Finding Camden

Chapter Twelve

I stared at him blankly. I had felt pretty numb. Emotionless. Not because I didn't care, but because I don't know how I should feel. I didn't know who I hated more, Darrell or Camden. I shook my head and peered out the window. The cold glass felt good to me. Tears sprang into my eyes. Hot tears. The sloped down my cheeks. Why? Darrell knew the entire fucking time. Countless days of worry, sorrow, and pain. Just to find out that he knew. I looked over at him.

"Why? Why didn't you tell me? You think keeping this all a secret would help?" I said. The tears falling. One after another. They dropped from my cheeks and onto my pants.

"I-I. He...I don't know Shayla. He...Gosh, I don't know." His eyes were glassy too. He looked horrible. Covered in bruises already.

"Well yeah, I don't know either!" I rose my voice in anger.

"I'm sorry, Shayla! I don't know what else to tell you! I'm sorry that you had to go through all this fucking bullshit! Okay?!" He spat. I didn't blink.

"Well, sorry doesn't fix everything now does it?" I opened my passenger door and got out.

"Shayla!"

"Fuck you." I said without looking back. "Fuck you." I whispered. I wasn't sure where I was going, but I kept walking and walking. My tears got lost with the rain falling from the dark clouds above. I could hear Darrell yelling at me to come back. But I didn't stop. I didn't care. I just kept walking. One foot after another.

***

I was finally a block away from the apartments. The rain hald calmed down a little, but not much. I was still dripping wet.  I looked ahead and I could see a park. A few swings, benches, and a pond.  I walked over to the pond and sat down on the moistened dirt. When the rain fell, you could see the drops creating riples. Like a domino affect. I looked at them. When something occurs, there are many possibilities, issues, and affects afterward. Just like the ripples from on little drop.

I gathered a few rocks at my side and gathered them into a pile. I threw one at a time. I watched how the rock curved and then how it plummeted into the water. Making a plop as it dove into the water. After a while, I had a only a few rocks left.I threw them all at once. making a bigger splash into the pond. I looked at my reflection in the water. I didn't like what I saw so I looked away and backed up. I felt a tap on my shoulder. Without looking up I said, "Get away."

"Hey, it's me. The chick at the apartments." I looked and saw her sit down next to me.

"Oh, sorry. Thought you were someone else."

"I'm Lacey."  She stated and offered me her hand and I shook it.

"I'm Shayla."

"Yeah, I know."

"You know?" I questioned.

"Yeah, Camden told me about you. A bit actually." She said plainly.

"Apparently, he tells a lot a people about me. But it doesn't matter."

"Oh, I see. You guys are arguing." She nodded her head upward understandingly.

"Yeah. Kinda."

"Well come over to my place. It's actually dry there." She said offering a smile.

"Okay." I accepted her smile and returned one to her. We got up and I followed her to her apartment

***

When we got there it was defiantly dry. We went inside and talked for a little bit. She got me a glass of wine even though I'm clearly under age. After my third glass a felt a little tipsy. But all my pain washed away. I felt happy again. We were talking when a thin frale blonde hair blue eysed walked inside in his boxers. They were a sky blue with yellow ducks on them

"Laaaacey. Laceyyyy." He came to me and started hugging me.He seemed to be crying.

"I-I'm not Lacey." I said Lacey got up and pried him away from me.

"Tom. Tom. Tom! Your drunk!"

"Laceyyyyyy." She swatted him on the forehead and took him to the back of the apartment. In a few minutes she came back.

"What was that about?" I said laughing.

"That's Tom. He's always getting wasted. His girlfriend Michelle dumped him so he's gone whack ever since. I always have to calm him down."

"Ah, poor guy."  I stuck out my lower lip.

"Yeah. I feel used to feel sorry for him too until I always had to clean up his vomit."

"Oh, that's nasty." I said in total disgust.

"Yep." She said shaking her head.

"Well, I should probably go."

"Okay. Come over whenever!" She said as I walked out the door.

"I plan on it!"

I walked down the steps of her apartment. It was dark now. I walked over across the parking lot swaying back and forth. Just like Darrell did on the yellow lines. I sat down on the little yellow parking things. I pulled out my phone and plugged in my head phones  to listen to "Secrets" by One Republic.I sat there mellowing out and relaxing. I ran my fingers through my hair. I had no clue what to do. What say. Or even what to think.

"Hey." I heard someone say. A body plopped down next to me. I looked over to see that it was Camden. I didn't say anything back. "Listen, I think we need to talk." I searched the parking lot and noticed that my car wasn't here. I gathered that Darrell probably drove off.

"Yeah, I think so too." He helped me up and we went inside his apartment. He had a black leather couch, a small TV, and a coffee table in his living room. The little area smelled like him. The smell that I love. He gestured me to the couch and we sat down together.

"Listen, Shay. It's really complicated. I know I hurt you." He said sighing.

"And Grace. She's worried sick about you!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know."

"Don't you know all of the hell you've put us through? Grace, gosh Grace. Your family had lost it. Your dad became a mean drunk and beat Grace and your mom." I said. Tears forming in my eyes again. "Most people believe that you're gone for good."

"T-They think I'm....dead?" He stuttered.

"Yeah, they do."

"Oh. Geez."

"Cam. I've missed you." I said.

"I've missed you too." He pulled me into a warm embrace. He held me for forever. Then he pulled back and stared at me. He kissed me and kissed me. His warm skin against mine. I wrapped my legs around him and kissed him back. I was already tipsy, so I wasn't really aware of anything. Other than that he was touching me. But then someone walked in.

"Great, now your kissing her. Suck her face off why don't you." The door slammed shut with the breeze flowing in. I knew that voice. It was Darrell.

A/N

Hello. How are you. Yep yep. I think I see a love triangle in the near future. I can shmell it.