Callie's Sister

Chapter 12

In my quest for escape, I forgot our world was a mere phone call away.

“Don’t get it,” I demanded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the phone. “C’mon, Cam. Please.”

“It’s Jamie,” he said, looking at the Caller ID. “I’ve got to answer it.”

“No you don’t,” I said. The phone continued to ring. “Devil with the Blue Dress On” by the Duke Marching band was berating him to pick up the phone.

“I told her about today. She’s calling to see how it’s going.” He flipped his phone open and said, “Hey, what’s up?”

Crap. I didn’t want anyone to know where I was. This only made it worse. Cam and his stupid girlfriend.

Jamie and Cam had been going out for about two months now. Ever since Cam got big sigh hot, he’d had a bunch of girlfriends. Each one had been prettier and more popular than the last. Jess, Lara and I would joke he was working his way up the Kelnard High School food chain. But the funny thing was inside Cam was still nerdy beanpole Cam. I guess they were so wrapped up in the big sigh hot they didn’t notice. Or maybe they did and that’s when they broke up with him.

Jamie was one of those dancer/cheerleader girls with the great bodies and the long blonde ponytails that swayed as they walked in their little cheerleader skirts. She wasn’t super bright and seemed super shallow until she cut off that long blonde ponytail and donated it to “Locks of Love,” the charity that made wigs for kids with cancer. Of course she still wound up with an adorable blonde bob that swayed when she walked in her little cheerleader skirt.

And get this, SHE went after him. At first I thought it was just a sham to get help with her chem. homework, but she really seemed to like him. And when I was still trying to hate her, she started cooking dinner for us. One day she showed up at my door with a roasted chicken dinner, complete with buttered noodles, sautéed spinach and a fabulous green salad. Every week or so she’d come with another delicious dinner.  

So I couldn’t hate her. And I guess I understood why Cam needed to answer the phone. I just wished he hadn’t.

“Don’t tell her where we are,” I mouthed to him. He nodded at me in a ‘yeah, yeah, I know,’ kind of way.

“No,” he said to her as he leaned the phone on his shoulder and tried to continue driving. “Don’t come over. We want to keep it just family.” He looked at me and shrugged. “Yeah, I’ll call you later.” The phone slipped and he grabbed it and positioned it again between his chin and his shoulder. I continued the butt clenches and kept my eyes locked on him, willing him not to give us away. “Yeah, me, too,” he said, “I know. Me, too.” I was in no mood for this.

“Me, too.” I mimicked after he flipped the phone shut. “As in ‘Love you. Me, too.’?”

“Shut up, Maddie.” He looked much grumpier than a ‘me, too’ kid in love.

“Are you mad at me for making you lie to her or for just doing this in general?”

“Neither,” he said. “I’m not mad.”

“Did she want to come to my house to be with us?” I asked. He nodded. “Wow, I don’t even want to be with us. She’s some saint, huh?” He didn’t answer and I went back to butt clenching.

“Will you stop that?” he snapped. I unclenched and sat back in my seat.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“It’s fine.”

“Cam, what’s wrong?” I asked. Maybe there was trouble in his cheerleader paradise.

“Nothing,” he said. Then after a few very long, very quiet minutes he said, “We need gas.”

 “There’s a gas station a few miles ahead,” I said. Our companionable silence was now a tension-filled one. Did I do something to set him off? Was something wrong between him and Jamie? Or was it just the incredibly awkward position I had put him in and the fact that we should probably turn around and head back home.

I couldn’t do it.