Chapter Five
{Cammie}
Laughter drifted up to me as I walked down the stairs to Ryan's basement where the ten of us always seemed to hang out, one voice standing out from the others. Great. Zach was here. I didn't know how much more of him I could handle. Ever since the scene on the soccer field three days ago, I've been completely avoiding him. In fact, this was going to be the first time I've even seen him since then. Tonight was going to be interesting, that's for sure.
When I reached the bottom of the steps, I saw that I was the last of us to arrive for our movie night.
"Cam, you're late," Bex announced from one of the couches that sat in front of the large, movie-theater-screen-sized TV.
Considering Liz was still sitting on the floor, rummaging through all the DVD's and deciding what movie to watch, I wasn't too worried about how late I was.
I made my way over to the couches where the girls sat, passing a pathetic game of pool from Grant, Ryan, Declan, and Zach.
Zach was leaning over the edge of the table, aiming his pool stick at the cue ball when he spotted me, his mouth narrowing into a frown. I guess the bad blood ran both ways. Nothing new there.
I ignored him and continued towards the girls, sitting down beside Bex in a huff.
Without looking up from the collection of DVD's, Liz asked, "How long do you think their game is gonna last?"
"Who knows," Hannah answered, rolling her eyes. "It's already been, like, an hour."
"You'd think guys who play pool almost every day would be better at it," Macey scoffed.
Sitting down next to me with a bowl of freshly popped popcorn in his hands, Jonas laughed. "Only if they're smart enough to figure it out."
From behind, I heard a string of cuss words escape Zach's mouth as he complained about missing the pocket again, and I had to stifle a laugh.
Liz squealed excitedly as she stood up, waiving a DVD in the air. "Movie time!" she announced, popping in the disk before settling in next to Jonas.
"What are we watching, Lizzie?" Ryan asked as he rounded the couch and sat down in the chair next to it, apparently abandoning the pool game that had been going nowhere to begin with.
"Life as We Know It," she exclaimed proudly.
Zach groaned in complaint. "Not another chick-flick."
"You're free to go if you want. No one's stopping you," I told him, silently hoping he'd take me up on my suggestion and leave.
"And miss watching you ugly cry at the horribly sappy ending?" he asked, mocking me as he slid into another chair opposite from Ryan's. "Not a chance." For a moment, he winced at his own words, and I couldn't help but assume it was because he saw me crying when I left the soccer field the last time we spoke. Damn it, I'd really been hoping he hadn't witnessed that.
"You only think it's sappy because you're heartless and don't have a romantic bone in your body," I told him, pretending to have not seen his cringe.
"What do you know about romance?" he asked, laughing, "You haven't had a date since sophomore year, and the one date you did have, you managed to blow."
"Okay, guys. Enough," Bex scolded as the opening credits appeared on the screen. "The movie's starting."
I ignored her and the others as they shushed us. I'd only been here for five minutes and I was already annoyed with Zach. I wasn't going to let him mock me and get away with it. "All of that was because of you," I snarled at him. "Not only did you ruin my date with Brad, but you prevented anyone else from asking me out for years. And then when someone does, you punch them in the face."
"I'm sorry that I was just looking out for you," he said, his voice drenched in sarcasm and not sounding the least bit sorry.
"Because 'no one wants to see you get hurt by some jackass, Cammie,'" I mocked him, using his own bullshit words from the night of Hannah's party.
"Exactly."
"Well, I never asked you to look out for me." Like what he was doing was him truly looking out for me anyway. His intentions were probably to ruin my life—not protect it.
"Fine, I'll stop," he said with a huff, leaning back in his chair as if he was over the conversation. "But when some scumbag like Lucas takes advantage of you, don't come crying to me."
"Not every guy is an insensitive asshole like you and Lucas!"
Macey gasped as she turned around to glare at me from the floor. "Cam!"
"What? He started it." Ever since I rejected his offer when he first arrived in Roseville, he had been nothing but a nuisance, trying to get his revenge and ruin my life. He mocked me, played "harmless" pranks on me that more often than not ended up going too far, and he always—always—took any chance he had to remind me that he couldn't care less about me. Now, all of a sudden, he's trying to say that he's there for me and wants to keep me safe? Please. He's hated me from the beginning, and he made that pretty clear on numerous occasions. Of course he freaking started this war between us.
"How? How the hell did I start it?" he suddenly screamed at me, obviously more pissed than he'd been leading on. Leaning forward in his chair again, his jaw tense with frustration, he looked right at me. "By trying to protect you like these guys do? By caring about you? Or simply by moving to this town and imposing on your life?"
"All I'm saying is my life was great before you showed up," I snapped.
Everyone grew silent as they exchanged glances with one another. I knew I hit a nerve, and I instantly regretted saying the words. Zach's glare turned from stone cold to freezing, and if looks could kill, I'd be six-feet under. I couldn't have pissed him off more if I'd tried. He stood up without a word and stormed off, pounding up the stairs and slamming the basement door.
If I was wrong before…if he didn't actually hate me…he sure did now.
{Zach}
I hated her. I officially hated Cammie Morgan. How could she say those things to me? She compared me to Lucas. Lucas fucking Grey, the equivalent to the scum of the earth. I knew she wasn't fond of me, but I never thought she'd put me on the same level as him. And to top it off, she actually wished I'd never shown up in her life. What a freaking bitch.
Once upstairs and away from her, I could breathe a little easier. I went over to the fridge and took out a can of Pepsi, needing something—anything—to distract me from our fight.
I hadn't even been alone for five minutes when I heard footsteps making their way up the basement stairs. A small part of me hoped it was Cammie, but a bigger part of me hoped it was anyone but.
That part was disappointed.
Of course Cammie followed me. She never was one to leave things unresolved, though that never seemed to bother her when it came to me until now.
She stopped in the doorway at the top of the stairs, her uneasy gaze frozen on where I stood. She waited a beat too long before closing the door behind her and entering the kitchen in silence.
Neither of us spoke right away. I had nothing to say to her. But the awkward silence was filled with all the things we never said, and I could feel her nerves in the empty space between us. It was too much, and I prayed that she would say something soon.
As I took a sip from my drink, she looked my way, but managed to avoid looking at me directly. Instead, her eyes were trained on the can in my hand. "Funny," she started, her voice sounding louder than it probably was due to the silence that had previously engulfed us. "I always thought you were a Coke kind of guy."
I finished my swig and continued to stare at her. That's what she wanted to talk about? My drinking preferences?
When she realized I wasn't going to respond, she continued to babble the way she always did when she was nervous. "But then again, what do I know? We've spent the last three years avoiding each other."
I sensed there was some sadness to her tone, but I wasn't about to read into anything.
Finally, she looked at me, her eyes roaming up and down my body. The extent of her nervousness was abundantly clear, and my stomach twisted into a knot.
This was it. The conversation we had avoided for far too long.
We almost had this conversation the last time we talked, standing in front of the boys' locker room before my soccer practice. But I was too worked up about Aubree to have that kind of conversation. And maybe I was scared of what would be said, and I chickened out.
"Look, there's so much I could say to you," she started, sounding exhausted already. She pulled in a deep breath, then huffed it out in a long sigh. "But I'm pretty sure you hate me right now and I hate that so… Ugh, Zach, I just…I don't…" She sighed again, obviously frustrated that she didn't know what to say or how to say it. She slumped against the kitchen's island with her face in her hands, defeated.
I took another sip of my Pepsi, then, clearing my throat, I said, "You're right."
She looked up at me with sorrow in her big blue eyes. Jeez, only Cammie could make looking sad so damn beautiful.
"I am a Coke kind of guy," I told her. Relief washed over her face before she cracked a small smile. "But Ryan's mom only drinks Pepsi, so…" I shrugged and lifted the can again to take another drink.
She nodded, then she started to laugh as she obviously felt more relieved.
And stupid me loved the sound of her laugh, so I cracked a smile despite trying to force it down.
When her giggles died off, she turned serious again. "I'm sorry," she said. "You are nothing like Lucas. That was… a low blow. And of course I'm happy you're a part of my life. You're one of my best friends, even if you are near the bottom of the list."
She was joking. I knew that. But I still couldn't stop myself from asking, "Near the bottom or at the bottom?"
"Near. You're number eight. Right above Declan."
This time, I chuckled. Knowing she didn't like Declan as much as I didn't like him for some reason made me smile.
"Even though I ruin your life and chase away potential boyfriends? Like Lucas?" It had been three days since the incident on the soccer field, and yet, I still growled when I said his name.
"Lucas was an ass. I know that now," she exclaimed. I hated hearing the anguish in her voice. It reminded me of how I failed to protect her. That, I could never forgive myself for.
"Did you actually want to date him?" I asked, not wanting to hear her response, but knowing I needed to.
"Not really."
"But were you going to anyway? You know, before all that happened?"
She shrugged. "Probably."
I clenched my jaw in irritation. God, I hated Lucas for almost getting the girl even when she didn't want him. Not trusting myself with words, I silently nodded my head once so at least she knew I heard her. I took a drink of my Pepsi, wishing it was something stronger to help me through this conversation. When I went to take another sip, Cammie placed her hand on my arm and I stopped.
"Ask me why," she said, challenging me with her eyes.
I shook my head. "Cam, I really don't want to know—"
"Ask me why, Zach."
I dug the heels of my palms into my eyes and groaned, pissed at myself for what I was about to do. "Why?"
"Because the guy I really want, the one I can't seem to get out of my head, has spent the past three years hating me because I wouldn't break my promise to his cousin."
My hands fell away from my face and I gaped at her, completely stunned. What?
"Screwed up, right?" she asked, taking the soda can out of my hand. "I mean, it's practically your life goal to make my life miserable, and here I am obsessed with the idea of kissing you." She spoke so calmly, as if what she was saying wasn't the biggest, most shocking confession ever.
She took a mouthful of my drink while she waited for me to recover, swallowing the dark liquid with a scrunched up face. "Ew, you're right. Coke is way better," she told me, placing the Pepsi can back in front of me.
How the hell could she be so calm right now, talking about Coke and Pepsi?
"What, uh… I mean, how—"
"I have a better question for you," she interrupted. She strolled around the island, running her delicate fingers along the smoothness of the granite. An image of her doing the same to my bare chest with lazy bedroom eyes popped into my head. Fuck, stupid teenage hormones.
Cammie stopped right in front of me, too close if I was going to control myself and refrain from touching her. I could feel the heat from her body radiating off her, that's how close she was. Her hair was down, so when she tipped her head back to look up at me, it fell around her shoulders, all wavy and sexy. She pressed a hand to my chest, flexing her fingers into the cotton of my t-shirt for the briefest of moments.
I tensed at the pressure. My gaze drifted down to where she touched me, then back up to her face, my eyes zeroing in on her lips. Desperate desire flooded through me, and by the look of recognition in her eyes, Cammie knew it.
"You feel it, too. Don't you?" she finally asked.
Did I feel the crazy chemistry and sexual tension that sparked between us whenever we were even remotely close to one another? Hell yeah, I did. I'd felt it ever since the first time we met and every other encounter we'd shared since, especially this past week and a half. That's why I tried so hard to avoid being close to her and why I tended to push her away.
But the pull was too strong this time to ignore my instinctual yearning.
I reached out and grabbed her waist, my hands moving of their own accord. When my fingers grazed her skin, it sent chills through my body, just like I always imagined it would. Sure, we've touched before—an occasional hug, or a tug of her hair, or a swift punch to the arm—but never so…intimately. And as amazing as my imagination built it up to be, the real thing was so much better. I pulled her flush against me, her eyes going wide with surprise.
"You want to kiss me right now, don't you?" she asked with a hint of a smile on her lips.
I groaned at her words. "This is a bad idea, Cammie." When I spoke my voice was rough with longing, my gaze never leaving her lips and what I wanted so badly.
"And you think going on like we have been is any better?" she argued. "You and I have unfinished business, Zach, and it's making every interaction we have together too damn awkward. I say we do something about it."
"What about Macey? Wasn't she the reason this didn't happen in the first place?" I asked, motioning between the two of us.
"She'll never know," Cammie promised. "It's just one kiss. To finally calm this tension between us so we can stop arguing and fighting all the time. Maybe we'll even become real friends and you'll be higher than number eight on my list."
I couldn't believe after all these years, Cammie Morgan was actually trying to convince me to kiss her. It was like a dream, one I've had over and over again but never expected to come true.
"It's just one kiss, Zach," she repeated, her lips a hairsbreadth away from mine.
I shouldn't. I really shouldn't. But, damn, did I want to kiss her more than anything.
Don't do it, man. You know this won't end well. Think about your promise to Macey. She'll kill you if she finds out you kissed her best friend. What if someone comes upstairs and catches you? Come on, man. Be strong. Don't do it!
My mind warned me to stop, finding any excuse to prevent me from leaning in and taking her lips in mine.
But I didn't listen.
I took a deep breath, leaned in, and kissed her.
She pushed up on her toes to meet me, tangling her hands in the hair at the nape of my neck. I backed her up against the island, towering over her and crushing her body underneath mine. Tugging at my hair, she pulled me closer to her. We stayed like that for a few minutes, connected by our lips and our limbs completely tangled up within each other, before she pulled back, breathing heavily.
I let go of her body and braced myself on the edge of the counter, backing up a bit to put some space between us. We stared at each other, satisfaction and want still in our eyes. The whole time I watched her, I kept repeating to myself, it's just one kiss. It's just one kiss.
But that was such a lie. Whatever this was between us—whatever we had just ignited without meaning to—didn't end here. We definitely weren't going to be able to be around each other now any more than before. In fact, I had a feeling it was going to be a lot harder.
Because whatever this was, whatever we were, whatever we just did…it was way more than just one kiss.
The moment you all have waited for has arrived! I hope it met your expectations considering when I planned this story out, this was supposed to happen two chapters ago... sorry to make you wait so long lol.
Wow, you guys are seriously the best readers I've ever had. You all are so incredibly supportive. I honestly can't thank you guys enough for all the encouragement and confidence you give me to continue writing, but I certainly will try! FYI, some of my favorite reviews are just you guys talking about how evil Lucas is, or how cute it is that the guys take it upon themselves to protect Cammie... they don't always have to be about how great of a writer I am. In fact, when you talk more about the story instead of me, it gives me more encouragement. I'm trilled you think I'm a good writer, but I want to hear your thoughts on the STORY. That's why I'm writing this for you guys- not to prove I can write or anything pretentious like that.
So with that being said, a big huge, awesome thanks to everyone giving this story its momentum. Without you, I wouldn't be writing this fanfic lol. Stay awesome, Gallagher Girls fanfictioners!