Hey,guys! I know I haven't written anything in a long time, but I'm pretty much limited to weekends. Super busy with school work. Anyway, this is a sequel to Scars. You pretty much have to read Scars in order to understand this story, so please go do that if you have yet to do so. Also, my tenses are EVERYWHERE! I tried to make them parallel, but I decided not to mess with it. I'll let you read now. Enjoy (:

Cam:

This is it. Today is the day that I tell Maya the truth about my life. Eli and I made an agreement a few days ago that if I told Maya about my past, he would tell Clare about his. Both of us have a very interesting and heartbreaking story to tell, and it was time for me to tell mine.

Should I really go through with it though? I mean, I am legally bound to secrecy. Sure I already told Eli, but should I tell anyone else? If I told some guy I just met a few minutes prior, I can tell my own girlfriend, right? But what if she gets angry, or scared, or thinks I'm a bad person? On the other hand, if I don't tell her and she somehow figures out that I hid my real life from her, she'll dump me anyway. Eli assured me that Maya wouldn't do that, but he doesn't actually know her. Eli and I only became friends a few days ago ourselves: we haven't met each other's significant others yet.

I was almost to Maya's house. Eli and I were at The Dot around an hour ago when I texted her asking if I could come over and that we needed to talk about something. I hate saying that phrase because it always makes the girl think you're breaking up with them, but I didn't have much of a choice. Anyway, doubts were still going through my mind at a constant speed, even though I had my IPod in to attempt to block some of it out. So many things could go wrong. Maybe someone could find out and turn me in, or worse; maybe the gang members could find out where I am.

Just as I decided that I wasn't going to do it, a new song came on my IPod:

She holds for dear life to the ends of the sleeves in her hands

Covering up lies that she wrote with a razor sharp pen

And the sting of the blade was no match for the pain

Of the loneliness she's going through

But we've all been there too

That's weird. I don't remember putting this song on here. Eli must have added it without me knowing.

Praise God we don't have to hide scars

They just strengthen our wounds and they soften our hearts

They remind us of where we have been, not who we are

Wait a minute! Those lyrics. Of course! Eli pretty much said the exact same thing to me the other day. I guess I know where he got that from. I pushed the back button on my IPod to start the song over and listen to the words a little closer.

She holds for dear life to the ends of the sleeves in her hands

Covering up lies that she wrote with a razor sharp pen.

Whoa! Talk about a freaky coincidence.

Praise God we don't have to hide scars

I have no idea who this is or how it got here, I just know that Eli has a pretty good taste in music. That song pretty much described my situation to a tee, and there was no way I could deny the message that I was receiving loud and clear.

Maya:

Campbell called me about an hour ago asking if he could come meet me at my house and talk. He also specifically said to make sure we were alone. What could he possibly have to talk about that required complete solitude? My thoughts were interrupted by the ring of my doorbell. I walked to the door and beckoned my apprehensive-looking boyfriend into my house.

"What's up, Cam?" I questioned.

"I need to tell you something. It's not going to be easy to hear, but one of the most important things in a relationship is trust."

"Okay," I gulped. "It took some convincing, but I did manage to send my parents out for a movie date. Katie was easy: she's over at Jake's house."

"Okay, good. I really hope I'm not scaring you be being so creepy and secretive, but I'm really not supposed to tell you this and I need to make sure it doesn't get out," he explained.

That made me feel so much better…not. Now I was curious. "Campbell, did you do something illegal?" I asked him jokingly. When I saw his face, eyes slightly bugging out and a deer-in-the-headlights kind of look, I really started freaking out. "Campbell, what did you do?" He took a deep breath, and then proceeded to completely make my heart stop.

"That's the first thing I have to tell you. My name's not Campbell."

"What are you talking about?"

"Hello, Maya Matlin. Nice to meet you. My name is Jordan Cunningham.

Cam:

I can't believe I just said that. Well, there's no turning back now. I either tell her, or I leave her with that one piece of information and have her think I'm some kind of crazy person and call the cops on me. Either way, I'm pretty sure I'll be walking out that door a single man, so we'll just go with the first option.

"If this is a joke, I –"

"No, Maya. It's not a joke. Can we sit down?" I could tell she was pretty taken aback, but she eventually went to sit down on the couch, and I sat on the coffee table in front of her. "There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to say it. However, you need to know that this is all in my past and that you have nothing to worry about. This is just something that has been bothering me for a long time now, and I thought I should share it with you." She loosed up her facial expression slight, but otherwise continued to stare at me with anticipation.

"Just tell me, C -. Just tell me. I can handle it."

The fact that my own girlfriend didn't even know who I was or what to call me was enough to get my story started. "Okay, so my name is Jordan Cunningham and I'm from The Bronx, New York. I used to lead a fairly normal life. Mom was a lawyer, Dad owned a small shop in town, and I was happy kid. That is, until my Dad died. You see, other than my dad's shop, he had a 'job on the side' if you know what I mean."

"Oh, Campbell, I'm so sorry. I-I mean –"

"It's okay if you still call me Campbell. You still have to call me that in public anyway, so you probably shouldn't get too comfortable with Jordan. One slipup and there would be questions," I explained.

"Right. Okay," she responded. She appeared very uneasy, so I reached out and took both of her hands in mine and kissed them. She just continued to start at me with these lost eyes. I would give anything to be able to tell her that this was all a joke; she'd probably be extremely mad at me, but somehow I feel that the look she would give me at that moment would be better than the one she's giving me now. But it's too late for that. I can't turn back now.

"So after my dad was killed, his game needed a new front man. So who did they find but little old me. After that, I did some bad stuff. Stuff I'm not proud of at all, but you have to understand that I no longer had a father figure, Mom was always at the office, and I was at a very impressionable age. Plus, there's the whole I'll-shoot-you-if-you-don't-do-what-I-say ordeal."

"This isn't funny, Campbell," she told me, her voice cracking. Man, I did it now.

"I'm sorry," I told her sincerely as I shifted from the coffee table to the couch beside her. A tear rolled down her face and I enveloped her in a hug. "Baby, I'm sorry, but there's one more thing I have to tell you." She released me at this, and I told her my next piece of information. "Remember when I cut my hand a little while ago with my skate?" She nodded her head, seeming to know where this was going. "Well it wasn't an accident, and it wasn't the first time."

At this, she lost it. I took her in my arms once again and she buried her head in my chest. "I'm so sorry, Cam. I had no idea!"

"I'm sorry too, Maya."

She sniffles for a second and then leans back up. "Why are you sorry?"

"I'm sorry that I've been so distant lately. I'm sorry I didn't tell you why. I'm sorry ever since the first day I met you, I've been lying to you. I'm sorry that you can probably never look at me the same way again. Most importantly, I'm sorry that you have such a delinquent, terrible person as a boyfriend," I explained, my voice cracking as well.

That statement made her expression change from sad, to angry, to hurt, to maternal. "You are not a terrible person, Campbell. You've just had some pretty terrible things happen to you. Sure, you've done things that aren't exactly goody-two-shoes material, but you had to do that to stay safe. Just like you had to hide your true identity from me to keep you safe. I know that's not you. And as for the cutting, I understand your reasoning behind that as well. You couldn't tell anyone about your struggles, so you had to find a way to deal with it. I'm not saying it was a good idea, but you had to let it out. Now that you have me to confide in, you don't need to do that anymore."

I was brought to tears by her words and her understanding. "So you're not breaking up with me?" I asked, overjoyed because I already knew the answer.

"Of course not," she told me as she brushed my face with the back of her hand. "I'm upset that you've had such a hard life, but I'm just glad that you don't have to go back to it," she explained.

Something came over me in that moment: my stomach started turning and I felt this overwhelming warmth inside me. Then, I said something that I never knew to be more true than in this very moment. "I love you, Maya."

She looked slightly taken aback before she smile one of the brightest smile I'd ever seen. "I love you too," she responded. She hugged me again, even tighter than the first two, and then brought her lips to mine in a gentle kiss. "Nothing you've done in the past will ever change that."

I brought our lips back together and rested my forehead on hers. "How did I get so lucky?" I questioned, barely a whisper.

"I don't know, but whatever the reason is, it fortunately applies to both of us."

I removed my forehead from hers so I could place a gentle kiss there and then proceeded to stand up. I held out my hands for her to take and pulled her up as well. "I have to go, but I'll call you later, okay? Maybe we could go see a movie or something?"

"I'd love that. Bye, Cam."

"Bye, beautiful. I love you."

"Love you too."

I gave her one last kiss before I walked out her door with a smile on my face. That went immensely better than I thought. Eli was actually right: I don't know why I ever doubted her. Speaking of Eli, I told him I would text him when this was all over.

"Hey, Man. Are you still at The Dot?" I texted.

"Yeah I was just about to leave. Did you talk to her? How'd it go?"

"Tell you when I get there. See you in ten."

Eli:

Well, it sounds like he did it. The fact that he didn't tell me anything made me slightly nervous. That means it either went really well or really bad. Hopefully not the ladder. I'm the one who encouraged him t tell Maya the truth. If she rejects him because of it, he'll blame it on me. Rightfully so, but I still don't want him to get hurt, and I don't want to lose him as a friend either. We're a lot alike, me and him. However, we're also very different. I think that's what makes a good friendship. If you got along with someone absolutely all the time, that wouldn't be much fun. At least not for me. Arguing is in my DNA. It's a good thing too, because I have a feeling that my newfound religion is going to invite a lot of arguing between the two of us. I'm excited for that, but soon we'll have another problem we'll have to worry about. That problem starts as soon as he walks through that door.

Cam:

A few minutes after I stopped texting, I made my way to The Dot. I could see Eli sitting in the same spot where I left him. When I walked through the door, his eyes jolted upward from his comic book. I sat down and waited to be question-bombed. I was not disappointed.

"So? How'd it go? How'd she react? Are you still-?"

"Eli! You're acting like an obsessive teenage girl." I exclaimed jokingly.

"Well, your two-thirds right," he responded with a smile. "Now tell me."

"It went surprisingly well actually. I don't know what I was so worried about. She understood everything."

"See, I told you she would!"

"That song you put on my IPod really helped too. I was just about to give up," After I said this, Eli looked rather confused.

"Campbell, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Aw, c'mon man! Don't play with me. You practically quoted it when we were talking the other day."

"Well, let me take a listen; maybe I'll recognize it."

I pulled out my IPod and gave him one earphone. I put the other one in my own ear and turned the player on. The song was already playing from when I last had it on. I pushed the back button to start over and we began to listen.

When the song was over, Eli took the earphone out of his ear and handed it back to me. "Wow," he said. "I did pretty much quote that!"

"Yes you did. Now you know what I'm talking about," I told him, thinking I had won the argument.

"Dude, I've never heard that song before in my life."

It was then that I officially began to believe in God.