Beautiful Soul - cash au -

One Step Closer

"I insist, I feel so bad. Just... wait here and I'll be right back," Cameron rushes off before Nash can say anything to him.

Cameron goes right to the milk aisle and gets 2 gallons of milk, 1 to replace the spilled milk and another to make up for wasting his time.

The guy he bumped into looks very young, the 2 kids with him obviously his siblings. He's never seen him before and he's curious because the guy seems to be around his age. He quickly checks out and approaches them again. He holds out the bags with the milk.

Nash's eyes widen. "We only had 1 milk..."

"Yeah I know... I just wanted to make up for the inconvenience," he tells him, still holding out his hand. Nash hesitates but then takes the bags from Cameron. 2 gallons of milk is a luxury, they will be able to stretch it out even longer.

"So what's your name?" Cameron asks curiously. He doesn't even know why he's so interested in this guy, he just is.

"N-Nash..." Nash replies quietly. Skylynn and Hayes are watching their interaction quietly, no one ever really talks to them.

"Did you just move here... or?" Cameron questions him and Nash bites his lip and shakes his head.

"I've lived here all of my life... I just graduated from high school here." Nash tells him, Cameron just confirmed that he was basically unaware of Nash's existence and for some reason that makes him a little sad.

"Really? Me too. I wonder why I never saw you around, not like this town's population is popping or anything," Cameron says, smiling at Nash. Nash shrugs and remains awkwardly silent.

"I guess... I should get what I came here for," Cameron says after a while. "I'll see you around?"

Nash nods at him and gives him a tight smile before grabbing Skylynn's hand. They walk off and Cameron watches them go before turning around and heading towards the aisle he needs.

"Do you know him? You didn't ask his name," Hayes comments as they get into his father's car. Nash took the keys without asking his father and he's hoping that when they get back he's still passed out. He was too tired to walk to the store like they usually do, but he doesn't want to get beat over it either.

"Yeah... he's Cameron Dallas," is all he replies as he drives them back to the trailer park.

"Dallas like the ranch you work for?" Hayes asks and Nash nods at him, his attention on the road.

He pulls into the trailer park and parks in front of their trailer. Hayes helps him carry the bags inside and it's quiet in their home. Nash lets out a sigh of relief as he realizes that his father hasn't woken up yet.

"Can we go to the park?" Hayes asks as he watches Nash put away their groceries.

"Yeah, I guess. But you have to finish your homework first," Nash says as he turns to Hayes. Hayes groans and takes his book out of his bookbag. Skylynn yelps in excitement, she loves going to the park.

Nash makes them bologna sandwiches to take to the park with them and he places it in a plastic bag. He helps Hayes with his homework and it's not long before the 3 of them are headed to the park, walking along the road. It's a 15 minute walk but Nash doesn't mind it, Hayes and Skylynn are skipping around excitedly and make Nash smile. It doesn't matter that he's sore from all the hard labor he did during the week, watching his younger siblings get excited for something as simple as going to the park is worth it.

They finally arrive and Nash lies down on the grass and watches as Hayes and Skylynn run to the swing set. His eyes start to get heavy and he drifts off to sleep to the sounds of happy laughter.

He is woken up abruptly by Skylynn who lays her head on his chest. He opens his eyes and smiles at her.

"Did you have fun, baby?" He asks her as he sits up. Hayes is sitting next to them, playing with the grass.

"Yeahh!" She exclaims happily. "We're hungry...."

He takes out the sandwiches and hands it to them, they immediately start to eat. He only made 2 to conserve food so he watches them eat.

"You're not going to eat?" Hayes asks with a full mouth.

"Nah, I'm not hungry..." he lies and takes out a water bottle for them to share.

"I have to work tomorrow so you guys will be staying with Mrs. Kaplan." He tells them.

He can tell they're excited, Hayes is looking forward to watching tv and Skylynn gets to draw and paint whenever she's at Mrs. Kaplan' trailer. The older woman keeps crayons and water color with drawing books for Skylynn. She especially loves drawing horses. She has a vague memory of mommy taking her to a farm and she got to ride horses. She misses mommy.

He lets them play for a little bit longer and then he gathers them up and they head back to their trailer. Nash has Cameron on his mind and he wonders if he'll see him tomorrow. For once he's actually excited to go to work, even though it still sucks. He doesn't want to get his hopes up, Cameron probably has nothing to do with farm hands and he'll most likely just stay in the house. But it is nice to fantasize.

They finally arrive home and their father is nowhere to be found, it's just as well because they don't have to deal with his drunken rages.

Nash sets Skylynn up to play with her horses on the kitchen table. They are very worn and have pieces missing but they can't afford to get new ones even though Nash wishes he could. He's putting aside a little money so that he can buy the kids something small for Christmas. They didn't get anything for their birthdays this year and even though they didn't really complain, Nash knows they were disappointed.

They have a quiet dinner of ramen noodles and are in bed a little early because they were tired from playing. Nash takes out his worn copy of The Hunger Games, he's read it over and over, it's the only book he still owns because he sold all of his other books to a used book store when things were getting rough.

Before he knows it his eyes drift shut and he falls asleep.