Millie

Chapter Sixteen- Three amigos reunited

The day my camp ended at the end of summer, Cameron came via bus and met me to travel home with. We would be picking Olympia up en route and bringing her home with us.

His large broad smile as he rounded the corner made me feel so warm inside like I had seen home itself. Cameron had been my best friend since we were small, and he would always make me feel that way. I loved him like a brother but I needed him like a soul mate.

I jumped down from my orange jeeps hood and collided with him halfway across the car lot.

"You got muscly" he observed as I leant back and he admired the muscle tone between my short cut tank top and shorts.

"It's been intense" i let him know as I released him and we walked back to the jeep.

"You look different" he said with a warm smile, throwing his bag into the back seat. "Better"

"Thanks" I say sarcastically as I jumped into the drivers seat and started the engine.

He got in beside me and shut the door, putting on his belt. "In a good way" he corrected. "You look fresh, and the smile just now... it actually met your eyes bird. It hasn't met your eyes since Mills"

"Well... you will be happy to know that I have finally text her" I reveal.

I pull out onto the road and we take off back up the coast towards Olympias camp, a couple hours from Portland.

"Good" he replied "I know that took a lot... I'm proud of you" he said, beginning to dig around in his backpack that was on his lap.

"Thanks" I reply. I find myself looking from him to the road and back again, curiously, as the thing he had been looking for was found, and he placed something that looked like a pen into his mouth.

A vile smell of sweet strawberries filled the air. My nose wrinkled up with the smell, it was cotton candy sweet and my brain was not computing where it was coming from.

"What is that" I asked trying to focus on the road ahead.

Cam let it sit on his lips, before smoke came out of his nose and blew back with the wind out of the car window.

"Is that a vape" I asked with surprise. Cameron had never smoked in his life.

He nodded but seemed completely chill like this was normal for him. I reached across the console, grabbed the black pen looking thing and tucked it down the side of me out of his reach.

"Hey, give that back" he argued.

"No" I declined. I pulled into the next gas station, exited the car and threw it in the garbage.

Cam looked on unamused. "I can just buy a new one"

I started the car and took off again onto the highway. "Over my dead body are you getting addicted to that lung destroyer ... how the hell have you got into smoking. I've only been gone a summer"

I was so mad. Cam had been into Health and fitness his entire life, and it was a rare day a cheeseburger passed his lips let alone a drug or a cigarette .

"It's not as bad as smoking cigarettes" he defended.

"Like fuck it isn't..." I argue. "Why are you smoking... who do we even know who smokes" I ask, trying to figure out how this even came up with him.

"Camilla smokes a vape" he informs me.

I let out a laugh that was actually more of an "aha" moment. "This is why girlfriends need the friends approval" I remind him "she's a bad influence"