After moving to a small town for a semester and a half, Camilla Adams is relived about how great the new place and school seem to be, and how nice some people were.
But then she notices the way students treat one particular quiet guy, some horribly...
Dropping my sandals aside as I got into my room, I let out a loud sigh and went to grab some pajamas to change into. And by the time I was finished my phone dinged.
I thought it was Kaylee telling me I forgot something in her car, even though I wasn't carrying anything with me beside my phone and keys, but the message I found from Corey stopped my thoughts in its track.
Corey: how did it go?
Oh. He was asking about our plan. Tapping on his name, I tapped the word "call" before bringing the phone to my ears as it rang.
Corey picked up on the second ring, and there was some shuffling before he was whispering. "Hey".
"Hey, why are you whispering?" I asked, confused.
"Wait a sec," and there was more shuffling and the click of a door being closed before he spoke again, this time at a normal tone. "I just got out of the house, I wouldn't want for Penelope or Ethan to hear me talking to you at this late hour, now, would I?"
Even at 10 PM, it didn't cease to amaze me how Corey was still his flirty self. "It's not even late yet," I rolled my eyes. Late in my book was 11 and after.
"Whatever you say, Beautiful. So how did it go?" And just as he blurted that simple question, his voice took a worried tone. "I caught a glimpse of him before he went back to his room, and he wasn't looking exactly... pleased."
Oh, believe me, he wasn't.
"He's..." I paused, searching for words in my head to describe Ethan's current state. "A little tense about the whole subject." I settled. "But there's nothing a good night sleep and some time to think can't solve." I tried to reassure him.
He snorted, "If only. Can I come over for a bit? I just feel uncomfortable talking about it on the phone, and my sister could be quite the creepy spy. It would just be for a minute."
My brows furrowed in confusion, "what bad could possibly happen if Penelope heard you?" I asked.
"Tell you when I get there?" He asked. He was still asking for permission to come. I hesitated at first, weighing down my options before I made my mind. "Okay," I said finally.
"Be there in five."
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Corey appeared at my front porch ten minutes later. Well, twelve, to be exact. And just when I thought I should invite him in, I stepped out onto the porch instead and closed the door behind me.
There. At least now I wouldn't feel as much guilty of hiding this from Ethan as if I had invited Corey in where it would be just the two of us. Even though we had been that time he came over when I made the apple pie...
It was afternoon then, and I didn't know he was coming, and it's not like we did anything wrong— just shut up, Camilla. You're blabbering.
"So what would happen if Penelope knew about this?" I opened, taking a seat on the single step that leads to our porch, Corey taking a seat beside me.
"Remember how I told you I had lashed out on Ethan because I thought he broke up with Penelope? Well, the thing is, I didn't just think that from nowhere, but Penelope was the one who told me." Corey leaned his elbows on his knees and his head hung low.
"What do you mean?" I whispered.
"The day Ethan found out he was going deaf, he suddenly shut everyone out and stayed holed up in his room for days. Hell, he even refused to eat. It was like he became a shell of himself, motionless, expressionless, and he had that passive look to his face that said he didn't give a fuck about anything." Corey inhaled longly, before continuing. My heart shattering a little more for Ethan with each word he said.
"At the beginning, Penelope was as pained for him as the rest of us. But with each passing day, she slowly got irritated at his behavior that when prom came by they had an argument and I guessed Ethan refused to go with her and she was so mad that she just up and went anyway. After that, I had gone to talk to Ethan, see how he is, you know, check on him after his fight with her. And his condition was so stressed out. His eyes had dark circles, and he was so disoriented and powerless that when I mentioned Penelope he just shrugged and brushed me away, telling me that I should go to prom, too, and not worry about him. At the time, I couldn't care less about prom, knowing that my best friend was in this condition. But after he insisted I go and leave him be, I went along to check on Penelope. But when I got there, she was already shacking up Ethan's soccer teammate, Ryder, to look like she needed any consoling."
"I was so raged that I was ripping them apart in seconds. I beat up Ryder, which I'm not sorry about, and after that began yelling at Penelope for cheating on Ethan. But she was yelling right back at me in seconds and crying that Ethan broke up with her, and when I heard that, I couldn't help but think back to Ethan's passive face and I suddenly imagined him doing something like that, emotionless and uncaring ." Corey rubbed his face with both hands, suddenly seeming exhausted just by the act of remembering what happened, and I felt a little sorry for him being caught up between his sister and best friend.
"So I went straight back to Ethan, stomping and spouting a load of crap about him breaking my sister's heart and other bullshit that Penelope had fed me. And what enraged me more that he was staring at me the whole time, not caring to defend himself or even show an expression. So I just left after yelling my guts out without a second glance and four days later, we moved out and never came back until now."
I was about to lift my hand up and squeeze his shoulder, when I thought better of it and stayed put, letting him continue, "A few days later, I couldn't help but notice how Penelope had regrouped rather quickly. She began going out more and acting like herself. It's not that I didn't want her to be happy again, Penelope never lets a guy crush her and walk away. She's strong. but Ethan wasn't just any guy who she dated for a couple months and then broke up with, we've been childhood friends for so long that if he truly broke her heart, it wouldn't be that easy to move along."
Exhaling, he rolls his shoulders back and looks up at the starry night sky. The stars shining brightly from our suburban town's lack of lights at night.
"So I confronted her and found out she's lied to me that day. That she was the one who broke up with him and made out with his teammate not only two minutes later." Corey hissed out at the night air, his jaw clenched, "I know Ethan appeared uncaring and all that shit back then, but now that I think about it, he needed us. He needed us in his most desperate times, and we failed him. She failed him when he needed her. That's why she would freak if Ethan knew the truth. And then she would do anything to stop me from telling him that she had lied to me. Because if he knew that, he will know about prom and all her other lies, too. And he would never take her back."
My head was spinning with thoughts by now. Ethan, Penelope, Corey, lies, prom. And I found myself too dazed to utter a word.
"Not like he's going to, now, anyway." He scoffs, before turning to me. Face pale and his eyes tired.
"Penelope didn't treat Ethan like he treated her. She didn't treat him like he deserved. Promise me you will give Ethan what he deserves, Camilla." He sounded defeated now, pleading with me to promise something I will never stop doing.
"I will," I whisper.
And that's when a car door slams shut, and both Corey and I look at the driveway to see Ethan's pick-up truck, with its owner standing beside it, staring at us.
