I woke up on the next morning drooling on Ron's shirtless shoulder. It took me a few minutes to realize I had fallen asleep on the couch. Ron had his arm wrapped around my shoulders and I was curled against his chest laying next to him. I must have gone searching for Cameron in my sleep and ended up finding the nearest warm body.

Ron's deafening snores were ringing loudly in my ear as I started coming to my senses. They weren't like those cute little snores Cameron gave when he was really exhausted. Ron's sounded like a chainsaw biting into the trunk of a tree.

I watched him sleep a little bit longer, thinking about how weird all of this must be for him too. He seemed to like her really liked Gabby, well Jenna, I guess. I had really thought she had genuine feelings for him too. It wasn't until I saw her desperately clinging to my dad that I realized how far she went in this game she was playing. While she smiled and lovingly held on to Ron, she looked like she was going to suffocate without my dad's affection.

It was so fucked up. Poor Ron had become her victim too.

When I looked over at the clock, it was a few minutes past eleven. Cameron had left for work hours ago and wouldn't be back until this evening. I was already missing him even if I was snuggled warmly into Ron's protective shield. Ron made me feel safe too, but it wasn't the way I felt next to Cameron. If Ron was a parachute to keep me from smacking face-first into the ground, Cameron was the gravity that kept me firmly planted there. Without Cameron, I was floating free, biding my time until another tornado came to send me flying.

I always thought of myself as my own, independent person before the last year and a half happened. Being with Cameron had flipped my own self-awareness on its head, challenging everything I had ever known. It was only now that I was realizing how wrong I had been about my perceived strength. I had never been independent and powerful. I was the furthest thing from that. I had always relied upon others and even blamed them when I messed my own life up.

I always needed every person in my life more than they needed me.

The wild girl struggling inside of me wanted to prove the newly enlightened portion wrong. The urge to find out who I really was started nagging at the back of my head. It seemed like such a strange time for all these feelings to stir up inside me, but my whole world had been changed after seeing that video of my mom almost losing it all. It made me question everything. If I looked back on my life, would I be happy with the person I was, or would I regret not trying harder to be the person I wanted to be?

Growing up sucks. I wish I would have known that all the years I spent pretending to be an adult instead of realizing I was just a confused little girl who just wanted to be normal like everyone else. When I couldn't fit in with the people around me, I started doing big girl things with all the wrong people to cope even though I wasn't ready. I naively thought that if I acted a certain way and gave them what they wanted, they would accept me for who I was.

I let people like Nathan use me because I felt like I was beneath them. It was also why I never thought I deserved Cameron in my life. I had never been good, even though I wanted to be.

I was a muddled whirlwind of emotions sleeping on a couch next to my boyfriend's shirtless best friend. Funny enough, his bare skin against me was the least confusing part of my life right now.

My body was starting to remind me how uncomfortable the sleeping position I was in felt. My bladder chimed in too and was threatening to burst at any second. It was time to get up for the day. I started to try to pull away from Ron and move his arm off my shoulder.

Fuck, his arm was heavy. No wonder my back was killing me.

He snorted out a loud groan and shifted his weight. His hand started moving as he continued to saw logs. I felt his hand move over my breast and start gently kneading it. He started moaning in between his snoring.

"Ron." I shrieked and shoved him back as hard as I could, which didn't do much other than wake him up.

"What, huh? Is she here?" He looked around frantically as he twisted my nipple tightly between his fingers.

"Quit squeezing my boob." I smacked him.

"Oh, I didn't mean...sorry, Jess." He apologized, turning dark red as he let me go.

I held my hand up and shook my head at him. I didn't even want to talk about it any longer. I wasn't mad at Ron. I knew he didn't realize what he was doing in his sleep. He was a little crude and liked to joke with me sometimes, but he wasn't a guy who would do something like that intentionally to his friend.

I got up from the couch to go use the restroom and he followed behind me on my heels. He was stressing over what just happened.

"Jess, I'm so sorry. I would never do that to you or Cameron. I swear I didn't know I was doing it. I was dreaming about two supermodels on a yacht and one of them said I could touch them. Then they started kissing each other and then asked me to join. They took off their tops and asked me if I wanted to play with them." The words tumbled out of his mouth sincerely.

"Ron, it's fine. I don't need a play by play of your sex dream." I spun around and pushed him back down the hallway away from me so I could pee in peace.

"I have to call and tell Cameron what I did." Ron started pacing and pushing his hands through his hair. "He is going to kill me."

"Stop. There is no need to tell Cameron anything. Nothing happened. Now can I go use the bathroom, or do you want to go in there and watch me pee too?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, no, I'm good. You go ahead. I'll wait out here." Ron turned me down like I had given him an actual invitation to come with me.

Idiot.

I went into Cameron's room and shut the door behind me. When I finished using the bathroom, I opened my bag and changed into some fresh clothes for the day. I had wanted to dawdle and take a bubble bath, but it felt weird taking one with Ron in the house.

Just as I was finishing up my morning routine, my phone rang.

It was Dad.

"Hey, Jess." He chirped loudly into the speaker.

"Did something happen? Is everything ok?" I asked worriedly.

"No, nothing like that. Could you swing by the studio? Link asked me if you could come by today." Dad was in too good of a mood. Something was up.

"I'll have to discuss it with my bodyguard first, but I think I can persuade him."

"Good, see you soon. Don't forget to call your mom to check-in. She was busy rearranging Jax's video games in alphabetical order when I left. Love you, Sweet Pea."

"Love you too, Dad." I smiled even though I knew he couldn't see it.

When I walked out of Cameron's room, Ron was sitting on the couch, fully dressed and flipping through channels. I sat back down next to him on the couch, planning my approach. Cameron had secretly given him strict orders for my lockdown. I heard them sneaking conversations about me throughout the night as I tossed and turned.

"Ron, can you take me to my dad's studio for a bit?" I asked.

"Jess, Nash made me promise to keep you in the house. He will murder me if I let you out." He replied.

"We'll be back before he gets home. He won't ever find out." I batted my eyelashes at him and stuck my bottom lip out in a pout.

"I'm not taking any chances. We are staying here." He used his cop voice on me. It wasn't nearly as good as Cameron's, but it was still effective.

I sat back against the back of the couch and crossed my arms over my chest to mope. His eyes flashed down to my chest as I folded my arms across it. That gave me an idea. I knew exactly what I needed to do to get my way.

I was a bad person sometimes.

"You are right, Ron. Good girlfriends don't keep secrets." I sang out wickedly.

"I'm glad you agree, Jessa. This will make everything so much easier for us this way." He smiled at me.

"In fact, you really have me thinking right now. I think we should call Cameron and tell him how we woke up this morning. I don't think it is right to keep things from him. Ouch, that hurts. I think it is starting to bruise." I winked and rubbed my breast like it was sore.

Ron froze with his mouth hanging open.

"Fine. I'll take you. Let's go so we can get back before he gets home." Ron grumbled.

"Thanks, Ron. You're the best."