"Trust is like an eraser, it gets smaller and smaller after every mistake." – Unknown
"Life is about trusting your feelings and taking chances, losing and finding happiness, appreciating the memories, and learning from the past." – Unknown
Books plus Boys
Cammie's POV
After eating at the diner, Bex and I headed for her penthouse. It was so beautiful! It had such an amazing view of the trees and mountains in Washington. If I had known Bex's place was this amazing, maybe I would've moved here way before now. To my surprise, Liz and Macey were there too! No words could express how elated I was to see them there and from that moment on, I knew we were all going to have fun together living under the same roof.
"We're really glad you decided to stay here, Cammie." Liz nods her head while her smile widens by the second. Anyone who saw Liz for the first time would think she was weak just cuz she was really thin. But that didn't mean she was a weakling. In fact, she's a black belter in taekwondo or was it karate. Well, whatever it may be, she's no girl to be messed with. So, anyone who even thinks of tackling her down, well I can only hope that you don't end up in the hospital with a few broken limbs.
"Well I'm really thankful you guys even let me stay here." I tell them, looking around the place and its beautiful interior.
"Oh did you really think we were going to let you live out on the streets?" Macey says, coming out with three glasses of OJ, giggling on her way towards us. Macey is the richest amongst us. In fact, she's an heiress to some sort of huge company. Of course, you could almost say that every guy out there would want a chance to have a date with her – a girl who looks way too good from head to toe. Of course she didn't have a cup of OJ for herself since she's best known to keep a daily routine of eating less than 900 calories a day.
"Soo…," Bex starts off with that teasing voice of hers while sipping some OJ, looking above the rim of her cup at each of us with those cat eyes of hers, and right then and there, we all knew an idea was forming inside that wild head of hers and usually it's something fun. "What do you say we all stay up and par-taayy?"
Together, we all look to each other back and forth, smiling so big, our cheeks start to ache. And just like best friends do, we all giggle together, having a series of pillow fights with loud music echoing off the walls it almost makes me wonder if we'll soon be reported by our neighbors. I don't know about Macey, but we filled our stomachs till it felt full and could almost explode. I guess I really needed to do that since I didn't eat much during the trip, even during the time at the diner with Bex cuz I suddenly lost my appetite. Normally, a group of girls would watch chick flicks, but that was totally not us. We were the type of girls who would get cozy together on a couch with some popcorn on our laps, while watching a horror movie on a huge flat-screen TV, waiting for that scary scene to come on where we would all scream together or hide our heads into one another's shoulders, holding tightly onto each other as if were the ones being killed in a movie scene. Or we would wait for that scene where the victim tries to run and survive from the lunatic, making us holler at the TV loudly in hopes that the victim will hear and just listen to us when we tell them not to do a particular thing. And when the victims didn't listen and end up dying, well of course you'd expect some swearing or cursing especially from Macey and Bex. Well, that was exactly what we did that night. Of course, in those times we would seem like the real lunatics, but really, that was just us girls. That's why we love each other.
After hours of screaming and eating, we all had our consciousness ebbing away slowly as the clock ticked. Of course, we all got too lazy to get to our rooms, so we ended up sleeping in the living room – Bex and Liz on the couches, while Macey was on the ground with her long legs propped on top the couch that Liz was sleeping on. Something about the way Macey's feet almost hit Liz in the face made me smile. Me? For a girl who had to travel to Washington from Virginia for hours, I guess I still had the energy to get to my room, ready to just fall onto my bed and let my thoughts drift away. When I got to my room, I knew I just had to sleep right away. Cuz first thing I spotted there were my unpacked bags and a whole lot of other things that needed to get put away first thing early in the morning, and the fact that it was already 4:36 a.m. and I needed to get up at 6:30, meant that I had less than two hours of important sleep.
Sweet Danger
It was only 5 minutes later after going to bed, when I started having my nightmares again. Nightmares of the past. I was just a little girl when an accident occurred. There was a huge explosion and I saw it with my own two eyes. It terrified me and it got me crying. Any little kid would've cried at the sight of it. But the fact that someone I cared for was in the accident was what got me most. Flames bursting into the air, while people on the side couldn't do anything to stop it. It was too horrible to look at and yet, I couldn't stop staring in hopes that the person I cared for would come out alive. But I was smarter than that and I knew that everyone in it perished in the fire and would never come out. But a part of me never stopped wishing for the better. Soon, the bright and orange flames turned to black smoke. Firefighters clearing the rest of the flames with their water hose, hoping that they would at least bring back some survivors and when the captain announced that there were no survivors well imagine my heartbreak at that moment.
The nightmare continued to tear me apart. First night in Washington and I was already having a bad night. Maybe it was the horror movies or just the loads of food that affected me. But luckily, I was spared a bit from this nightmare. Spared from a phone call at 6:10 in the morning.
"Hey, Cammie, sweety." It was my mom. We were never close. She and dad were always busy – never having enough time for family day. "Sorry, did I wake you? I… I just wanted to know if you were doing fine there in Washington."
"I'm fine, mom." I turn to my side and notice the pool of sweat I made on my pillow. I guess I'd been so afraid. I should've thanked my mom for calling me and waking me up from this horrible dream. But, I didn't cuz I didn't want her knowing I was still affected by that accident no matter how long ago it happened. "How's home back in Virginia?"
"You know… just the same old routine." There was a long silence after that and I wondered if she had hung up. I get up from my bed and look at myself in the mirror wondering if I'll ever be okay. "You should go back to sleep now. You must have lots of work to do tomorrow. Listen… I'll call you again soon." Then, she hung up before I could even say "Bye" to her.
I stare at my phone, thinking about the last thing she had said. I'll call you again soon. But I knew that "soon" meant days, maybe even weeks or months, or even worse, years.
After being awoken by a phone call, I couldn't fall back to sleep after that. So, I figured I could start unpacking, but quietly so that I wouldn't wake up the girls. Thank goodness they saved me the work of having to clean out all the dust of my room. It was super clean and maintained, I almost felt like they were actually waiting for me to come. It didn't take too long to unpack everything, so I thought of going back to bed. But I didn't. Instead, I thought of heading out, but not too far out cuz I might get lost. It seemed like a good idea to get out there and just stretch out my limbs. On my way here, I did spot a local library around the block. So I figured that that's where I should head for since I love to read books.
After arriving at the library five minutes later, I started searching for books that interested me. There weren't too many people there, but I guess it's been around for quite a while now. The brown, wooden interior somehow gave it a cozy feeling. After all the disasters that happened in my life, I finally found my safe haven in reading books, this helped soothe my thoughts. There were thousands of books to choose from. Being there made me feel at peace. Of course, it didn't take long till I found a book that interested me. The thing is, it was way too high on a shelf for me to reach and my arms aren't that long. I look around to see if there was anyone that could help. There was no one. No one, but a wooden ladder leaning on the wall next to the isle of books, waiting for someone to use it. And I figured I was that someone. So I used it. Well, I tried to – putting each foot on each step, getting closer and closer to my target. Little did I know that using wooden ladders could be so dangerous… especially when there's a broken step on it.
Imagine my surprise when I try to step higher up onto the ladder, but instead slip on the broken rung of it. Slipping on the broken rung, I somehow fell back as the wooden rung cracked just as I was about to move my other foot up. And just then, I lost my balance, falling backwards as both of my hands let go of the ladder, waiting for that fall on the ground. Waiting and waiting. Waiting for my body to touch the ground. But it didn't. Instead, I was caught by a man before I could even touch the ground.
"Ma'am. Are you alright?" The green eyed man stares at me, his strong arms wrapped around me tightly, worried that I might've been hurt.
*** Zammie coming soon :3 Please R&R! :D