I'll See You When I Fall Asleep

Chapter 26

"Remember when you told me that girls would fall for you just because you speak French?"

Virgo nodded.

"I guess I understand why." The light blush tinged Cammie's cheeks once more and she glanced away, back to the sunset, abashed.

"Ah, ouais?"

"It's kind of," Cammie cleared her throat. "Attractive." The confession was coupled with an eye-roll, as if to suggest that this was all so beneath her.

"Oh t'aimes mon accent maintenant? Ensuite, je dois seulement tu parler en français et tu alles tomber amoureuse de moi."

Cammie laughed and shook her head. "I hate you."

"Sûre. Je ne te crois pas."

The response was met with a blank stare from Cammie, her eyebrows raised high on her forehead, as if to say "are you kidding?"

"You need to learn French faster. if you want to know what I say."

"Nique ta mère."

The girls split into a fit of laughter.

"I regret teaching you to say that," Virgo said between breaths.

"It's the only thing I remember."

"Of course it is."

This was a defining moment in Cammie's life: a moment that would forever alter the predicted trajectory of her life. Before she had plans, blueprints, and the means to produce the product imagined in her mind. Suddenly, as the sun made it's final decent and dipped below the horizon, covering the word in shadows, Cammie understood that Change wasn't this ugly demon that reared its head to throw her life off the tracks; Change wasn't this force who's only job was to breathe anxiety into her chest; Change wasn't this beast bent on sabotaging her life. As Cammie glanced to the woman sitting beside her, the woman who she was destined to be with, her Soulmate, she understood that to embrace change was to embrace possibilites for a better life. Change had always held an air of fear about it, her parents drilling into her head that if it couldn't be planned on a spreadsheet, that it wasn't worth pursuing. But tonight, Cammie learned that the unexpected, especially love, was something you couldn't plan for, couldn't bend to your will. She had tried that with Adam and the entire thing blew up in her face. When she finally gave in, finally let her guard down and allowed Virgo to step in close, she found true peace within for the first time since she was a small child.

Virgo offered a smile filled with nothing but complete adolation.

I'm home, Cammie thought.

The tumblers in the lock groaned against one another. The apartment door swung open and the girls shuffled inside.

"C'mon, my room's down this way."

Virgo followed in line behind Cammie down the narrow hall to the room. Before they stepped through the threshold, a surge of anticipation filled Virgo; she had never seen Cammie's room, never seen this aspect of her world and for a brief moment, wondered what the inside would contain, wondered what it would reveal about her Soulmate.

The light flicked on and the room came to life. The small space was sparsly decorated with a bed shoved against the corner, a dresser on the opposite wall, and a desk and bookshelf between the two, facing the window. There wasn't so much as a spec of dust out of place, everthing was exactly where it was supposed to be. A small smile touched Virgo's lips, not knowing why she should have expected anything else.

What Cammie lacked in furniture she made up for with wall fixtures. Virgo's eyes were drawn to the colorful walls decorated with a variety art: photography, paintings, and posters. Most of the paintings and larger photographs were scenaries, pictures of nature. There were beautiful, faraway places. One painting in particular depicted train tracks slicing the imagine in half: the ocean on the bottom, green pastures on the top. The smile tugging at Virgo's lips grew wider.