Authors Note: I belive we're moving along quite nicely, don't you think?
Chapter Fourteen
- Relief -
Cam.
I said his name in my mind just once and it was like a thousand sighs had been assembling together, and in the time span since I had last seen him until now they had all held their breaths' for this one moment in my infinite personal history. It was also then that I realized the relief I felt washing through my entire system was due to the simple fact that I had already convinced myself somewhere deeply rooted into my subconscious that he no longer wished to be in my company. Who was he to want to be friends with someone like me anyway? He was everything in the cliche of high school . . . and I was nothing. Not a speck on the margin.
No comparison what so ever.
"Oh my God," Alison muttered quickly under her breath, and I could physically feel her panic. She said the words so fast though, that they came out more as; "Ohmmlod"
"Hey," he called out a greeting, but just that one word, a simple 'hey', had my heart skipping a mile a minute.
"Hey," I replied happily, because he was talking to me, as if we were friends; which meant in his perspective we were . . . which also meant my entire day, no week, had brightened drastically.
Alison stood at my side nervously, a bundle of anxiety. I hadn't told her about my new found friendship with Cam. It just didn't seem like something that could be brought up out of nowhere.
"My jacket," he said briefly. "I left it at your house."
"I know, I picked it up this morning. I don't think my mom saw. I'm afraid she was a bit drowsy by time she got home last night. Either that or she chose to ignore it, because she never mentioned anything to me."
"That's good."
"Yeah. That probably would have spurred some motherly instinct in her, and she would have sat me down and given me 'the Talk', which would ensure me beating the crap out of you for misplacing your belongings and causing me such torture and malevolent pain."
I wasn't necessarily joking.
Nevertheless, he chuckled, giving me one of those signature smirks. That's all he ever did really; smirk. It was like it physically hurt him to smile, but in a way I was okay with that. It made those rare grins even more special.
"I'll stop by and get it tonight. I need it anyway. That way you can't cause me bodily harm."
"Good. Once again, Mom won't be around, so you can come whenever."
"I'll only be a few minutes though. I'd stay and hang, but I promised Mallory I'd take her to see whatever the newest chick flick there is that's out. Now that's what I call torture."
I nodded grimly in agreement, acid pooling in the pit of my stomach from the mention of that evil name. With a flare of annoyance I said, "You know I seriously hate your girlfriend, right?"
He chuckled again, which just infuriated me further. "Yeah, well, she hates you too."
"How can you do that?" I asked, my brow furrowing.
"Do what?"
"How can you be friends with me, when you know fully well that your girlfriend hates me. I just don't understand," I admitted.
His expression softened and he replied, "Like I said before; you're the first real person I've met since then, Max."
"And you don't care that she's probably going to go physco on you when she finds out?"
"Who says she's going to find out?"
It felt like I had been punched in the gut, stabbed in the heart and gunned down all at the same time. Every last bit of life that had threaded its way into my body since the move evaporated instantly, because I knew exactly what he meant.
"Right . . ."
"I'm sorry," he apologized, and he sounded so sincere that I couldn't help but nod and smile weakly; trying not to let him see how much his words had hurt me, inside and out.
We could be friends . . . just not when anyone else was around.
- }{ -
Alison had been doing a fantastic job of keeping her head on straight ever since the incident with Cam this morning. After he had disappeared in the direction of the school and we had followed shortly thereafter, she hadn't muttered a single word. It seemed though, that she couldn't hold her curiosity in any longer.
"What the hell was that!?" she exploded as we walked out of Spanish first period. I was surprised at her words. She didn't curse much, so I knew she was deadly serious.
"What do you mean?" I asked, feigning innocence.
"Cam Ravenbeck was at your house!?" she exclaimed.
The few people surrounding us glanced over swiftly in interest, and I grabbed Alison's arm roughly and pulled her to the side to escape the prying ears of the other students.
"Shut up!" I hissed, giving her a death glare.
"Sorry," she murmured guiltily. "But tell me what happened! I want every detail!"
"This isn't some juicy story you can pass around, Al! So if I'm going to tell you I suggest you drop your Gossip Queen act at the door, because if anyone gets word of this, I am going to kill you slowly and painfully," I intoned, my eyes narrowing.
"Okay, geesh. No need to overreact."
"I . . . It's just that I . . . Look, his entire image is at stake here. I don't want to be the one to ruin that," I explained cautiously, keeping a watchful eye on our peers milling about in the hall.
"Oh gosh!" she gasped, her eye widening. She knew this was important.
"Okay, so last night when I was walking home . . . uh, Mason and Mallory caught up with me," I started the story, almost cringing as I said it because I knew she was going to flip out.
"WHAT!?" she screamed in panic.
"Shh!" I covered her mouth with my hand, whipping my head around to see if anyone had heard. A few teens were looking at us, but after a moment their gazes traveled elsewhere and they moved on.
"Sorry . . . again," she added sheepishly. "Go on."
"Anyway, like I said they caught up with me. Then Cam showed up too, and he was really mad. He got all menacing and Mason was seriously scared. Heck, even I was afraid. If looks could kill . . . well, Mason would have been cold in his grave. Cam told Mason to leave and he literally ran away . . . and then he told Mallory to go as well. It was just me and him then. He offered to walk me home . . ."
"Oh my gosh!"
"Yeah, I know. I was surprised too. That's not the best part though, or rather the most insane. He . . . uh . . . he . . . he asked if we could be . . ." I trailed off, suddenly unsure of whether or not I should go on.
"He asked if you could be what?" Alison was frantic by this time.
"He asked if we could be friends," I whispered.
For once she was totally speechless, staring at me wordlessly with her jaw dropped to the floor. The surprise was etched so clearly on her face that I couldn't help but second guess myself. Maybe all this was just one crazy dream. If so, someone please pinch me now, because I don't know how much more of this I can take before I break down into pieces.
"That's SO-!" Alison began when a voice from down the hall interrupted her.
"Aly?" a male voice called, sounding a bit disoriented. "I know you're there. I heard you."
Alison blushed crimson, the corners of her lips turning up into a sheepish smile.
"Is that-?" I whispered.
"Yeah," she replied softly, turning to face the boy walking towards us. He didn't have anything to guide himself by, just his feet and the bright blue, un-seeing orbs set into his skull that were so extremely pale they took my breath away for a moment.
"Over here, James."
He glanced in our general direction as soon as Alison spoke, turning automatically and closing the short distance between us. He came to a stop with an easy precision, his accuracy surprising.
"So this is the James I've heard so much about," I drawled, giving Alison a sly wink.
"Max," she hissed under her breath.
"Uh, yeah, I guess," he said slightly self consciously, running his long, slender fingers through his stawberry blonde locks.
The kid was seriously tall. Way passed six foot. His hair was a messy mop of straight reddish-blonde strands, and his eyes were this faded, yet still piercing light blue. His smile had a hint of mischief in it, and I knew he was one of those people with a dozen tricks up their sleeves. James was someone you wanted on your side, that much I could tell, because if not he was dangerous. Once again, like the first time I had seen Cam and Monique, there was a flicker of recognition in my mind, like I had seen him before . . .
Like we knew each other from some past life.
He was one to watch out for.
"I'm Max, also a new kid," I introduced myself, not offering my hand. I wasn't much of a hand-shaker.
"Really?" he asked, and his whole face brightened, relief shining from his features. He even stood up a little straighter now that he knew that not all eyes would be on him. I was also available to share the spotlight.
Lucky me.
"Yup," I replied shortly.
"Where are you from?" he asked, seeming genuinely interested.
"Arizona, born and raised."
"Cool . . . I think I was born in Arizona actually, but I grew up in Colorado," he explained.
Overhead the bell rang, effectively ending our conversation.
"Crap! That's the tardy bell. We're going to be late for class . . ." Alison exclaimed, looking frantic once more. The chick seriously cared about her grades, and any misdemeanor scared her a heck of a lot. Her family wasn't rich, and so she depended on a clean slate to get her a scholarship for college.
"Al, relax; it'll be fine. Just tell the teacher the truth," I stated.
"And what is the truth? I was gossiping with Max? I don't think so!"
"No, you were showing the new kid around. The new, blind kid," I replied, tacking on, "No offense," directed to James.
"Eh," he replied, shrugging.
- }{ -
"You so like him," I stated blatantly.
Alison glanced up in surprise, her hand freezing in its furious scribbling. We were somewhere shoved far back into the shadowy recesses of the school library where no one else could reach us; having a 'study' session. A.K.A Alison was doing her homework while I sat, tipping back dangerously in my chair while staring off into space, daydreaming.
"Who?" she asked, and for a second she sounded so curiously confused that I almost believed it; key word her almost.
I pursed my lips, raising an eyebrow and giving her a demanding look. "Who do you think, dummy!? James, the guy you always blush and get all giddy around. Thank God he's blind, or else he would know about your little crush in a heartbeat."
"Just because he's disabled doesn't mean he isn't like the rest of us," she claimed defensively, giving me a defiant glare.
"Whoah, slow down there Ali-gaiter. I never said he wasn't."
This was worse than I thought.
"I know . . . it's just that a lot of people have been talking about him, and it makes me so mad! Sometimes they say it when he's standing right beside them. They don't even try to be quiet. It's like they think because he can't see them, he can't hear them either. It's sick!"
Oh, she had it bad.
"Relax, Al. Take a deep breath and choke down a chill pill, will ya'?"
Alison smiled weakly, returning to her paper titled 'Social Classes Through the Ages', which just sounded so incredibly interesting.
Um, not.
"As appealing as that sounds, I think I'll pass." She must have still sensed my concerned gaze on her though because she sighed and met my eyes once more. "Really Max, I'll be fine. I'm just worried about him, you know? It's hard enough for a person to fit in at this school. Then he has this disability that everyone takes as a free pass to poke fun at him," she explained.
"Once his arrival wears off and people get used to him being around, I'm sure the insults will stop. Besides, with all the trouble I'll no doubt be bound to get into with Mallory and her brother, I'm sure everyone will forget all about dear Jamie," I informed her, not entirely joking.
"I beg of you not to," Alison pleaded.
"You'll learn soon enough," was all I murmured.
"Learn what?" She was staring at me with this scared look on her face, like she expected me to flip out and murder someone or something. I may be a little unhinged, but I wasn't that bad.
"Sometimes you can't always control what you do."
Authors Note: Okay, so you learned some more about James/Iggy (yes, James IS Iggy) in this chapter . . . AND it didn't really end in a cliffhanger! That's not really a cliffhanger, is it? Huh . . . Whelp, on another note, I'd really, really, really, really, really appreciate it if you REVIEWED!