Burn Your Local Church

Fall

Cameron and I stood beside each other, our eyes wandering around the village disaster. No people were moving about, but bodies were scattered across the ground. Covered in dirt and blood; the image burned into my mind.

Cameron lightly pulled me to the side, towards the forest where we'd exit. "Cameron I can't go."

"Why?"

"You heard him. He's going to be at my house today and it's important."

"He never said it was important."

"Cameron, if the leader comes to your house out of choice, it's obviously something important."

"I guess you'd know this place better than I would." I shrugged. "So I'm staying with you?" He asked.

"What? No you don't have to."

"If I can't bring you back to Zach, the next best thing I can do is to stay with you."

I thought about it for a second. "That'd be nice."

Cameron pulled me in for a real hug. He smelled like cologne and lavender. It smelled happy and hopeful, nothing that I've ever experienced before.

It was in that moment, in his arms, where I had my only sense of protection, and I realized I had made the worst mistake of my life.

I pulled away from Cameron to look him in the eyes. "I'm so sorry."

"What for cutie?"

"I agreed to my seventeenth."

"Isn't that just like a sweet sixteen or something?"

I sighed and took Cameron by the arm and made him take a look at my village.

"Do you honestly think someone from here would have a sweet sixteen?!" Cameron just laughed. "Exactly."

"Well then what's your seventeenth?"

"Can we go back to my place and I'll explain it to you?"

Cameron just smiled and wrapped his arm around me and we walked the distance back to my house. The almost silent sound of crickets came from the forest, and as we walked closer to my house, the sound faded. The fire in the center of the village was dead, and Cameron and I did our very best not to step on anyone.

And then, in front of my house, there she lay. My mother. She was lying dead in front of me. Just the look upon her innocent face made me want to break down and die beside her too.

Cameron just turned me towards him and kissed me quickly but it still sent sparks into my body. "It's going to be okay." And with that, he opened my front door and pulled me inside, shutting the door behind us.

I walked in front of Cameron and brought him into the kitchen. "Are you hungry at all?"

He shook his head. "No, thanks."

I nodded and walked back down the hallway then up the stairs. Cameron followed me and we walked into my room. I took a seat on my bed, and Cameron sat on the chair that I had by my window.

I layed down on my bed so I was laying on my stomach facing Cameron. My eyes wandered over to my window and I couldn't help but think of my mother. Every little thing or sliver of hope I had left seemed to have disappeared completely.

I felt a warm tear run down my cheek, and out of the corned of my eye I saw Cameron get up and sit on my bed. When he sat down, I got up from my stomach and wiped my tears away. I sat beside him and we didn't speak for a while.

Just his presence made me feel whole again.

I started crying again, sobbing because of something I couldn't even control. Cameron was fast to react and he immediately put both of his arms around me and pulled me to him. It was such an awkward position, me leaning into his shoulder.

It hurt my neck.

I shifted a bit and Cameron got the idea. I sat on his lap, facing his chest. I used my hands to wipe my tears away, but I just ended up sobbing into his chest more.

"Baby, it's okay." He whispered into my ear and his warm breath trickled down my cheek and down my neck until I felt tingly.

"It's not okay." I tried to speak, but only a whisper could escape my lips.

I felt Cameron's gentle hands rub my back slowly. Slowly making the pain go away. I relaxed a bit, not being as tense any more. The tears slowly stopped escaping my eyes.

Cameron and I both looked up at the same time, our eyes meeting at the perfect level. We were both thinking the exact same thing, and at that second in time, we knew that it was all that mattered.

Cameron put his lips on mine and our lips began moving in sync. Our eyes were closed but I didn't have to open mine to feel the intense aching I had for Cameron. He kept his hands on my back, and slowly turned my body so I was laying down on my bed. His lips were still on mine and he was on top of me but he wasn't putting any weight on me.

His lips slowly made their way farther away from mine. His lips kissed down my body, leaving a trail of hickeys down my neck. Every now and then he'd kiss a spot that felt so good, I never wanted him to stop.

Cameron slid his hands down and his hands played with the hem of my shirt, teasing me as to when he was going to pull it off.

Slowly but surely my shirt was being slid off my body.

I don't know what happened.

I couldn't take it.

I had to.

"I'm burning down your church." I said bluntly.

It was all at once too. None of the 'get his attention' or 'make a scene'. All I did was blurt it out.

Cameron took his hands off of me and just looked me in the eyes. He got off of me and layed beside me. He put his arm behind my neck so I at least had some sense of comfort. I was happy we had stopped, everything just seemed to be moving too fast and this wasn't the most ideal time to be doing anything of that sort.

I pressed my body against Cameron and he held me in his arms. "Why did you stop?" I asked.

"There was about a hundred different ways you could tell me that, but you chose to do it then and in that form. So I got the hint and I was okay with it."

"Really? You're not mad at me?"

"No, of course not! If my princess doesn't want to do something, we're not going to do it."

I cuddled up a bit closer to him. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me babe."

"Cameron?"

"Hm?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, you lil badass." He paused. "Does your seventeenth have anything to do with burning down my church?"

"Yeah."

Cameron sighed. "I guess I should've guessed."