Crumbling Time

Crumbling Time (Chap. 10)

10. On the Road Again

Was I seriously awake now? I couldn't be. I could never be holding hands with Cam.

Needless to say, Cam was still asleep as this was happening, but it was still true. One hundred amazingly-great-percent true.

As I had woken up, I realized that Cam and I were making a lot of contact with each other. I remembered falling asleep with my head on his shoulder, and that's how I had woken, but there was the addition of our hands intertwined on his stomach. It seemed so intimate and romantic, but we weren't dating. He had made that clear to our class the day before.

So why the handholding?

After a few minutes of discussion with myself, I decided to just let it go and bask in the greatness while I still could.

That happened to be quite a while. Cam was a very heavy sleeper. He slept through morning rush hour, and two more hours after. The thought that we really needed to get back on the road nagged at the back of my head, but I just didn't want to ruin the beautiful moment I was apart of.

When Cam had finally opened his eyes, I was still watching him. It didn't take him very long to focus his thoughts and process where we were and why. As that happened, he made eye contact with me and smiled.

It was such a nice morning greeting, I could actually picture him leaning down to kiss me. I imagined our lips meeting, sparks flying, and the start of a beautiful relationship.

Man, was I in a dream world.

"How did...you sleep?" Cam asked.

"Very well...thanks," I replied. And I was speaking the truth. My headache had actually disappeared by the morning, but then the cars had brought it right back plus more. "You?"

"I slept tight," he assured me.

Not that I hadn't figured that out.

"What time...is it?" he asked.

"Almost noon," I informed him.

"Oh, damn!" he exclaimed, surprising me with the language. He sat up, taking me with him, very quickly.

But both of us stopped when he realized our hands were together. We just stared down at them for a moment. But then Cam just released his hold around my shoulders-well, it was nice while it lasted-and used the hand holding mine to help me to my feet. He gathered up the blanket and pillows and we ran to his truck-actually, Cam ran and dragged me behind him, but what was the difference?

"Why are...you rushing?" I asked.

"We're wasting time," Cam said, throwing the stuff into the bed of the truck and putting the tarp over it all. He secured the tarp in place then yanked open the driver's door. I followed just as quickly so I wouldn't be left in the middle of a highway in Tennessee. He pushed-more like shoved, but he didn't mean it in a rude way-me into the car through his door and slid in after me.

"We don't...have to get...crazy about this," I assured him.

"I don't enjoy...seeing you...in pain. This is ending now.... So yeah...we do have to...get crazy."

Speaking of crazy, I wondered what type of mess my hair was that morning. I pulled down the visor and opened the mirror. I saw that my head didn't exactly look like a tornado wreck, but it wasn't shampoo commercial material at all. I grabbed my brush from my backpack and ran it through my hair a few times to make it look decent.

"Maybe we should...find a shower," Cam suggested.

"Nah," I said. "We don't...have really bad...BO yet.... Let's save...your money...for the real necessities."