Josh and Cam: the Teen Years
Josh Chasez followed his father out of their new apartment for another load. Here he was moving to a new state, a new city, away from his friends to start a career. It was a daunting venture for the shy fourteen year old. He looked forward to it with a mixture of dread and expectation.
The door of the apartment across from theirs opened and out stepped a girl in cut-off jean shorts and a bikini top. She was a teenager with big blue eyes and long hair the color of burnt sugar, a dark golden brown.
“Hi! I’m Cam,” she announced, her eyes going to the boy. “I see we have new neighbors.”
“I’m Roy Chasez.” He rumpled his son’s hair. “This is my son, Josh.”
Cam shook the man’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Chasez.”
Josh gave her a bashful smile. She was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen – and she revealed so much sun-kissed skin...
She looked to Roy. “Is he mute or just shy?” she asked teasingly. She knew the boy spoke; she’d heard him in the hall.
“Josh is sort of shy,” Roy answered.
“My grams says there isn’t a shy bone in my body,” Cam declared with a laugh. “Would Silent Sam like to walk to go get a soda? My treat.”
“Can I, Dad?” Josh asked hopefully.
“He speaks!” Cam teased.
“Well you’ve been hard at it all day,” Roy said to his son. “How about an hour?”
“Great!”
“C’mon, Josh.” Cam took his hand. “I’ll show you the lay of the land.”
“Thanks, Dad!” Josh called over his shoulder.
She didn’t relinquish his hand and Josh couldn’t say he was sorry. He liked the feeling.
“This is sorta a quiet neighborhood. A lot of older folks,” Cam told him as they walked along. “I don’t mind. Grams raised me.”
“You live here with her?” he asked.
Cam laughed and nudged him playfully. “Me, a Florida girl? I loathe it here. I’m from Draperville, Illinois. Farm girl.”
He still wasn’t following.
“Grams got sick and couldn’t take care of me. Friends are looking after the farm.” She sighed sadly. “They sent me to live here with Maureen.”
“Your sister?”
“My mother.”
Josh had never heard anyone call his mother by her first name, let alone with so much venom. “Oh.”
“So, how do you come to be here?"
Josh explained about the Mickey Mouse Club and his family back home.
“That sounds exciting for you!” Cam gave him a smile of encouragement.
“What if I suck or something?”
“You must not suck if they brought you down here.”
“I’ll be lonely.”
“You already have one friend and you haven’t even been here a whole day,” she reminded him.
“You’ll be my friend?”
“Only if you’ll be mine.”
“Deal!”
“And you’ll work with kids your own age – who you have something in common with.”
Cam led him into a corner drugstore – it was quaint and old fashioned. A place only neighborhood locals appreciated.
“Hey, Mister Petrie!” she called as she went to the back where a fifties-style soda fountain was.
“Well, if it isn’t Cammi.” An older man with a bushy moustache came from the back room. “You’ve brought a friend I see.”
“He just moved here.” She winked at Josh and the boy wanted to melt into a puddle. “He’s gonna be a star,” she predicted.
“Does your star boyfriend have a name?” Mr. Petrie chuckled.
“Josh Chasez – and he’s not my boyfriend...” Another playful wink. “Yet.”
Over the best soda he’d ever had, Josh learned that Cam was a little over a year older than he was and she had only been in Orlando a few months herself. He sensed a lot of pain behind her bubbly personality. He realized her flirtation was more a matter of making him feel good. A girl like Cam would never be interested in a gawky boy like him. Heck, she already had nice breasts and she filled out the clothes she wore in a way that would make a guy look.
Josh was already impossibly in love with his friend.
Most nights, Roy Chasez invited his son’s friend to dinner. So far he had yet to meet Maureen Delaney. He had heard her and different friends in the hall some late nights. For the most part, it seemed Cam was left to her own devices. The girl rarely spoke of her mother and seemed certain she would be returned to her grandmother in short order. Roy only hoped that were true for the girl’s sake.
Roy was grateful for the warm friendship she had extended to Josh. Fourteen was awkward enough without being uprooted. Cam had stepped in to smooth the way for his shy son. She was bright and teasing, while being respectful to her elders. The older people in the building adored Cam. Of course, Josh was more than a little infatuated with the older girl. He didn’t seem to let that interfere with their friendship bond – and Cam didn’t encourage him.
Josh came into Cam’s apartment, as was his habit in the afternoon when he got home. He tossed his schoolbooks at the coffee table angrily. They skidded off, barely missing Cam who lay on the floor listening to her Walkman. He went into the kitchen to grab a can of soda, slamming the refrigerator door. By the time he returned, Cam had sat up and pulled off her earphones. He dropped to his back on the sofa, ignoring his unopened drink and threw an arm over his face.
Cam had been ready to read him the riot act when she saw he was truly upset. She moved to kneel by the sofa. “What’s wrong, baby?” She didn’t try to dislodge his arm, noting they were hiding “unmanly” tears. She stroked his hair.
“I hate it, Cammi. I wanna go home,” he mumbled.
He had only been going to the studio less than a week.
“What was so bad today?”
“They renamed me.”
“They what?”
“They already had a ‘Josh’.”
“I refuse to talk to your arm.”
“I don’t want you to see me.”
Gently she pulled his arm away. “I already know you’re crying, Joshie.”
He wrinkled his nose. “I hate that and you know it.”
Cam grinned at him. “Uh-huh.”
He couldn’t help but smile. “Brat.”
“And your point is?” she demanded teasingly.
He touched her hair. “You always make me feel better,” he murmured wonderingly. She amazed him with her big heart.
“That’s what friends are for.”
“Yeah and you’re the best.”
“So’re you.”
He wasn’t much. He leaned on her, not the other way around.
She wiped the tears from his cheeks with her fingers. “Wanna talk about it?”
Josh shrugged. “They renamed me. They’re using my initials.”
“JS?”
“JC. I’m now JC Chasez.”
“Good thing it’s you, not me. CD. Certificate of Deposit.”
“Compact Disc!” he taunted.
“Watch it, Chasez!” she warned with a grin.
“I like my name,” he said sadly. “I’m proud of it.”
Crossing her arms on his chest, she made him a promise. “As long as we live, you’ll always be Josh to me,” she vowed quietly. “Even if you’re a gazillion year old.”
“And you’ll be my Cammi.” He wanted to kiss her sweet, pouty mouth. If only he was brave enough...
“Now...” Cam sat back on her heels. “Need help with homework?”
Josh frowned when he turned the knob of the Delaney apartment. Locked. Cam never locked the door after school. If she had planned on not coming home, she always let him know.
He knocked and heard a muffled ‘go away’. “Cammi! It’s Josh!” he called through the door.
“Please, go away!”
This time he heard tears in her voice.
Digging into his pocket, he pulled out the emergency key she had given him and let himself into the apartment. The place was dark and strangely quiet. “Cammi?” He made his way to her darkened bedroom. What he saw broke his heart.
His beautiful girl lay huddled in a ball on her single bed. She cradled her left arm. Her beautiful face was blotchy from tears, her eyes puffy from crying.
“What’s wrong?” He gingerly sat on the edge of the bed.
“My arm. It hurts,” she whimpered.
Quick visual inspection saw her arm was black and blue and it was at an odd angle. “It’s broken!” he declared.
“I–I fell,” she lied. Cam had accidentally walked in on her mother having an afternoon tryst on the sofa. Furious, Maureen slammed the door on the girl’s arm.
Without hesitation, Josh grabbed the bedside phone and called his father at work. “Dad, come home,” he said anxiously. “Cam fell. Her arm is broken. She needs help...”
“Whoa, son. Stay calm. I’ll be there as quick as I can.”
It seemed strange to Josh that a graceful girl like Cam had suddenly become clumsy. She was forever sporting a bruise here, a cut there. ‘I tripped.’ ‘I bumped into a table.’ ‘I wasn’t watching where I was going.’ The girl who wore as little as possible in the heat of Orlando was suddenly wearing long sleeves and jeans. Things were suspicious, but Cam blithely made fun of his concern.
Until the day there was no possibility for denial.
Josh used his key to enter the Delaney apartment. It was sad. Once the apartment had been a welcoming place. The drapes were always open and Cam’s favorites like Sinatra, Lee or Martin were likely to be on the stereo. These days the windows stayed covered and the music was silenced. The apartment was lifeless, reflecting the sullen mood of its chief resident, Cam. So much had changed in the year since he had come to Orlando.
“Cammi!” he called, going to her room.
For a split second, he thought she was dead. She was pale and unmoving on the bed, her eyes fixed on the ceiling. Blood had dried on her face and shirt.
“Cammi!” Josh cried. He climbed onto the bed and shook her shoulders. She was limp.
“Leave me alone. I want to die,” she whispered.
“No!”
There was no denying the handprint left in bruises on her face. Maureen’s rings had scratched her face and split her lip. The worst was the bottle of pills that lay empty beside her.
“No! No, baby, you can’t do this!”
She smiled sadly. “I did it. I’m not your baby; you’re mine.”
“I am. I so am, please, Cam...” Breaking off, he grabbed the bedside telephone and dialed 911.
Josh and Roy rose when the doctor approached them. The white-coated man looked over the chart and then pinned Josh with an icy gaze.
“You the boyfriend?”
“Cam is my friend. Is she all right?”
Roy put a supportive hand on his son’s shoulder. He knew what the doctor was thinking. “The two are latch key kids. They keep each other company until I get home.”
“She has several other injuries consistent with battering.”
“She kept saying she fell.” Josh looked up at his father. “I didn’t think it was true, but she wouldn’t talk...”
“You could check my son’s hand against the print on her face. And Josh has no rings,” Roy added.
Josh looked back at the doctor. “Will she be okay?”
“She had enough painkiller in her to fell a horse. You got her here in time.”
“Can I see her?” he begged. He needed to see with his own eyes.
“Go to the nurses’ station. They’ll direct you.”
“Thanks!”
“Those kids are like sister and brother, best friends.” Roy told the doctor as Josh hurried away. “She is protective of him...”
“What can you tell me about the mother?...”
She was so pale. She was so still.
Josh approached Cam’s hospital bed.
“Hey, Josh.”
“Hey, baby.”
She gave him a sleepy smile. “I’m not your baby; you’re mine.”
He smiled. This had been a running taunt with them. “Yeah, I am.” Smoothing her hair, he asked, “Why, Cammi? You should have told me. Dad would have helped.”
“I hate her. They won’t let me talk to Grams. They say she doesn’t need the ‘stress’ of a teenager.” She began to cry. “They won’t let me go home, Josh. I’d rather die.”
“No!” He climbed onto the bed to hold her. “The doctor knows she hurts you. She’ll have to stop.”
“People like Maureen don’t stop. She’ll find another way to punish me,” she sobbed.
“Punish you for what?” As far as Josh knew Cam was an autonomous child. She got good grades. She never caused any trouble.
“For being born!”
“That wasn’t your fault.”
“Oh, yeah? Ask Maureen. She’s a drunken whore and it’s all my fault.” Cam buried her face in his chest to weep.
“I’m so sorry, Cammi...” He’d heard the drunken laughs in the hall late nights – and he had heard the rumors.
“I’d rather die.”
“Quit saying that.” It scared him when she kept repeating it.
“I’ll stay for you, Josh,” she told him quietly. “Until you don’t need me anymore.”
“Then you’ll have to stay forever, Cam. I always need you.”
Cam sighed unhappily. She’d just have to find another way to survive.
They clung to each other like frighten children, afraid of the continued darkness…
Since Cam was already sixteen, the authorities did not remove her from Maureen’s home but rather forced the woman to take anger management classes. She went merely to stay out of jail for contempt. She learned nothing she cared to retain. Maureen’s strident screeches of fury could still be heard across the hall. Something new had been added however – Cam readily fired back at her mother, calmer, low and ominous.
The suicide attempt had changed Cam. She had become tough and hard-edged. She defied Maureen at will, even daring her to try and hit her. She was taking no more physical abuse – and the verbal abuse only seemed to make Cam more sullen.
Josh watched his beautiful friend become someone he didn’t know. She lopped off her glorious long, toffee-colored hair and colored it red. Her choice of wardrobe was revealing, not for comfort, for titillation. Suddenly, there were whispers that she had become just like her mother. The boys she went with had fancy cars and gifted her with jewelry. To Josh, she was still his caring friend, still protective, but it wasn’t the same as it had been – she was different. And that hurt him very much.
“Hey, baby!” Cam called to Josh as she came home late one night. He was sitting in the hall against her door, looking sullen. “Locked out?”
“No. Dad’s home. I was waiting for you.”
“That’s very sweet of you. You’d better go to bed. It’s past your bedtime, junior.”
He bounded to his feet. “I’m not just some kid you can just dismiss, Cam. We need to talk,” he told her firmly.
“If this is an intervention, you need more than one person.” She pointed out as she pushed passed him to unlock the door.
“I am the only one who really cares about you.”
Her façade slipped a little. “Yes, you are,” she murmured. Stepping into the apartment, she hoped to leave him on the other side of the door. It didn’t happen
Josh followed her in and pushed the door closed.
“I suppose I couldn’t convince you to put this off.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, he said, “No.”
“Big tough guy act doesn’t work on you, darling,” she told him caustically.
“What’s wrong with you?” he demanded. “The hair, the clothes, the make-up, the attitude...”
“I’m not little Cammi anymore. She died as sure as I should’ve with those pills.”
“No.” He took her face between his hands. “If I scrub all that paint off, you’re still my Cammi.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “I’m not. I never can be again.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No,” she whispered and pulled away. She went to stare out the window. The streets were quiet this time of night. “Some things can’t be undone. And I don’t know that I would if I could.”
Josh moved behind her so both of them were reflected in the window. “Cam, I wanted you to wait for me.”
“You’re too good for the likes of me.”
“I love you.”
“They say that too – and they may even mean it for the moment...”
“I always mean it.”
“Yeah, you do. I know that because you never say it in the dark with your hands in my panties.”
“Cammi, you don’t need to go to any other guy for love. I’ll give you all you need.”
Cam’s smile was sad when she met his eyes in the glass.
“I waited for you...”
“I’m not what you want, Josh.”
“You are.”
She turned, her mask back in place. “You don’t even know how to kiss.”
“No, but I can learn.” Josh lowered his mouth to hers, sipping at her lips until she whimpered and arched into him, begging for more. He hesitantly touched his tongue to hers. Hers boldly slipped into his mouth, teaching him.
Burying her hands in his thick hair, she found his untrained, earnestness more devastating than the most expert kisses. “Oh, Josh...”
“I can be whatever you want, sweetheart, whatever you need,” he murmured against her neck. “Let me.”
“No!” She pushed at his chest. “Go away.” She could not take his innocence. She wasn’t that low a creature. “Just leave.”
Wounded, Josh said, “I’ll go for now, but, Cam, I’ll haunt you.” Going to the door, he let himself out.
Josh held to his warning. When Cam arrived home at night, he would poke his head out of his apartment, looking sad. Some nights, he’d be sitting at her door. It was a war of nerves and hers seemed more fragile. He didn’t know after she rebuffed him nightly, she scrubbed herself clean of another boy’s touch and cried herself to sleep. And if she found peaceful dreams, they were about a sixteen year old boy with earnest blue eyes. He haunted her as if he truly were a ghost, the ghost of lost innocence.
One night the final straw broke. Cam had been called a tease because she had refused the “invitation” to get in a backseat. She’d had to walk home. The last thing she needed was Josh Chasez’s sad blue eyes accusing her of breaking his heart. But he was leaning against her door when she arrived home.
“Fine,” was all she said when she went into the apartment with him close behind. “Sit down.”
Josh sat down in the middle of the sofa.
“You want me to make a man out of you? Okay, I’m through trying to protect your skinny ass.” She reached beneath her short skirt and shimmied out of her panties.
“Cam...” Josh swallowed hard when she climbed astride his thighs.
“You asked for it, baby.”
Expertly she kissed him as her hands moved over his body. He was slight but muscles were developing nicely on his lean frame. “Do you want me?” she demanded huskily to his ear, her warm breath making him shiver.
“Oh, yeah...”
“Tonight, I’ll let you have me.”
Josh was lost. He had no experience to stem the tide of sensation when her hot mouth explored his torso after removing his shirt. His flesh burned beneath her talented lips and tongue. Not knowing what to do, he merely went with the rushing current.
“Oooh, big boy,” Cam commented when she eased his jeans and jockeys from his rampant arousal. “You’ve been hiding quite a package.”
“It’s yours,” he groaned when she started pumping him. “All yours. Only yours.”
“How generous of you.”
He gasped as she took him into her mouth, licking and sucking until he exploded in his first sexual release. “Cammi!”
Cam gave him no recovery time. She began kissing and stroking him until he was hard once more, then lowered herself on him. “This time let’s do something we’ll both like.”
Josh moaned as she rode him. It felt so good to be part of her. In some vague way he had wanted this two years ago. He wanted them to belong to each other, to love each other. It had always been her. Cam was at the center of every fantasy... His hands came up to guide her mouth to his. “My sweet baby...”
His kiss changed it. Guys didn’t want to kiss, they only wanted to fuck...they only wanted to be connected by genitalia. He made her feel...cherished?
Their joint release was cataclysmic. Josh knew what it felt like to spill inside the girl he loved. Cam had never let other guys touch her without a condom but with him...Josh had always been clean, pure, innocent...
“Oh!” she cried out softly against his shoulder. Nothing had ever been so powerful!
“Baby!”
“Shh...” Josh stroked her hair and nuzzled her as they recovered from their wild ride. “It’s okay, Cammi. I’ve got you.”
“Oh, Josh, what have I done?” Cam jerked away as if contact with him burned her. She scrambled off the sofa and ran to her room.
“Cam!” Josh hurriedly fastened his pants and followed. He found her on her side on the bed, facing the wall. Climbing on the bed, he fitted himself against her back so they were like spoons in a drawer. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. You’re the one good and pure thing in my life, and I tried to make you dirty as me.”
“No. No, that’s not what happened.” He pushed the hair from her neck to place soothing little kisses on her flesh. “You were loving me, Cammi. I could tell. I wasn’t a fuck. Our love made you clean again.”
She looked back at him uncertainly. “You think so?”
He gave her an adoring smile. “I know so.”
Cam scooted to her back. “I do love you, Josh. You’re the best person in my world.”
“You are a good person.” He remained propped above her on his elbow. With one hand, he stroked her hair. “I don’t care what color your hair is or how much make up you wear. Underneath it all, you’re still my Cammi.”
“How can I be? I’ve had sex...”
“Shh...” He kissed her softly. “It all starts here and now. Just you and me and our love.”
“I don’t deserve you.” She was a little in awe by what she saw in his face. When had the shy boy become a man?
“We deserve each other, sweetheart.”
Dropping a tender kiss on her mouth, he rose from the bed. “Tempting as this is, I’ve got school and the studio tomorrow.”
Cam followed him to the living room. She walked in as he put on his shirt and buttoned it. She managed to blush when he handed her underwear to her.
At the door, he used one knuckle to tip her face up for his kiss. “I’ll see you tomorrow when I get home.” It was a subtle command, no more playing around for her.
“Okay,” she replied breathlessly.
“Night, pretty baby.”
“I’m not your baby...” she tried to revive their old taunt, but he halted her with a bone melting kiss.
“Yes, you are.”
“Yes, I am.”
Josh smiled. “Night.”
“Night, Josh.”
From that night on, Cam changed. The promiscuous girl had disappeared. However, the Cam he had once known was gone as well. This girl had a quiet strength that stemmed from the fact she was loved by a truly decent boy like Josh Chasez. Knowing Maureen would only use their young love as a weapon, she urged Josh to not tell their parents immediately. Reluctantly, he agreed. As far as Roy Chasez knew, his son had convinced Cam to discontinue her wild ways and they had become friends once more.
As much as he had enjoyed his first experience, Josh did not pursue a sexual relationship with Cam. They kissed and touched. It wasn’t unusual for their eyes to meet over their schoolbooks and he would reach for her hand. He’d kiss her fingertips, her palm, her wrist, then keep her hand in his as they went back to their studies.
Josh and Roy were the only ones who attended her high school graduation. The Chasezes took her out for a celebratory dinner afterwards. Roy gave her a CD player and Josh gifted her with a copy of the Righteous Brothers Greatest Hits, knowing that ‘Unchained Melody’ was her favorite song. It surprised both males when she began to cry at their thoughtfulness.
“You’ve been wonderful to me, both of you.”
“Hey, you introduced me to Mr. Petrie’s sodas my first day. That alone made you worth the trouble,” Josh teased.
“Your friendship with Josh made a difficult move a lot easier on him,” Roy said.
“He’s become a fine young man. You should be proud.”
Roy gazed affectionately at his young son. “I am.”
“Uh, Cammi, I-uh-I’ve got something to ask,” Josh stammered. “We don’t have a big prom thing, but we got this formal dance…We gotta dress up and—“
“Hmm…I never went to the prom,” Cam murmured.
“Would you come as my date?” Josh asked anxiously.
Cam smiled. “I would be delighted, Josh.”
His date was the most beautiful creature in the world. Josh decided as Cam walked towards him on her return from the ladies’ room. Her hair was back to its golden brown glory. While the other girls had their hair in elaborate styles, Cam’s fell softly to her sun-kissed shoulders. The dark coral sheath she wore was simple and strapless. The extra height the heels she wore gave her made her nearly as tall as him, which made her fit wonderfully against him when they danced. The only other adornment she wore was her smile of love – the only jewel she needed.
“You make a guy breathless,” he told her when he took her hand.
“You look quite dashing yourself, Mr. Chasez,” she replied. Josh in a suit was quite a pleasant change.
“I’m glad you didn’t take long.” He led her to the dance floor. “I requested a song just for you.” His arms had just gone around her waist when the first notes of ‘Unchained Melody’ began. He sang the words quietly, for her ears only as they swayed to the music.
“Oh, Josh…” It was a beautiful moment she would treasure forever in her heart. When she was ninety, she could see herself reliving the time her handsome boyfriend sang her favorite song to her. By the time the song was over, her eyes were dewy with tears.
“I love you, Cammi, so much,” he whispered in her ear. “Please, tonight…” How could he say he wanted to love her fully that night?
She understood without the words. “You’re curfew, baby.”
“Darn.”
“Unless we leave now,” she suggested.
“Would you? This is your first formal—“
“I love you, too.”
“You’ll come with me now?”
She grinned saucily. “Uh-huh.”
Entering her bedroom, Cam put ‘Unchained Melody’ in her new CD player and hit continuous repeat. The romantic song was the perfect, quiet background for the new lovers.
Cam tried to make it as easy as possible for Josh, leading him gently, shoving aside any awkward moments. His loving resembled a form of worship, slow, deliberate, thorough. Without realizing it, he set her on fire with need. When he finally rose above her, entering her slowly, it was the perfect union of bodies and souls.
“Josh…” Cam was unprepared for the feeling of completion his being buried within her created. “No. Don’t move yet. This feels so good…” she purred.
“Feels right, doesn’t it, Cammi? This is me loving you and only you.”
Wrapping her legs around his, she said, “Then love me, darling.”
His movements were clumsy at first; she guided him to a smoother rhythm. Soon they were soaring together to a place only true lovers know.
Unlike the times with other boys, Cam was loved long after the act itself. Josh held her close, kissing and nuzzling and caressing her, soothing her. She happily burrowed into his warm embrace.
“You know now, don’t you?” he whispered.
“Know what?”
“The difference between love and sex.”
“Yes, Josh.”
“Good.” He bussed her forehead tenderly. “I wanna stay like this forever.”
“Curfew in…” She glanced at her bedside clock. “Twenty-five minutes.”
“Wish I had time to love you again,” he sighed.
“You do.”
“Not to do it right.” He tightened his arms around her. “Not to do it slow and sweet like you deserve.”
“You are more than I deserve.” She lifted her head to meet his warm eyes. “Thank you for still caring, Josh.”
“I’ll always love you, Cammi,” he promised. His kiss was gentle and lingering, his hands buried in her hair. “My baby…”
“All yours.”
Josh smiled at her dreamy eyes. He’d pulled her back from the brink, before he’d lost her forever. With a resigned sigh, he set her from him and rose to dress. “I expect to see you when I get home from the studio,” he told her firmly. He wasn’t risking letting her backslide.
“I work until four,” she reminded him. She’d gotten a part-time job at Petrie’s.
“I’ll swing by and pick you up then.” He gave her a wink.
Cam giggled. “So forceful and commanding,” she teased.
He was shrugging into his shirt when he came over to the bed. He cupped her face and brushed a kiss on her lips. “I’m learning I have to keep a tight rein on you.”
“Bully.”
“No, I’m just letting you know how it’s gonna be.”
She buttoned his shirt and smoothed her hands down his chest. “Bully,” she taunted with a smile.
“Sweet dreams, Cammi girl.” Another soft kiss and he was heading for the door. “I’ll let myself out.”
The days of summer fell into a comfortable pattern for the young lovers. When she was working, Josh stopped by Petrie’s to collect Cam at the end of her shift. They spent most late afternoons together, just being alone together. They made love only when they could no longer hold back. He didn’t want her thinking he was all about the physical side of love – he was all about the loving.
In mid-July, Cam made a discovery that would change everything forever.
She was pregnant.
She greeted the news with three parts dread and one part joy. She realized she was incapable of taking care of a child alone. Abortion wasn’t an option, not even if she hadn’t been raised by her Irish Catholic grandmother. Josh was far too young to be burdened with fatherhood. But she already loved the baby that grew within her, relieving her of the fear she was like her mother – totally without mothering instincts.
Quietly, Cam made her plans; setting the wheels in motion that would take her away from the boy she loved with all her heart to protect him from their youthful folly.
“You little whore!”
The Chasez family heard the shriek from across the hall. Maureen was screaming at Cam again.
“Oh, just look who’s talking!” came Cam’s retort. “Mo, the ho from the fifth flo,” she taunted.
The Chasez males looked at each other uncomfortably.
“You ungrateful little bitch!” Maureen’s words were followed by the sound of flesh hitting flesh.
Josh was on his feet.
“That make you important, Maureen? Does it make you feel better about yourself?” Cam demanded.
A moment later, a door slammed and Maureen’s high heels could be heard clicking down the hallway.
“I gotta go see if Cam’s all right.” Josh announced as he headed out the door.
Cam was leaning over the toilet, losing her lunch when Josh found her.
“My poor baby.” He held her hair back as she continued to retch and cry. “I’m here, Cammi…” he crooned softly. When she finished, he wet a washcloth in cool water and bathed her face as she sat on the commode. His blood boiled to see the handprint on her pale cheek. “Damn!”
“I’m okay,” she murmured weakly.
“The hell you are.” Assisting her to her feet, he led her to her bedroom, urging her to lie down. “Back to her old tricks again, I see.”
“This is the last time Maureen will ever touch me,” she vowed.
“I want that to be true.”
“I’m eighteen. I don’t have to stay here anymore.”
“Maybe it’s better if you do find a new place. Maybe Mr. Petrie can help.”
“No. I have a place in mind.” Cam was going home, but she wouldn’t tell him that.
“Good. Let me know. I’ll help you move out.”
She said nothing, turning her face away.
“Cammi?”
“I’m tired, Josh. I’d like to rest before I go to work.”
“Sure.” Brushing a kiss across her abused cheek, he left her side. “I’ll see you later.”
Again, she replied nothing.
A knock on the door in the middle of the night woke Roy Chasez. Thank goodness the rest of the family slept on. It was Maureen Delaney.
“You think that brat is such and angel? Th-that sh-she’s perfect?” She wobbled on her stiletto heels. “The lil tramp’s pregnant. Doesn’t know who the father is.”
“Miss Delaney, I suggest you go sleep it off,” Roy told her quietly.
“Jush thought you should know.”
“Good night.” Roy closed the door.
Cam was aghast when Maureen announced with perverted delight that she had told Josh’s father of her pregnancy. She hadn’t planned on anyone knowing. She didn’t want the Chasezes knowing in particular.
“Mr. Chasez,” Cam caught him in the hallway,” could we, please, talk?”
“Sure, Cam.” Roy gave her a warm smile.
Going into the Delaney apartment, she asked, “Would you like something to drink?”
“I’m fine.”
Cam twisted her fingers together nervously, not meeting his eyes. “Maureen bragged how she told you about my-my predicament.”
“Is it true?” he asked kindly.
She nodded. “I’m afraid so.”
“Is there anything we can do?”
“Not tell Josh.” She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “He is the sweetest, most decent boy in the world. I don’t want to hurt him. You know Josh. He’d probably do something stupid like demand I marry him to save my good name. That wouldn’t be fair to him.”
Roy had to agree. His son would try to save his friend from her own folly.
“Please, Mr. Chasez, if not for me, do it for Josh.”
Slowly, he nodded. “I’ll keep your secret, Cam.”
“Oh, thank you!” Impulsively, she hugged him and received a warm hug back. “Josh is a wonderful boy with so much potential…”
“You’ve very brave, Cam.”
“No, I was stupid. I got caught. I don’t intend to take anyone down with me.”
“Like Maureen,” Roy suggested.
“Unlike Maureen, I do know who the father is. I simply am choosing not to tell him.”
“Where will you go?”
Cam shook her head. “I had better not say.”
“Maybe not.”
Kissing her cheek, Roy said, “Good-bye, Cam. Good luck.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Cam had hoped to make her escape before Josh got back from the studio that afternoon. She didn’t have much: suitcase of clothing, a backpack of CDs and her CD player. She was sitting at the bus stop in front of Petrie’s when Josh happened by in his new car he’d gotten for his birthday.
“Hey, Cam, need a lift?”
“No.”
Then he spotted her bags. “Cam?” He pulled over to park and jumped out of the car. “You’re leaving,” he accused.
“Yes.”
“Without saying good-bye.”
“Yes.”
“You can’t do that.”
Cam sighed heavily; she’d hoped to avoid any final words. “I guess I can’t now.”
“Why? Why just leave?”
“Because I can. Look, it was fun while it lasted. You’re a nice boy. But I’m moving on.”
“Moving on? We love each other!”
She steeled herself for the monumental lie she was about to speak and rose to her feet. “Past tense, Josh.”
“What!” he demanded. “You don’t just fall out of love!”
She shrugged. “I need a man, not a boy.”
“Cammi…” Josh’s voice was husky with unshed tears.
“Sorry, baby, but I’m so over you.”
“No…”
“Yes…”
The bus pulled up to the stop and Cam gathered her things. “Good-bye, Josh. Have a nice life,” she called as she boarded.
The hardest thing she had ever done was ride away from Petrie’s Drug Store while Josh stood there with tears streaming down his face.