Hell on the Heart

Down in your car, out by the pier
You laid me down, whispered in my ear
'I hate my life, hold on to me'
Ah, if you ever decide to leave
Then I'll go, I'll go, I'll go

-Kenny Chesney

Part IV

The next morning Cammie returned to the diner.

When her phone buzzed, she answered it immediately.

"Hello," she said robotic voice. "Will you accept the charges of the Virginia state prison from," Calvin's voice was muffled in the back ground as he talked to someone else.

"Yes," Cammie replied; as she always did. "Cal?" she called into the phone.

"Hey lil sis."

"Hi," she said. "How are you?"

"Same old."

She smiled, and played with the photo she had found last night. "Have you spoken with dad?"

"The emotionless bastard?" Calvin complied. "Yeah, I spoke to him."

"So you know you're getting out soon?"

"Yes girly, I know that."

Calvin had called her 'girly' her whole life. It started when they were children because, as a child she was a girly-girl. And he just never stopped.

"Are you excited?"

"Fuck yes. I've been in jail for four and a half years."

"And you aren't taking anything . . . right?"

"Clean and sober for three years," Calvin said, his voice prideful.

"Good. And you feel okay, you know, mentally?"

He breathed out. "Yes girly I'm fine."

"I just don't want it to happen again."

"It won't."

"Cal."

"Cam."

"I'm being serious."

"I'll stay off the drugs," he said. "I swear."

"And you'll tell me if you ever feel like taking them again?"

He laughed a little bit. "Yes. Don't get your panties in a twist."

"If I don't take care of you; no one will."

"I know girly. And I love you for it."

"I love you too."

And at that moment, a boy caught her eyes across the room. Not just any boy; Zach Goode.

He was staring straight at her, a smirk twisted on his lips.

"I have to go," Cammie muttered into the phone, not taking her eyes off of him.

"Sure, bye. Talk to you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, bye."

She hung up, and looked at Zach. Who was getting out of his seat and heading towards her. She took the picture that lay on the table and shoved it in her lap before he reached her.

"And what might you be doing here?" he asked, sliding into the booth across from her.

"Eating," she muttered.

"Really?" he asked, and looked around. "It doesn't seem like you've ordered."

"I was on the phone."

"You are quite the mystery Cammie Morgan."

She rolled her eyes. "What do you want?"

"I just thought that you and I needed to have a little chat," he said, his eyes blazing with fake innocence.

"So you followed me here?" she asked.

He laughed and shook his head, his chestnut hair falling into his eyes. "Don't flatter yourself. Running into you here was a complete coincidence."

"What did you want to talk about?"

"You're brother."

"I don't have a brother," she replied.

"I'm not going to tell Tay," Zach said. "If that's what you're worried about."

"I don't have a brother," she repeated. That was her story, and she was sticking to it.

"Really?" he asked. "Then why do you have a picture of Ashton and me sitting in your lap?"

Her heart almost stopped at the direct confrontation.

"I . . . How did you know. . .?"

"I passed by your table on the way in while you were on the phone. You didn't see me."

"Oh," she muttered, then ran a hair through her dirty blonde hair. "Fine I have a brother."

"Two— if I'm not mistaken."

"Yes, I have two. What tipped you off?"

"It could be the fact that you look exactly like Ashton, only in girl form. But it was probably when I went backpacking in Europe with him and he told me he had a little brother and a little sister, named Cammie."

"That will do it," she muttered. "Okay so I have a brother. What now?"

"Why doesn't Taylor know this?" Zach asked. "Why are you hiding it from him?"

She glared at him. "Why doesn't Taylor know you joined the military?" she shot back.

Zach face paled a bit and he looked at her, and she could see anger growing in his eyes.

"How did you know that?"

"Ashton told us he went backpacking in Europe," she said. "I believed him until I got a letter in the mail from the US army."

"He told me you didn't know."

Cammie placed the picture back on the table. Zach and Ashton were smiling at the camera, both of them about seventeen. It was a headshot so you couldn't tell much. But it looked like they were in some sort of torn up city. Ashton had told her it was a village in Italy.

The picture had been taken in Iraq.

"He doesn't know I do. I'm sure my father knows however, I doubt that kind of thing is easy to hide."

Zach nodded his head. "You know how to play dirty don't you?"

"I'll keep your secret if you keep mine."

"Last I heard Ashton was heading home," Zach said, changing the subject.

She nodded. "He is."

"That means daddy told him it was time to come home."

"What do you mean?"

"You're dad sent him into the army," Zach replied, knowing she didn't know this. "Right after you're mother died."

"I . . ." Cammie looked back at the photo. Ashton must have been nineteen or twenty, two years after their mother had died. "Why?"

Zach shrugged. "That part Ashton didn't care to tell."

"I mean out of him and Calvin, Cal should have been the —"

"I don't think it was an attitude the problem so much as a hubris problem."

She looked at him.

"Ashton had too much pride to stick around and watch his family fall apart. I'm think your father sent him away so he wouldn't become like. . ."

Cammie raised an eyebrow, guessing the name that would come off of his tongue but didn't say anything.

"Himself."

Her eyebrows shot up in surprised. "Wait, what do you mean?"

Zach shrugged, and gave her a lazy grin. "Seems to me you've got a lot of family history to catch up on."

"Zach—"

He met her eyes.

"—why didn't you tell Taylor you were in the military?"

He shook his head lightly. "It's not any of your concern."

"It's because you don't think he would approve isn't it?" she wondered if he had the same problem as she did.

He gave her a smile, a genuine smile, even if it was a little sad. "Something like that."

"That's why I didn't tell him," she admitted. "I love Tay, really I do," she was sure she meant it. "But he's the most judgmental person I know."

"So why not move on?" Zach asked. There was something in his eyes that made her heart beat a little faster and her breath come a bit quicker.

She gave him a soft smile, ignoring the fact that she suddenly felt nervous. "I love Taylor," she said.

"That's all there is to it?"

She shook her head at him. "You've never been in love have you?"

Zach gave her a humorless smile. "I thought I was."

She looked surprised. She hadn't expected him to be that kind of guy. "What does that mean?"

"It means; you don't know what love is Cammie, and neither do I," he looked her straight in the eye. "But I'm fairly certain you don't lie to the ones you love."

"I don't lie to him."

Zach rolled his eyes. "Because you didn't tell him early you didn't have a brother."

She frowned. "That's my business."

He shrugged. "Just giving you some life advice. You shouldn't be with someone who doesn't know everything about you."

"Why do I get the feeling you don't like Taylor and I as a couple?" she asked, her gut tell her exactly that.

He smirked at her. "Maybe I don't."

"He's your best friend."

Zach gave her an I-know-something-you-don't-know smile. "You're point?"

"He's your best friend."

He grinned at her, mischievously. "Let's just say he has something I want," he said, never taking her eyes off of her. "Best friend or not."

She stared at him, incredulous. Was he saying what she thought he was saying?

"There's something wrong with you," she snapped.

His grin didn't waver, and he stood to get up.

"This coming from the girl who had a brother in jail, and a lying father, all of which she doesn't disclose to her boyfriend of what? Three years?"

She glowered at him. "You are an asshole."

He kept his mischievous grin on. "I never said I wasn't."

AN: Yeah: Zach's kind of an asshole. :P oh well. He gets better I promise.

So family drama comes into play. Cammie's father and Ashton.
And If yall have questions please review and ask if your confused about anything ;)

REVEIW?

Shoutouts:
: Um... I'm kind of madly in love with Country music :D I deicded at the beginning I was going to use only country songs for this story :P Sorry to everyone else that doesn't like country cause I sure as hell love it.

girltalk138: Yup. Zach knows way more... as you have just read :)

lax it like u field it:Thanks ;) but i just meant the plot thickens :)

Zammie17: Thank you so much! And No Taylor doesn't want them together as a couple, he just thinks they're alike personality. He would never even think about his sweet girlfriend maybe cheating on him.