Me Too

27

Cameron texted Sofia to just come around to the backyard, so when we arrived to his parents Los Angeles modest home, we went through the oak wood gate to the yard. It's a beautiful scene: green and flowing grass, patterned pale masonry, and plants of gorgeous arrays of colours and sizes all coexist in one giant space behind this house. It's truly breathtaking every time I step through that nine foot fence.

Sofia took my hand in hers as we came through the shrub arch on the other side of the wall. I watched the ground, rubbing her knuckle as I dodged stray pebbles cracking off from the stone and brown sand pathway. Cameron was on a ladder straight ahead of us, seemingly miles away, tieing a rope holding a white sheet to a branch of his tree. "Hey, Cameron!" Sofia calls.

He secured a knot. "Hey, Sofia. Glad you're here." He climbed down the rungs, not yet facing us. Besides the white sheet, Cam has nothing else set up. I don't quite understand what his plan is, but I trust he knows what to do.

"Hi, Cam."

"Hey, Dove." There was no surprise to his voice, not even the slightest raise of pitch. Then he looked up. "Dove? What are you doing here?"

I smile shyly. "I came to help. Do you still need anything?"

He coughed into his tee shirt sleeve, he's already panting in the cool air. It feels gorgeous out, but all of us are burning up feverishly. "Well, if you changed your mind. Yeah, I have some ideas for you."

"I want to help you. And I want to apologise."

Sofia let go of my hand, and she looked over her shoulder. "I'm going to go inside and get the rest of the stuff, Cameron. Okay?"

"That's fine. The boxes are in the garage." Cameron looked at me. "Dove, why did you freak out on me?"

"I have no excuse for what I did." he towers over me, but right now, I see him eye to eye. We aren't the duo to fight, and he knows it took something bad for me to lose it. "Cameron, you're like a little brother to me. I freaking love you. And I never want you to grow up. You were a kid when we met, I want you to stay that amazing teenager forever."

Cameron smiled shyly. "You're just flattering me."

"This project isn't just your first film. It's also the first time you're flying solo, and I know this idea hatched from your mind. You came up with the inspiring message. And that means it's been on your mind. You're growing up in a really shitty world. It is fucked up that kids can hear about someone being raped and not bat an eyelash because it is so common. I hate that you have to grow up in such a twisted world, and I was hoping you were in the world but not of the world, so when you told me this was your idea, I flipped."

He pursed his lips. "It is messed up. And that is why I have to do this."

"Cameron," I sigh, "I will help you with whatever you need, but I also just want to get something off my chest."

"Dove?"

I cross my arms over my chest and curl into myself. "Cameron, I was raped. And if you need me as support for these other kids, that's fine, but I think I can also say some things about it as a woman that's be assaulted- if you need it, I'm sure I could manage. It might actually help with a lot of the stuff that keeps me up at night."

He gaped his mouth at a loss for words. He slowly nodded.

I look over his shoulder with a low hung head as Sofia shuts the back door behind her and carries out a box of lights. Cameron looked to my gaze. "Does Sofia know?"

I shake my head with a timid whimper. "No. But I'm going to tell her soon. I don't want her to hear it from this- but if you need that in your film, I'll come by on my own to record it. I just need some time."