Chapter 9
1611 Words
Camille sighed for the fifth time that day.
Class seemed to be dragging out and she just couldn't pay attention to what the lecturer was saying about structural design. Her mind kept wondering to Alice. After the whole incident at Hal's and after her shift had finished that day, she had gone home hoping to mend things between them.
Instead, she had found a note.
Camille, I've decided to go home. And since you haven't yet explained why you dragged me away from my boyfriend, I can only guess that it's because you're jealous. I cannot stay with someone who is jealous of me and would try to destroy my relationship.
Just remembering the note made her upset all over again.
The whole thing was ridiculous.
She… jealous?
How could she be jealous of something that wasn’t even real?
She should’ve just let Jace end things right then and there when he’d said he would.
And then what…
Have her sister hurt?
Have Alice blame her for Jace breaking up with her?
What would that have helped?
Camille sighed.
That was Sunday and it was now Tuesday. Alice had called her when she’d reached home, but her words were stiff. Camille had tried to tell her some flimsy excuse of Jace being an ass to her that night, but Alice wouldn't hear it.
Lately, Camille had felt like a barrier had developed between her and her sister.
Now this thing -whatever it was- with Jace was tearing them apart even more. Her stomach twisted at the thought.
A hand tapping her shoulder brought her out of her thoughts. Camille glanced at the person the hand belonged to.
"Class is over," the girl told her. Camille scanned the room to see that there were only a few people left.
"Oh, thanks," Camille told her, then added, "By the way, I'm Camille," Camille said as she extended her hand. The girl shook it with a full grin.
"I know. I'm Madison," she replied. Camille felt bad that she hadn't known her name when Madison had known hers.
"I transferred recently," Madison, added. Camille nodded, understandingly.
"That's cool. How do you like GU so far?" Camille asked politely, while she packed up her books.
"It's great. The classes are smaller and more personalized than at my last school." Camille began to walk and Madison continued talking as they exited the class. The slight breeze whipped through Camille's hair, and she pushed it back, annoyed.
"So why'd you pick GU?"
"I changed my major and my old school didn't have it, so I switched to the closest Fashion designing school, which so happened to be this one." Camille nodded and was about to ask her another question when-
"Camille!" She turned around to see who called her name. Her friend Alex was hurriedly approaching her.
"Alex, slow down. What's the hurry?" she asked, teasingly. He flashed her a grin as he arrived.
"Well, I’m running late for my next class but I needed to speak with you first," he said as he caught his breath."You really need to start answering your phone, by the way," he added.
Camille gave him a puzzled look and took out her phone. Sure enough, there were five missed calls from him. She had forgotten she had put it on silent for class.
"Sorry," she mumbled, giving him a sheepish grin. He gave her a lop-sided grin while shaking his head.
Camille noticed that it made his navy blue eyes light up. Alex was a very attractive guy. He had shaggy brown hair, blue eyes, full lips, a perfectly straight nose and perfect teeth, which he loved to flash. He just had that perfect boy next-door look. A look Camille wasn't exactly attracted to, unfortunately. Camille had always suspected that her friend had a crush on her, but he never mentioned it so neither did she.
The sound of someone clearing their throat brought her out of her reverie. She glanced at Madison.
"Oh sorry," Camille said, "Um...Alex this is Madison."
Madison smiled politely and Alex returned it with a 'hey' before turning back to Camille. Madison frowned and Camille wondered if her –maybe- new friend had a crush on Alex.
"Well anyway. I have tickets to see Blue Steel Crush and wondered if you wanted to go." Camille’s eyes widened in disbelief. Blue Steel Crush was one of her favorite bands, and she had been dying to see them live.
"No way! But their tickets have been sold out for months," she exclaimed. Alex shrugged.
"Yeah well… I camped out for them before they went on sale," he admitted sheepishly and Camille looked at him in awe.”So I'm guessing that's a yes?" he added.
"Do you even have to ask?" She hugged him tightly, thanking him.
She pulled away slightly and noticed how his hands lingered on her waist. Camille tried to subtly shrug it off. She knew what it meant and didn't want to exactly lead him on.
"Yeah well I’ll call you later and tell you the details. But I have to go now so later Cam. Bye Madison," he said before leaving with a wave.
"Well, he seemed to really like you," Madison told her, sourly.
"I don't know about that," she denied. "He just knows Blue Steel Crush is one of my favorite bands and camped out for the tickets because…that's what friends do," She finished lamely.
Madison gave her a –is-that-the-best-you-can-come-up-with- look.
Camille shrugged. "Well later Madison. I need to go. See you Thursday," she told her as she waved. Madison still had that sour look on her face and Camille wondered if she’d already lost her as a friend.
~AONSTC~
After her conversation with Alex and Madison, Camille had called Jace and had gotten the directions to where he lived.
As she drove closer to his apartment, she realized the environment was slightly familiar.
Jace lived in a more upscale apartment than she did. Camille entered the building hesitantly and pressed number four in the elevator. Soft, elevator music was playing but she ignored it as her palms began to sweat again.
She rubbed her hands on her shorts and held the straps of her bag tighter as the elevator dinged and opened. She walked to number forty-six and rapped her knuckles on the door, gently, but firm.
After a few moments, Jace opened the door draped only in a towel around his waist. His hair hung limp from the water weighing it down and water glistened off his body.
Her eyes travelled from his broad, muscular shoulders and arms to his well-defined abs and down to where the water disappeared below the towel, but she managed to stop herself before her eyes went even further. Her gaze flung back up to his face to see his lips curved into a smirk.
“Enjoying yourself?” he said and Camille coughed, her face turning red.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about," she said, before quickly adding, “Aren’t you going to let me in?”
He smirked at her before stepping aside to let her in.
.
Camille glanced around and realized they were the only ones there. "So where's the rest of the band?" she asked.
"They're on their way," he told her. "Listen, I'm going to go put on some clothes so that you’ll still have some saliva left by the time you leave. You can set up or whatever and raid my kitchen if you want."
Then he walked off leaving Camille in shock.
She wanted to respond that she was not salivating at the sight of him in a towel. But she knew he would just call her on her bluff and she would certainly lose after that.
Gripping her bag, Camille began looking around.
The kitchen was directly in front of her. To the left was a dining table and to her right were black couches and a big flat screen TV. Beside the living room was a hallway that she assumed led to the bedrooms.
Everything in the apartment screamed bachelor pad, except for the touch of femininity she saw from the few plants around the space.
Camille wondered who had done that.
She also wondered what Jace actually did for a living because she knew that just playing at Hal's couldn’t possibly be enough to afford this apartment.
Soon Jace came back out dressed in a white t-shirt and black sweatpants, his feet bare. She couldn't take her eyes off his muscles and he knew it too as that signature smirk of his was present on his face.
Smug bastard.
Camille breathed deeply as she took out the Camcorder from her bag and placed it on the dining table. She really hoped the rest of the band would arrive soon.
Jace chuckled at her clear discomfort, but didn't comment. "So what can I get you? Do you want me to pour you a drink, or do you want a soda or a well…" he paused and scanned his kitchen, "water?"he asked as he saw that she hadn't actually raided his fridge.
"I'm okay, thanks,” she said.
“Suit yourself,” he shrugged, before getting himself a can of Coca-Cola and hopping onto the counter.
Camille fidgeted with her hands, feeling awkward.
"Did you know your sister apologized to me? About Friday?" he asked, looking at her intently.
Camille clenched her hands. Jace did not miss the action. "Oh, she did? Did she?"
"Which means you haven't told her," he said.
"Told her what?" Camille asked.
He raised an eyebrow."You never did tell her that you slept with me did you?"
- Writer
