So this chapter is a little shorter than I had hoped it would be but I did write it in a car so I'm gonna let myself off the hook. I hope you do, too. I do want to give a little forewarning about the future of this story: the progression of Cammie and Zach's relationship will be GRADUAL. I would really like to work on my character development in this story. Do not expect them to start making out next chapter because Cammie is still very much "in love" with Josh. Besides, half the fun is the chase, right?

Have faith in the eventual...and inevitable.

Disclaimer: Ally Carter owns the wonderful characters. I just own copies of the books.

Chapter THREE

It had been three long days since Josh left. It felt like a part of me was missing, as if I were missing a limb and I was left with that nagging feeling of being slightly off balance. The summer stretched ahead of me as a big, long indescribable nothing.

In short, my mourning was starting to annoy a few people. My mother in particular.

"Cammie," she said with a little huff. "It is past noon and you are still in bed."

I buried my head under my pillow, futilely attempting to drown out my mom's no nonsense tone. "I'm tired."

"I'm sure you are. Sleeping all day is bound to overexert you."

I didn't miss the sarcasm. I pushed myself up on my elbows and looked at her. "Sleeping late is part of being a teenager."

She sat down on my bed and pushed some hair out of my face. "Not when that teenager is my daughter. You're usually pushing me out of bed."

I sighed and tried to find a way to explain what I was feeling to my mother without her thinking I was incompetent without Josh. She already thought I spent too much time with him as it was. "I'm just...getting all the missing him out of my system now."

She looked at me unconvinced. "That's not how missing someone works."

"Well, it should be."

She smiled a little and gave me a comforting pat on the back. "Okay then," she said, "but you really need to get up. You work tonight and frankly, you stink."

I frowned and looked down at myself. Truthfully, my hygiene had been a little subpar the past couple days but did I really stink? I grabbed a lock of my hair and took a whiff of it.

Okay, I smelled a little.

I pushed off my sheets and headed to the bathroom to shower. Even if I didn't look good I figured I might as well try to look the part.

When I strolled through the diner doors four hours later for my shift I was washed, brushed, preened, and looking allover put together. I greeted my boss, Patricia, and headed to the back room to grab my waiter's apron. It was in there that I ran into Tina, my fellow waitress. She was a nice girl who always made work interesting and I often enjoyed her company, but she also had a tendency of being a gossip - and a nosy one at that.

Today was no different.

"Hey, Cam," she said tying her apron behind her back, "did you hear that Eva got grounded for sneaking out last night? Her parents are so intense. They even took her phone away!"

"Really." I watched the clock, waiting for it to be time for me to clock in. I really wasn't in the mood to mull over other people's problems when I was going through my own right now.

"Yeah, and apparently she was sneaking out to meet up with this boy she met at the bonfire last Friday - which you missed by the way." She gave me a stern look and then tilted her head. "What was his name again? Jack maybe? Or Max..."

Five fifteen on the dot. I grabbed my punch sheet and clocked in. Tina followed suit still trying to remember mystery boy's name. "I can't believe I'm blanking! I never forget a name."

"Maybe he wasn't very impressive."

Tina shook her head as we headed out of the back room. "From what Courtney told me, he's a total hunk."

"Whose a total hunk?" Patricia asked. She was standing behind the counter with a glass of soda in each hand.

Tina sighed as though someone had died. "I don't know."

"Well, isn't that just horrific!" Patricia chuckled and slipped passed the two of us. "Family of four just sat down in your section, Tina. Cameron, handle the party room tonight."

Tina and I nodded and split up. A few of the party guests had arrived already so I took their drink orders and brought them a plate of our gooey breadsticks - which was about as fancy as we got at Buckingham's Diner and Eatery (which we all affectionately referred to as Bucky's). I had worked here since I was sixteen, newly licensed and had discovered that Mom was perfectly fine with me having my own car as long as I could afford the car. That meant paying for its gas, oil changes, routine check-ups (which were such a rip-off!) and all the other miscellaneous expenses that my dad's old Subaru demanded. I was ever thankful to Patricia for giving me the job when she didn't need the extra employee and I had always done my best to show my gratitude.

Even if that meant handling the party room. Bucky's was the town's birthday party destination for the three through ten year olds. I don't know when it got that stigma but it didn't show any signs of fading. Almost every night I came home from work, I had no more patience and another ruined shirt, whether it be from spilled soda or even the contents of some poor child's stomach.

At least the parents tipped well.

Tonight was Willy Sanders's eighth birthday party. His dad, Steve Sanders was the vice principal of Roseville High and a good friend of my mom's. I made some chit chat with him and his wife, Sandra, as we waited for his son's guests to arrive. He asked how my summer was going so far, and I said it was fine. I asked what his plans were this summer and he said they were going camping for the fourth of July.

"I ran into Joan Abrams at the grocery yesterday. She said Josh left for his trip already."

My smile fell a little as I nodded.

"That's got to be hard, him being so far away." He said. "Has he called?"

"Oh, yes. We've talked almost every night that he's been gone so far."

He nodded with me. "That's excellent. Excellent. I remember when I was your age, long distance relationships were so much more difficult. Now you've got the cell and computer and skype and all those other funky gadgets."

"Yeah, it's like he's not even gone." If only.

Mitch Connors and his mom arrived then with Tony Alvarez. As I took their drink orders, I kept thinking about what Tina had been saying about Tony's older sister, Eva who I went to school with. She had always been a bit rebellious, breaking house rules and school codes alike.

For the first time, I wondered what it would be like to be single like Eva, sneaking out to hang out with boys I'd just met. Having spent the majority of my teen years dating Josh, I had to admit that I might not fully understand the concept of being a single lady anymore. I shook my head. I had Josh. There was no need and no desire for me to sneak out to see some random guy when I could just meet up with him, the guy.

For the rest of the night, I kept the conversation strictly oriented around the customers. There were no more mentions of Josh.

~.~.~.~

"So what happened at work tonight?"

His voice was soothing and listening to it made me smile brighter than I had all day. Josh had that effect on people. "No more hectic than usual. Willy's little brother Sonny started crying half way through the gift opening when he realized he wasn't getting any presents."

"Ah, the beauty of being three."

I giggled and rolled onto my back. "How's it going being a hero?"

"I wouldn't say I'm a hero. Right now they've still got us getting oriented with everything and everyone we'll be working with. It's great. We do all these trust exercises and games to get to know each other."

"Trust exercises? Do you fall back onto each other or something?"

"Something like that."

"I'm glad you're having fun." I said. I just wish you could have that fun here...

"Yeah," he said. In the background I heard someone call his name. It sounded like a girl. "Oh, hey, I've got to go."

"I understand. Trust exercises and getting to know people and everything."

I could practically hear him smile through the phone. "I love you, Cam."

I closed my eyes. "Love you, too." I whispered and then he was gone.

And I was left with nothing but a phone and a half broken heart. I didn't have it in me to even try to mask the pain, so I just let the phone fall to the floor and covered my face in my hands. Before long I was sobbing, partly from the sadness and partly from the fact that I could no longer catch my breath and I was freaking out.

"Cammie?" My mom was knocking on my closed door. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

When I didn't respond, she came in and saw me. Without a word she crawled onto the bed next to me and hugged me to her. That night, I fell asleep in my mom's arms as she combed her hand through my hair and whispered over and over again that it was okay, things would get better soon. She didn't understand that I couldn't wait for soon. I needed better to be here now.

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