Desire 2

Chapter Eighteen

I sat on Drew's king size bed as I heard the shower faucet pour from the bathroom. I scrolled through my twitter feed and read the normal conversations between the people I follow before running along something different. It was a tweet from Alex of a photo of him, Austin, Robert and Zach, which read "So glad to have my boys back," 

Was Austin back in town? Was he here for good now or was he just gonna leave in a minute? The thought of him back in town infuriated me. The thought that he could just waltz back into town and just take his life pissed me off beyond belief because he could. He was Austin. He could do that. He could come back and start working on music again and he could get himself back together but he couldn't have me. He just couldn't. 

"Hey," he began, walking out of the bathroom, "What are you looking at?" 

"Oh, it's just twitter," I laughed, closing the app and putting it on the bedside table. 

"Anything interesting?" he asked, in a teasing tone. 

"I saw a picture of kitten. That's pretty much it," I laughed. 

He smiled, sweetly, tossing his towel into the dirty laundry bin next to the door before falling down on the bed beside me. He grabbed a hold of my hand and pulled me into his embrace as I lay against his chest. 

"You know, there's something I really wanna tell you," he began, "but I'm afraid that when I do, you're gonna get scared and run off," 

"Drew," I smiled, sitting up on the bed with my legs crossed, "I'm not going anywhere. I promise," 

He sat up as we faced each other from accross the bed. 

"I love you," he began as a smile spread from ear to ear accross my face, "so damn much,"

"I love you, too," 

** 

We stood in the entrance room of the house as more and more people appeared around us.  We'd been here for about four days and I had seen his mom and her boyfriend all of four times. I was starting to see why he didn't ever really bring her up in conversation much. There wasn't much to talk about. Sure, she was gorgeous and looked extremely young to have a twenty year old kid but beyond, there wasn't much to her. From what Drew says, she wasn't always like this. He said she used to be the soccer mom that drove everyone around and made sure everyone was taken care of before she even considered herself. But that that had changed after his parents divorce. His dad cheated on his mom and it kind of hit the whole family hard. Drew said that after it all happened, that he tried to stay strong because he knew that it was killing his mom. 

"It's bad enough going through the person you love cheat on you alone but when you add being a parent on top of that and having to take care of two teenagers while their dad just goes around and screws just about anything with legs," he laughed as I looked down, realizing that I was guilty of just that, cheating on someone who loved me. 

"Oh, shit. No, no I didn't mean you," he began.

"It's fine," I lied, "I think I kind of deserved what I got in the end," I spoke, sitting at the bar of the house's den. 

"What do you mean?" he asked, scooting closer towards me. 

"Nothing," I lied again, "Its just a figure of speech,"

"Cam, tell me what you meant," he demanded, suddenly serious. 

"Okay, but listen to me. You have to promise me that you wont freak out okay?" 

"I'll try not to," he responded.

I took a deep breath, shuddering of the memory of Zach throwing his fist against my jaw then flashing to the thought of him swinging his foot into my torso and told Drew about that night along with the night Zach had tried to rape me. As I spoke, I witnessed his jaw flexing as he bit the side of his cheek to control his anger. I hadn't ever really seen Drew angry so this was kind of new for me. His hand lay flat on top of the bar as he listened to me speak and progressively turned into a fist by the time I finished. 

Drew sat silent and still as I waited for him to speak. By this time, he wouldn't even look at me. He kept his eyes plastered towards the ground, staring at his shoes. 

"Are you gonna say anything?" I asked as he sat without any emotion. 

"I don't really know what to say," he almost whispered. 

"It's okay," I assured him, "It's fine now. We're okay now and he's getting his life together and-" 

"What the hell, Cam?" he yelled, standing up from the table, "You're still friends with him?" 

"Not exactly," I spoke, standing up, "He's just kind of always around and I can't really ask him to leave. He lives in Miami too, you know," 

"Oh my God," he let out, "He didn't just push you or shove you, Cam! He beat you to the point where you had bruises and bled, Cam! And you never even pressed charges or anything! What the hell is wrong with you?" 

I stood in front of him, stunned at his reaction to all of this. I understood that he would be upset and angry but I didn't expect him to react like this. Like it was my fault that he was still around when it wasn't. 

"Why are you acting like this is my fault?" I whispered, tears beginning to fill my eyes. 

He stood in front of me as his expression turned from cold to symathetic before he licked his lips and faced the ground. 

"That's not what I'm saying," he began, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards him, "I just can't stand the thought of anyone hurting you like that or you hurting in that way,"

I blinked tears from my eyes as I looked up at him as he continued to speak. p;

"I just, I, I don't want you to see him ever again," he almost demanded. 

"I didn't really plan on it. It's not like I'm exactly comfortable being around him. The only reason I ever was was because of Destiny and Amanda and they aren't exactly in my life at this point in time," 

"I thought you guys made up?" he asked, suprised. 

"We did but I, I just think that I'm kind of better off without them in my life," I muttered. 

"Well, I'm just happy if you're happy," he spoke before leaning down and pressing his lips to mine.