She'll Have to Go
The living room was dark and unoccupied that late December night. A still silence surrounded the inanimate objects surrounding a lone girl who had the empty house to herself that night. New Year's Eve was upon them and yet there wasn't a person in sight.
Derek had gone god knows where, because the truth was that no one else did. John had left, Because Riley had scored some cool tickets someplace that the girl wasn't invited too. Sarah and Ryan had also left together, she wasn't sure where, it was a secret, but Sarah wanted Ryan to come with her. The girl's future child had promised that he would be back to spend time with her. But like Riley, Sarah made it clear to the girl that she wasn't invited to where ever it was they were going.
Alone in the dark, Cameron was consumed with what John had sung to her at the Christmas party. She seemed so convinced that it had meant something, but now he was alone with Riley. When John was drunk he was so forth coming with his feelings, he never made any bones about what she meant to him. Yet sober he avoided her presence, avoided her stare, and abandoned her almost all together.
Now she just wanted to know, just wanted to hear what it was all about. What she was to him, what they were. What it all meant.
Inside the pitch black and silent house on the hill, the cyborg reached for the home landline.
John sat alone in the parked pickup truck staring out over the city thinking about where he was and what he was doing. He leaned his head against the window staring out over the twinkling lights of the skyscrapers that for a moment seemed like prison towers.
"Don't look yet …" Riley giggled in the seat next to him.
"I'm not" He replied half-heartedly.
The sound of clothing material ruffling and flopping into the back seat made John feel … nothing. Everything about what Riley was doing wasn't for him, it was just a job.
All around him he was surrounded by women who saw him as just a job. His mother saw him as nothing but a job that she was meant for. He was a mission to Cameron, and now Riley was playing him to some part in a scheme that Derek's girlfriend was playing at.
All he wanted was something real, something genuine. He wanted to know that there was someone out there that cared beyond his destiny.
"Almost ready!"
He could hear Riley having trouble with her jeans as she struggled in what he could already see was red lingerie bought especially for this.
Somehow John didn't care what happened this night. Who was he going to hurt if he fucked Riley? She was doing a job and if she was resorting to this than she was more than ready for it. The simple truth was that the only person this could hurt was him.
And after everything what harm could meaningless sex do that destiny and fate hadn't all his life?
Suddenly the phone buzzed in the young man's pocket.
"You can get it … I'm not through just … yet." Riley confirmed as she was now trying to connect something to a white stalking.
With a sigh John flipped open the phone and put it to his ear.
"Hello?" He grunted.
"…"
He glared at the silence on the other line. "Hello!" He called in annoyance.
"Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone.
Let's pretend that we're together, all alone.
I'll tell the man to turn the juke box way down low,
And you can tell your friend there with you she'll have to go."
John was shocked to hear a sweet and tender voice singing ever so softly to him on the other end. His mouth gapped open and he wanted to say something, but it was to no avail. All he could do was listen to what Cameron was trying to say to him.
"Whisper to me, tell me do you love me true,
Or is she holding you the way I do?
Tho' love is blind, make up your mind, I've got to know,
Should I hang up, or will you tell her she'll have to go?"
John turned and watched Riley for a moment in her fancy lingerie, knowing that it was all a set up. Yet she was a human girl, there could be a future. Maybe she was playing him, but who wasn't? Cameron, Cameron's serenade was all the honesty anyone has ever given him in this moment in his life …
"You can't say the words I want to hear
While you're with another girl,
If you want me, answer "yes" or "no,"
Darling, I will understand."
Silently he looked out over the city and thought about the rest of his life. He thought about when everything would be ash, skulls, and rubble. Who would be there at his side when he was in a fight?
"Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone.
Let's pretend that we're together, all alone.
I'll tell the man to turn the juke box way down low,
And you can tell your friend there with you she'll have to go."
When it was over there was a pause on the other line. There wasn't a push, or noise to get him to answer. She was patient, methodical, and on the edge of her existence. Yet when John tried to find the words for her, all four languages he knew failed him miserably.
With a slow and dazed click, John hung up on Cameron and stared at the phone. Before he looked up to find Riley posed in an inviting manner.
"Happy New Year …" He replied off handedly to what she was wearing.
Riley smiled and pouted her lips. "Paint me like one of your French girls, John." She said in a husky voice.
He smiled ruefully and looked back at the phone.
The blond flicked annoyed eyes at his cell. "Someone I know?" She asked.
But John didn't hear her, he just spoke the answer to Cameron's question.
So though this is so late … I'm a man of my word. I got eleven reviews so I came up with the Cameron response.
The song actually changed several times and there are three different ones that I cycled through before I saw a pic spam for TITD part 1 and remembered the scene with Cameron calling John at Riley's house and for some reason got this image of Cameron calling John during his make out scene with Riley during "Self-made man"
Song is "He'll have to go" by "Jim Reeves" which has always sort of made me sad since I was very young. But it seemed to fit Cameron's feelings late at night when John is gone and out with Riley.
As always if I get more than ten reviews I'll write the conclusion … if not than well, this is where it ends.
