Paradise Stars

Someone shook Damian's shoulder roughly, jarring him out of his dream. He opened his bleary eyes and stared down at Cameron's hand that he had entwined in his own. He must have fallen asleep the night before, crouched over Cameron's still body.

"Damian, you should go home," Damian looked up to see Cameron's mom gripping his shoulder tightly with a stern look on her striking face. He didn't know why the Mitchells wouldn't let him see Cameron anymore but one day out of the blue a few months before, Cameron's parents told him he couldn't stay at the hospital any longer. Their only excuse was that they were looking out for him, that Damian was wasting his life away on Cameron. Damian could tell there was some other reason but he decided to let it go. It was too hard seeing Cameron's motionless body wasting away every day anyways. So Damian let himself become a shell and tried to forget about everything, which was a lost cause.

"I'm sorry, I know you said I couldn't come anymore, I just-"

"Just don't let it happen again," Mrs. Mitchell interjected. Damian thought he saw a flash of guilt flash pass through her eyes but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. Damian stood and moved to leave the small room but he realized something before he reached the door and turned back to face Cameron's mom.

"Where's Preston?" Damian asked; it was rare that the she and her husband separated. In fact Damian wasn't sure he had ever seen them apart for more than a couple minutes.

"Oh, he's having a discussion with the doctors," she was trying to sound nonchalant but Damian could see pain in her demeanor. Something else was wrong, something big.

"About what?" Damian needed to know what was going on with Cameron, even if his parents wouldn't let him visit.

Cameron's mom wouldn't answer. "About what," Damian repeated, louder this time.

"Nothing that concerns you, Damian."

"That's bullshit and you know it," Cameron's mother stared at him with wide eyes, completely horrified. "We were, no, are best friends and I have a right to know what is going on with him. I love him more than anyone on this planet and I demand to know what's happening!" throughout his monologue, Damian got louder and louder, causing Cameron's mom to flinch.

Damian stood with clenched fists and a heaving chest, letting all his pent up frustration with the world out on his dying friend's mother. He suddenly felt guilty and shifted his eyes down to the floor, trying to calm himself down. "He's not gonna make it, Damian," a voice came from behind.

Damian whirled around to meet familiar grey-blue eyes framed in the doorway. "What d'you mean?"

Preston replied, "Cameron, he- he's not going to make it. Every day his heart gets worse and his brain activity is next to none. If he did wake up there's a ninety percent chance that he'd be a vegetable, like a baby that will never grow," tears welled in Cameron's father's eyes. Silence engulfed the sickeningly sterile room.

"So what does that mean?" Damian choked out eventually.

"We think we might pull the plug," Damian could see the hurt on Cameron's dad's face but still couldn't feel sympathy for him. How dare he give up?

Damian shook his head back in forth, disbelief clouding his features. "No. You can't just give up. There's always another way. There has to be."

"Look, Damian I know it's hard; I know you loved him but-"

"No, don't give me that crap. You don't care about what Cameron and I had. You think I'm not good enough, right? That all he needs is you? Well you're wrong, Cameron felt more at home with me here than he ever did back in Texas," Damian regretted his harsh words right when he said them. He could hear Cameron's mom sobbing behind him and he closed his eyes, feeling his own tears forming once again.

"We know," Preston whispered.

"What?" Damian's head shot up.

"I said, we know. We read everything Cameron felt about you. We know the… relationship you had."

He said relationship like it was a dirty word. "What are you talking about?" Damian asked.

"I'm talking about you and our son being romantically involved."

Damian's eyebrows shot up and he let out a scoff. "Romantically involved? Cameron and I were just friends," Damian couldn't believe what was happening. Why would they ever think that?

"Then what's this?" Cameron's dad pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "I've kept it on me since I found it in Cameron's room back in Texas," He held it out for Damian to take. His eyes moved down the page, becoming more stunned with every word.

Damian,

I've never told you how I really feel about you. I'm scared that you won't feel the same way. I'm determined to tell you when we're in LA. But for now, I'll have to write this fake letter so that maybe I can let go of some of my pain. Maybe this will give me the courage I need to tell you.

I'm in love with you. I have been since the first time I looked into your eyes. You stole me away from everything I ever knew but I let you. I want you to take me away from my life in Texas. From all the people who never understood me. I want us to grow old together. I know you'll probably never feel the same way but you don't know what I would kill to feel your lips against mine, just once. Just once so I can feel the love that I've yearned for my entire life.

No matter what your reaction is when I tell you, all I can hope for is that you know that I love you with all my heart and until the second I stop breathing, that will never change.

Forever,

Cameron

Tears rolled onto the page as Damian read, causing the ink to smear. The letter was short but it may as well have been a novel. It said everything that Damian needed to hear. All of his questions were answered. This was what Cameron was going to say to him that night. Damian re-read the letter to make sure he didn't make the whole thing up. Cameron loved him. Really loved him. And at that moment as Damian gazed down at Cameron's scarred face, he knew that he did too.