Hi. I haven't wrote on this site in years, but this is just a quick AU oneshot of Cammie and Zach.
"I don't think we should be friends anymore. Guys don't have girl friends at school. Everyone at school always says you're my girlfriend."
Her face twists sadly and angrily as she shakes her head and he feels twinges of guilt. He couldn't tell her the real reason.
"I hate you Zach. I never want to talk to you again."
"I'm sorry Cammie," the nine year old says.
"You were supposed to be my best friend. Forever and ever and ever remember?" Her eyes start watering and she looks away. "Go away Zach."
He walks away regretfully.
From that day on, Cammie wasn't bullied once. She made more friends besides Zach, and pointedly refused to think or look at him. Until one day, he didn't show up for their fourth grade class. A week goes by, and then two until she feels as if she will die from curiosity if she doesn't find out what happened. She goes to her parents and they sit down on the worn out couch with her in their laps. They break it down slowly, that something sad had happened to Zach. Rachel Morgan explained to her daughter that Zach's parents had been separated from each other and their parents had left Roseville two weeks ago to leave their memories of Roseville behind. They loved Zach very, very much, but his parents didn't love each other anymore. They had moved away to start a fresh start away from each other. Zach was going to have each of his parents all to himself every other weekend. There was no contact information, but her mom had been told that Mr. Goode had taken Zach to New York, while his ex- wife moved to Idaho.
"He didn't tell me, Mom. He just left without saying goodbye." Her mom pulled her in and held her while she cried for losing her best friend in the whole wide world.
Years passed, and neither of them moved on. They tried, but it wasn't the same without their best friend.
Later, Cammie found out that Zach had only stopped being her friend because the girls bullying her had told him that they would leave her alone if he hung out with them instead of his best friend. When Bex, her best friend since Zach, told her this when they were thirteen, she cried for thinking the worst of him, but held on to a glimmer of hope that maybe, he would come back and be her best friend again. So she smiled and embraced that hope.
Zach grew up, too. He grew into an attractive young man as he got older and fitted in well at his school as a player and womanizer. He never tried to contact Cammie, convinced she would hate him, but hid their memories away in the back of his mind wondering if he would see her again. When his dad died when he was 17 years old, his mom decided to move back to Roseville to reconnect with the Morgans, who were good friends with her many years ago. She was convinced Zach needed to be around his childhood home to become a better man. He needed to be away from the influences of his friends and hoped that he would be able to reconnect with his best friend from many years ago. So they packed up their house in Idaho, and moved back to Rossville.
Zach didn't want to admit, but he was happy to have a chance to regain his friendship with Cammie. And perhaps something more, he thought. He imagined how it would be like to see her. She would be angry at first, but he would win her over slowly and show her that he never stopped caring for her.
Zach walked into his old house and headed for the back door. The tree house was no longer there, but he could vaguely see an outline of a heart, and he felt his heart soar. She didn't efface it after all this time. She could still care. A smile grew on his face and he called out to his mother casually, "Hey mom, do you know if the Morgans still live next door?"
"As far as I know, they do. Are you going to try and go see Cammie?"
"Yeah I think I'll go see if she's around. "
This was the moment. He could ring her doorbell, and she would hopefully answer it and they would hug and make up and everything. He walked up their pathway nervously, his moth suddenly dry. What if she's happy without me? What if she has a boyfriend or something? He stood there for a moment and slowly raised his hand to the doorbell and pressed on it heavily. A shadow flitted behind the door as it slowly opened to reveal a thin, gaunt middle aged woman who he remembered to be Mrs. Morgan.
"Hi, Mrs. Morgan. You probably don't remember me, I moved away a few years ago," he started saying quickly.
"Of course I remember you," she said softly. "Zachary Goode."
He smiled. If she remembered him, than Cammie definitely would. "It's really good to see you. I was just wondering… I was wondering if Cammie was around by any chance?" He held his breath. Please be here, Cam.
Her face closes up and she shakes her head tightly as she looks at him sadly. "You didn't hear, did you?"
He suddenly feels as if it's gotten a thousand degrees colder on the inside. You didn't hear. You didn't hear .You didn't hear. You didn't hear.
"Hear what, Mrs. Morgan? Mrs. Morgan… Please, what's going on?" She stares at him for a moment and tears start to form in her eyes.
"Zachary, there was…" her voice starts to break as she swallows. "There was an accident. Cammie was driving home from school one day and a car came out of nowhere and hit her head on." Her voice wavers, but all he is thinking is not Cammie. Please, not Cammie. I'll do anything.
"The doctors said… they said that she died instantly." Mrs. Morgan has been staring at a point beyond him as she repeats what she's probably said a thousand times.
"How long?" He is numb. He's listening, but all he is thinking is, this wasn't supposed to happen.
"Six months. We thought of trying to find you, but we didn't know if you even remembered her." She looks into his eyes as she says this, as if telling him what she will never say out loud. Where were you when she needed you Zach?
She starts telling him other things that he hears distantly, but he can't help but think accusingly, Cammie why did you leave? You could have stayed. You didn't have to leave everyone. You didn't have to leave me.
"Zach, would you like to come in, I have some things for you that I think she'd like you to have," she says softly. I nod mutely and walk in facing the familiar staircase and green walls. Nothing's changed. Everything's changed. He sat down on the sofa. She hands him a box that says Cammie and Zach, and he can imagine her stuffing away their memories under the bed like an unwanted ghost. He takes it slowly and stands. He didn't need to open it there. He couldn't. Not in front of her mom who was still grieving no matter how long it's been. He distantly wonders how her husband was taking the loss in these months. Cammie was always Daddy's little girl, no matter what.
"I'm sorry. I have to go." His words come choppy but he holds onto the box as until his fingers feel cut off from circulation and it gives him something to focus on. "I have to go," he repeats and watches her mom nod and show him out.
The shock is wearing off, and he slowly is connecting the dots in his head. Cammie is. No, was. Cammie was my best friend. I loved her. I moved away and ended our friendship. She doesn't live here anymore. Where is she? She was in an accident. A bad accident. Cammie died .It wasn't until the last thought until he started running back to their tree. Cammie isn't coming back. For good.
He collapses against the tree, and his stomach heaves and he is bending over and tears are running down his face. He's gasping and sobbing and he vaguely feels the pain in his hand from punching their tree. The box slides, unopened, next to him. Come back Cammie. Please come back. We need you.
Eventually his mom comes out and he manages to get two words in. An. Accident. How could it be an accident? How could one little mistake ruin her life, the life he wanted to have with her?
Weeks passed. The box remained unopened and Zach had camped out next to their trees for many nights and days. He didn't go out much. Just to visit her grave and visit spots around town that he had no memories of.
One day, he got up the courage to open the box. Sliding the lid off, he was ambushed by photographs and objects of their past. The beach. Their first picture. A picture she had drawn for him when they first met. A bunch of rocks. A scratched baseball card. So many memories, but not many at all. He looked through the box, just remembering…
"Hi sweetie. I want you to meet Mrs. Morgan's daughter. She's four, like you and lives right next door."
A little girl walks out from behind her mother's legs. "Hi. I'm Cammie. You're going to be my best friend, okay?"
The boy lifts his emerald eyes from the ground and shyly smiles. "Okay."
Two years later…
"Zach, you can draw your name like this in the sand next to mine. People will walk by and be jealous that they don't have you as a friend."
He slowly drew his name next to hers and added a little heart. "It's perfect."
The moment passes as a seagull squaks and they grab each other's hands as they run into the water.
It's the first day of third grade and Cammie is crying after a nasty girl told her she looked weird in braids.
"You don't look weird Cammie. You look pretty, way more pretty than that mean girl. She's just jealous that I'm friends with you, not her."
"Really, Zach? You think I'm pretty?"
"You're the prettiest person I know besides my mom," he declared confidentially.
She looks up into his emerald eyes and believes him.
His parents are screaming and he's escaped to the small tree house in between their yards. Cammie is there waiting. "Why are they yelling?" She asks.
"I don't know. I heard at school that when people yell, they separate from each other. "
"I won't let that happen to us Zach."
"Promise, Cam?"
"Of course. Best friends forever, right?
"Forever and ever and ever." She smiles at this and takes a rock from the ground.
"Let's make it official. We can carve our names into the side of the tree so we'll always be here. That way, if one of us comes here without the other, we can look at the tree and remember our friendship."
He carves it slowly and she takes the rock from it and digs a small heart around their names.
"I love you Zach. Don't ever stop being my friend."
"I love you too, Cam."
"Here Cammie. You can have this." He handed her the most important thing any nine year old could have.
"You're giving me your lucky baseball card?"
"Yeah, it's really lucky so I'm giving it to you because you're my best friend. It will work for you, I promise."
She grasped it tightly, holding it to her heart. "How do you know?"
"Because I told it to. It's magic, and I'm giving you the magic."
"Thanks Zach. You're my best friend."
They looked at each other. "Forever and ever."
Zach slowly looked up after looking through the box. I know you're up there Cammie and I'm going to miss you so much, but you'll always be with me. I'm going to bury the box here so it will be here no matter what.
Forever and Ever.