Taking the Fall

Chapter Ten: Things People Say

Right from the start
You were a thief you stole my heart
And I your willing victim
I let you see the parts of me
That weren't all that pretty

-P!nk
(Just Give Me a Reason)

Cammie had never thought of herself as anything special. She was never the prettiest, but never the ugliest. She wasn't stick skinny, but she wasn't chubby or fat either. Her hair wasn't blonde, but it wasn't brown— it was some strange shade in between. Her eyes were the only thing that ever drew attention to her. They were a pretty, pale blue color that everyone complimented her on. But other than that she wasn't anything really: She was average. And that was that. She liked it that way because she didn't have to stand out. Because when you stood out you were a target—for all sorts of things, people expected things from you. But if you blended into the crowd then there was nothing anyone could do to you. They didn't see you.

Grant's accident had changed a lot of that. It was giving her attention she did not want. Like from Macey, and Vince, and Zach, and especially Adelaide.

It wasn't like Adelaide was throwing around punches or bitch slaps, she was just throwing around rude words that, Cammie hated to admit, made her a little upset. Most of what she said meant nothing, empty threats that were fueled by jealousy, but some of them were snarky comments about Grant. Comments that made her insides go cold and her heart want to stop beating.

Adelaide was cruel, even when Cammie hadn't done anything to the preppy cheerleader. Adelaide was just angry Zach had started talking to her and couldn't keep her jealousy in check. And after the two had broken up she had accused Cammie of being the instigator of the whole thing. She thought Cammie had eavesdropped on their conversations and told Zach she was cheating. Cammie claimed she didn't know anything about it, which, honestly, she didn't. But Adelaide was convinced she had planned it all out to ruin her life. Yeah, like Cammie even cared. She had better things to do than get wrapped up in her high school's stupid hierarchy.

She did not like the attention that Zach was bringing to her. Sure, she may have enjoyed Zach's attention because, come on, it was Zach Goode. But she hated the other strings attached to him.

It was like the accident had given her fame. People knew her name, her face, and that was the last thing she wanted.

Cammie, in all honesty, was mortified about the night before. She could hardly believe that she had broken down and started crying on Zach's shoulder. She felt like a pathetic piece shit. It was totally inexcusable and if his reputation preceded him— he would never let her live it down.

Zach, at school, was known as "the boy who will break your heart" and since talking to him she could believe every word. It's not like she wanted to like him. Because she knew if she did she'd end up getting hurt. Any girl who starts liking Zach get hurts, and Cammie had decided that no girl could refuse him. Because Bex hadn't. And Bex is well—Bex. If any girl could resist Zach it would have been her. But she hadn't, and Cammie knew despite her trying, she'd end up liking him. And she had, and she was doing her best to resist falling in love with him.

But he was so damn charming. His natural charisma and smooth way with words made it impossible not to like him. Reputation aside, Zach Goode knew how to get what he wanted. Cammie was glad Matthew wasn't the same way. Then she would have had to deal with two of them. Which she kind of was, but at least she knew she wasn't falling for Matthew. That would have been more than weird.

She already knew the odds of getting out of thing whole mess unscathed were slim. Someway, somehow, she would end up getting hurt. And all she could do was prepare herself for Zach to break her heart. She wasn't naive— she'd seen enough movies and read enough books to know what would happen. She wasn't going to try and fight it, well she would, but she knew she wouldn't win. It was just common sense for her.

"Cammie!" Zach's voice was loud and clear in her ear, and it struck her out of her thoughts so she turned to him, completely unsure of what to say. The last time she'd seen him she was sobbing mercilessly into his shoulder. It was weird it only had been a night ago.

She tried to smile, but seeing him made her feel wobbly and complete idiotic.

"Hey Zach." She was relieved her voice sounded normal. She glanced around the park and spotted Sawyer running to the swing set where Emily was. "I guess Sawyer wanted a play-date?" She asked.

They were at the school, by the kids playground even though it was almost four O'Clock. Emily liked to stay and play for an hour or two after school before they went to see Grant.

Zach grinned and nodded, and Cammie only noticed his adorable dimples. "She just knew Emily would be here and who am I to deny a six year old's wishes?"

Cammie adored the way he acted with Sawyer. She had only seen it a few times but it almost looked like Sawyer was one of the only people he truly cared about.

"You don't have a better way to spend you're Fridays?"

He shook his head. "Nope, I'm grounded."

She clocked her head to the side. "Oh," she said. "Why?"

He gave her a look that told her all she needed to know. Because of the accident. Duh. She was such an idiot.

Cammie found it so strange how both of them interacted. Sometimes their conversations were intense and deep and other times— like now— there were light and warmed her skin.

"Right," she replied. "Of course."

Suddenly Zach's eyes twinkled. "Do you think I could get a rain check for the lunch date you stood me up on?"

Cammie was taken aback by his question, not only had it come out of the blue but she had never in a million years expected him to ask her out twice.

She suddenly thought of Grant, and how she had felt when he'd had the stroke. How she had acted the night before. How Zach was the reason she'd felt like that at all. Her feelings for him were so mixed up, she couldn't separate right from wrong.

"I don't know. . ." The uncertainty in her voice wiped the smiled off Zach's face. Was she turning him down?

"You don't want to," he said the words falling from his mouth sounding more disappointed than he'd ever let anyone hear. "I get it."

Cammie shook her head. "It doesn't really make sense to do that does it, Zach?" Her voice was supposed to be like a pillow; comforting. But to Zach it sounded patronizing and sarcastic.

"No," Zach said. "I supposed it doesn't." He sounded defensive and Cammie was confused by his reaction yet again.

"Zach…" She started.

He shook his head. "Forget it."

"No," she said and without realizing it, she reached out and grabbed his arm. "Zach. I need you to understand something."

He glanced down at her hand on his arm, not realizing how natural it felt.

"Grant's in the hospital. My brother. And I know that you had at least some part in that, and it makes me so confused but—"

"Why does it make you so confused?" Zach asked, interrupting her.

She seemed off put by his question. "What?"

"Why does it confuse you?" he repeated. "If you think that. Why do you even talk to me at all?"

"You think I can help it?" she snapped.

He shrugged. "You should be able to, since you hate me so much."

"I don't hate you Zach," she replied, her voice sounding wary.

"You should," he muttered.

"I know I should," she said looking at him with fierce eyes, her tone taking another direction yet again. "But that doesn't mean I do."

Zach shrugged and looked away from her.

Cammie sighed and pulled her hand off his arm. "Zach," she said quietly.

"What?" he replied, his voice just as quiet.

"I don't think we can be friends."

For once Zach agreed with her. She was getting underneath his skin and making him all kinds of confused.

"I don't think we ever were."

She nodded in agreement. Cammie could define their relationship if she wanted to. They weren't friends, they weren't in a relationship, and she didn't know what they were.

They didn't say anything for a while after that, just standing solidly next to each other, watching their little sister play.

Zach was paying more attention to Cammie than he was to Sawyer though. It was easy to appraise her, as she never moved her eyes away from right in front of her. He searched the angles of her face, and couldn't keep himself from looking at her eyes that were so open but held so many secrets.

He decided everything about her was a contradiction. She seemed sweet and shy but after he'd talked to her he knew she was anything but. She could be so angry with him and then say that it was all okay. For the first time in his life he couldn't understand someone. He usually had no trouble figuring out girls and the way they were trying to play him. Cammie was almost as complex and complicated as he was. Because apart from her he was the only other person he couldn't figure out. It almost made him laugh. He didn't even know who he was.

". . .realized how connected our families were before. . ." Cammie was saying, and suddenly her pretty eyes were looking straight at him.

"Excuse me?" Zach asked, suddenly feeling flustered. Which did not happen a lot for him.

She gave him a small smile. "Sawyer and Emily are best friends," she explained. "You were friends with Grant. And I'm sort of friends with your brother."

"Matthew?"

Cammie nodded.

Zach suddenly remembered Matthew saying something about Cammie being his friend, but he hadn't really processed it.

"Only sort of?"

She nodded. "Because of Bex," she explained.

"Right."

Suddenly she was laughing and Zach wasn't sure how he felt about the way the sound sang in his ears.

"What's funny?"

"Just Bex," Cammie replied.

Zach fought back a smile. "Why do you say that?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I just think it's funny that once you had Bex wrapped around your finger."

"Why's that funny again?"

"Because you're you and Bex is Bex."

"Because that explains everything," he said sarcastically but he wore and easy grin that made her heart race.

"It does," Cammie insisted.

Zach shrugged. "Bex was hot, I would never miss an opportunity like that."

"The way you talk about women is repulsive, you know that right?"

"You don't seem so repulsed," Zach observed.

"Don't I?"

He shook his head. "Not even the slightest."

"Well it is," she said as she rolled her eyes. "You should work on it."

"I had this conversation with Macey the other day," Zach said, almost thoughtfully. "I told her girls were attracted to assholes."

Cammie snorted. "Yeah, that's such guy logic."

Zach shrugged. "Call it what you want."

"Girls are not attracted to assholes."

Zach raised an eyebrow, "are you attracted to me?"

Cammie knew he was trying to make her sweat. There was this glint in his eyes that told her so. She stuck out her chin and made sure his eyes met hers.

"Yes."

He seemed surprised with her answer. He had expected her to stutter or blush, like every other girl would if he asked that question. His eyes darkened with her response, she was just getting more and more interesting.

"But," she said before he could open his mouth again. "Not because you're an asshole."

"Then whatever else is there?" he asked, a smirk pulling at his lips making him look sexier than any human should have the right to be.

"Maybe I'm just physically attracted to you."

"Are you?"

"Yes and no."

"And what does that mean?"

Cammie smiled widely at him and ne notices one dimple on her left cheek. He almost wanted to reach out and touch it.

"It means yes I'm physically attracted to you, but no I'm not just physically attracted to you."

She was trying to make him confused. He just knew it.

"So you don't just like me for how I look? How relieving."

She laughed. "Sometimes you're sweet."

Zach scrunched up his nose. "I am not sweet."

She reached out and pinched both his cheeks, just like his grandmother always did.

"You are just the sweetest boy ever!" she said in an elderly high-pitched voice.

He pulled away and was laughing too.

"Jesus you're weird," Zach said, catching his breath.

Cammie rolled her eyes. "If I was that weird I don't think you'd be talking to me," she pointed out.

"That's probably true."

"Besides, you just think that because you hang out with girls that don't have brains."

"That's not true."

Cammie gave him an 'are you serious' look.

"Macey has a brain."

"Yeah but. . ."

"But what? She's not a brainless slut."

"I know," Cammie said. "And that's why you don't date her."

Zach eyes narrowed a tiny bit. "Are you saying I only go after vapid moral-less girls?"

She shrugged. "There seems to be a bit of a trend there, yes."

"Then explain Bex."

"There are always exceptions."

"Adelaide wasn't stupid."

Cammie almost wanted to laugh.

Zach shrugged. "She wasn't, at least not in the way you may have thought she was."

"And in what way do I think she's stupid?"

"You think she's book stupid, which she isn't. She's in all honors classes with more or less straight A's."

"Really?" The surprise in her voice was hard to conceal.

"Yes."

"Then how is she stupid?"

"With people. And feelings. She just doesn't understand some things."

Cammie nodded thoughtfully.

"So there you go. I don't hang out or date just stupid girls."

"Fine," Cammie relented. "You win."

Zach grinned. "I always do."

Cammie could suddenly hear her phone vibrating from her purse. She picked it up and pulled out her phone, checking to see who was calling her.

"Sorry." she said to Zach. "It's my mom."

She answered the phone in front of him, exchanging quick words with her mother that told Zach she needed to leave.

She hung up the phone and game a small smile. "Sorry, we've got to go," she said and stood up.

"Emily!" she called to her sister, and gestured her over.

"Right," Zach said, standing up as well.

Cammie nodded but felt extremely awkward. Emily was racing over, Sawyer a step behind her.

"Come on," she said to the younger girl and held out her hand. "We've got to go see Grant."

Her words made Zach's throat go dry.

Zach wanted to ask how Grant was doing but he couldn't force the words to come out and lost his chance when Cammie nodded again and said goodbye.

"Bye," Zach echoed as he watched her go.

"Uh, Zachy?" Sawyer asked, drawing his attention away from the Morgan girls.

"Yeah, Soybean?"

"I think you have a crush on her."

Zach gave her a strange look. "What gives you that idea?"

Sawyer shrugged and bit her lip. "She's really pretty and you look like you like to talk and look at her."

Zach nodded.

"Don't you think she's pretty?"

"Of course I do," Zach told her. "But I don't have a crush on her." He said putting air quotes around crush.

Sawyer smiled widely, a mischievous look in her eyes. "Well I think you do."

Zach rolled his eyes. "Whatever Soybean."

Sawyer rolled her eyes in the same fashion he had. Then put her hand on her hip, looking like a diva and said, "you so have a crush on her."

Zach couldn't remember the last time he'd spent a Friday night at home by himself. Not since before the accident anyways. Before he'd been "grounded"—he used the term lightly because before when his parents had "grounded" him he still went out— he was given a slap on the wrist, but it was obvious his parents never really cared.

But since the accident his parents had decided they wanted to become responsible parents. What a load of bull that was. The terms of his grounding meant he could still go out, he just had to tell his parents where he was going and answer all of their pestering phone calls. Zach, who was used to being kept on a long leash, was unhappy with this arrangement. His dad even knew Zach had no part in the accident, and he still grounded him. Didn't his parents realize he was going through enough?

There was a knock on his door.

"Yeah?" Zach called, looking up from his book.

Matthew came in and regarded Zach.

"Are you reading?"

Zach looked down at the book. "Uh, yeah."

Matthew gave him a weird look. "I didn't even know you could read."

Zach closed the book and chucked it at his head. Matthew caught it before it could come into contact with his cranium.

"Nice catch," Zach muttered. "And of course I can read."

Matthew turned the book so he could he the cover.

"You're reading Twilight?" Matthew asked. "Are you gay?"

Zach rolled his eyes. "You know very well I'm not gay. I just have nothing better to do."

"Where did you even get this?"

"Adelaide gave it to me when we were still dating, she kept trying to make me read it."

"And now you are?"

"Like I said," Zach said. "I have nothing better to do."

"Your life is startlingly pathetic."

"It's not like yours is any better."

"At least I'm not grounded."

Zach narrowed his eyes. "I shouldn't even be grounded, I didn't do anything."

"You put a guy in a hospital."

Zach glared at him. "That wasn't me."

"Oh really?" Matthew asked. "Then who was it?"

"You seriously think it's me?"

Matthew shrugged. "You've never told me otherwise."

"I thought you knew!"

"Knew what?"

"That it was Vince!"

"Vince told Grant to go jump off a ledge." His tone was sarcastic, as if what Zach said couldn't possibly be true.

"No," Zach said. "He pushed him off of it."

The shock on Matthew's face was not what Zach had been expecting. Did his brother really think that low of him?

"Are you serious?"

Zach gave him a dirty look. "Does it look like I'm serious?"

"I don't know," Matthew replied. "It's not like you tell me anything about your life."

"Sorry I'm not an open book." He sounded cynical, and Matthew heard it in his voice and knew he was upsetting his brother.

"Whatever," Matthew let it go, he wasn't in the mood to pick a fight with Zach.

"I can't believe you don't believe me."

"I do believe you."

Zach didn't say anything in reply, and Matthew sighed. Sometimes he just didn't understand his brother. He always seemed so annoyed, were brothers supposed to act this way to each other? Matthew didn't think so.

"Whatever," Matthew replied. "I'm gonna go then."

Zach shrugged and fell back onto his pillow and picked up the book, still not replying. Matthew gave another sigh and left the room, careful to close the door quietly behind him.

AN:
Cute Zammie fluff. I suggest you enjoy it, because it in't going to happen in the forseeable future. In fact this is the last chapter that they are on good terms. Hint hint. So what do you guys think is going to happen in the next chapter? Anything exciting?

Love you guyssssss

SHOUTOUTS:

MegzTheDino: Yeah. Mr Keith is kind of a creep.

Guest: I think you will start to feel for her a little more in the next chapter. Remember how Zach treats her.

The One You Never Suspected: Yep, Macey and Zach know having sex with teacher is wrong. But as discussed in the chapter, Adelaide doesn't always know right from wrong.

QueenCupcake101: Don't give her too much crap. Zach treats her like a piece of dog shit. She has a little right to get angry.

F0everDefyingGravity: I don't think she is going to fall in a well... but you never know. It could happen. ;)

And that you to all my other readers and reviewers. And just by the way I do update more the more you review, it makes me think the sotry is in higher demand. I love you guys and please tell me what you think and what you expect or may want to happen!
Love Y'all
-Becca