The argument between Ally and Cameron was unyielding of any result. Accusations were thrown from both sides neither of them willing to admit nor back down. She was sunk in gloom the entire weekend regretting saying anything to him. Although, she did care for him deeply it wasn't the right way of telling him. She hadn't heard from him the following days and she too didn't try to reach him to lay out her thoughts in the open.
On Sunday morning she had woken up feeling lethargic and gloomy like she had been for the past days. Her mother was busy in the kitchen hustling pans while listening to the radio. Ally poured out cereal and milk into a bowl and was lost in her trail of thoughts. A peppy song was playing on the radio which didn't catch her attention.
"I'm going to get some groceries today. Do you want anything?" Her mother's voice paused her thoughts.
"Um... We're out of Oreos." She named a lot of unhealthy snacks which had earned some incoherent words from her mother.
The music playing in the background stopped and a radio jockey’s voice grabbed her attention. "You're listening 93.7 KRQ FM with Andy. And today we have two special guests with us in the studio. Mr. John Miller and Mrs. Katie Miller of Miller Advertising Group, Welcome to our show."
Ally's eyes widened in surprise and she nearly choked on her cereal. She focused her attention on the voice drawling out of the old radio. It was definitely Cameron's parents.
"Ladies and gentlemen these two people have recently donated $50,000 to Tucson Academy." The jockey paused. "Sir, this is such a noble effort and I congratulate you for being a responsible organization."
"Thank you. I think it is necessary to raise the quality of education provided in our schools. After all children are our future." She listened carefully to the radio as it disclosed every achievement of Cameron's parents. She remembered he had mentioned a long time ago that his father owned an ad agency and his mother worked as a creative director. But he had never mentioned their agency was present in every major city in Arizona.
"They're doing such a great job. We need more people like that in our country." Her mother commented.
She urged to tell the truth. "Mom, they are my friend's parents." She said with pride.
"Oh really? Who?"
"Cameron Miller. The guy who I catch a ride with sometimes?"
Her mother thought for a while before her eyes shone in recognition. "Yes, I remember him. I didn't know that boy had such rich parents."
"See, I'm in a good company." Ally joked nervously. A part of her wanted her mother to approve of Cameron but the other part questioned why she even cared.
Her mom was hesitant initially but she gave a closed up smile nevertheless. She exited the kitchen to do errands. Suddenly the song break came to an end and again the energetic voice of the jockey was heard. "Welcome back, folks. Today we have the whole Miller family here in our studio. Mr. and Mrs. Miller and their eldest son Cameron Miller."
Ally looked at the radio utterly astonished. The jockey asked a few basic question about Cameron's life to which he responded smoothly. He was also asked to describe his parents. Being the loyal son he never spoke anything which could spoil the image of his parents.
"So I heard from a little bird that you have been offered a scholarship by UCLA and Berkeley?" Hearing the jockey's enthusiastic question was a thunderclap to her ears as she was clueless about any scholarships being offered to him.
Even though he chuckled, the microphone couldn't hide the strain in his voice. "Yeah. It's crazy."
"Have you thought which one you would like to go?"
Before he could reply his mother interrupted. "I suggested he should go for UCLA. He would be closer to home."
"But it isn't final yet. I'm going for a campus visit this weekend." He tried to redeem himself.
Fortunately the rest of the interview didn't bring anymore surprises. She turned off the radio after the interview was over and thought about texting Cameron. It was disappointing to hear such a huge announcement on national radio rather than from his mouth. She wondered whether anyone from her group of friends knew about the scholarship. Probably not.
She had applied to University of California Berkeley along with some other popular west coast universities. She hoped to get a scholarship based on her academics but she wasn't sure if that was enough. It was humorous how Cameron didn't even need any financial help to study in college but was showered by scholarships while she actually needed help which seemed a farfetched idea currently. It was just unfair but still she was happy for him. He deserved to be recognized for his outstanding performance in sports.
Monday rolled out and Ally found herself in a dilemma. She was debating the idea of congratulating Cameron. In the back of her mind she knew he didn't want to rave about the scholarships or he would have told about it himself. She thought of asking about it to her friends during lunch when he wasn't around.
"Hey guys… Do you know Miller was offered a scholarship by UCLA and Berkeley?"
"Yeah. He told about that." Haley said looking up from her soda. She eyed Ally with the why-didn't-you-know look.
"You guys knew? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I thought everyone knew." Becky shrugged. Somehow Ally felt lame for asking that question. It was evident she was the only one clueless about this new information.
"Well… Apparently everyone except me."
"Something's wrong between you two? You don't talk to him much nowadays." Haley couldn't guess the useless number of times she had tried talking to him.
"Yep. Did you have fight with him?" Becky joined in.
"I don't know…" Ally said after watching Cameron walk towards their lunch table with that girl beside him. But before he reached, Luke and Ryan occupied the seats and he had to drag two extra chairs. As soon as the girl settled in between Becky and Cameron, the others on the table joined Ally and stared confusingly at the new person. Cameron flashed a wide smile and looked at the girl beside him.
"Everybody this is Emily. Emily, this is everybody." He introduced. Everybody went back to normal except Ally. She was perplexed by her own behavior. She could neither understand what she was feeling nor why was she feeling it.
"I saw you the other day at Cameron's house." Emily pointed towards her.
"Yeah, I'm Callum's tutor."
"Oh that's nice." She showed off her perfectly white teeth. Ally noticed the modest yet stylish way she dressed; her manners too were complementary to her dress. She was definitely radiating the vibe of a girl whom any parent would love to meet.
The lunch time grudgingly passed as people on her table tried to make a small talk with the latest member of the group. The awkwardness and tension was thick but a silly joke every now and then was able to loosen it.
Ally was strangely quiet being lost in her thoughts. She was still pondering the type of relationship that existed between Emily and Cameron. And she knew she wasn't the only one thinking about that when the bell rang and the couple left causing a hustle in the group.
"So this is his new girlfriend?" Haley asked to no one in particular as they trotted in the hallway.
"Honestly, I don't know. He didn't tell me anything. My knowledge about this matter is the same as you all."
"Me too." Ryan agreed with Luke's statement. All five friends walked with the same thing in their mind. Suddenly Becky stopped to realize something they had all been forgetting.
“We should be happy for him, right?” Her statement was agreed upon by all of them.
“But what if she’s a bad person? We wouldn’t want a bitch to ruin his life.” Ally was shocked by her own voice.
“Geez, Ally. Calm down. We don’t even know her.” Luke snapped silencing everyone. He had a good temperament but Cameron was like his brother. He could never hear anything against him.
“Relax guys. We’ll find out eventually.” Haley tried to calm the tension between her boyfriend and friend. Ally huffed and turned away to her next class of the day.
**
The sixth period was Chemistry which meant she had to face Cameron alone for the first time after their feud. Her palms were sweaty but her nerves flew away when she noticed he wasn’t sitting in his usual seat but behind Jake. That was her seat but unwillingly she sat behind him. She didn’t want to spark another reason to argue with him. He didn’t even pay attention to her when she walked past him; he was animatedly talking to his friends.
Perhaps she should like her new seat because it provided her with a great angle of Cameron. She couldn’t help but stare at him; his smile stretched from ear to ear. Whenever he heard something funny he would throwback his head in laughter. She found it adorable. His friends attentively listened to him as if he was reciting a mysterious plot of a novel. The people around him reflected his cheeriness; his charisma pulled people to him. No wonder he was popular and loved by people.
She had no such quality like him. She was bad at expressions and attracting people just by speech. She observed him intently like it would help to transport some of his qualities into her. She was confused when she observed that somehow his smile didn’t really reach his eyes. Every so often his head would slug forward but he would keep up that smile she was now sure was a fake one.
Suddenly his head turned to her direction. Shit. He must’ve noticed me staring. So stupid Ally. So damn stupid. She immediately looked down at her desk trying to avoid his questioning look. She didn’t dare look up until the teacher entered and started the class.
She tried to focus the entire forty five minute period but frequently she would have to scold herself to stop glancing at the boy in front of her. Her mind was juggling between the elements of periodic table and whether she should congratulate Cameron. She realized it wasn’t about the topic of conversation but the urge to talk to him that disturbed her.
Unable to control herself anymore she decided to reach out to him. She pushed aside her fear of getting embarrassed again and with a deep breath she tapped on his shoulder when the class was over. He was stuffing books in his bag hanging on one of his shoulder. He looked through his bag; his face lacked any expression.
“Yes?”
“Umm… I heard y-you were offered a scholarship by Berkeley and UCLA so I just wanted to say congratulations.” She tried to pour out every ounce of happiness she was feeling.
“Oh thank you.” His expression clearly said he wasn’t expecting Ally to say that. Nevertheless he gave her genuine smile which she mirrored immediately. He was walking towards the door and she was right behind him hunting for another opportunity to start a conversation.
“Did you watch that game between Lakers and OKC Thunder?” She said as they were out the door. She had managed to grab his attention. He slowed down his pace and eventually joined Ally as they sauntered in the hallway.
“Yeah! It was so close! I was obviously rooting for Lakers.”
“And that’s why they lost.” She hadn’t seen the game but she read a fair share of news about it in the newspaper.
He chuckled at her teasing tone. “You know that’s not true. I always support Lakers.”
“Yeah, I know.” No one knew it better than her. She heard him passionately ramble about Lakers in the past. An ominous silence fell over them after that.
“This is nice.” He said testing the calm waters.
“I know, right?” She knew he was talking about their civil talk that went on without any screaming.
“Yeah. I thought I would never hear from you.”
I thought the same but I just can’t not talk to you. She suppressed her inner voice and went with a simpler, “Why would I do that?”
“Because of what has been happening between us for the past… I don’t know… a month.” He said casually as if he couldn’t care less about it.
“I guess it’s in the past… We should forget it.” She trailed off unsurely awaiting his reaction.
One of her worst fears were realized when she heard him nonchalantly say, “Yes, we should.”
A/n: Hey! SO how was it? Bad, Average or Good? Let me know below in the comments. And thank you for reading. Have a good weekend.