Chapter Seventeen:
Bruises
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The bell rang for Seventh period by the time I had reached the exit doors that lead outside. I looked for any teacher in sight before I used my ninja skills to slip through the doors without a trace.
A puff of air escaped my mouth after I was out of the school. I have never done anything like skip a class -it just wasn't me.
The sidewalk led me up to the fenced in football field in front of our school. A shadow of a boy was made by the sun as he sat under the bleachers. Cameron sat on one of the beams that helped hold up the bleachers.
"Hey skipper," I smiled as I neared him. He slowly turned himself around on the beam and smiled at me, offering a hand to me.
I gladly took it and allowed him to help me up onto the beam so that I was sitting right across from him. He laced our fingers together and pulled me into him, kissing me lightly in the lips. I smiled at him.
"So, what was so important that you wanted me to skip class?" I asked.
"I just wanted to talk to you and see you." He replied as he played with my fingers. I nodded before saying, "Well let's talk."
I couldn't help but realize how weird this actually was. Just the other day we were friends. Now suddenly we were dating. How did this happen so fast? It seems so foreign, like a new subject I have to learn in school. I guess it's a good thing that I like to learn.
"Tell me about your day," Cameron said as he scooted to sit right beside me on the beam, dangling his feet beside mine, his fingers still intertwined with mine.
"You know how I had to help Mrs. Foster clean out her file cabinet? Well I did and you'll never guess what I found out." I almost wanted to burst out laughing right then. It just seemed so funny to me for some reason.
"I dropped Danielle's folder on the floor and guess what?! She has a higher grade than me in that class." I wasn't finished with my story, but Cameron's chuckling stopped me.
"That's her what? Second year in that class? She should be getting used to the work by now-" I pushed my finger roughly against his lips to shush him. He smirked undertaken finger and I removed it, feeling the blush rising to my cheeks.
"No! That's not what I meant. Would you shut up so I can finish my story?"
"Of course, your majesty."
"Anyways, I asked Mrs. Foster why she made me your tutor. Since, when she asked me to do the job, she told me I had good grades -but not as good as Danielle's. Well that and a college recommendation. That's not what's important here. Do you wanna know what she told me?" I asked, a mischievous smile slipping onto my face. Cameron simply nodded his head.
"She said, and I quote, 'You have patience, you have the kind heart that would help him even if he was mean to you. I think you two are a cute couple.'" I watched his expression closely to see if he would be horrified that our teacher set us up together.
"All I can do is go in there and kiss Mrs. Foster right on the forehead and thank her." Was what he said. I started laughing at him and his weirdness.
"So, what are we doing after school?" I asked him.
"How about working on the tree house? Matt would like that." Cameron chuckled and twisted my fingers with his more.
"Sounds like a plan." I grinned at him and he helped me off the beam so we could go ahead to my house.
It didn't take long for us to arrive there. After we had grabbed all of our stuff out of our lockers, we ditched again and went to Cameron's car. We drove to my house and got a bite to eat before we started working on anything.
It was during that little time that I realized how much of a blessing this kid was. Instead of my first real boyfriend being a complete jerk and everything, he was Cameron. My Cameron. He was imperfectly perfect and that what was so special about him. At first I will admit that he had a hard she'll to crack and I had to use my own hard head to break into it. All that work and frustration was worth it.
I found myself sitting on the patio with Cameron eating our hamburgers that he and I fried up. I took my last bite and leaned on my hands while I waited for Cameron to finish.
"You wanna know something?" I asked as I looked at the side of his face. He was chewing and the vein in his temple popped out when he did. Sometimes the littlest things satisfy me.
"What?" His voice was muffled from the burger he just stuffed in his mouth.
My heartbeat picked up for a money and butterflies erupted in my stomach, alerting me that I could be on the verge of saying those three words that I could either regret or totally score a big kiss.
"I'm really happy Mrs. Foster paired us together. We would have been strangers for the rest of school," I told him. My face was burning from embarrassment because I wasn't used to telling people how I felt. Cameron stopped eating, his mouth froze mid-chomp on his burger. He looked at me through the corner of his eyes with a blank expression. My eyes widened and I felt even more embarrassed that I had just what I felt. Then I realized: why should I be embarrassed? Yeah, no matter how many time I tell myself not to be, I am. I looked away.
"Well," Cameron swallowed his bite and sat his burger down a safe distance from us, "I want you to know something too." He continued in a disappointed sounding voice. My heart immediately sank.
Then, out of nowhere, he tackled me into the grass.
I let out a squeal and felt him poke at my sides, finding amusement in my squirming under his touch. He was no straddling my body as I laid flat on the ground and was tickling me all over, making burst into fits of giggles. It wasn't until our faces were centimeters apart that I was pulled back to reality. My laughing slowly died down and I held my breath. The last thing I wanted was for him to say I have nasty breath.
"You're just so darn beautiful," He said with a grin.
I pressed my lips to his in a rough kiss. I smiled and laughed in the middle of the kiss, totally ruined the whole moment but he kept kissing me in silly places on my face, and wrapped my arms around his neck loosely to keep him close to me. He had a small smile playing in his lips as he remained in his straddling position and stared at me as if waiting for me to reply. But I already knew my answer. I've known it for a long time.
I grinned like a maniac and pulled him back down for one last kiss. Finally realizing that we had stuff to do, he rolled off of me and settled in the grass beside me. Cameron stood up a second later without a word and held his hand out to me to help me up. I took it gratefully and he hoisted me up without any problem.
I followed him over to where we had stacks of the boards we were using to build the walls and roof. He instructed me to pick up one of the other boards since we would need to put them all up on the platform we already made. As Cameron picked up one board, I bent down to pick up another and when I stood up, he turned around and accidentally smacked me in the jaw with the board he was holding. To my surprise, all I did was drop the board I was holding and my hands flew up to my face. Cameron's eyes got as big a saucers and he tossed his board to the side to come to my aid. I looked up at him and warned him with my eyes not to touch it.
Pain was shooting through the side of my face and mostly my jaw. I had a feeling it would be bruised within an hour and I needed some ice for it. Maybe I should stop being to accident prone.
Cameron grabbed my elbow for support and led me into my house and into the kitchen. He knew I needed ice. Him being an athlete and all, he knew what being hit in the face was like and what treatment it needed. I smiled softly at him when he handed me a bag of ice covered up with a dish towel.
He chuckled, "One minute I'm telling you you're beautiful and the next I'm hitting you in the jaw with a piece of wood. What kind of boyfriend am I?" I laughed at him and slumped as I sat on a barstool, "You're still gorgeous." He made up for it. Cameron put one hand on the counter and one hand on the bar so that he was standing directly in front of me with a smirk on his face.
"Even if you did hit me in the face and give me a what will probably be a big bruise on my jaw, I love you no less." I smiled and tipped his chin down with my finger so I could kiss his lips. While occupying me with his kiss on my lips, he put his hand over mine and pulled the bag of ice away from my face. He swooped over and planted a soft kiss on my jaw. I winced a little; it hurt like I had just been smacked with a piece of wood. Oh wait, I did.
"You are too funny," He faked a very unattractive laugh and began picking me up bridal style. I kicked my legs so he would drop me on my feet but he had his grip to firm.
"What do you think you're doing?" I queried as we made our way to the living room. He didn't say a word as he dropped me on the couch and then sat down beside me. I still held the ice securely to my jaw.
"I have to make it up to you. You're going to have people staring at you for the big bruise that's in the making right there," He pointed at the spot he hit me, "So how about a movie and popcorn and foot rubbing date?"
The adorable smirk on his face was keeping me from answering, I snapped back to reality once more.
"Uh, I agree on the movie and popcorn but don't you dare touch my feet." I held up a finger and had a threatening look on my face.
"Why, are you ticklish down there?" He said in an excellent British accent. I slapped his arm and pointed my finger at him, "You touch them and I'll touch my foot to your face."
I couldn't hold back the smile creeping onto my face.
"Actually, once when Matt tried to tickle my feet, I kicked him in the face with my heel. Do you want me to kick you in the face?" I asked with a hint of amusement. Cameron shook his head dismissively and got up to make some popcorn.
This reminded me of the time he first came over for tutoring and we watched a movie. It seemed like forever ago but it wasn't.
"When are tryouts?" Cameron asked me once we were in the middle of the movie and running out if popcorn.
"I think next week." I said kind of quietly, not wanting to talk about it. Cameron sensed this and sat up straight. My legs that I had earlier stretched out on his lap fell to the ground and I looked at him like he was deranged.
"How about we practice together? I need to do some- oh, shit." Cameron suddenly stood straight up and darted out of the room. When I heard the back door open and close loudly, I stood up as well and marched out side in a tizzy. What was going on with him? I held the ice to my face still as I watched Cameron hurry for things.
"What's wrong?" I strained.
"I'm going to miss practice and then I won't be able to play in the game that's coming up - the championship game." He cut it. I still stood there in shock until he turned around abruptly from where he was walking towards his truck and kissed me on the lips, his hand on the back of my neck to hold me in place.
"I'll call you later, okay?" He smiled and kissed the tip of my nose before running off to his truck.
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Stick around things are going to start getting exciting!
How do you think Sophia's tryouts will go?
Let me know!