Page 24 of Feels Like Coming Home

I heard him grunt and turned just in time to see him cupping his right butt-cheek in his hand, a look of pain on his face. I tried not to laugh watching him, but it slipped out.

“Hey, don’t you laugh at me, this was your idea!” He pointed a finger at me which made me laugh even harder.

“Aren’t you supposed to be some hotshot athlete? Why do you look like you’re in pain? We’re just walking!”

“It’s not the walk that’s bringing me pain, it’s my jeans. They’re starting to rub where no man wants rubbing to happen.” He grimaced and continued to cup his butt-cheek.

“Then why the hell did you wear jeans?!” I said, throwing my arms up and turning to face him, “I told you we were going for a walk!”

“I thought ‘a walk’ really meant finding a nice bench anda talk.”Cam looked at me, pausing where he stood, his hand still cupped under himself.

I was starting to feel bad for him, even though he was an idiot because I told him we were going for a walk. Looking around, I noticed a bench not too far up ahead on the trail we were on and motioned Cam to follow me. Once we reached it, we both sat down and Cam let out a loud exhale.

“So…” Chewing on the inside of my cheek and playing with my hands, I looked at Cam, “You wanted to talk?”

Cam looked down at his shoes and played with the zipper of his coat for a minute before speaking. “Yeah…Haley, I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I shouldn’t have let London come between us like that, it wasn’t right how I treated you.” He was looking directly at me and I was starting to get lost in his deep, emerald eyes as he talked. My eyes were going back and forth between looking at his eyes and his full lips as he spoke to me. I must have been staring a little too long because he spoke again.

“Haley…did you hear me?”

His words pulled me from my trance and I tried to recover quickly, “Oh! Sure, yeah, it’s fine. I’m sorry too, ya know, for what I said about her…even though it’s true,” I mumbled the last part under my breath which made Cam laugh.

“Yeah, it is true…” He scrunched up his nose, lost in a thought he was having. “And truthfully, when you sent that text, I laughed because I thought it was true then too. That’s why London had gotten so upset. First, she was mad at me for laughing, then she was mad because you had made me laugh so easily. That was part of the reason she told me I wasn’t allowed to talk to you anymore.”

“What, you never laughed when you were with her?” I scoffed, thinking that it would be completely ridiculous to be with someone who didn’t make you laugh. Cam made me laugh every time I was with him.

“Laughing wasn’t really what we were into…” His cheeks turned pink as he looked at me shyly. I wanted to get away from this topic as soon as possible because I didn’t want to know what they were into. I knew whatever it was would make me jealous.

“So then…” I trailed off before proceeding. I wanted to ask the question but I didn’t know how much was still off limits, “Are you two done?”

“Oh yeah, we’re done,” he said matter-of-factly. “We were done as soon as I saw her making out with Sean at that party last weekend.”

“Sean Hampton?!” I had heard about the party but didn’t go—mostly because I knew Cam would be there and I didn’t want to see him. I hadn’t heard about this little piece of news though. I suddenly felt bad for Cam. I can’t imagine what that would have been like seeing your girlfriend making out with someone else in such a public setting.

“The very same. I tried to talk to her about it, asking why she did it, and she just told me we were done and walked away. That was that.” He shrugged and looked down at his shoes.

“Well then…how do you feel?”

He took a deep breath. “I feel free.”

I smiled, seeing the Cam I knew coming back to me. Over the last four months, it wasn’t that he had changed, but something about him seemed different. Almost like he was trying to be someone or something he wasn’t. Seeing him now sitting next to me, I was starting to see the old him coming back.

“I really missed you, Haley…” he dragged out his words in a low, deep tone.

Hearing him say my name made my heart skip a beat. We were sitting next to one another on the bench, his hand on the seat, his fingers stretched out. I put my hand down next to his, letting our fingers touch ever so slightly, feeling the energy running through them as soon as they connected. I looked at them quickly to make sure my hand wasn’t on fire, because that’s exactly what it felt like. When I looked back toward Cam, his eyes were bouncing between mine and my mouth. My heart started beating faster and I could feel my brain starting to unplug.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, he’s going to kiss me! Camden Johnson is going to kiss me! I’ve wanted this for years. I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe he broke up with his stupid girlfriend last weekend and now he’s here, with me, sitting on this bench looking like he wants to kiss me. Wait a second, he just broke up with London last weekend. He can’t kiss me now. I can’t be the rebound!

The voices in my head were speaking at once, but the one that came out the loudest screamed,“Mayday! Mayday! You’re about to make a horrible mistake, MOVE! DO SOMETHING!”

Without thinking, I stood up and took a few steps away from the bench, putting some space between us. I set my eyes on the open field that was just on the other side of the path. Pennsylvania wasn’t much, but when you found the right spots, it could be kind of beautiful. I continued to stare out into the field, trying to calm my heart rate and process what had almost just happened between Cam and me.

Cam cleared his throat after a moment and I turned around to see him getting up from his seat. We looked at each other, both feeling a little awkward.

I gave him a tight smile. “We should probably go. It’s getting late and we still need to walk twenty minutes back to our cars.”

“Yeah, sure…” he paused and then grabbed my arm as I started to walk away, making me turn and look at him again. “Haley…are we okay?

“Of course we are!” I piped back, a little too perky and eager.

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