I apologize in advance for the length of this chapter since it's over 5,000 words...but that just means there's more to love :D
Chapter Seven
{Cammie}
"We're here," Hannah exclaimed, smiling wildly as she pulled her Jeep into a gravel parking lot by a romantic brook. She cut the engine once she was parked between Grant's BMW and Ryan's Audi, and we all filed out. Finally, after a long, two-hour drive with most of it spent driving down a dirt road that lead us to the middle of nowhere, we had arrived at the spot our group was going camping.
"Well, I see the boys' cars, but no boys," Liz observed, a confused look crossing her face.
"That's because we have to hike a little to get there," Hannah explained as she began unloading our bags from the back.
Besides small groans from Macey, we silently followed Hannah as she lead us through the woods to a small clearing that was currently occupied by two tents and five teenaged boys.
My eyes instantly found Zach as he squatted in the dirt with his back to us as he worked on setting up a tent. I tried so hard to look away from the muscles in his back moving underneath his fitted t-shirt as he strung the poles through the fabric and nailed a stake into the ground, but if there was one thing I loved most about him, it was his muscles.
It was at that moment that Bex called out, "Hey, boys," as we continued towards them, and Zach glanced over his shoulder.
While the other boys waved and greeted us, Zach remained silent as his eyes locked with mine. It was the first time we had seen each other since we kissed a week ago, and all of those feelings of him crushing my body beneath his as he pressed me into the counter in Ryan's kitchen were suddenly too close to the surface. No doubt, my face was beat red from my fierce blush as heat crept up my neck, and yet I still couldn't look away. From the way his eyes skimmed down my body, pausing a beat too long on my naked legs before sliding back up to my face with temptation darkening the green of his irises, it was clear he couldn't look away from me either.
Oh, boy. It just got a hundred degrees hotter out here.
Before I could make a fool of myself by giving in to the gravitational pull he had on me, Hannah called my name and told me to help her put up the tent we'd be sharing for the night.
After all four tents were set up, Grant had mentioned he was hungry, so we all hiked back to the cars to grab the coolers holding the food and drinks, along with camping chairs to place around the fire despite there already being a couple logs to serve as benches.
The cooler I was unloading from Hannah's Jeep was a lot heavier than I thought, and I struggled a bit to keep my grip. I thought I was going to drop it as it slid from my grasp, but a pair of strong arms caught it before it fell completely.
"Here, I got it," Zach said gently as he lifted it out of my hands. The second I saw it was him who came to my rescue, I immediately let go of the cooler and took a step back, trying to avoid any physical contact with him.
Quietly, I thanked him, and a small smile spread across his face before he turned to scramble back to our campsite. He had more grace carrying the huge, heavy cooler than I did normally, and I found that everything he did now turned me on. The way he walked, the way his shirts were always snug enough to see every hard muscle of his body underneath them, the way his eyes danced with amusement whenever he gave that sexy smirk—all of it just made me want him more now that I'd had a taste.
How the hell was I going to keep this a secret from our friends? Macey was Gossip Queen and knew how to weasel out the information she wanted—if she caught me even thinking about her cousin, there was no way I could hide or deny it. And Ryan had always been very perceptive and noticed every little detail about everything and everyone—just one glance at the wrong time and he'd know about Zach and I. Damn, we really screwed this up…
By the time we got back to the campsite, it was starting to get dark, so Jonas and Grant began building a fire while the rest of us prepared the food. We speared hotdogs and marshmallows on sticks and cut up some potatoes to grill over the fire once the boys got it started.
"Hey, we should play truth or dare," Grant suggested after everyone had finished eating.
"What are we, twelve?" Liz asked, unamused by the proposition. The girls all agreed, me especially. There's one thing I've learned about playing truth or dare with your best friends—never play it if you have a secret. Your friends know you better than anyone in the world, and they're not afraid to ask the hard questions or give you the embarrassing dares. Truth or dare was the last game I wanted to be playing at that moment.
"You're all lame," Grant pouted, absentmindedly throwing a rock into the fire.
"You know, it actually kinda sounds fun," Macey said, offering an excited smile.
"Yeah. When was the last time we played?" Declan asked, wrapping his arm around Macey. He had a habit of doing that whenever he spoke. It was almost as if he knew no one liked him so he had to remind us that we kept him around because he was with her. Either that, or he thought she'd protect him from us. Either way, it was kind of pathetic.
"When we were twelve," Liz told him with as much attitude as someone like Liz could muster.
Macey glared at her for a second, which again made me think of her as Declan's shield, before turning back to the group. "Well, I'm in!" she exclaimed excitedly. Declan immediately agreed, as usual.
"Yes!" Grant bellowed, pumping a fist into the air.
After that, everyone slowly broke down, one-by-one agreeing to play.
Except for Liz and me. We were the last to announce our participation, which was why Grant slithered up next to me and threw his arm over my shoulder. "Come on, Cammie. You know you want to," he said with a crafty smile.
I sighed, and with a roll of my eyes, I reluctantly agreed.
Since Liz was outnumbered, she had no choice but to cave as well. "Fine, I'll play," she sighed. "But only if I can go first. And guess who my lucky victim is." She shot a sly smile at Grant, who beamed eagerly in response.
"Do your worst, Lizzie," he challenged, knowing that her worst was probably mild at best.
"Truth or dare, Grant," she asked, leaning forward in her seat and narrowing her eyes at him.
"Dare."
"I dare you to…jump over the fire," she taunted him, matching his smirk with one of her own.
Without hesitation, he leapt over the hot flames, doing his best impression of a ballerina twirl in the air. The game continued as he dared Bex to make him a s'more and ordered the marshmallow to be a golden brown, threatening to throw her into the brook by the cars if she even slightly burned it. While holding the marshmallow over the flame, Bex then dared Hannah to give her a back massage since her back was tightening up from holding the stick in the exact position Grant demanded. After choosing truth, Hannah then asked Ryan who was his favorite girl in the group, to which he answered she was with a flirtatious wink sent her way.
It was Ryan's turn to pick someone, and he cut a quick glance off to the side. When I followed his gaze, I found Zach avoiding his friend's look and staring into the dancing flames of the fire, an orange glow casting shadows across his somber face. He lifted his eyes to meet mine, looking as guilty as a puppy that destroyed the house while the owners were gone. Suddenly, I got a sickening feeling that our secret wasn't so secret after all.
To my relief, Ryan picked Macey instead, and when she chose dare, gone was the suspicious side-glancing at Zach and in its place sat a wicked smile. "I dare you to give Declan a lap dance."
A collective burst of laughter came from the guys, and even Bex and Hannah couldn't resist a small giggle.
"Ew. Grow up, Matthews," Macey told him with a snarl.
"Okay, okay," Ryan quieted down, "I dare you to kiss Bex."
This time, without complaint, Macey did as she was dared and stalked over to Bex, planting a quick kiss to her cheek.
"You're no fun," Ryan told her as she sat back down in Declan's lap, and she stuck her tongue out at him in response.
"Okay," she said, looking around the circle and trying to decide who she wanted to pick. Almost immediately, she trained her gaze on her cousin with an amused smile. "Zach," she said, making her voice sickly sweet. "Truth or dare?"
He took a second to think, then decided on truth.
"Truth it is." She flashed me a crazy look which only made my heart pound, especially since her lips now resembled those of the Cheshire cat. "Do you think Cam is pretty?"
My breath caught in my throat. I swallowed hard, wondering what on earth he was going to say—not because I wanted to know his answer, but because I was pretty sure it was yes and telling our friends that was just begging for trouble.
He was openly glaring at Macey, and his voice was strained a bit when he answered. "Obviously, she's—"
"You know what happens when you pick truth and you lie, don't you?" Macey interrupted.
"No. What?" he asked, obviously annoyed with her.
"You get hit in the balls," Grant finished, throwing another rock into the fire.
"What?" Zach and I asked at the same time, causing Macey to laugh.
"That's bullshit," he demanded, and he definitely was not laughing.
"Try me, cous," she shot at him. Then she secretly winked at me, as if this was all for my entertainment.
When he hesitated, everyone turned to him with a curious face. By now, my heart was hammering so hard that I could feel it everywhere and the air was sucked out of my lungs.
He looked at me briefly, then back at Macey and sighed. Crossing his arms in front of his chest and causing his muscles to pop out of his sleeves, he answered, "Well, she isn't ugly."
Just as before, the group busted out laughing like it was the funniest joke they've ever heard. For the past three years, they absolutely reveled in the fact that Zach and I couldn't stand each other, and now they loved the fact that even if he hates me, he still thinks I'm not ugly. Neither of us were ever going to live this down.
Sometimes I hated my friends.
The guys began to make jokes at Zach's expense, and at one point, he even cracked a smile.
And for some reason, that kind of made me feel giddy.
We continued to play for a few hours, and it was the most fun we've had as a whole group in a long time. Some of my favorite plays were when Macey dared Jonas to close his eyes and eat whatever she gave him (which ended up being a spoonful of hotdog relish) and then he puked it back up, when I was dared to make up a rap about someone there (needless to say, I'm not getting a recording contract anytime soon with my rap about Liz), and when Ryan dared Bex to arm wrestle him and ended up having to wear just a towel for the rest of the night because he lost.
Eventually, everyone was feeling the effects of the day and decided to go to bed. I followed Hannah into our tent while the others filed into their own, shouting goodnights to one another.
Once we were both changed and in our sleeping bags, Hannah's whisper broke the silence. "Did you have fun, Cam?" she asked, turning over to face me.
"Mmm-hmm," I answered lazily, snuggling further into the warm of my sleeping bag and letting sleep drift over me.
"Good. I'm glad you came." Truth was, I almost didn't. If it wasn't for her and Macey practically dragging my butt here, I probably wouldn't have. But after tonight, I was happy I did. It wasn't as unbearable as I thought it was going to be, and I wasn't lying when I'd said that I'd had fun.
"Hey, Cam?" Hannah whispered into the darkness after a moment.
"What?" I mumbled.
She sat up in her sleeping bag and turned to me, and even though it was dark in our tent, I could still see the excitement in her eyes. "Wanna sneak into one of the boys' tents?"
I mentally rolled my eyes. Of course, that's what was on her mind right now. Hannah was the very definition of boy-crazy—she couldn't get enough of them. But I was actually slightly shocked that she was thinking about our friends in that way. Sneaking into their tents after going to bed? Obviously, she had a certain goal in mind, and one of our guys being her victim was…disturbing, to say the least.
"Hannah, it's late," I explained, my tired voice slurring the words together. "Everyone's going to bed. We should, too."
"Come on, it'd be fun!" she pleaded, grabbing my arm and giving me a light shake—something I did not enjoy in the slightest considering I was this close to falling asleep.
"You can go, but I'm tired," I told her, rolling over so that my back was to her. Hopefully, she got the message that this conversation was over.
"I can't go alone," she whined. "Please, Cammie?"
Hating myself, I groaned and rolled back over to face her again. "Whose tent are we going to?"
She didn't answer, but she didn't have to. The blush on her face was indication enough.
"Let me guess. Ryan's tent," I answered for her, already knowing it was true. She and Ryan have had a flirtmance ever since I met them back in middle school, but for some reason they always tried to pass it off as being really close friends. No one bought it, obviously, but we let them think we believed them, even when they would play footsie under the table at lunch or would spend every evening together after school. I should've known this would happen if I shared a tent with her.
Pushing my shoulder, Hannah scoffed, "Don't give me that look. Let's go before he falls asleep."
"Like we should be doing right now," I reminded her, which she ignored as she unzipped the tent's door and we quietly exited our room for the night.
Mimicking the same technique she used on our tent, she opened the door to Ryan's tent smoothly and without a noticeable disturbance, and I followed her inside.
And that's when I realized that Ryan's tent-mate was…of course...Zach.
Oh, boy.
::*::*::*::
{Zach}
Cammie was going to be the death of me.
First, she arrived in the shortest of shorts and a purple crop top that showed off just the right amount of skin to drive my imagination wild. I was embarrassingly close to walking up to her and taking her face in my hands as I kissed the hell out of her again just from looking at her. Then, she kept making flirty eyes at me while playing truth or dare, and at one point, she gave me the sweetest smile paired with the sexiest lip bite I've ever seen—which I wouldn't have complained about if Ryan hadn't been keeping tabs on the two of us all afternoon, as well.
And now, there she was, standing in the moonlight in the middle of my tent, dressed in her pajamas. Although her PJ's weren't as sexy as Hannah's booty shorts and tank top were, the way her flannel pants hung on her hips to reveal a sliver of skin and hugged her ass was enough to get my imagination going again. And I loved the way her hair fell over her bare shoulders in messy waves. Damn, she was beautiful, and she didn't even have a clue.
"Well, what did we do to deserve this lovely surprise?" Ryan asked, sitting up in his sleeping bag. A silly grin crossed his face as he took in Hannah's appearance. I was trying hard not to openly stare myself, but Cammie was just too damn tempting, I couldn't help but ogle her.
"We just wanted to visit our two favorite boys," Hannah replied flirtatiously, flipping her long, blonde hair over her shoulder as she wiggled herself closer to Ryan, inadvertently causing me to slide up next to Cammie. I was close enough that I could smell her vanilla body wash, which had me internally groaning.
"Oh, really?" Ryan asked, lifting his brow and glancing at Cammie. "Cam, Zach's one of your favorites?"
A small look of panic crossed her face. "Uh…"
I knew I had to say something. What would the old me—the me that claimed to have hated Cammie—do in this situation? The old Cammie would scoff or roll her eyes and then go on a tangent about how horrible of a person I was, but since she was forgetting that part of our relationship, I had to step in and save the day.
"Aw, Cam. I never knew you felt that way about me. I'm touched," I teased, smirking at her in the way I knew she hated.
Finally, she gained control of her senses and crossed her arms in front of her and rolled her eyes. "Please. You don't even make the top five," she told me with a sneer.
Damn, I must've been going crazy, because even when she's disgusted with me, I'm undeniably attracted to her.
Ryan and Hannah laughed, simply because our friends were the best around and enjoyed thinking that we couldn't stand each other.
I was already close to her, but I leaned in even more to where my body pressed against hers just slightly, and I whispered so Ryan and Hannah couldn't hear. "Because I'm number eight, right?" I asked, intentionally bringing it up to remind her of the day we kissed almost a week ago.
She looked up at me through her lashes, sending my hormones crazy at the sexy sight. I knew my plan had worked and she was thinking about our kiss because a slight blush formed on her cheeks and her gaze dropped to my lips for a second. Her eyes were screaming for me to kiss her—and fuck, did I want to—but Ryan and Hannah were sitting less than three feet away. So instead, I pulled back and put some space between us. Instantly, her eyes lost all desire and she looked at me as if asking what was wrong, but I ignored her. I couldn't explain myself with our friends so close to us.
She turned away, and I feared that somehow I had hurt her, but then her face scrunched up and she whispered to me, "Uh, I think we should leave," before pointing to Hannah's figure that was straddling Ryan's and shoving their tongues down each other's throats.
Without a word, we left immediately and sat ourselves down around the dwindling fire—her on a log that served as a bench and me in my camping chair on the opposite side of the fire pit.
"So…" she started, her voice trailing off. I couldn't tell if she was feeling uncomfortable because of our friends or because we were alone together, but she was definitely feeling awkward.
"So?" I asked back, dragging the word out longer than she had and raising my brows.
She cracked a smile before busting out laughing, and considering the ridiculousness of it all, I joined her.
"Can you believe that just happened?" she asked, her voice wavering from her laughter.
Actually, I could. Ryan and Hannah had always been a nonofficial thing, and everyone knew it. "Come on. You can't tell me you didn't see that coming. They're always together."
"I kind of did, but it still surprised me," she answered, starting a whole new round of laughter.
As much as I wanted to laugh, I couldn't. Her laughter had always been my favorite sound, but this time I was absolutely captivated by it, so I just sat and listened. As many times as I had heard her laugh and seen her smile, she had never done so because of me, and I found that I liked it so much more.
She caught me staring at her, and although her laughter died, she still had a faint smile on her lips. "What?" she asked, sounding slightly timid.
"What?"
"You're staring at me," she said, ending with a soft laugh.
"And?" I smirked. I knew I was making her uncomfortable by not giving her an explanation to my staring, but I wasn't about to tell her that I was admiring her—her beauty, her laugh, and how she makes me feel something no one else can.
"I wanna know why," she told me.
I shrugged. "I don't think I've ever heard you laugh like that before," I answered truthfully. "I like it."
Her smile slowly grew into a sweet grin, and then she did that thing where she bit her bottom lip all innocent like—which had my mind wandering in not so innocent directions. All I wanted at that moment was to take that bottom lip between my own teeth and see how far from innocent I could take her. I swallowed hard, hoping it was dark enough that she couldn't see how badly I wanted her, but I had a feeling she could simply feel it radiating off of me anyway.
"Yeah?" she asked, continuing with that innocent vibe she could so easily give off.
I smirked again, but it quickly evolved into a genuine smile. "Yeah."
She nodded her head, and then locked eyes with me. "This is good. We're not fighting," she said lightly, almost happily.
"Well, I'll be damned. The world must've ended," I teased, and surprisingly she laughed again. If this was what it meant to actually be friends with Cammie, then maybe we didn't make an enormous mistake. "I guess that kiss worked, huh?"
Her eyes went wide as she looked back towards the tents. "Shhh!" she panicked. "Zach, someone could hear you."
Moving over to the log she sat on, I scooted closer so that I could whisper but she could still hear me. "Funny," I started, my voice deeper and rich with need, "you didn't seem to care about getting caught last week."
Again, the cutest blush touched her cheeks and she looked away shyly.
And I fucking loved being the reason for it. "Cammie Morgan, are you blushing? Now I'm convinced. The world has definitely ended."
"Oh, no. That means I must be in hell," she said with a lighthearted eye roll.
"What makes you say that?" I asked, a smile stretching across my face. I hated that I was smiling like an idiot simply because we were having a normal conversation and not fighting. How wimpy could I be? This girl definitely made me crazy, but I was starting to think that maybe it was a good crazy.
She eyed me and gave me a playful smirk that could give mine a run for its money. "Because you're here," she answered, a twinkle lighting up her eyes as she spoke.
I laughed at how much spunk she had, never really realizing how much fun and witty Cammie truly was. Not that I had much of a chance to learn those things about her considering all we ever did was fight and argue. In fact, if I thought about it, I didn't know much about Cammie personally at all. I mean, I knew she was the closest to Liz in our group and that they'd been neighbors and best friends ever since they were little kids. I knew her favorite food was grilled cheese, but that was only because we've had lunch together every day for all of high school. I knew her dad wasn't around much because of work, but I didn't know how she felt about it or even if it bothered her at all, and I definitely didn't know about her relationship with her mom—did she have a normal loving mother-daughter-bond or a classic cliché evil stepmother type of relationship? Considering we had been a big part of each other's lives for three years, we really didn't know that much about each other. I mean, I didn't even know her middle name! It's weird to think about how we were practically strangers in a sense…
"Okay, maybe you're right," she giggled.
Oh, shit. What were we talking about? I raised my eyebrows in confusion, completely distracted by how disappointed I was in how little I knew about the girl who starred in most of my dreams and all of my fantasies.
"Maybe that kiss really did work," she clarified, no longer abashed. "I've never felt this comfortable around you."
"So, let's not stop."
Wait, what the hell? The words were out before I even knew what I was saying, and I was surprised at how much I truly meant them.
From the look on her face, she was just as shocked as I was. "What?" She looked at me like I was crazy, which now I was almost certain that I was because of this girl. "Are you saying that we should…keep kissing?"
I guess I was. And now that it was out there, it sounded like a really fucking good idea. I definitely wouldn't have minded. "You said it yourself—we're not fighting anymore," I reminded her.
"So, let's quit while we're ahead. If we continue…" she paused to shake her head dismissively. "Things would get extremely messy, Zach."
"How?" I asked, knowing she was just trying to find excuses. But I wasn't going to let her. We both wanted more of each other—I was just more upfront about it.
"Well, for instance, what about Aubree?"
Hearing Aubree's name come out of Cammie's mouth scared the hell out of me after what Ryan had told me. If Aubree's rumor spread farther than just her group of friends and Cammie heard about it, my chances with her were shit poor.
Cammie just sat there, waiting for me to answer, but I didn't know how to. I could tell that she was thinking through things in her mind by how she pursed her lips, which made me even more nervous.
"What have you heard?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.
Crossing her arms, she answered, "That you two got back together last weekend."
I held back a sigh of relief. I could easily recover if that was all she heard. After all, based on our history, it wouldn't surprise me if there was a betting pool around the school on when Aubree and I would get back together. But now that Cammie was in the picture, there was no way in hell I was going to take Aubree back. Sure, I had entertained the idea all week after talking with Ryan, but Cammie was who I really wanted—even if it was just kissing.
After the feeling of relief wore off, I took to my flirtatious ways and turned on my Goode charm. Smirking, I teased her, "What's the matter, Cam? Jealous?"
"Don't flatter yourself," she said with revolt. Her eyes tapered as she watched me carefully, still waiting for me to either deny or confirm her accusation.
I chuckled at how cute she looked when she pouted. "We're not together, Cammie," I assured her, and seeing her relief made my chest swell with pride. Damn, the things this girl did to me. I bit back a smile and asked, "But how would Aubree make this messy, anyway?"
She wanted to roll her eyes—I could tell—which almost made me smile, because it was classic Cammie.
"Because I'm not going to be kissing you while you're kissing her," she explained, obviously angry.
I leaned in close, even though we were already close enough for me to drown in her intoxicating vanilla smell once again. The tip of my nose was merely inches away from her cheek when I whispered, "But I'm not kissing her."
So when she turned to face me, not only were our noses a hairsbreadth away, but so were our lips, which was really pushing the limits of my self-control. Her eyes trained on my mouth, then she looked up at me through the curtain of dark lashes and her bright blue eyes darkened with desire.
Fuck me. How the fuck does she go from shy and innocent to sexy as hell? I've said it before and I'll say it again…
Cammie was going to be the death of me.
Right when I thought she was going to kiss me, she turned away. "Not right now, but what if you do eventually?" she asked, almost sounding sad. "What happens then?"
I moved back and took a deep breath, trying to clear my mind with air that wasn't doused with vanilla. "Then we stop," I told her, even though I knew if I had Cammie, I wasn't going to be kissing anyone else—especially not Aubree. She was always a second to Cammie, anyway.
"Just like that?" she asked.
"Why not?" I offered a shrug to compliment my carefree tone, but I was seriously starting to worry that she was talking herself out of it. "It doesn't have to get messy, Cam."
"So, you're suggesting we have a no-strings-attached kind of thing?" she asked, finally turning back to me. "Why?"
Because I want a reason to keep kissing you that doesn't reveal how much I actually like you. Yeah, right. Like that would work. I tried to tell her I cared about her once before and that completely backfired, leaving her thinking I was full of shit.
So, instead, I took the rational approach. "Same reason you suggested we kiss in the first place. To keep us from fighting," I explained.
"You're serious?" The look she gave me told me she had made up her mind, and it wasn't looking good for me. "Zach, that's insane! What if we got caught? What if Macey found out?"
She continued to come up with reasonable yet idiotic excuses as to why we shouldn't give it a try, but I was done listening to her deny what we both really wanted. Mid-sentence, I grabbed her and pulled her into me, shutting her up with a kiss.
Almost immediately, she kissed me back, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me against her, as well. With each kiss, she met mine with growing hunger. She even nipped my bottom lip a couple of times—each time harder than the previous when she found out it made me moan in a way she must've liked.
My hands slid down her body, appreciating every curve she had and reveling in her bare skin in random places before moving to her lower back. She arched up into me and a soft, satisfied sigh escaped her, boosting my confidence and making me want her even more.
But I gained some control and broke the kiss, just enough to speak before I took her mouth in mine again. "Admit it, Cam. This is a good idea," I smirked, flexing my fingers into her soft skin, just because I could.
She smiled against my lips. "Don't flatter yourself," she teased, kissing me all over again.
Wow, these past few weeks have been super busy! But that's still no excuse for taking as long as I did to get this thing written and posted for y'all. So, I apologize.
I read your suggestions for what books to read, and so now I'm reading Legend by Marie Lu, and so far it's really good. I recommend it to anyone looking for a new book.
Okay, guys let me know your thoughts on this chapter! I know it's long, but it was late anyway so they cancel out lol. I have to say, a lot of your comments make me laugh and I absolutely love reading them. AllyCarterFan, you are in a league of your own when it comes to awesome reviews! But I still love every new review I get on each chapter from EVERYONE because they're validation, and let's face it...who doesn't like to feel loved? Lol.
If you have ideas on what you'd like to see happen in this story, please don't be afraid to share! I'd love to hear them and I just might incorporate them into future chapters ;)
Thanks for reading and I hope you've enjoyed it enough to leave a review (: Stay awesome y'all!