Taking Flight (28 page)

“What if,” I replied, and then paused briefly, trying to find the best way to break the idea to her, “we could just leave here and go to New York. Start the next chapter in our lives. We could transfer schools and finish out up there, and then—”

“Whoa,” she cut me off, laughing a little. “I’ve already applied for college. I need to graduate on time, and I need to graduate from the high school I’m at now.”

“Not necessarily,” I corrected. “They’re not gonna revoke your acceptance just because you finished up somewhere else, Cammie. Just as long as you still graduate in May, you’re fine. Caitlyn and Zeke are already going to have a place ready for us to move into. Caitlyn’s transferring schools, and she’s not worried about colleges.”

“And how are you getting up there, then?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

“They’re picking me up.”

She shook her head. “You can’t arrange that. Not with Mom and Dad monitoring all of your phone calls. You can only do it around me, and you haven’t.”

I took a deep breath, and then let it out. “Don’t hate me.”

“What?”

“I arranged it before I got here. I turn eighteen in March. They’re coming on my birthday. At night.”

She stepped away from me, eyebrows furrowing. “And you didn’t tell me this until
now
?”

“Well, I didn’t know if I could trust you not to tell your parents,” I admitted. “And I didn’t want you to be mad at me.”

“Of course I’m mad!” she replied, nostrils flaring. “Were you just going to leave in the middle of night without telling me?”

“No!” I groaned. “Cammie, that was before. Now… I want you to know, because I’d really like if you came with me.”

“How can you ask me to make that decision? I can’t run away from my home and switch high schools with two months left; are you insane?”

“You could,” I mumbled as my cheeks began to heat up. It did sound ridiculous, now that she’d said it aloud. “I know it sounds crazy, but I have the money to back it up.”

“But I don’t. I have a life here. You don’t have that. You’re the one who has nothing to lose.”

“But I don’t have anything to gain, Cammie,” I pointed out. “I’m going to New York because it’s where my friend and her brother want to go. I’d go anywhere that wasn’t here or Los Angeles. But
you
have so much to gain by going! You can go to your dream school and live your dream life, and you’d get some distance between yourself and your mom while she cools off. Maybe the time apart would make her realize it’s not worth it to shut you out because of who you love.
And
your dad would have both kids out of the house and can still do his job if he wants to. It all fits.”

“Except for the part where I ditch my family and hometown in the middle of the night without any warning,” Cammie deadpanned.

I sighed and reached up scratch at my head. “Maybe if you thought about it—”

“I can’t go,” she interrupted. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

I swallowed hard. “But… I’m already set to go. I’m leaving on my birthday. If you don’t come with me…”

“Don’t put that pressure on me,” she retorted. “You made your decision before you even met me. It’s on you to change your mind, not me. This is my home. Maybe after graduation I can think about New York, but until then, I’m staying here.”

She turned and hurried away, wrapping her arms around herself to shield her body from the wind chill as she left the safety of the stable.

I watched her go, cold and shivering, and let out at a soft curse as I kicked out at the stall door closest to me. Aerosmith shifted backwards with surprise, and I muttered, “Sorry,” then left him there, my heart somewhere in my stomach.

Chapter Twenty

David spent an unnatural amount of time sitting at Cammie’s desk in her bedroom that night. He kept glancing back and forth between our beds.

I sat on mine, silent, and listened to music while Cammie took a shower. Every now and then, I’d glance up at David to see him resting his chin in his hands, looking deep in thought. Eventually, I had to speak up.

“Figured it out yet?”

He shook his head simply, and then let out a heavy sigh. “I have to say… as a parent, I have absolutely no idea how to handle this.”

I pressed my lips together and nodded, feigning sympathy. “Quite the conundrum.”

He glanced to Cammie’s bed, where it rested just feet from mine, and then back to me again. “Can’t put you on the couch or Wendy’ll notice,” he muttered, thinking aloud. “Can’t move you at all, really, because we’d risk her noticing. Can’t move you out of the room but can’t have you in the same room…”

“I’m a child of God now, remember? I go to church,” I reminded him. “I would
never
—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” he warned me. I smirked and broke eye contact, glancing back down to my mp3 player as David rose from his seat. Newly inspired, he declared, “I’ve got it. Cammie will stay in Scott’s room until he returns. If her mother asks, she’ll claim she misses him.”

I snorted. “That’s so weak.”

“When he gets back, we’ll address this again,” he declared, ignoring me.

I arched an eyebrow up at him. “So how does this plan account for the fact that we’re teenagers, so we don’t respect authority and we’re pretty much constantly hor-” He shot me a horrified look and I finished, incredibly amused, “
-monal
?”

“Cammie will respect my rules,” he said, though he didn’t sound entirely convinced.

“Cammie’s a liar,” I sing-songed, scrolling absentmindedly through a playlist I’d made recently. When he didn’t immediately reply, I felt bad and added, “But a better person than me. And there’s no way I’m getting anywhere near Scott’s dirty-sock-smell-infused room, so to be perfectly honest, this is probably the best idea you’re gonna have.”

“I think so too.”

The bedroom door opened and Cammie paused in the doorway, pajamas on and wet hair up in a towel. “Dad? What are you doing in here? Didn’t you and Mom go to bed?”

“Working out your new sleeping arrangements,” David explained. I sighed at Cammie as he continued, “The rule used to be that you couldn’t share a room with boys. Now it’s only fair that it’s changed to not being able to share a room with girls.” He paused awkwardly. “Or… at least it seems to me that it’s only fair. I’m still new to this.”

Cammie stood in the doorway for another long moment, her eyes unwavering on him as he shot her an uncertain look. Then, without warning, she moved and threw her arms around him. I blinked at them, wide-eyed. David seemed even more surprised than I was, but he hugged her back all the same, even as an intrigued smile spread across his lips.

“I love you, Dad,” Cammie mumbled, voice muffled by his shoulder.

“I love you too, Cam,” he murmured, squeezing her tighter. “And if I get hugs from banning you from your girlfriend, all the more reason to keep doing it.”

She sniffled lightly as she pulled away and wiped at one eye with her hand. “I’m just happy we can talk about it like… like it’s okay and it’s all the same. It was boys and now it’s girls. Simple.”

“Seems simple to me,” he agreed. They shared a smile and then he moved away from her, toward the door. “I’m gonna go change the sheets on Scott’s bed…and find some air freshener. Cammie, if your mother finds out you’re in there for the week she might ask questions.”

“I’ll come up with something,” Cammie assured him. “I know how.”

David seemed perturbed by her answer, but nodded anyway. “Okay. I’ll come get you when the bed’s ready.”

He left, and Cammie immediately let out a soft sigh and turned to face me. I stared back at her, silent. Things had been tense since our talk earlier in the day, but she seemed, for a moment, to have put it from her mind.

“I can’t believe he’s this okay with it,” she marveled.

I nodded, and said, simply, “People surprise you.”

“Not him. Not my family. Not usually, anyway. I mean, you saw how my brother reacted.”

“And you saw how your dad reacted. Maybe he can help ease your mom into the idea.” I wasn’t delusional enough to think that Wendy was going to react the way David had. She’d probably be even worse than Scott, and both Cammie and I knew that.

She laughed at what I’d said. “There’s no easing her into this. If she finds out, she’ll lose it. And
I’ll
lose
her
.”

“I think it’s more of a ‘when’ than an ‘if’, Cammie.”

“I know.” She moved to sit down on her bed, troubled. “I wish this could all just go away, you know? If I knew she’d have no problem with it, I’d tell her, let her know that I might be moving to New York with you after my graduation, and that’d be the end of it.”

“I think that even a normal mom who’s super attached to her daughter would freak out over all of that,” I said, chuckling. “I’m supposed to be messed up and in need of some serious therapy, and you’re dating me.”

“Who says you aren’t?” she quipped, smiling over at me.

“That’s fair. I still probably need therapy. But I wasn’t supposed to be sleeping with their daughter or talking her into moving across the country.”

“You didn’t talk me into it. I wanted to before you ever showed up.” She paused, and then shrugged. “You were just the first person who ever made me feel like it was a real possibility.”

My heart warmed as she stood to give me a quick kiss, and then I asked her, “Do you know when you’ll find out if you got into art school?”

“Any day now.”

“Are you nervous?”

She laughed. “Uh, yes.”

“Don’t be,” I said, confident. “You’ll get in.”

David reappeared in the doorway a moment later. “Cameron, the room’s all set up,” he told her. “If you don’t mind saying goodnight to Lauren now, I’d like to talk to her alone for a few minutes.”

I shifted uncomfortably at that, wondering if this was the inevitable father to daughter’s significant other talk that seemed to happen in every teen romcom. I’d never been put through one before, but if it had to happen, I was glad it was with David about Cammie.

Cammie nodded at her father and then glanced to me awkwardly. “Um. Goodnight, Lauren.”

“Night,” I offered, swallowing hard. Cammie looked like she wanted to kiss me, but thought better of it in front of her father and simply reached out to briefly touch my arm before turning and leaving the bedroom. David closed the door behind her and then moved to sit at her desk again, across from my bed. I watched him, wary.

“This isn’t new territory for me,” he began. “At least, not as far as Cammie dating someone. With her past boyfriends, I’d sit down with them, make sure they had good intentions, and then send them on their way. I don’t tell them not to hurt her, and I don’t threaten them. I don’t think that’s an appropriate way to address someone my daughter could potentially spend the rest of her life with. I don’t like getting off on the wrong foot.”

He paused, and I sensed I wasn’t going to like what he said next. “Lauren, you and I already got off on the wrong foot, and I think we’ve managed to get back on track, so I have no problem telling you right now that I am not messing around here, and if this is some sort of game to you – although I don’t believe it is – you and I are going to have a serious problem.”

I was uncertain how I should respond to that. “I like Cammie,” I mumbled at last, and knew it sounded weak. David seemed to realize how much he’d intimidated me and sat back in his seat, backing off a little.

“I know you do. I know you better than I’ve known any of her past boyfriends, and I consider that a good thing. But you didn’t come here for this. You came here to get help.”

There was my opening. I took it earnestly. “Cammie’s helping me. She’s the whole reason I’m doing okay. You’re alright, and I like you more than I thought I would, and I know we get along, but… I couldn’t tell you before, obviously, but it was all Cammie, all along. She gave me something to like here. She’s good for me.”

“I’m not so sure you’re good for her,” he replied. That stung. “You have a lot going on right now. You have a life that… Well, it’s not as simple or easy as I’m sure you’d like it to be, and you can’t help that. But Cammie—”

“Hasn’t had it easy, either,” I reminded him. “She’s told me things I know you’d never want to hear. You love her, and her mom loves her, but she’s spent years wondering if that love was conditional. That screws up a person. I know what it’s like to doubt your own parents like that too. So this isn’t…”

I paused, struggling for the right words, “This isn’t me taking a girl from her simple, easy country life and throwing her into the middle of all my family crap and then whisking her away to a city too big for her, okay? This is me seeing that she isn’t happy here and offering an alternative option she’s wanted for a long time but felt like she could never pursue because of her parents. You have so much power over her and you don’t even realize it. She’s spent so much time being told that what she wants isn’t okay, that what she’d do and who she’d love were set in stone, and if you told her that wasn’t the case, I know that’d mean the world to her. I know it would.”

“This isn’t about her dating a girl, or about her going to New York,” David insisted. “It’s about you. There are things in your life that have forced you grow up before you were ready, and I’m afraid to have Cammie involved in that. I don’t want her to have to grow up before she’s ready, too.”

“She already has,” I shot back. “That’s what you don’t get. Normal teenagers don’t put their own wants aside for their parents as soon as they’re old enough to realize what those wants are, but Cammie did. And that’s
your
fault. Maybe she knows what she’s getting into. Maybe it’s worth it to her. And maybe the last thing I wanna do is hurt her.” I hesitated as he watched me, and then added, “With all due respect, I’m not the bad guy here. You and your wife are.”

His eyes narrowed. “That’s crossing a line.”

I shrugged. “Maybe. I know you care about her. I know her mom does too. But before I showed up, Cammie would’ve done
anything
for you two, particularly Wendy. She would’ve thrown her life away to make her mom happy. She’d have been whoever you two wanted her to be, and she’d already perfected becoming that person when I got here. I think what she liked about me was that I saw through it.”

I sucked in a breath abruptly, shaking my head. This was getting too personal. “You know what? She’s eighteen. I’ll be eighteen in a few months. We’re adults, and I don’t need to justify this to you any more than I already have. It’s personal. We’re good for each other. You’re going to have to trust me, and if you can’t, then you can trust your daughter.
Please
trust your daughter.”

There was a long silence as he stared back at me. “You may be adults,” he spoke up at last, “but you’re under my roof. I like you, Lauren, and I absolutely meant what I said about wanting my daughter to be happy. If it’s what Cammie wants, then I would love for things to work out between the two of you. But the fact remains that you’ve got a lot going on. Both back home, and within your own head. Your time here can’t just be about Cammie. I’m not naïve enough to think I can stop the two of you, or that I can force you to do anything, really. But if you want me to feel confident that my daughter’s in good hands, then you can start by showing me.”

I fixed my eyes on his, my gaze sharp. And then, folding my arms across my chest, I asked, “What would you like me to do?”