A Happy Ending (Shannon and Cammie)

Chapter 11

Shannon POV

"So is she really ready to meet your dad?" Amy asked, sounding surprised. 

I shrugged, "I don't know. She says she is, but she also has no idea what he is going to be like."

"Shan you know you don't have to do this right? I know you want to be on good terms with your dad, but is it too soon?" Meghan chimed in. "You don't want to scare Cammie off." 

The truth is, I was nervous for them to meet. Cammie and I moved so fast that we really have only gotten to know each other, not the other people in our lives. Our families don't live around here so it never seemed like a super important subject to bring up. Now I'm finding myself wishing we would have talked about it sooner. "You know, you might be right. Maybe I should just leave her out of this thing with my dad," I sighed. 

Amy came and sat next to me on the couch. I rested my elbows on my knees and held my head in my hands. She rubbed my back, trying to soothe me. I felt tears well in my eyes. I didn't want this to happen, but there was no stopping it. 

"It's just so frustrating, you know? Like it's hard enough anticipating that someone won't be accepting of who you are, but there's no way to prepare yourself for your own father wanting to disown you because of it." I let the tears fall and the emotions all pour out. 

Amy and Meghan both sat on either side of me now, wrapping their arms around me. "It's never easy, Shan, but you have so many other people in your life that love you so much," Meghan coaxed. She was right, and I knew that. But it's still paralyzing knowing that the one man that I always looked up to growing up, now looks at me with pure disgust in his eyes. 

"Maybe you should talk to Cammie about this, Shannon. She'll understand if you don't want her to meet him, and you can't leave her in the dark with how you're feeling." Amy added. 

I immediately straightened myself up at the mention of her name. I gently shook my head, and wiped the tears that still remained on my cheeks. "I can't do that. She has her own emotional stuff going on right now, I don't want to pile onto that." 

They both sighed, knowing that there was no use in arguing with me. They just gave me a hug and left me alone. 

Cammie POV

I was on my way back from a work meeting when I got a text from Amy. She asked me if we could grab lunch, but said not to mention it to Shannon. I got so worried that something had happened, or that Shannon had done something stupid. I immediately texted her back and told her we could meet for lunch now. 

"Amy, what's up?" I asked nervously when she finally got to the little cafe. 

She sat down, "I wanted to talk to you about Shannon." She sounded worried or upset, or both. 

"You're kind of freaking me out, what's wrong with her?" I asked, getting impatient. 

"She's fine, Cammie. She just needs you right now but she won't ask you. It's about her dad," she said. 

I was a little confused. I knew the situation with Shannon's dad, but she didn't seem like it was a huge deal to her when we talked about it. I could tell it upset her, but it seemed as though she had gotten used to it. "What do you mean she won't ask me?" 

"She's torn up about this. She hardly shows it but she is still really upset that her and her dad don't get along, and she is worried about dragging you into the mess. I told her to talk to you about it but she said she didn't want to bother you with it," I felt bad hearing those words. Shannon has been so persistent in showing me that I can open up to her that I forgot to do the same for her.