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Chapter 12
How did he do that to her? Cameron stared at the phone for a brief moment. He always seemed to skirt around her defense system and, no pun intended, alarm her. What she found even more unnerving wasn't the mental picture of him kissing her senseless. It was the small hint of pleasure that came from that very picture. She hadn't a clue why that had slipped into her mind. She didn't much like not knowing either.
Still, she was here for a reason and it wasn't to think of all the reasons to avoid Brian. And all the reasons she shouldn't.
"Cameron, do you want desert?" A young boy, blonde, energetic- Aaron- walked into the den where she stood.
"No thank you. I've done enough dishes for one evening."
Aaron smiled. "So mom says you're here to find out stuff about Nick. How come?"
"It's hard to explain." Not to mention a but awkward to be telling Nick's younger brother, who obviously adored him to death, that she was having nightmares about someone she just met.
"I'm willing to listen."
"I bet." Cameron muttered.
"But you don't like to talk much." Aaron guessed.
"Not really."
"Well, that'll change with you being here." Aaron said bright with childhood gleam. He was up to a new challenge. "Our family is loud and very talkative."
"I've noticed." A pause made Cameron continue. "No offense."
"None taken." Aaron shrugged and smiled at his mom and dad as the family seemed to seep in threw the woodwork into the den. "We like being loud."
Jane rolled her eyes. "They like being loud. I personally like quite, I just don't get it much."
Cameron didn't reply. What was there to say? She'd just been thrown into a family. She'd never had, wanted or needed one of those. Now it almost seemed as if they'd adopted her, giving her choruses and rules and "family chats".
They all sat various places in the room and some ate ice cream while they all chatted at once. Cameron spent most of the early portion of this time observing, answering vaguely to questions when they were directed towards her.
"So Cameron," Jane said in a way that the family hushed, curious for what she was about to pry out of the new guest. "What is it you want to know about Nick?"
"Um, different things, little things." Cameron paused. She wouldn't stumble or mince words, she had told herself. What was the point? She was about to get every personal and saying please and thank you would cover over it. "Well first, has Nick ever been depressed before?"
"Why is that relevant to your dreams?" Bob asked, the defenses up.
"How much have you told them?" I looked at the kids who were all very interested.
"Everything. We're not a secretive family." BJ said.
Cameron sighed and her fingernails idly scratched at the fabric on the arm of her chair. "Figures. So how much is 'everything'?"
"Nick told us that you had dreams about his eyes." Jane said in pure puzzlement.
"It's true. I don't know why it was his eyes. I'd had the dreams before I'd even met him, but after I did, his face filled out and then I was looking at Nick every time I closed my eyes."
Angel was smiling.
"I don't like him." Cameron said sharply.
Angel laughed a little. "So why are you dreaming about him?"
"I don't know. I don't like it though."
"Do you like Brian?" Leslie asked.
Cameron looked at Leslie when she answered. "I'm here about Nick. I want to learn as much about him as quick as possible so I can figure this dream out and forget about him."
Leslie was trying not to smile, Cameron noted. She sighed, a headache forming.
"Nick battles with depression from time to time." Jane said without explanation. After she was sure she had Cameron's attention she continued. "He's fine for a while, happy and normal, but then out of no where something sends him on a downward spiral and nothing seems to reach him."
Cameron closed her eyes and she could see Nick, she could faintly see Brian, but that was another problem and she needed to concentrate. She took a deep breath and searched Nick's lonely eyes.
"When was the last time he dated someone?"
"Um," Jane hesitated, watching Cameron and then looked at her husband. "I forget. He sometimes dates casually so he doesn't talk about them so I'm not sure."
"Estimate." Cameron said in a distant voice. She was almost standing next to Nick.
"Um, three, four months ago. A girl name Kelly, I think."
Cameron's brow furrowed for a moment and the family was entranced. They all wished they knew what was going on in her head. But none of them would have been able to survive the battle she waged on herself.
Nick
I felt unease all evening. It was a creepy eerie feeling that bugged me. Back on the bus, it felt surprisingly...empty. It was almost funny how we had grown accustomed to Cameron's snippy attitude and Brian's glowing one.
He was in love. He just had to admit it now.
I smiled. He nearly was admitting it, carting around the phone everywhere like it was a long lost body part. He played with Bruno a lot, but Brian was naturally affectionate to dogs so that was a toss up on the meaning.
I sat down in the back room, Kevin and Howie watching TV in there as well, Brian and AJ off somewhere else. I started to think about Cameron. Not in a romantic way or, not really, even in a friendly way. More speculative.
She was at me house, well, my parent's house. Talking to them, about me. She had dreams, well nightmares as she put it, about me. I didn't think I was so bad, but obviously I far from turned her on. But like I wanted that to happen anyway. Not only because Brian liked her, but also because she read you like an open two page book. It was almost scary.
She seemed to know what all the guys had been thinking. Just before she left, for example, they were all going to the airport with her (just to get off the bus for a while) and she seemed to know every kind of hallelujah that ran threw Kevin's head and other things like that. It was crazy how well she read us all, and yet we couldn't seem to even tell if she was bored or not.
I wondered how much my family would tell her. I probably should have told them to keep certain things private, but I didn't think of it at the time. She was bound to find out everything sooner or later anyway. If not from my family, then from Brian. If they got together and stayed together that it.
I smiled. Brian would get her, no doubt about it. The only think I couldn't figure was the when.
Cameron
I woke up with a start. Something was wrong. Lying stock-still I listened to the unfamiliar sounds of the house I'd only slept in once before. I couldn't tell what was different. I was so tired the first night that everything slipped away when I fell a sleep, something that shouldn't have happened. First nights were critical in getting to know my surroundings, but I had felt comfortable and forgotten that.
I sat up, with no more sound than a whispering wind. I nearly put my foot on the floor when I remembered Angel. She slept on the floor next to my bed tonight. For some odd reason she liked me.
I reached under the mattress and pulled out my dagger, I stepped over Angel and my flannel bottoms fell into place from where my unusually wild sleeping had caused them high up on my thighs. My tee shirt was big and I could tell it was going to get in my way. Stealthily, I walked over to my bag, stripped off my shirt and pulled on a loose tank top. Next I was out of the bedroom, the door making the tiniest click as I shut it.
I walked down the hall, looking over the railing carefully, to see if anything was moving on the first floor. Not even a shadow moved in the moon lit living room.
I quietly stepped around weak patches of floorboard. At least I had paid attention to that detail. I peaked into Aaron's room. Leopard print bedding and wildlife look to it. I shook my head. Strange kid. I saw he was out, his hands flung over his head like an exhausted child would after too much jumping around. He had done plenty of it when Nick called and then when he had insisted on playing basketball and won. Like I had time to practice my lay-ups. I shut the door with out a sound.
Next were BJ and Leslie's room. They were both sleeping, BJ making a slight airy sound from her opened mouth. Their room was feminine, but not technically girlie as they had pictures of the 2Pac and Michael Jordan on their wall. Wasn't Michael retired? Oh wait, it was a Fruit of the Loom poster. Yuck. I closed the door behind me.
I went to the main floor, that's where Jane and Bob's room was. There. I heard it. Or was that me? I walked with extra care then, listening, trying to decipher if something was triggering my sense of danger or if I was just paranoid as always. I crept to the window, and pressed against the wall next to it. The leather on the dagger's handle was getting warm in my hand. I was holding it with a death grip, so I wasn't surprised. I looked out the window. Only tree limbs moved in the summer breeze. Carefully, I moved back into the shadows and, with my body close to the wall, headed for the opposite side of the living room, to Bob and Jane's room.
Their door was partly open so I pushed it open with care; their door normally creaked. I remembered from when BJ had pushed the door open to borrow a piece of jewelry from her mother's box. She had been caught. But I hadn't been. Their room was unusually black so it took a moment for my eyes to adjust. I saw Jane on the right and Bob on the left and their digital clocks on either side, both blaring 12:45 in bright red numbers. Both clocks had their alarms turned on.
I eased back out;
shutting the door exactly as it had been before. The Carter family was sleeping
and safe. I turned and crept for the kitchen. A clank. There was someone in
the house and they were getting louder. I moved towards the kitchen, my body
feeling like it was molding into the woodwork. My hand raised a bit and I gripped
the leather handle with everything I had.
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