A/N: Hi guys! Yes, I did originally have another story titled the same, plotted differently, but I lost inspiration for that, unfortunately... but a couple of days ago, after I finished my math test, I came up with this and I hope any Camori shippers out there will enjoy it. It is just the start, of course so feel free to make any predictions or ask any questions. And of course, Read & Review! It'd be greatly appreciated! xx
It was always hard to be sad. Hard to hide, hard to control. It was almost like a blanket that someone would pin down, smothering whoever was under it until finally… black.
It was also hard to be happy. Hard to stay happy, Hard to make sure you didn't let any real emotion show. This was what made her so sad. She was the one who had to be supportive, all the time. She had to be the one to hug everyone else while they cried but never ask for that in return. This was why it surprised her when she saw him, waiting for her. Just sitting there, twiddling his thumbs.
"I thought you left already…" she said softly, readjusting her bag on her shoulder. "No. Because if I'm alone, I'm scared I'll do something stupid." He said, flatly. "Like what?" She asked, raising a brow in curiosity. "That doesn't matter. Come on, I'll walk you home." He said with a heavy sigh, one that sounded too sad to even be real. "No...That's fine. I can walk alone." She told him. He simply shook his head. "It's late, Tori. You're not walking alone."
It was a little frustrating, it wasn't even 5 o clock, yet he wouldn't give up. He was going to walk her home whether she liked it or not. "So you just…waited for me, because you didn't want to be alone?" she asked as they left the school campus. "Yes…and No." he was being rather cryptic, causing the girl to furrow her brows in confusion. "Can we talk about something else?" he asked her, looking around the surroundings. The trees continued to sway slowly with the wind, the rustling sound that it gave him causing the fifteen year old to bite down on her lower lip. It made her think, for some reason, about what she had just discussed with the Guidance Councillor. She couldn't think about that. It was what made her sad.
"Yeah…of course. Like what?" she said, pulling at the tightening straps of her back pack. "I don't know…anything." He told her with a shrug. Tori was quiet for a moment. "Why are you being so cryptic and…" she started, "Weird?" he finished. She nodded. "I don't know, Tori. I've just been thinking a lot." The words only just confused her even more. "About…what?" she felt like she was starting to sound like one of those four-year old pre-schoolers who just kept asking questions until their mother or father just...snapped. "I thought we were talking about something else." He said plainly, staring straight ahead like he had been for most of the time. "What is there to talk about?" Tori asked him. "Maybe there isn't anything at all."
She opened her mouth several times, trying to find the words to respond to him, but when she saw her house ahead, she thought it was best to just leave it. "I'll be okay from here. You should go home." She told the boy, walking a little faster. His pace quickened too. "I'm walking you to your door, and then I'm going home." Tori rolled her eyes at the statement. "Campbell Saunders, I'm fifteen years old, I don't need some…baby sitter." She said, becoming rather flustered. She turned to face the other fifteen year old who simply smirked. "Okay. Good night Victoria Santamaria." He said, taking a small step back. It was then she realised they had already reached her front door. "How did you know my full na-" he simply shrugged before she could finish her sentence and waved a goodbye, turning and walking away. Tori fixed a glare on him, how dare he be like that, especially with her. Sure, they didn't know anything about each other at all, but he could have at least been some what, friendly, instead of some mysterious asshole that gets by in life with an Elijah Goldsworthy smirk plastered on his face. "Damn asshole…" she muttered under her breath, watching as Campbell walked across the road, his hands in his pockets, his head down. She stayed in that position, just glaring at him until she could no longer see him and turned and opened her door, walking inside.
"Mom? Dad?" she called out, kicking her ballet flats off. Usually, Victoria would be greeted with either an "In here, sweetheart" or at least the clattering of things in the kitchen, but instead, the niner was greeted with stone cold silence. She sighed, a heavy sigh almost an exact replica of the one Campbell had produced back outside the Guidance Counsellors office and started heading toward her staircase, climbing up it quickly and heading off to her room. It was when she opened her door that the ringtone from her cell phone playing softly. Tori pulled her back pack off of her shoulder and threw it on her bed, fishing the phone out of her pocket and checking the Caller I.D. She frowned, seeing that it was an unknown number and pressed accept, putting the phone to her ear.
"That took you…longer than it should have." It was Campbell. "O…kay?" Tori said, drawing the word out. "Bedroom window." Was what he said next. "Huh?" was all Tori could say as she wandered over to her bay window. She climbed onto the seat and looked out it, and there he was, standing on her front lawn looking up at her. "You can get onto your roof, right?" he asked next, giving a small wave. The niner was hesitant, but she waved back too. "Um...from the attic, yeah." She was confused, where was he going with this?
"Good. Let me in, we're going to have a little…chat." He said, looking up at the window one last time before beginning to walk to the door. "Cam, you're scaring me. You sound like that guy of Vampire Diaries." She heard him chuckle. "Sorry…I didn't mean to. I think I've been watching too much of that show…" Tori clambered down the stairs, laughing a little. "You watch the Vampire Diaries?" she asked, a little concerned. "Yeah…sometimes I can't sleep, so I just…watch that. My billet family has the box sets…it's weird, but cool." He told her. Tori pulled open the front door and hung up her phone. "Did you even make it home?" she asked the boy as he stepped inside. "No. I didn't really want to go home…I don't really want to be alone." He explained as she wandered into the kitchen. "You want anything to drink?" she asked, pulling open the fridge. "Nah, I'm good."
Tori just shrugged, closing the fridge and turned to face Campbell. "So…" she said quietly. "Rooftop?" Tori sighed before nodding. She pushed past the sophomore and waved for him to follow her. Then, she climbed up the stairs, hearing Campbell not far behind her and walked down the hallway. She stopped just under the door that would lead them up to the attic and turned to look at Campbell. "Why do you want to go on the roof?" she asked after a moment silence. "I always went up to mine when I was back home. To talk." Tori had to go on her tiptoes to grab the cord and pulled it down, the stair case toppling down as it got low enough. "You go up, I'm going to grab a sweater." Tori said, about to head off to her room when Campbell stopped her. "You can wear my jacket…I'm not that cold anyway." He said, nodding his head up in the general direction they intended to go.
Tori frowned for a moment, then relaxed. She held onto the sides of the staircase and slowly walked up them. She didn't want to fall like she did when she was eight and Tori sure wasn't in the mood to embarrass herself, especially in front of Campbell.
Once in the attic, Tori shuffled around, moving boxes out-of-the-way of the window that would open enough for her and Campbell to climb through and make it to the flat part of her roof. She felt a light tap on her shoulder and then the warmth of Campbell's jacket on her body. Tori whispered a thank you, pulling it on properly and then lent over a trunk that would be too heavy for her to shift and unlatched the window, pushing on it hard to open it. Once it opened, Tori climbed onto the trunk and was about to jump to boost herself when she felt a pair of hands on her hips. "Here, hold tight…" Cam told her as he helped her up. Tori held onto the window frame as he did so then pulled herself out the rest of the way. The niner was careful about her next few steps, holding onto what she could until she made it to where she wanted to go.
Once there, Tori slowly lowered herself down, finally sitting on the flat, tiled roof and pulling her knees to her chest, Campbell's jacket falling around her obviously a few sizes too big. The girl then looked over her shoulder, noticing Cam was sitting in the window, looking out at nothing. It was quiet, not an awkward quiet, but a nice, calm, yet terrifying quiet. Tori was about to open her mouth to say something, but Cam beat her too it. "I want to die." She frowned. "I'm sad and I don't want to be anymore."
"You don't have to die to not be sad anymore." Tori said softly, to which, he smiled. "I'm out of ideas, Tori. This is…really…the only option I have left." He said, breaking his gaze from nothing to look at her. The niner shook her head. "Suicide isn't an answer. It's never an answer. There's nothing worse than taking your own life." He tapped his fingers against the window pane and took a deep breath. "What's there to live for anymore?" the sentence stunned her.
She began to list things in her head, he had hockey, his family, Maya, his friends. She told him so and he just laughed. "I only play hockey for my brother, my family…is miles away, and Maya…you know what's going on with her and…what...friends?" Tori bit the inside of her cheek. He had given up. You could hear it in his voice. Campbell Saunders had given up and there wasn't much she would even be able to attempt to at least have him consider changing his mind, so instead, Tori turned her head back to the front, staring at a tree across the road. It was a few minutes before she heard careful footsteps make their way toward her. Next thing the Niner knew, Campbell was sitting next to her. Right next to her.
"And the worst part is…" he whispered, looking over at the girl. "I was going to do it tonight."
Stay tuned for Chapter 2!