Needing You #2 - Wanting Him (23 page)

Chapter Twenty-
One

It hit’s 2:05 a.m. and the place is empty except for Parker, Declan, Nate, Luke, Claudia, and Tucker.  They are still sitting in the booth talking to Eddie.

“We need to move,” she says, pushing me out the door to try to catch Cameron.

“Shit,” I hear Tucker say from in the booth, rushing to come out after us.

“Hey,” Cameron says, “Can we talk?” he says to me.

“You can talk to me asshole,” Harper scolds.

He looks at her confused, and then eyes me.

“What’s up?” he asks looking confused.

“You have some explaining to do now.”

“Explaining about what?” he says
innocently.

“How do you know Claudia?”

“What?”

“You fucking heard me.  I heard you talking to some guy to change test results.  I watched you give him money.  Start fucking explaining,” she yells.

Cameron looks like a deer caught in headlights.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he argues back.

“Don’t make me knock you the fuck out.”

By now Tucker, Parker, and the rest of the guys, including Claudia are all standing behind watchin
g this scene play out.

“I know what I heard and what I saw.  What did you do?”

“What’s going on?” Parker asks looking between the three of us.

Harper spins around and glares at Claudia, then turns to Parker, “I overheard this asshole,” she says pointing over her shoulder in Cam
eron’s direction, “Telling someone not to mess up the test results, that it needs to make sure to show you’re the father.  Then he paid the asshole.”

Parker looks beyond pissed; I can see the anger building up.  He doesn’t say anything to C
ameron; instead he turns to Claudia, “What the fuck is she talking about?”

Claudia lo
oks nervous and keeps looking away, in any direction other than to Parker.

“I asked you a fucking question,” he says a little louder now.

“I…umm…I…I don’t know,” she stutters.

“Is that baby you’re carrying mine or not?” he asks
, even angrier now.

She looks to Cameron for help
, but he doesn’t get the chance to respond, before I glare at him, “Why would you do that?”

“I didn’t do anything,” he defends.

“Someone better tell me what the fuck is going on,” Parker seethes.

“You fucking liar.  How do you know Claudia?”  Harper yells.

Neither answers, they just continue to look at one another.

“Somebody fucking answer,” Tuck yells.

“Fine,” Claudia says finally speaking up, “No Parker, the baby isn’t yours.  We never even slept together,” she says looking annoyed.

“Why the fuck would you lie like that?” he yells at her.

“I didn’t know what to do,” she says nervously.

“Excuse me?” he says looking irate.

“I got pregnant by an asshole and when I met you, you were so nice to me,” she says softly.

“So you decided to play it off somehow that we had sex and I knocked you the fuck up?” Parker asks
, dumbstruck by the situation.

“You were
drunk; I knew you wouldn’t even remember.”

“You knew I had a fucking girlfriend. I told you and your friend,” he scolds.

“I know, I had to hear all about how fucking perfect she was over and over and then I heard the same damn thing from Cameron.  I don’t get what you two fucking see in her.  She doesn’t look all that perfect to me,” she snaps, glaring at me.

“I
never even dated Cameron,” I snap.

“
Not yet, but in time you would have,” she seethes.

“How do you two know each other?” I ask even more confused.

“We don’t,” Cameron quickly says.

“Bullshit,” Harper yells.

“Oh give it up Cameron,” Claudia says to him, “He’s my cousin.”

“I don’t understand how Parker and I fit into this
equation,” I state confused.

“Are you really that stupid?” Claudia states.

“Excuse me,” I retort.

“Cameron wanted you from the moment he saw you, though for the life of me I don’t know why.  When he found out I was pregnant and flipping out about the baby’s dad, he came up with a plan.  It would have worked too if you could have stayed the hell away
from Parker and gave Cameron a fucking chance,” she says giving me an evil glare.

“What the fuck did I do to deserve that?” Parker yells.

“You didn’t deserve it, but you were hot, you’re making money that could provide for me and the baby, and you are an all-around good guy.  The choice was really easy and the more I got to know you the more I liked you,” she says easily enough.

“It was all a fucking lie,” he
hollers.  Parker runs his hands through is hair looking beyond frustrated.

“Parker
, we have something though.  I know you feel it too,” she says as she puts her hands on his arm.

He stares at her. “Are you fucking kidding me? You lied to me, you tricked me, and holy shit…I feel nothing but sorry for you,” he says
, before removing her hand from his arm.  “I gotta get out of here,” he says to no one in particular.

Parker walks briskly to his car, Declan slides into the passenger seat and he peels out of the lot.

“Why would you do that?” I ask Cameron.

“He had what I wanted.”

“You don’t even really know me.  We only ever hung out one time,” I say completely confused by this ordeal.

“You’re wrong
, I do know you.  I saw you months before we played here. I never said anything because you were with him.  But I’ve been asking you out since you guys broke up.”

“
Why?  And no you don’t know me.”

“You weren’t happy with him, I could see it,” he simply says.

“I wasn’t happy because my boyfriend was out on tour and I was here.  How dare you think to come up with some stupid scheme.  What would make you think I would have ever gone on a date with you anyway?” I say, anger flowing off of me.

“Because w
e’re meant to be together Natalie, don’t you see that?” he says as he takes a step closer to me.

“If you want your balls to stay where they are you better not lay one fucking finger on her,” Harp yells
, moving to stand in front of me.

He eyes me up and down unsure of what to do.

“You don’t even fucking know me.  You know nothing about me.  How dare you destroy people’s lives for your own person fucking gain,” I scream.

I turn to walk towards my car, needing space, needing to comprehend what the hell just happened.

“Babe please, let me explain,” he says as he comes chasing up behind me.

“
Don’t fucking call me babe.  I’m not your babe, I’m nothing to you.”

“I did it for us,” he says with a serious look on his face.

“For us?  There is no us.”

“Why do you got to be such a bitch?”

It takes all of two seconds for my hand to pull back and slap him hard across the face.

“Fuck you.  Stay the hell away from me,” I yell before walking the rest of the distance to my car.  I don’t wait for anyone to say or do anything, I get in and leave.

The drive home is short.  I’m still trying to wrap my head around what the hell this Cameron guy and Claudia did.

They purposely broke us up so Cameron could date me and they could make it seem like Parker was having a kid.  How did we
end up in this stupid fucking trap? 

I head
inside; grab a shower, still trying to understand how the hell this happened.  I throw on my shorts and tank top before lying in bed.  Sleep’s not coming easy tonight.

The next morning I wake and can’t help but wonder if Parker and I were ripped apart for m
ore than one reason.  Maybe we weren’t meant to be together after all.

I spend the day lounging around the house. I started reading a new
book; I need someone else’s drama to read, rather than dealing with my own.

Around 3:00 p.m.
, there’s a knock on my door.  I look out the peephole to see its Harper.

“Hey, come in,” I tell her as I hold the door open. 

“Hey, so I wanted to check on you.  Tucker dropped me off, so I hope you don’t mind if I catch a ride to work with you tonight?” she says hopeful.

“That’s fine, have a seat,” I tell her as I motion to the living room.

“So, how are you since last night?”

“I’m fine.”

“Seriously?”

“
Not really, I don’t understand what the fuck happened.”

“That was crazy.  Cameron talked like he’s known you.  You should have heard him after you left.  It’s like you were his girlfriend or something.
Very weird.”

“I don’t even know the guy.  He’s said hi a few times when they played at work,
and we talked on the phone a few times or through text, but that was it.  We never really talked about much of anything.  I don’t get why they would go to such extremes to rip Parker and me apart and try to gain a father for an unborn child.  It’s ridiculous.”

“I can’t fucking
believe it either.  Do you think that means you and Parker can get back together now?” she asks, looking hopeful.

“Honestly
, I have no idea.  I mean they can go on tour again and do the things they want to now that he’s not having a kid.  Maybe, we weren’t meant to be together.”

“I don’t believe that for a second and I know you don’t either.”

“A lot has happened. I thought he broke our trust, but he didn’t, he was manipulated.  I’m sure he wants to get as far away from here as possible.  I know I would.”

“He loves you.  I don’t think he’s going to run away from you,” she says sympathetically.

“We’ve been broken up for a long time now.  People change, Harp.”

“Just don’t give up on him yet,” she says sounding hopeful.

We spend the rest of the evening hanging out talking and laughing.  Nora called to ask if it was okay if she stayed over at Avery’s again tonight.  I tell her its fine.  I’m not here anyway.

We leave around 7:45 p.m. to head in for another night at work.  The place is pretty empty when we get there.

“This looks like it’s going to be a long night tonight.” Harp says as we make are way inside PowerTrips.

“Sure does.  I hope more people come.”

The bar is just as empty inside.

We clock in and start to restock
, because there’s no one waiting for drinks.  Marcus heads out a few minutes after we arrive.

For the next thirty minutes we make sure everything is fully stocked and we are waiting for customers to come.

“Oh my gosh, kill me now,” Harp saying looking bored.

It’s free jukebox night and we have some drink specials
, but apparently people have other plans for tonight.

“Hey,”
Rowan says as she makes her way to up the bar.

“Hey yourself.
  What can I get you?”

“Miller Lite please.”

I grab Rowan a bottle of beer and hand it to her, charging her for the drink.

“You don’t work tonight?”

“Nope, got the night off so figured I’d come bother you two. Plus a few friends are coming in tonight.”

“Well
bother us anytime,” I say with a smile.

“I need to ask
you,” she says looking serious, “Did you hear about Brad?”

“No, what about him?”
I ask nervously.

“He woke up from his coma.  Apparently he doesn’t remember anything that happened to him, but from what people were saying
, he’s in really bad shape.”

“How bad?”

“He may never walk again.”

“Good, the asshole deserves to pay for his actions,” Harper chimes in.

“I agree, he deserves everything he gets,” I admit.

“Yeah he does
,” Rowan agrees.

“By the sounds of it
, he will.  Well I’m gonna grab a table, I’ll talk to you guys in a little while,” Rowan says before heading to an empty table.

“Have fun,” I tell her before heading down to help a customer.

A little while later the bar starts getting busier, thankfully.

“Is Tuck picking you up tonight?” I ask Harp.

“Yeah, he’ll be here by close.”

Rowan and her friends leave a little after midnight, heading to a sorority party.  She invited us both to come after work, but we both decline. 

The rest of the night goes by faster than I thought and before I know it we are restocking the coolers and getting ready to head home for the night.