Confidential (40 page)

"Is it the same?" I asked him.

"I'm not sure. That kid's hard to read. He's courteous and everything, but I feel like I wasn't getting the real thing."

"Why do you say that?" I frowned, trying to figure out what was going on in his head.

"Something about the way he was acting around you. It was different than the way he was around me, and I mean obviously, you're his girlfriend." I smiled at his words, "But he kind of put up a wall."

"It's not just you he does that too. You have to understand, he's the center of a lot of town gossip. I think he feels
a
lot of pressure, because everyone talks about him and Jill and everything that happened between you guys. And you can't expect him to be okay with everything. Especially not right away."

"I know." Tom sighed, "Its just a lot to take in. I'm happy though." He smiled.

"That's good." I yawned. "I hope you don't mind, but I'll be going to bed now."

Tom frowned, "With Camdon?"

I raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Tom fixed me with a look, but came up and wrapped me in a hug, "Be safe, and thank you. I'll be seeing you around."

"Alright." I gave him a sleepy smile and locked the door behind him. I trudged my way back to my bed, sleep fighting to overtake me. I drowsily cuddled next to Camdon, who lay on his back, staring at the ceiling.

I hugged his middle and sighed in contentment, lightly starting to drift off to sleep, as Camdon rubbed circles into my back.

I woke up that morning feeling like I was in a dream; I was warm, wrapped in fuzzy blankets, and soft lips were kissing my neck. I couldn't be sure how long Camdon was trying to wake me up, but I could pretend to sleep for a little while longer, if this was the sort of treatment I would receive.

His lips traveled up my neck to my ear, his tongue lightly tracing the outline of it, moving down to graze over my earlobe gently, whispering "Good morning, beautiful." His warm breath hitting my ear sent shivers of pleasure down my spine, and I pulled his face towards mine.

He grabbed my leg and wrapped it around his hips, both of us now laying on our sides, facing each other. His fingers hypnotically moved up and down my thigh, making me moan. I felt him in between my legs respond almost immediately to the sound, and I let out another small moan, this time against his lips, as they pressed more forcefully against mine, and he grew a little harder. I unintentionally squeezed us closer together, my body already responding. "What do you want to do now?" I asked him, "Since, you didn't want to go any further last time, I'm assuming you'll want me to stop again. Right?"

Camdon wasn't even trying to play my game, he grabbed me and pulled me back to him, kissing me to
a
point of oblivion.

*  *  *

I bit into my sandwich, careful not to get sand anywhere in it. Tom took the day off of work and was taking Camdon out to lunch, so Marcus and Dylan and I were lounging around the beach, and I was soaking up some much needed sun.

Marcus was, as usual, discussing Clarissa. I had been tuning him out, but I went back to listening to his rant, smirking and rolling my eyes to show Dylan how ridiculous he was.

"Clarissa's really into birds." Marcus commented as we watched a seagull flying over head.

I laughed, a little shocked at his blunt, and very odd, statement. "What?"

"Yeah." Marcus nodded, matter-of-factly, "She knows the different bird calls and stuff for them. Her grandparents have
a
summer house on a lake somewhere, and she knows all these different kinds." I was about to say something snarky when Dylan pinched me and shook his head. I contained myself. "She'll be excited to know there's a bunch around here."

"Seagulls are kind of like rats. They are everywhere, always feeding on things." Dylan sighed dramatically at my comment. "But that's cool, about Clarissa- didn't know she had… interests."

"She's actually pretty cool. Not as mean as you'd think, only a little out of place. She wants to go to L.A for college."

"We should all go to college together." Dylan said.

"Definitely." I nodded, "It would be awesome, we could have so much fun!" I clapped my hands together, "I'm so ready for high school to be over."

"One more year," Marcus said, "And then we are outta there."

We all silently nodded in agreement. My phone was getting a lot of action this weekend, as it started vibrating from inside my purse somewhere. I practically had to go fishing for it, pulling out a million different things before finding it.

I checked the caller ID, seeing it was from Anna, and answered it. "Hey there," I greeted my peppy friend. She and Detective O'Connor were doing well, Patrick proved to be quite the charmer, and as I knew, a hopeless romantic for anything Anna.

"Heidi," I could here her wary voice on the line. "When do you come home again?"

I instantly frowned, noticing the strain in her voice, devoid of its usual cheeriness. "Tomorrow," I looked at my friends, lazily napping, spread out across the sand, "Why? Is everything okay?" Dylan's eyes popped open at this and I shrugged my shoulders at him.

"I have some news," She spoke, ignoring my question. "Do you remember me telling you we were trying to make a deal with Mickey?"

"Yeah…."

"Well, she agreed to
a
sentence of 30 years in a high security prison. She's even giving us the names of some of her associates. She actually asked for the high security, I think she's a little afraid that someone's going to come after her, since she's been ratting them out."

"That's great," I said, relief flooding my voice.

"She'll be helping out the FBI a little bit, and probably get a shorted sentence, but at least we got her." Anna sounded a little relieved as well.

"I'm so happy for you guys." I couldn't help but smile, "You and dear Patrick should take a vacation. That would probably do you guys some good. You were getting pretty stressed there towards the end."

"Yes," She sighed, a little sadly, "The reason I'm calling is that part of her negotiation is that she wanted to speak with you, before she officially agrees."

I was silent. Anna continued, "I know, you've helped out the investigation so much, and the court process, and it is a lot to ask, but you would be perfectly safe, there is no way anything could happen to you. She simply wants to speak to you, I think she's a bit curious." I could only imagine Anna nervously waiting for my response, but honestly, my mind was pretty blank.

"I'm trying to get past everything, to put it behind me." I began, "But I wouldn't go through everything this past year, and have everyone else do so much, to back out on you guys now. I want her gone just as much as the rest of you, and as long as I'm not in a room full of knives with her by myself." I bit my lip nervously, "Just make sure everything is safe."

"Of course! Of course, you don't have to worry about any of that." Anna was exuberant, "I'll let everyone know. I miss you, by the way. We need to get pedicures when you get back. We haven't had a girl day in a while."

I smiled, "I miss you too, I'm glad everything is going to be finished." I closed my eyes, feeling the sun, "That's all I want."

"I know sweetie," Anna's soothing voice said, "You've been so great through this. I know it's been hard, but I'm serious when I say you helped a lot of people."

I shifted uncomfortably, "Thanks Anna." Dylan sat up next to me curiously, as Marcus started snoring lightly. "I'm gonna head out, but I'll talk to you later. Let me know when and where, and all of that." I said my goodbyes, and hung up the phone.

"Everything good?" Dylan asked

"Mickey made a deal with the police," I told him, "But she wants to speak to me first."

Dylan was quiet for a little bit, "Are you scared?"

"No." I told him honestly. "She can't hurt me." I laid back down, "I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I don't know if I should want to yell at her, or ignore her, or feel excited or nervous." I frowned, "I just don't know."

"Whatever happens, you came out okay. So I wouldn't stress too much about it."

I smiled up at my best friend, comforted by his words. "I'm honestly more emotional about not seeing you guys for the next couple weeks."

"Only until you come stay with me!" Dylan hugged me.

I laughed, "Of course! I wouldn't want to stay in that Arizona heat. Or with the people from my school, ugh. They are annoying. And I'd miss you guys way too much to stay away for long."

"I'm glad." Dylan said, "This vacation has been awesome. I feel like I'm in a different world, I don't want to leave."

I sighed, "Me either, I wish I could stay here forever."

But we couldn't, and before I knew it, all four of us were off to the airport. Camdon held my hand, stroking it with his thumb. I leaned against him, and couldn't help but be sad. I didn't want to leave him. I knew he was still confused, and frustrated over meeting Tom, and I couldn't be there for him if I was in a different state.

In turn, Camdon was nervous about me, and wanted to stay with me until I finished talking to Mickey. But I knew he had way too much to go over with his mom, it was much more important than this one conversation. With my friends leaving, I felt alone, and it made my heart ache a little. The closer and closer I got to knowing I wouldn't see Camdon for a couple weeks, I got teary eyed, and knowing that Dylan and Marcus would be in Iowa, getting one of Dylan's sisters rooms ready for me made start crying. But I knew I was going to be able to spend the summer with them, and that, at least, made me so grateful.

"Here you go." The cab
driver
announced, dropping us off outside the airport. I handed him some cash, before sliding out after my friends.

"I love California." Marcus said. "It's got perfect weather, the ocean, and hot girls."

"I bet your girlfriend is really excited to know how much you appreciate it." I told him sarcastically.

Throwing an arm around me, he said, "I'm simply stating what I have observed."

"Uh huh." I laughed, "Sure you are." For several moments we stood outside the airport, all of us looking back on the nice couple days we had. It was pretty perfect, and I couldn't help but feel like we sort of worked, the four of us.

I begrudgingly looked down at my boarding pass. "My flight leaves in an hour." I tried not to get choked up. "I should probably start heading that way." I was on a different terminal than them, and didn't want to get stuck in the security lines, which were always unnecessarily long.

At my words, Camdon picked me up and twirled me around, before pulling me close to him. "I'm going to miss you so, so much." He whispered into my hair, holding me close.

I practically melted into his arms. "I'm going to miss you more." I said, clutching him tight.