Page 30 of Just Like Summer

Kamilla pulled in a deep breath and chewed the inside of her cheek. The levy was breaking and there was nothing she could do to hold it in. “Four weeks and I-I-”

He moved closer.

“I’m so mad at her, Cairo. I’m so angry. Why would she just leave me out here with nobody?” Kamilla asked, bawling into her hands. He pulled her into his arms and let her release. It was apparent it was overdue.

When she finally lifted her head, he swiped the tears from her cheeks.

“I’m sorry. I just-”

“Haven’t had a chance to grieve in peace. I get it. You don’t have to apologize either,” he shared.

Kamilla rested her head on his shoulder. “Her taking her life only solidified that I lost her when we put my father in the ground. As toxic as their relationship was, it was three of us and I fit there. Now, I’m just out here alone trying to figure it out and it sucks. I don’t know how to do this. How am I supposed to do this?”

Cairo didn’t respond. What Kamilla needed was to let everything out she’d been holding on to.

“Fuckin’ selfish,” Kamilla muttered, sniffling and wiping the hot tears from her face. “She swallowed a bottle of pills three days after graduation and wrote me a note saying she did all she could do. Then slit her wrists open. I couldn’t even grieve my father without being the butt of a joke or befriended for clout.”

Kamilla lifted her head and fidgeted with her hands. “How do you deal with this?”

“K, I’m a lot more felonious than you,” Cairo admitted.

“So you just killed people?”

He swayed his head. “I killed the person responsible. It never made the pain go away. That’s probably what’s wrong with me. Why my head ain’t right. You’re too good to have those type of thoughts.”

“How do you know that? How good am I if I can’t even make my mother stay around for me?” Kamilla muttered, letting the tears fall freely.

Cairo repositioned himself in front of her and cupped her face. His thumbs swiped the tears away. “You can’t hold that. That’s not yours to hold. I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to leave you if they could help it. You got me stuck and I don’t like nobody.”

Kamilla rolled her eyes, attempting to ward off the depth those words held. “It’s because something is wrong with you.”

“That might be true, but when you’ve seen darkness all your life, when the light comes, you hold on to that shit.”

Kamilla’s hands found his forearms and instead of fighting off whatever this was, she allowed herself to stay in this moment.

“I wish you could see what I do. What bitches like QaMeesha see. What they try to steal from you and can’t. It’s so fuckin’ beautiful, K. You know that?”

She nipped her lip and shook her head. “It’s been a very long time since I heard it or even felt it.”

“It’s in you. It’s worth protecting. And everyone can see it. Something that valuable, people want to heist. Trust me I know.”

She sniffled. “So what, you’re going to snatch it so no one else can have it?”

Cairo’s thumb lightly brushed over her bottom lip. “Nah.”

Kamilla shivered slightly under his touch. It was like an electric current shocked her heart back into rhythm. “Figured,” she quipped, attempting to move but her body was frozen.

“I’m protecting that. I’m protecting you.”

“And in exchange…” She tucked her lips.

Another swipe of his thumb released them. Then his lips met hers. Slow, unpretentious pecks that lingered. Three to be exact. A feeling she’d never had the luxury of having.

“I get to experience how beautiful life can get,” he replied, watching how her cheeks flushed red and she released his forearm to barely touch her lips. “Was that your first kiss?”

Embarrassed, Kamilla nodded. “The last person to kiss me was that annoying boy in the second grade and my daddy showed up ready to light the school up. I’ve never even had a boyfriend. Just been out here overlooked.”

He hummed, her chin still hooked in his fingers. “Well, I see you.”