I hesitate, nervous that I won’t remember the whole routine, but nod anyway. We start to move. Even though I miss a couple of steps once a few seconds pass, my body begins to remember everything. The choreography starts off as a solo for everyone then we join when the chorus hits. When it does, Cameron and I look into each other’s eyes. His facial expression has changed from one of boldness to one of nerves. He’s doing everything almost perfectly, he just needs a confidence boost. Dancing is what I love to do, so I do what I would with any other dance partner who’s unsure of themselves; give him a reassuring smile and put double the amount of energy into the dance. Cam’s eyes light up before we touch, entwined in each other until we have to let go again for our separate steps. I get lost to the music, paying close attention to the lyrics and the message that Cam is trying to express while pushing away the thoughts of doubt I had earlier. The song ends, and the final move leaves us with our faces only inches apart.
We’re both smiling and panting while everyone and everything around us goes silent. His smile falls while he looks down at my lips, then up at my eyes, and back down again. Before my doubts are able to stop me, I grab his face with both hands and crash our lips together. His arms wrap around my body and just as his tongue touches mine, the sound of applause surrounds us. That’s when I remember that we’re around fifteen other people, including my best friend.
I’m the one to break the kiss first, feeling the heat rise up to my cheeks.
“Kamila, baby.” Cam leans his forehead against mine.
Baby.It’s the first time he’s ever said it outside of the bedroom. I didn’t realize how much I missed the sound of his voice until he uttered those two words.
“Thank you, Cameron,” I whisper and look him in the eye. “I’ll see you after winter break.”
His face is one of complete and utter confusion. I decide to leave him that way. I run towards Emma, who’s jumping on her heels. I don’t need a card tonight, the songs spoke for themselves.
“We’re leavingnow?” She catches up to me while I jog away.
“He can wait three more weeks. Besides, I still have unfinished business waiting for me at home.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
KAMILA
Saturday
The smell of Mom’s food greets me as I walk into my house for the first time in weeks. I hang my jacket up and roll my suitcase into the dining room to find her making what seems to be pasta. Concern washes over me. My mom adores cooking. She particularly enjoys making complicated or detailed dishes. Whenever she makes something simple like pasta, she’s either overly exhausted or highly stressed.
She looks up from the counter and walks to me with her arms wide open.
“Hola, mi niña hermosa. ¿Cómo estás? ¿Ya Emma y el papá se fueron?”Hello, my beautiful girl. How are you? Did Emma and her dad leave already?
“Hola, mamá. Sí, ya se fueron.” Hi, Mom. Yes, they already left. “Their flight is tomorrow morning, so they couldn’t stick around.”
Em and her family are off to their yearly trip to Aspen for Christmas and will be back in time for New Year’s Eve. We drovehere in her dad’s new Audi SUV, which was one of the coolest cars I’ve ever been in, excluding Jake’s BMW. Whenever Em and her family offer to drive me here, it’s an automatic yes, especially if it’s her father. He’s been nothing short of an amazing dad to Emma and has treated me like family since I became friends with her.
Mom gives me one last squeeze before letting go to head back to the kitchen. “Make sure to thank Paul for the ride from both of us.”
“Already told him.”
Footsteps sound down the stairs, and my shoulders stiffen. Then I remember that Ana has been staying at a friend’s house for the past few weeks since our mom tried talking to her about what happened at Driscoll. She knows about everything that went down that night, except for David becoming physical. There was no need to add more bad news to an already stressful phone call with her being two hours away from me.
She offered family therapy as an option to all of us in order to communicate our feelings properly and fix our issues the right way. Everyone agreed, except for Ana, of course. My sister got pissed, told Mom she always takes my side and ran off. Thankfully, Mom knows she’s safe through Ana’s friend. It was just further proof of how manipulative she is.
Rafael gives me a quick hug. “Hey, Kami, how’s it going?”
We all make small talk while we eat dinner in the dining room. They ask me about school, amongst other mundane things, and I know my mom is eager to get me alone and ask me more about Ana.I,on the other hand, want her insight on something, or should I saysomeoneelse.
After about an hour, Rafael kicks us out of the dining room so that he can wash the dishes. I’d stick around to help if it wasn’t for Mom running my suitcase up the stairs and yelling at me to follow her. She sits on my bed as I start to unpack.
“Come talk to me, Kamila.” She pats the comforter, and I can’t help but notice my high school logo in the middle. Thebedspread is a dark green with a white and black crest, just like the colors of my old cheerleading uniform.
“Any day now, Kamila.” Mom catches my attention again as I sit in front of her. I’m excited to ask for her advice on a boy. I’ve never had a reason to until now. It was only ever advice on her end about safe sex but never about feelings.
As I’m about to open my mouth to start talking about Cam, she beats me to the punch.
“Have you spoken to Ana lately?”
I let out a heavy sigh. This isn’t what I wanted to talk about tonight, yet I should’ve known it was coming.
“No, I haven’t, and I honestly don’t plan to any time soon.”
