Searching for Light

Chapter Five: Soft and Fragile

Cam's POV.

I realized I had dozed off and sat up on my bed, rubbing my eyes and yawning. It was 2:00 in the morning, but I had to get some writing done. I shivered in the cool temperature and stood, walked to my window, and pulled close the separate glass windows. I heard my phone buzz and I grabbed it from my bed.

"Hello?" I yawned again.

"He accepted!" Torrey screeched into my ear.

"What? Who? What?"

"Jason Dunhamm is coming to Iowa to record with you! He emailed me back and said he'd be glad to, but his schedule is tight so he's going to need to fit the date into his calendar."

"Oh, of course." My heart skipped a beat. "This is great! Thank you, Torrey."

"That's what I'm here for! Now get some rest. He's hitting the studio in 48 hours and I won't have you sleeping on the couch the whole time."

I laughed. "Thanks." As soon as I hung up I shut off my laptop and slid it under my bed. I shut off the light and climbed under my heavy blankets. As soon as my eyes closed and the room went silent, my thoughts returned to J.J. It was so comforting lying with him silently that one night. He had always been so kind to me, and I never really considered how painful it must have been for him to act emotionless while I saw him as a friend and nothing more. I remembered smiling as I started to doze off on his arm, the warmth of his presence making my whole body relax. I wished he was here now, but we couldn't be together around Harmony. I didn't want her to find out that J.J. was the one I was seeing. Well, at least not yet. I wasn't ready to put another relationship on the line. As much as I cared about J.J., Harmony was family. Despite what J.J. wanted, I needed to do what's best for our relationship, which at the moment seemed to be slowly bringing it up so she didn't flip out.

I pictured J.J.'s concerned expression when I told him I hadn't told my sister about us. I tried to force away all of the stress and anxiety I had about everything, and dozed off with the thought of J.J.'s gentle presence beside me.

I pulled my ponytail and looked down at my black T-shirt, black leggings, and black boots. I hoped I wouldn't come across goth or depressed to Jason, but I didn't feel like wearing pink or anything. I knocked once more on the black door and it swung open, with Torrey standing in the doorway.

"Good evening, miss Vossler." She greeted me with a smile and motioned me into the studio room. "Sorry I had you wait, I was hiding a little surprise."

I frowned. "What kind of surprise?"

"See for yourself," she said giddily, opening the door to the studio. I looked inside to see two giant, silver balloons hovering in the room, shaped like the number 21. There were flowers set in vases all around the floor along with colorful confetti.

"Happy birthday, Cam!" she laughed, tossing a handful of confetti on my head. "Your birthday is the real reason Jason wanted to come. He knows how special they are, and his twenty-first birthday was the day he dropped his first hit single."

"Hit?" I raised my eyebrows. "As in a famous song?"

"You bet. It's called Loving On My Own. It came out three years ago, though, so it's not too big of a thing anymore."

I was so shocked that a real celebrity figure was willing to sing with me just for the pleasure of my birthday. I didn't even get a happy birthday from my sister that morning. Hell, I forgot I even had a birthday today.

"Speak of the devil," Torrey laughed as Jason Dunhamm entered the room. He had light cocoa skin with short, dark hair and full eyes like Ethan, one of my closest friends. He had a young but mature face, handsome but slightly childish-looking. "Welcome, Jason."