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Right then, a memory of Cameron during those days surfaces.
I was able to watch him for hours while he wandered the grounds, bored and probably looking for a moderate amount of trouble. He found it in the stone cottage with Julian, George, and Thom, who were smoking weed inside. It was brutally cold, but I followed them all the way without anyone seeing me. And when he went inside, I almost froze waiting for him.
The boys inside were messing with him, making harmless comments, making fun of Cameron’s marks in school. He was so highly regarded by our teachers that some were jealous of his academic talent. So many of them were actual idiots, like George and Thom, who were only there because their parents worked for the school. But Cameron took it all in stride. He let George and Thom talk shit, and he just laughed it off. I lost track of their conversation, getting distracted by the cold, but I knew Cameron was smoking when he started coughing. I didn’t like it, but I wasn’t his dad, so what was I going to do?
At one point Thom said something in his thick Scottish voice that confused me because it was so out of context: “You’re no real man, Rhodes. Look at ye. Cannae even grow proper body hair.”
I couldn’t figure out what it meant, but Cameron’s silence bothered me. I stepped into the cottage, letting my large frame fill the entrance.
“What’s this, then?” I asked, looking around. Thom, who had the hem of Cameron’s jacket lifted, dropped it quick.
“Luc!” he greeted me excitedly.
I gestured to the weed, feigning interest in smoking. But my real concern was Cameron, who wiggled away from Thom and stalked out the door. I wanted to run after him, but I had to keep up the ruse about the weed. I ended up smoking some, just to cover myself, but I kept my eyes on Thom. It was the first time I sensed something different about him.
I shake off the memory when the food arrives. We eat in comfortable silence for a few minutes.
Then Cameron looks up at me, waiting to eat, like he wants to ask me something important first.
“What happened with Claire?”
I pause, my burger halfway to my mouth.
“She broke up with me.”
“Why?”
“She said I wasn’t interested in her.”
“Were you?”
I set my burger down and look him in the eye. “No. I wasn’t. I told you. You’re all I think about.”
He blushes and looks down at his plate.
There’s a long silence.
“What about Liam?” I ask.
He looks up, confused. “What about Liam?”
“Is that just friendship?”
He scoffs. “Of course it is. Liam’s one of my best friends.”
“Are you going to tell him?”
“Tell him what?”
“About us.”
I say it like it’s a fact. Because it is.
Cameron doesn’t know what to say.
I lean forward, my eyes locked on his. “Because there is an ‘us,’ Cam.”
He’s quiet, and I start to worry that I’ve pushed too hard, too fast.
