Returning to the house, she and Cameron headed up to his room. It was late and they both knew she was tired, so he wasn't going to force her to spend any more time with his friends. Unbuttoning his shirt, he tossed it over the back of his chair and stretched for a bit. Flexing his arms, he turned around to catch her staring at him. She wasn't scoping him out though, not like girls did when he stripped down.
"What?"
"Why'd you tell that story at dinner tonight?"
"What story?"
"The pregnant story," she clarified.
"Oh," he remembered. Shrugging, he didn't even bother coming up with an excuse. "That's how it happened it my head." Digging through his drawer, he snatched out a pair of pajama pants. "And it's a good story. We can tell it to the kid once he's older."
Awkwardly holding his pants, he watched her watch him. She'd had very little to say at the table. "Well, I'm going to go put these on," he pointed towards the door. Usually he was fine with changing in front of her, but this time was different. He couldn't read her silent stares. Briefly glancing at the floor, he wondered if she was mad at him for telling the story. He liked it, and so did Ty. Lucy had practically fallen in love with it. He wouldn't be surprised if he found out that she wanted Ty to do the same thing for her. Maybe she just needs some space, he considered. He had kind of forced her to go. But he'd caught her smiling at some points throughout dinner. She couldn't have hated it that much.
When he was halfway out the door, her voice stopped him.
"Help me with this cardigan."
Twisting the strings around his finger, he considered pretending like he hadn't heard her. Instead, he turned around, tossed the pants onto his desk and walked over to her. She turned around, and he pulled it down her shoulders like a suave guy he'd seen in a black and white movie. The tips of his fingers accidentally grazed her arms on the way down. Swallowing, he took a step back and handed her the cardigan. Swiping fingers through his hair, he cleared his throat nervously and fired a small smile in her direction. Kith just stood there, holding the cardigan in her arms. With it off, he couldn't help but notice the boobs Lucy had been kind enough to mention earlier in the evening.
He wanted to kiss her so badly, but he resisted. It was taking everything he had, but he was resisting. Because he wanted to do more than that. He wanted to touch her; he wanted to have her. But he couldn't do that. Kith was different than any girl he'd ever been with, and he was supposed to be her support system. He wasn't supposed to want to do that with her. He'd been telling himself that the entire time. But she was so pretty and so nice and so smart and so... everything. She was everything, and he liked her because of that.
As if reading his mind, she kissed him. Sinking into the softness of her mouth, he kissed her back momentarily. Wrapping his arms around her, he attempted to pull her closer and then remembered why he couldn't.
"Umm...," breaking the kiss, he stepped back and glanced at the window and then the floor, everywhere but her face. "I can't...."
Wrapping her arms around herself, Kith just stood there, nodding uncomfortably in agreement. "Sorry," she apologized.
"It's not.... it's not like I don't want to," he said quickly, not wanting to offend her. "I do. But.... you're pregnant...."
"Yeah," she concurred.
"And it's just.... it'd be weird," he continued. "I've never been with a pregnant girl."
"Yeah," she repeated, turning around to face the bed. Cameron ran his hands down the front of his jeans, thinking if he should say anything else. He didn't want her to feel bad.
"I like you, Kith, but...."
"Pregnant," she finished for him. She said it so solemnly.
Closing his mouth, he decided to stop talking in order to sound like less of an asshole. She wasn't saying it openly, but he was certain that he'd hurt her feelings. He knew it wasn't her fault; they both knew that. Opening and closing his fists, he decided it was best to just leave her alone. She probably just wanted to go to sleep, anyway.
"Just tell me when you're done changing." Without looking at her, he strode quickly from the room and out a little ways into the hall. The door didn't close immediately behind him. Maybe she's not that mad at me, he mused. That was perfect. He didn't want her mad at him for not doing something they both knew shouldn't happen. Biting his nail, he quieted his mind. No one else was up, which was surprising. "She's seventeen." Listing the reasons aloud helped his case. "She's seventeen and pregnant and she's still in high school, man."
But Kith was beautiful.
Still thinking, he ran his hands over his exposed chest. Some of her hair had brushed against his bare skin and it felt like he'd been electrocuted. "No," he said quietly, pacing. He'd touched her bare back too. Shaking his head, he took a few steps towards the stairs. "No, no, no. I just need to go downstairs and watch TV." Cameron knew full well that he couldn't have sex with her. That was out of the question. He wasn't having sex with a pregnant girl, a pregnant teenager at that. Her hormones were all sorts of crazy, and given what she'd gone through... Something about it just seemed horribly, horribly wrong.
He put one foot on the top step and stared down. "Go downstairs, Cameron," he instructed himself. Standing there, he could tell that his door was still open. Heart pounding, he turned his last chance over in his mind. His pajama pants were still in his room; that was an acceptable excuse to turn around and go back. Regressing, he stalked back down the hall and paused outside his doorway. He didn't want to bust in if she was actually naked.
"Kith?"
"Yeah?" she answered in a small voice.
"You dressed?"
There was a moment's hesitation. And in that moment, Cameron wavered, wondering if it was better if they were apart for a little while longer. She wanted to have sex with him. That was why she requested 'help' with her cardigan. He couldn't have sex with her though. He wanted to so much it was difficult to think of anything else but he just couldn't.
"Yeah," she responded.
"Okay," re-entering their room, he slowly shut the door and flipped off the lights.
Resting his back against the side of the sofa, Cameron stared off into space while absently twirling one of his pencils. His next class was in a little over an hour, and he'd planned on coming home and reading a little beforehand. After bringing his books and backpack downstairs and sitting on the floor, random thoughts took over.
"You don't look like you're doing anything," Nate commented, leaning against the wall.
"I'm reading," snapping out of it, Cameron readjusted his book on his lap and then glanced in Nate's direction.
"Yeah, okay," he answered, flopping down onto the couch. Grabbing the remote, he turned on the TV and started flipping through channels. Rubbing his eyes, Cameron dragged his knees to his chest and rested his forehead against them.
"Can I ask you something? Brother to brother?"
"What?" Cameron mumbled.
"You don't have to answer if you don't want to."
"Just ask me," Cameron waved for Nate to keep talking. He didn't feel like going to class, but.... he wanted to save skipping for a better occasion.
"What made you go from a complete lazy-ass to the Cameron I see before me?" Nate questioned, plunging his hand into a bag of chips that mysteriously appeared.
"Kith," he answered after contemplating. "And the baby." He lifted his head up. "She's way too good for me, so I decided to startactually going to class. And plus, he's not here yet. But eventually he'll go to school. And I don't want to be a dumb dad, you know? I want to be able to help him with his homework and teach him stuff and answer questions, if he has any."
Nate said nothing.
"Can I tell you something else? Brother to brother?" Cameron inquired.
"Do it," Nate said casually, crunching on chips.
"It's not even.... I actually do work and go to class and shit because I need to graduate. I need to get a job and I need to make money, a lot of it. I'm gonna save up money and I'm going to get a place for us, somewhere far from here."
"What's the situation right now?" Nate turned the volume down some to hear better.
"It's not the worst, but it could definitely be better," Cameron answered, inhaling deeply. "Neither of us are allowed on her parent's property and I'm guessing my mom's coming around. Even if she's not, I don't really care. Kith is pregnant, and she's just going to have to accept that one way or the other."
"Where are you guys gonna live?"
"Fuck," running a hand over his face, Cameron sighed. He'd spent nights thinking about it. They only had one option when school was out. Because Kith was removed from her family, they had one less option. Being in college made things simpler because they lived in the frat house. Technically, she lived there illegally, but that was besides the point. Once school ended for him, they'd be back in his mom's house. He definitely didn't want that, but his bank account wasn't full enough to get them their own residence yet. "My mom's house. Kith graduates a month after school ends for me, and she's already five months now, so he might be here in May. I really don't want to live there, because she's talked so much shit about Kith, but we don't have anything else."
"You graduate in two years," Nate pointed out.
"I don't care," Cameron said stalwartly. "I'm gonna do whatever it takes to save up enough money. I'm going to get a job this summer, save up stuff from that, and I might work for the next two years, too. Childcares more expensive than what Kith would make with just a diploma, so it'd be easier for her to stay with the baby. By the time I graduate, I want to have enough to get us a decent apartment. Then once I get a real job, we'll have our own house, somewhere away from here."
"Why not here?"
"Because Kith deserves better than the shit she's gotten here," he said harshly. Nate wrinkled his forehead at Cameron's conviction. "She really does, man. You don't know. Like I've fucked it up, so now I'm gonna fix it." The wrinkles disappeared. "Just don't tell her though. She'd think it was stupid." Cameron couldn't even believe he'd revealed his formerly secret plan.
Nate stared at him with a stupid smirk on his face, like he was judging him.
"What?" Cameron stared back at him, expecting a snide comment or a joke.
"Nothing," Nate shrugged casually and turned back towards the glowing tv. "You're responsible, and I'm proud. It's really good to hear that you're finally acting like an adult."
"Well...baby," Cameron could give no other reason than that.
"And it's a boy, right?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "We're having a boy."
Nate turned off the TV and threw the remote aside. "I'm headed to class, man. Great talk."
"Yeah, I'll be heading out soon, too."
Sighing like a girl, Nate pretended to dab tears from the corners of his eyes. "Nineteen and you've finally grown up. I thought I'd never see the day."
"Shut up," Cameron made a face.
"I'm so proud of you!" sniffling, Nate disappeared from the room.
Later that day, Cameron sat on the bed, legs hanging off the edge. Kith relaxed horizontally, legs across his lap as they both thumbed through books crammed with baby names. He'd gone through so many lines of names, from all over the world, that his eyes were starting to hurt. He ground his fists into his eyes and struggled to stay focused.
"Do we have to choose today?" he questioned.
"No," she turned a page.
"Okay, good," he let his eyes droop a little. That took off some pressure. "What about Ethan?"
"Ew," she wrinkled her nose. "I don't like that."
"Why?"
"It just sounds.... I don't know," she concluded. "I don't want him named Ethan."
Defeated, Cameron turned another page and scoured.
"What about John?"
"Absolutely not," he lowered his book slightly.
"Why?"
"That's so plain and boring and...ugh," scoffing, he went back to reading. "No. No, no, no, no, Kith. That's the worst one yet."
"I think the worst one yet came from you," she argued before returning to her book.
"Evan?" he offered.
"No," she declined. "Keagan?"
"Gross," he answered, wrinkling his nose some.
"Kevin?" she tried another.
"Boring," he fake-yawned. Flipping to the back, he scanned some of the lower letters. "Sam?"
"No," she said immediately.
Exhausted, he rested his head against the wall. They'd been in his room for an hour shooting names back and forth. Neither of them had come remotely close to agreement. Any name he liked disgusted her and vice versa.
"I want him to have a name that sounds like he can be anything," she spoke up. "He needs to have a versatile name. One that sounds like he can be a painter, or a teacher, or a CEO. That's why I like Greg."
"Okay, that name sucks," he used the same reasoning he had earlier. "And I don't care about any of that. He needs a name that lets everyone knows he's awesome and one that gets him all the girls."
"Or boys."
"What?"
"Or boys," she repeated.
"He's not gay, Kith," he answered after he understood what she was saying. "You're not gay." He said that to her stomach. Lifting up a bit with her elbows, she looked at him intently. He knew that look. "But if you are, I'll support you."
She laid back down, content with that answer.
"But he's not," Cameron mumbled to himself and thumbed through the never-ending list of names.
TEASER: "No," she shook her head furiously. "No, Cameron."
What's going on here.