Never Giving You UP

Chapter 2

After several years have passed, Camille and I have been as close as ever. We actually stuck together like glue. We went to each other’s houses almost every weekend and any days when school was out. We didn’t go to the same schools, but we talked on the phone every day after we gotten out. We know each other’s personal and open secrets. We had so many inside jokes it was too many to keep count of. Nobody got in between our relationship, and arguments were very rare, and whenever they did occur we made up in less than a day. We treated each other more like sisters that step cousins.

“Do you want to come over today?” Camille asked me over the phone.

“Of course, let me just ask my mom to drop me off.” I replied.

“Okay, I’ll be waiting!” Camille said excitedly on the other line.

I packed up my clothes and my extra items. I planned to stay for the whole weekend, so I made sure I bought enough underwear and clothes.

It was one thing about coming over Camille’s house. It was very crowded in the three-floor home. Aunt Latoya had a teenage daughter, who was sixteen years old, and Camille. My uncle had three sons, one who was a teenager, and two who were little children, four and three. Aunt Latoya and my uncle gotten married three years ago, and Camille and I were the flower girls. There was one big problem to this big happy family.

It all started when Camille and I were tossing a soccer ball back in forth downstairs on the couch. Emerick was only four years old. He came downstairs and tried to play with us. “I wanna play!” He kept saying.

Reluctantly, Camille told him to join. “We’re going to play monkey in the middle, okay?” Camille said without any enthusiasm.

“Okay!” Emerick said.

And there we were, tossing the ball back in forth, still in reach for Emerick to get it. Eventually, Emerick got frustrated because he couldn’t catch the ball. So he tried to stand up on the arm chair of the couch.

“Get off of the couch!” Camille and I yelled firmly at the same time. He obeyed us and gotten off the couch. We did it for safety purposes only, nothing personal. But we soon learned that was a mistake when my uncle came told us to come upstairs. His voice sounded disapproving.

“Why did you tell Emerick to get off the couch?” He said, anger easing up in his voice.

“It wasn’t like that, we were trying to make sure-“He interrupted me as soon as he could.

“I don’t want you two bossing him around like he is your son. He can do what he wants to do, and I don’t want you to prove him otherwise.” He said with his arms tightly crossed.

Camille and I looked at each other, unsure of what to say. We were shocked that he would automatically blame us for whatever he believed happened. We didn’t get one word into the argument until Aunt Latoya opened the door and approached my uncle. “Let them talk.” She said firmly and aggressively.

Before we could say anything, Emerick squeezed in between us and looked up at his dad. “Daddy, Camille and Scarlett were just looking out for me so I didn’t fall off the couch and get hurt. We were playing monkey in the middle.”

Instantly, looking at my uncle’s face, I already knew he felt dumbstruck about for falsely accusing us for something we didn’t even do.

“Oh, I’m sorry” Uncle Steve said softly. “You guys can continue playing your game.” He went back in his room with his head down as if he was embarrassed. I know I would’ve been embarrassed I if I was him!

Camille and I weren’t even in the mood to play anymore. We told Emerick to go play with his brother and we would come back down later.

“That’s the thing with my new step-father,” Camille said as we sat down in her room. “He only reacts to things he hears, sees, or thinks. He never can do all three for the same situation and he never knows the background information.”

I agreed. “I don’t think we should be talking about it, I mean, he is family. But all I have to say is I think he treats Emerick differently than anybody else because that’s his biological child.”

Camille nodded her head, and that was the end of that. Ever since then, it has always been awkward between Camille and me and my uncle.

“Wanna go to our hangout spot?” Camille said, after I settled my bags in her room.

“Yup,” I nodded my head and we headed out the door. We walked out the back door into the backyard. We walked up the wood that was lying on top of the stairs to the basement, and hopped up on the shed’s roof. It was my uncle’s, and he allowed us to use it at our hangout spot. He put all of his tools in there for work, so it was very junky inside.

We hung our feet off of the roof and sat down. We looked out into the horizon and stared at the sun’s light beaming off of people’s windows. It was a nice sight, besides the graveyard that you could see to your left of the shed. There we talked and talked about anything we wanted to.

“Who would’ve known that we would become the best of friends?” Camille said after we finish staring at the nature.

“I don’t know, but I’m really glad we did.” We smiled at each other.

“Pull your cell phone out, I want to take some pictures!” Camille said excitedly.

And that’s what we did until we were called to come in and eat dinner. I loved my Aunt Latoya’s cooking. Today we were eating turkey wings with rice and gravy. I could smell the food as we walked to the bathroom to wash our hands. When we came back Emerick and Cameron were already sitting down with their plates in front of them.

“This is good!” Cameron, who was three years old, said.

“It really is,” Camille and I agreed.

“Thanks a lot.” Aunt Latoya said, making a plate for her and Uncle Steve.

After Camille and I ate we were convinced to play with Emerick and Cameron. We had an intense pillow fight until Cameron fell down and started crying. Once again, we gotten into a small argument with my uncle, but it wasn’t as bad as previous ones. We just went upstairs in her room and locked her door, blocking ourselves from anyone outside the door.

We watched TV while we were playing with her Barbie Dolls. Yes, we were a little too mature for that, but it was something we never seemed to let go of.  She had control of Ken and I had Barbie. The others were just other friends and family of the two. We went through a whole story with the dolls until somebody knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” I said my ear against the door.

“Cameron,” He said on the other side of the door.

I looked at Camille, not sure of what to say. She just looked back at me with a ‘Don’t let them in my room’ look.

“Umm, we can’t come down right now,” I said, looking around the room trying to find a reason why. “We are changing our clothes and we’re about to watch a show. We will be down later.”

Camille gave me thumbs up. After a few minutes of protesting, he finally went downstairs after he realized he was being ignored. We continued playing Barbie until we went downstairs to play with them.

The whole weekend was fun; I loved spending my time with her. If only Camille went to my school. Now I just had to go to school, Middle School.