cousin is in college now and left the place for him." I explained.
"But - I thought-" she stopped short.
"Thought what?" I snapped.
"I don't know. I can't quite remember. But there was this thing about the Lockwoods and- oh well, I can't seem to remember now. It's been a while ago."
"It was so good, Bethany. I had so much fun," I said as I walked in the hallway to our lockers.
"Um, did you drink Vanessa?" Bethany asked nervously.
"No. I had lemon juice instead and it made me feel like a brute." I said.
"Well, Cameron seems like a guy who would get wasted and not think twice about it." She said. I felt slightly annoyed. Cameron was not the kind that Bethany was describing. He's alluring. But there's a feeling that I can't shake away when I'm with him. A wave of haziness that surrounds him, consumes me. Bethany and I were walking to our class when my eyes landed on the school board. I remembered what Cameron said last night about the scholarship and how I called Millano's today and told him I didn't want the job anymore. I walked towards it to get a better look on the schedule.
"What are you doing?" Bethany stood by, checking the announcmets with me.
"Trying to find when's the chemistry try out test."
"You're not going to find it." She said after letting out a short twisted laugh. I turned to her.
"What do you mean I'm not going to find it?" I asked, astonished.
"Don't you know how to read? There are only Math, Literature and Science. No such thing as chemistry, Vanessa." She explained. But this can't be what I think it is. I'm sure Cameron said 'chemistry'. And then I breathed out as I remembered Cameron didn't even attend his classes yesterday. The tryouts were announced today. Which means yesterday there was no such thing besides a lie he made up.
"Vanessa?" Bethany called.
"Y-yeah?"
"Where did you go?"
"Nothing. I'm just thinking about which one I wanted to take."
"Well come on, let's get to class."

I turned to the other side of the bed. Feeling my head getting heavier and heavier. I rubbed my hair and checked the clock. School would be over by now. Fortunately I didn't attend today either. I thought of Vanessa. I felt my insides turn upside down. Perhaps that was guilt. My eyes felt heavy as well. As they were closing slowly I heard a knock on my door. I got out of bed and opened the door. Vanessa was standing outside.
"Vanessa? What are you doing here?"
"The question is for you."
"I don't understand how-"
"You lied to me. And you broke your promise. But you know what really sucks about it? Is that I was too stupid to believe that you actually wanted to stay with me last night." She said, her voice sort of cracking.
"Vanessa, I-"
"And what were you doing? Sleeping as well?"
"Vanessa, I'm sorry about the scholarship lie.. I just wanted to leave and I was tired-"
"Never mind that, Cameron. At least I don't have to stick to part time jobs anymore."
"What do you mean?" I asked, unable to understand but yet feeling guilty as ever.
"I called Millano's and I quit." Vanessa said and she turned her face away.
"I just thought you wouldn't lie to me after I've opened my heart and poured it out to you. I thought you were different." I felt like a villainous bastard. Vanessa said something I couldn't hear and she turned around to leave. I immediately grabbed her arm to stop her.
"Vanessa I want you to come with me."
"Cameron just let me go. I'm sorry I was a waste of your time-"
I pushed her against the wall and put a hand over her mouth. "Stop speaking. Just shut up, okay?" She nodded, her green eyes looking into mine.
"Just come inside with me. I'll put on my jacket and slip into my shoes and then I'm taking you somewhere. Just the two of us." We stepped inside and Vanessa waited for me in the hall while I climbed the stairs and slipped inside my grey striped with black jacket and wore my black converse; went down the stairs and held her hand.
"Let's go." I said.
When we arrived at the Brown Stone, I recalled the first time I've been there with Cameron. Back then that person was a sincere one and now it felt bizarre. I went out of the car and didn't wait for him to open the door for me like he used to.
"We're going to cross over the fence again?" I asked, not sure why we're here again.
"Just walk with me and you'll see for yourself." Cameron said. We jumped over the fence and walked towards the branches that led to the same junkyard. As well as before, Cameron pushed down the brick wall and it revealed the slope down. He reached out his hand for me.
"Down? I'm not going down, Cameron."
"Why? Afraid of the darkness? There's plenty of sunlight down there in a beautiful-"
"I'm not going down. Just drive me back home and go on with whatever you've been doing." I said.
"Listen, Vanessa, do you remember what you told me on the first day we met?" He asked.
I shook my head.
"I can barely remember the person you were then by the way." I told him.
"Well the truth is, you told me you felt that I was trouble. And I said I wouldn't argue with you on that because you were right. You're right, Vanessa. I'm trouble. And I don't care of what can be worked out about this but what I want to say is that you told me things about yourself when I was just a stranger to you." Cameron said.
"So?"
"So what I'm asking you right now is to trust me again the way you did." He reached his hand again. I stood still.
"You can simply turn away and go home. But I'm telling you I'm not giving you that drive this time. So you can either go and leave me behind and go back to that melancholic routine of yours having to put a smile on your face each day to plastic ladies or you can give me your hand and be something more." He insisted again. "What is it going to be, Vanessa?" He added. I thought of the lie he made up and the way it hurt to be lied to by someone you trusted but at the same time I realized that it wasn't a sin. It wasn't a mistake that would haunt me like the rest of the mistakes I've done in my life or the shadows that lay upon me wherever I went. He apologized and now he's showing me that he - well- cares. Maybe he was really worth a try. A chance perhaps; unlike the chances I wasted in my life.
"Alright then. Let's go down." I said.
He smiled. I noticed how magnetizing his smile was. He took my hand and we went down the hill. The sun disappeared behind the thick branches of the tress that came down in the woods. We came to a vast opened space. I gasped softly. Violets, gardenias and dried maple leaves filled the ground. The sunlight shifted slowly. I raised my head up and the sky was grey and blue. It's like a paradise over here. A place just for the two of us. I stole a glance at Cameron. He walked around and shuffled his shoes against the grass, humming a song. When he caught me looking he stopped and walked to me.
"So? What do you think?" He asked.
"This- this is beautiful. When did you find this place?"
He beamed.
"Last year." He answered. Then suddenly he moved his hand towards my shoulder and pushed my hair back. I laughed as I saw a butterfly resting on my shoulder.
"Oh, look at that now. It's pretty." I said.
The butterfly flew away.
"You know what that means?" Cameron asked. I shook my head with denial.
"To you it's just a pretty butterfly. To me, it's you." He said. I gave him a suspicious look.
"I'm a butterfly to you? Then what are you to me?" I asked.
"I'm the jar that - No matter how much your delicate little wings flutter inside - will never get its glass broken." Cameron replied, his eyes getting deeper. I didn't know what to say. This haziness took me over again.
"And if the glass never breaks then you'll never let me go?" I asked.
"Never." He said.
"And will it ever get broken?"
"Only with a stout ironworked hammer." I laughed.
"So what is this about? You bringing me here -"
"I told you I'll bring you here only when I'm ready." Cameron said.
"And you never told me ready for what." I told him, feeling curious.
He took a step closer.
"I've had lots of girls to love. I've had lots of mistakes to fix and lots to make and there were so many girls like you whom I started to tell 'I'd like it if you were my first one to love' just to flirt, you know." He said.
"And why are you telling me this?" I asked.
"Because I've had my first shots and now-". He stopped and took my face in his hands, and kissed me.
"You probably had yours as well, but I intend to be your Last." He finished.
"My Last?" I asked, still feeling his skin against mine.
"Your last if you'd be mine." He said as I felt the world falling apart. I hadn't much to learn about him. Probably nothing at all besides what he had told me. But it seemed like he had captured me. And now I was his little butterfly locked in a small jar that you'd probably decorate your rooms with and set them free a day after. But to him - I was never to be set free for he would never let me go.