"Cam?" she cried out in alarm. "Is-is that you? Wait, what?"

"It sure is Miss Park, how are you doing?"

"Cam!" she said. "Cam, are you okay?"

She could hear how absurd she sounded, her voice loud and unnaturally shrill, but a tsunami of emotions were coursing through her at the moment, with panic and embarrassment duking it out for first place. It was all she could do not to hurl the phone at the wall and destroy the treacherous thing once and for all.

"I sure am ma'am," he said. "But it sounds like maybe you can't say the same."

"I-Sorry I thought you were my sister."

Abruptly she remembered his text, his disappearance act, the worry he had caused her.

"Wait, Cam, where have you been? I thought something had happened to you! Everyone was worried!" Everyone meaning, of course, other people, not so much herself. Well yes, of course she was worried too, but obviously not any more than what would be appropriate for a teacher to feel about her missing former student.

"Oh you know, been laying low."

She waited for him to continue and when he didn't a pang of annoyance—anger really—shot through her.

"No Cam, I don't know."

When he still didn't say anything she got even angrier.

"Goddammit I don't hear from you all summer, not even a text, and then you send me that one yesterday, out of the blue, and then I heard from some of the other kids you've gone missing and what am I supposed to think? I even called your father about you!"

She left out the part where Kyle hadn't seem quite as worried about Cam as she had expected. Also the part where she had sex with him in a river. During a baptism.

"Yeah? What did he say about me?"

Little fucker, she could tell he was laughing at her.

"Okay you know what? Obviously you are doing just fine and dandy Cam. I have to go now, I need to call my sister back."

She ended the call, turned off the phone, and threw it at the wall for good measure. It bounced off the corner of her bureau and landed back on her bed, like a boomerang intent on returning to its owner.

"Big girl pants," she muttered out loud, and turned her phone back on. A single text announced itself.

It was from her sister:

"I'm coming to Texas. See you soon."

"Fuck!" she shrieked, and threw her phone a second time, and this time it hit the wall with a solid smack, and when she went to retrieve it she couldn't help but feel a small jolt of triumph at the fact that not only was the screen destroyed but the damn thing was fried for good.

***

An hour later she was sitting at her kitchen table googling what time the cell phone store would open the next morning when the doorbell rang.

There was not a single person in Texas who she wanted to see at that moment, and unless it was her sister, magically transported from New Jersey in order to begin wreaking havoc on her life as quickly as possible, there was no way in hell she was going to get up and answer the door. If it was important whoever it was—probably Melvin, come to harass her about something else—could come back in the morning. Preferably when she had already left the house to go buy a new phone.

The ringing stopped after a few more tries, and she smiled in relief. Then frowned when she remembered how Melvin and Kyle liked to surprise her at her back door, but by the time she had jumped up to turn off the kitchen lights and hide in the living room it was too late, and her visitor was now knocking on her back door. Her lime green polyester kitchen curtains were wide open to the world, and whoever was out there in the pitch black of her backyard could look in while she couldn't see a thing except for the creepy little tree frogs that liked to suction cup themselves to her windows at night, the better to stare at her.

She took a deep breath, put the chain on her door, and opened it a crack. The humid night air and a big ball of a mosquito hit her in the face simultaneously.

"Ack!" she screeched, backing away from the door and smacking wildly at her face to get rid of the thing, then stopped in horror when she realized it had flown right into her mouth and down her windpipe. She started trying to cough and gag it up and ran to the sink to pour herself a cup of water, though she wasn't sure if that was the right move. Would it just go down farther and into her stomach? But it was in her windpipe, so really she was just going to breathe it into her lungs and it would probably lay its eggs there and—

"It's me Miss Park."

Cam. She slammed her plastic Slurpee cup down in indignation and whirled around to confront the boy peering through the small opening in her kitchen door. But when she opened her mouth to tell him to go away, she started coughing again instead.

Goddammit.

So she did the next best thing she could think of, which was hurl the cup of water at her door. It hit the door's window glass with a light, unsatisfying bump and threw water across her kitchen floor. She didn't even think Cam had noticed.

"Miss Park, open the door. I only want to talk to you, I promise."

She sucked in a mouthful of air and, to her surprise, was finally able to say something without choking and wheezing.

"Go away Cam!" she cried out, and shoved the door shut for emphasis. Then opened it again on its chain to ensure he heard the rest of what she had to say.

"You mean you only want to fuck me, you little piece of—"

"Miss Park," he repeated, as though he hadn't heard a damn word she'd said.

"Go away, Cam, please."

"Miss Park, open the door. I won't even come in, I promise."

She hit the door with her fist in frustration.

"Ouch!" she yelped before she could stop herself. She could hear the crazy in her voice, the anger and the tears, and she knew a great big part of it had nothing to do with this overgrown teenager who could get her blood boiling in seconds flat.

"Miss Park, please. Please."

It was the second please that broke her resolve. The way his voice had cracked, letting in a hint of the boy. Her heart twisted inside her chest.

"I can't Cam, I can't, I'm sorry. Not right now. I just can't."

She leaned her forehead against the door's window glass, closed her eyes, and listened to the steady, quiet sound of his breathing. His rough, calloused hand kept the door wedged open on its chain, and she caught the faint scent of him, the testosterone and the tobacco and that other fresh, sweet smell of youth.

Then it clicked.

"Cam, are you wearing cologne?" She lifted her head up and peeked at him through the narrow opening. It was the first time she'd laid eyes on her since that night in June when he had dropped her off in front of her house, covered in his scent. She caught a glimpse of a navy blue polo shirt and ... flowers?

"I am Miss Park," he said, smiling at her surprise. "I even took a shower."

"What for? Are you going on a date with someone?" Of course Madysen immediately came to mind, though according to Madysen Cam had been MIA for some time.

"You Miss Park, I'm hoping you."

She couldn't help it, she laughed. Truthfully, a part of her really did think he was joking, and the other part of her, the angry, hurt part of her, wanted to hurt him right back. Especially since she didn't believe him.

"Get out of here Cam," she snapped, and slapped at his hand in a weak effort to get it out of the way so she could close and lock her back door, once and for all. Who did these Walker men think they were anyway? What right did they think they had to give her so much ... grief?

"Miss Park I'm being serious. Let me take you out." That note of pleading again. The sweet boy in him, the one she had only met briefly that time he had sat in his truck and proudly, and sadly, recited Shakespeare's poetic description of Ophelia's suicide.

She stopped attacking his hand and pressed her forehead against the door again as a bone deep tiredness descended onto her shoulders.

"Cam, you did take me out, to Denny's, remember? Look, I'm not mad at you, I promise. I just can't do this right now."

Now it was his time to laugh in surprise.

"You really think I'd take you out to a Denny's Miss Park? I know I'm only 19, but I know how to treat a lady."

"This is ridiculous," she mumbled to herself, then unlatched the door chain and opened the door all the way to reveal the young man outside, waiting on her back doorstep with a bouquet full of summer wildflowers. She thought of the ones that had been on his father's dining table—no scratch that, their dining table—that night in June when she had made so many mistakes within such a short space of time.

Before she could jump down that rabbit hole, however, her thoughts were swept away by the youth and beauty of her former student, and the sudden, electrifying pull she felt emanating from his long, lean body. 

-------

Hello my fellow Wattpadders! If you like what I'm writing and want to keep up with all my projects and dirty thoughts etc then you should definitely subscribe to my newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/xoxonathalie

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