"You're leaving?" Gemma asked, her eyes wide and pleading.

Cammie laughed. She had told Gemma that she was going out today, but she had come over anyway. To Cammie's relief, the two girls had been spending a lot of time with each other recently. Cammie was keeping Gemma up to date on her relationship with Ramsey and, much to Cammie's dismay, Gemma had been giving a lot of details about her and Jace's relationship too. In fact she had just finished giving a very graphic description to the way their date ended the other night.

"And you know what they say the best cure to an argument is, don't you Cam?" she had added with a smirk.

Jace and Gem had always fought, more than Cammie considered to be healthy, but she tried not to judge. Tried not to be bitter in the moments she was Jace's shoulder to cry on about a different girl.

Cammie stood up from her bed and headed over to her closet to find something to wear.

"Yes, I told you I was going out." she replied exasperated.

Gemma looked around Cammie's room, which had finally been tidied up, there was almost no mess on the floor. All of her books and school papers were in a pile hidden under her desk. Her bed was made, her wardrobe organized. Gem had commented on it when she came in because Cammie was known for her messy room. Except now, after Ramsey invited her over the other day she was worried he might somehow end up in her room at some point and wanted to make sure he didn't walk into the aftermath of Hurricane Cameron.

"You know, I liked it when I was your only friend, then I could keep you all to myself." Gemma said with a sigh, her diamond nose stud twinkling in the light.

Cammie laughed in shock and disbelief, "You are always telling me to get out more!" She began looking through her closet and holding up outfits to her body before returning them to the rack when Gemma shook her head at them.

Her friend continued, "Yeah, with me! I didn't mean to make me your second priority." Gemma muttered sarcastically, pretending to sound annoyed. Although at this point Cammie was wondering if she was pretending or not.

Cammie tried not to scoff. She was constantly Gemma's second priority, in fact she couldn't remember the last time she had been anyone's first priority. Her father was always working, and while he loved his daughter's he didn't know how to raise daughters on his own, Paisley was a young teenager surviving middle school, and Jace, her best friend since birth, had shifted his attention to Gemma ever since they had started dating. Cammie was always third wheeling or being left out when the two of them went on a date, but she bit her tongue and didn't say anything of this. Instead, she continued to go through her closet. Gemma got up off the bed, apparently deciding Cammie obviously wasn't going to find something without her basically doing it for her. Using her hip she bumped the little blonde aside.

"How many boys are going to be there?" Gemma asked, sifting through the clothes.

Cammie shrugged, "Five, including Ramsey I think. Although last I heard Nick wasn't sure if he could make it."

"Nicholas huh?" Gemma hummed, " Any girls?"

"Well, me."

Gemma spun around, shock covering face, "Cammie you are going out with five boys and no girls to back you up? Oh dear girl, I wish you good luck." Cammie chuckled, but something in Gemma's tone made her think there was more truth in that statement than exaggeration.

And she was nervous about hanging out with all of Ramsey's friends. It seemed normal for most people to want to make a good impression on their boyfriend's friends, but Cammie felt she had significantly more pressure. Ramsey had insisted that this was their chance to eliminate any doubt his friends had that this was a real romantic connection. Not that she didn't want the guys to like her. Why wouldn't she? They were handsome, popular, and funny.

Oh god, her hands were definitely gonna start sweating.

"Are you going out Cam?" Paisley's head had popped around the door.

"Yeah, but I don't know when I'll be back."

"Nah that's cool, I'm going over to Lilly's for a sleepover I just wanted to let you know."

"Okay, thanks." Cammie replied absent mindedly picking through the outfits Gemma had been tossing on the bed as options.

"Hi Gemma." Paisley said just taking notice of her sister's friend and one of her idols.

"Hey, Paisley." Gemma said, before continuing her talk with Cammie once Paisley had gone again.

"You know you're breaking girl code here. You're leaving me, your best friend, for a bunch of dicks. What happened to sisters before misters?" She threw her hands up in the air and Cammie rolled her eyes while her back was turned.

"Then there is the fact that you didn't mention that you were going to be the only girl there while hanging out with all those hunks! Dear Lord Cammie, do you tell me anything anymore? I thought after what happened you would have learnt to be more open with everyone." she lectured, pulling out a burgundy knitted dress that finished mid-thigh and little brown ankle boots. They were flat so that Cammie would be at her normal height of 5'2 when she put them on.

Gemma handed them to Cammie before going back and pulling out matching burgundy lacy socks that could be seen above the tops of the boots. Cammie smiled at her friend's choice and went to head across the hall to get changed, just before she went to leave Gemma tossed her a fancy push-up bra that she had bought Cammie on their last shopping trip. Cammie rolled her eyes but didn't resist and she rushed across the hall and giggled as she thought of wearing it around Ramsey.

Meanwhile, as Cammie was getting dressed, back in her room Gemma was laying out the curling iron and different shades of lipstick and eye shadow. Sure this was a casual occasion, but makeup didn't have to only be used when going out to parties and fancy meals, makeup could be used for hotdogs and frozen yogurt too. Besides, Cammie was always one to dress slightly above average for any given occasion.

Cammie skipped into her bedroom and spun around on the spot so that her dress fanned out a little bit.

Gemma gave her a small round of applause, "Love it. Now you must be glad that I came over. What would you do without me?"

Cammie laughed, "Live in peace and quiet?" she said walking over to the chair where Gemma was going to prep her, Gemma flicked her on the forehead as she sat down. "Ow." Cammie muttered rubbing the spot where Gemma's nail had made contact with her skin.

"Oh be quiet, now let's get started." Gemma applied some light foundation, and then gave her a neutral shadow and long black lashes.

Both girls smiled at Cammie's reflection in the mirror. Gemma was so good at knowing just what Cammie wanted, she never went too over the top and never tried to push Cammie, well actually she pushed Cammie all the time, but she never tried to make Cammie an exact replica of herself. They got along well.

Cammie was delicate when the two girls had met. Cammie had been in a dark place and many people worried about her. She had almost no friends except Jace, but Cammie had been pushing him away too. Gemma had somehow managed to wake Cammie up, show her that her mom's passing wasn't her fault. Nobody really knew how she did it, not even Cammie or Gemma understood it, but Cammie knew that she could never lose Gemma.

Not many people understood just how deep Cammie had been in the abyss. But Gemma did and that's why this was all worth it. It was why no matter what happened Cammie was sure she'd do anything to keep Gemma in her life. Even if it meant giving up the love of her life.

"Thank you Gems!" Cammie hugged her friend. "They should be here to pick me up soon." Cammie said.

She checked through her gray purse to make sure everything was there and that she had enough money. There was a knock at the door and Cammie's stomach started doing summer salts. She was really nervous, what if she embarrassed herself in front of the guys, what if they didn't like her, what if she wasn't pretty enough, smart enough, funny enough. What if she wasn't enough-?

"Cammie!" Gemma shouted at her friend who had a look on her face like she was a bunny caught in the headlights of a car, "You going to get that?"

Cammie nodded meekly before hurrying to the front door. Ramsey stood in front of her wearing his leather jacket and white t-shirt that clung to him, dark worn jeans. Now understanding just how wealthy he was, Cammie appreciated the understated way that he dressed and presented himself.

Clearly it wasn't the money that inflated his ego beyond hope.

As usual his hazel eyes were sparkling with mischief and made Cammie blush as they settled on her, which if he mentioned she would blame on the wind.

Part of her still wanted to be mad at him with the way he had demanded she attend the mysterious gala with him, but she had realized quickly that it was hard to stay mad at Ramsey. Especially when he apologized by bringing your favorite white chocolate mocha frappuccino to school every morning for the next week.

He smirked at her, "Ivy League! You look great!"

She swatted at him, as if to say "Shut Up" but he caught her hand and pulled her close. Her eyes widened slightly, but then she glanced over his shoulder and saw all the guys in the car with their heads turned towards them. He's putting on a show.

They were always putting on a show.

"Thanks, you don't look too bad yourself." She managed to whisper, she expected him to pull away, but he held her hand and allowed them to stand exactly where they were in silence.

Ramsey's eyes began to burn in a way that made Cammie sweat. Was he going to kiss her again? He'd already used one of their three kisses and Cammie's toes almost curled at the memory of it. God she hoped he didn't kiss her again today. She didn't think she could handle it right now. She should have said no kissing.

"Where's my frappuccino?" Cammie whispered, trying to break the moment and add some humor. Sure enough, the heat in Ramsey's dulled, but only to make way for a different look. One that was warm and filled with fondness of some sort.

"I thought I was off the hook for those." he responded with a slight chuckle. He seemed happy that she was teasing him.

If Cammie had learned anything about Ramsey since they'd started talking again it was that he thrived off of banter. It was his favorite way to communicate and while Cammie had never considered herself to be one for teasing, not even with her own sister, she was beginning to not only appreciate her dynamic with Ramsey, but enjoy it.

"Hmm, I don't recall saying I forgive you."

"I'm pretty sure it was mixed in with the Oh Ramsey this is amazing and thank you thank you thank yous that I got all week."

The suggestive nature of his phrases and voice had Cammie all but gasping in outrageous contempt, but the shock on her face only caused him to throw his head back laughing and almost immediately Cammie found herself laughing along with him.

"You two love birds going to get in the car or not?" Nick shouted out of the SUV that sat in the Haveryard's driveway.

Cammie bit her lip as Ramsey flung his arm around her shoulder and started to lead her to the car full of boys. Shit, he smells good. Really good. She smiled as she climbed into the back seat and settled on Ramsey's lap and next to Mike, Nick was driving, Grant was next to him in the passenger seat, and Dylan was on the other side of Mike.

"Glad to see you could make it, Nicholas." She greeted,

"Oh I wouldn't miss this show for the world." Nick teased, but his choice of words made Cammie's stomach twist nervously. She had just referred to this whole thing as a "show" too. Surely he was just using a figure of speech, a colloquialism if you will. Still, she couldn't help but think Ramsey was right, they had to get this thing right.

"The whole crew here?" Nick asked, making sure everyone was in the car.

"Yup." Mike said winking at Cammie, she felt Ramsey tense up beside her, but ignored it. Surely she was just imagining the way his hand seemed to slightly increase its grip on her hip.

Nick started down the street.