Page 72 of Curious
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We spend Thanksgiving at Cam’s parents’ house with the rest of his family, and the next evening we’re on the beach in Malibu, holding warm drinks provided by Julian Hill’s personal chef, who magicked them out of nowhere. Jules had a stack of blankets waiting, and we’re all bundled up around a massive bonfire.
“Is everyone ready to burn cursed objects?” Jules asks, the flames licking behind him so we can barely make out his expression.
His accent is really hot. I mean, Cam is the hottest, but I can appreciate Jules’s voice.
“I can’t wait to see,” Sam says. “Did everyone bring something from their past that they want to get rid of? Who’s going first?”
Danny steps forward with a small box in his hand, holding it out for everyone to see. “This is the ring I was going to give my high school boyfriend. He dumped me on prom night.”
There’s a collective gasp. Alden smiles at him, then reaches over and squeezes his hand.
Danny scoffs. “I’ve moved past it, clearly, and at this point I look at this thing with a little fondness. Like, okay, past me. That was you as a puppy, and now you’re a real dog.”
“A junkyard dog,” Charlie says.
“A hunk of a dog,” Alden whispers.
“At any rate, this is the final nail in the coffin,” Danny says.
“Throw it, mate,” Jules says, an arm wrapped around Sam.
Danny does. I wonder if the ring will melt or if it will still be there in the morning. I suppose it doesn’t matter. It’s going back to the earth. We all watch the fire, and Jules claps his hands. “Who’s next?”
Sam takes a piece of paper out of his pocket and stands up. “This is the first speech my grandfather’s speechwriter wrote for me. It was the first stop on my way to not being myself.”
“You still had a copy?” Jules asks.
“No,” Sam admits. “I had to look back in my email and print it out, but it wasn’t hard to find. Everything is there. At any rate, I’m getting free from my past. I’m claiming my own story, not one that someone makes up for me.” He tosses the page into the bonfire. We all clap, and Jules whoops and pulls him in for a kiss.
Danny whistles. “Okay, next?”
Noah steps forward, brandishing a piece of paper. “These are the discharge instructions from the hospital when I fell off my bike.”
“The time I proposed?” August asks.
Noah nods. “Yeah, the first time I turned you down.”
“I don’t think that’s a bad memory,” August says. “I mean,” he adds quickly, when everyone stares at him in horror, “obviously the love of my life being hurt was awful, but it was the catalyst that made me change so that I could see our relationship for real and figure out what you really meant to me.”
“Well, now I don’t want to burn it,” Noah says, taking a step back and crossing his arms over his chest.
“I think you should. Take the risk,” August murmurs.
Noah grins and tosses it in.
“What about you?” I ask Cam. “Is there something from your past that you want to burn? Some cursed object?”
He holds out a box. “These are the leftover invitations from my wedding with my ex-girlfriend, the bills from the wedding, and my final medical bill for rehabbing my ankle. I’m leaving all that crap in the past.” He shakes his foot. “I’m fully cleared for skiing this weekend.”
We get a round of applause, but I feel funny.
Now I’m going to find out if he really does want to stay with me. If his words were empty promises or something I can trust.
I want to trust him. I need to move past this pain.
“Those were the things from my past that don’t serve me anymore,” Cam says as he adds them to the bonfire. “Babe, do you have something you want to toss?”
