I rolled my eyes and waved my hand, sick to death of her idle threats. “Sure, whatever. You’ll just go around telling everyone I’m crazy, just like you do with your ex-boyfriend. Go ahead, I don’t give a shit. Now get out!”
She stepped back into the elevator, a half-smile playing on her lips. “Bye, Cam,” she said. “Have fun with those little cupcakes.”
She spat out the last word as if a cupcake had deeply offended her at some point in time, and then the elevator door closed. I sighed with relief, glad the bitch was finally gone. She’d never really had me, and she’d sure as hell never have the ability to get into my apartment again. Only one girl had ever really had me, and only one girl ever would.
Anya.
Yep, it was only her, and a girl like Jana couldn’t even come close to measuring up. She could bitch about me behind my back and say whatever she wanted, and she still wouldn’t be able to hurt me or my relationship with Anya….right?
Famous last words…
Chapter 23
Anya
“There you are! Thank you for coming, honey.”
My Mom took my coat and hung it up in the foyer as I stepped into her apartment, and I gave her a nervous smile as she ushered me over to the lounge room. Only three nights ago, she and Pierce had practically been eviscerating Cam and me in this very same room, but her face was filled with contrition now, which made me feel a little calmer.
“Sit, sit!” she said, waving her hands at me. “I’ll be back in a second.”
She returned a moment later with a glass of pineapple juice, and I accepted it from her with raised eyebrows.
“You always used to want pineapple juice when you were sick as a kid,” she explained. “You said it made you feel better.”
“Thanks, Mom, but I’m not sick,” I said, my eyebrows furrowed with confusion. “Unless you’re insinuating that I’m mentally ill for wanting to be with Cam?”
She vehemently shook her head. “No, of course not. I just thought it might make you feel better like it used to. I was a real bitch the other night, and I know I made both you and Cam feel horrible.”
“Yes, you did,” I replied before taking a sip of the chilled juice.
She sighed. “I was just so shocked when I heard the news of what had happened, and I completely overreacted. You’ve always been such a good girl. Perfect grades in school, a full ride scholarship to college…always so good. So when Pierce woke me up to tell me that you’d been featured in a sex tape with none other than your brother, I was beside myself, and it all came flooding out when I saw you walk in the other night.”
“Stepbrother,” I corrected her.
“Yes, sorry. Stepbrother. I was also worried because I honestly thought he’d been taking advantage of you. I know what his reputation is like, sweetie. Everyone does. With this internship of yours, you’ve been helping him fix his image, but we all know that’s just smoke and mirrors. People don’t usually change that easily. I’m worried you’ll get hurt.”
“I get it, Mom. I really do. I didn’t trust him for ages either. It took him weeks and weeks to make me realize he’s not the guy everyone thinks he is. He puts on these outward airs of being this sleazy douche, but deep down, he’s a good guy. A really good guy. I just wish I’d had a chance to explain it all to you. I was going to eventually, but I thought I should wait a while and see how things went with him before telling you.”
I cleared my throat and continued. “I shouldn’t have done that. I should’ve just been honest with you from the start and told you that I’d already known Cam for a while before you met Pierce, and I should’ve told you we had feelings for each other.”
“Yes, you should have,” she replied. “Then again, judging by the way I reacted, I can’t say I’m surprised you didn’t. I don’t exactly make it easy for you to approach me with certain things, do I?”
I smiled. “Yeah. Remember the time in junior high when I played spin the bottle with some other kids on our school camp? I told you about it and you grounded me for two months.”
Mom smiled back at me. “I guess I have always been quite strict with you. But I was only trying to protect you from turning out like one of those—”
“Like one of those girls who releases sex tapes online?” I said with a wry smile.
“Yes. Like that. But you and Cam were right last night. That tape—it was just a horrible mistake. I realize that now. I know you would never release it on purpose, and after seeing the way Cam spoke about you and looked at you the other night, I don’t think he would, either. I didn’t want to admit it to myself while I was still angry, but I can tell that he really cares about you.”
“He does,” I said softly.
“Again, I’m sorry for overreacting, and I’m going to talk to Pierce when he comes home. He said some awful things, and he needs to get together with Cam and say sorry as well.”
“You mean like what he said about Cam being just like his mother?”
She nodded. “Yes. I don’t know much about Cam’s mother, but I do know that she had a lot of severe problems and addictions, and she did some horrible things. It was unfair to paint Cam with the same brush just because he’s made some mistakes.”
“So you’re okay with us being together?” I asked.
She hesitated. “Like I said, I can tell he cares about you, but I’m still concerned about his reputation. Seeing as I haven’t really gotten to know him that well since his father and I got married, I asked Pierce to tell me more about him and his history, but he’s been refusing to speak about him for the last few days. You said that deep down he’s actually a really decent guy. Can you tell me more about that? It might make me feel a little less uncertain of him.”
“Oh. Sure.”
I took a deep breath and told her everything; every detail of the tumultuous way in which my relationship with Cam had developed, and every way in which he’d tried to earn my trust and respect.
“And Mom…” I said nervously, about to give her my last example of how Cam had supported and cared for me. “There’s one other thing Cam helped me with, but before I tell you about it, I need to explain something to you. I need to tell you about Shania.”
“Shania? Who’s that?” she asked, a puzzled expression on her face.
I took an even deeper breath and began to tell her all about how my father had had a secret lovechild behind her back, and how I’d never told her because I didn’t want to hurt her. I told her about how I’d been secretly earning money and using it to help my half-sister, and last of all, I told her how Cam had convinced me to go and meet her.
“It was such a good thing for him to do. He told me I needed to seize the day and do it while I had the chance, and he was right. Who knows what the future holds? For all I know, I could have been hit by a truck that day and never had the chance to meet her. I know that sounds depressing, but he was right, and I really had the best time with her. Shania is great.”
Mom was silent for a long time after I finished speaking.
“I know you probably don’t ever want to meet her,” I said, finally breaking the silence again. “And I understand…”
She cut me off. “No, I want to meet her.”
My eyes widened. “You do?”
She nodded. “Yes. The poor girl…it’s not her fault she was born via those circumstances, so she shouldn’t be punished for that by anyone. And it sounds like she’s had a really rough life. You were right to help her, and I’m proud of you. I wish I’d known about this sooner.”
“I’m sorry, Mom, I just didn’t want to hurt you.”
“I understand. You’re right, I would’ve been upset to discover yet another awful thing your father did to me while we were married. But that’s all in the past now, and I wouldn’t have snubbed Shania. I would’ve helped. I still want to.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I’ll talk to Pierce later, and we’ll sort something out. He has a lot of connections. He can help her get decent a
job here in the city, if she ever wants to move here to be closer to you.”
“She did say she’s always wanted to live here,” I replied, my heart soaring at the idea of being able to have my half-sister closer to me.
“Well, we’ll figure something out. Pierce can also help get her a spot in whatever course she wants to study. Did you say she wants to study public relations?”
“Uh-huh.”
She nodded slowly. “Great. Even if she ends up wanting to stay in Syracuse, we can still help her out there.”
“Thanks, Mom,” I said, reaching across and grabbing her hand. “She’ll be so grateful. She’s already done so well with the small amount of money I’ve been able to save for her.”
“If she’s anything like her sister, I’m sure she’ll make me proud,” Mom replied, winking at me before leaning over and hugging me. “Oh, my girl. You’ve turned out so well. I know I haven’t been the perfect parent, but I must’ve done something right.”
I smiled and hugged her back, and her phone beeped a moment later.
“Oh, it’s your Aunt Patty,” she said. “Hold on, I’ll just ask her to call me back later.”
While she talked to my aunt, I decided to text Cam, Kara and Shania to tell them how things had gone with my talk with Mom. To my surprise, I already had five texts and three missed calls from Kara. My phone had been on silent, so I hadn’t even noticed she’d been trying to get in touch.
Hey, how’s it going with your Mom? Let me know! Xoxo, the first text read.
After that, the tone of her texts changed and became progressively more troubling.
OMG. You need to get online.
Seriously Anya, go online and see what everyone is saying about your BF!
Ok, I guess your phone is on silent, but you should call Cam ASAP. Everyone on the internet is saying he’s on cocaine! But that’s not true, right? You said he told you the coke scandal thing from six months ago was just a rumor.
Oh god, there’s actually a timestamped pic of him with white powder just under his nose. It was taken today while you and I were in class. I guess it’s not a rumor….?
My heart hammered, and I clicked onto a web browser on my phone before typing in the name of the city’s most popular celebrity gossip site. Surely Kara was mistaken or playing some sort of sick prank on me. Cam had been adamant that he’d never touched drugs, and there was no way he’d lied to me. He’d proven to me beyond a shadow of doubt that I could trust him, so I knew he couldn’t have been doing cocaine today.
And yet there it was on my screen, staring me right in the face. Evidence.
In the photo, Cam was standing in his apartment foyer with an angry expression on his face, and a telltale smattering of white powder on his upper lip and nose. His hand was in the air, gesturing to whoever was taking the photo as if he was telling them to get out. He wasn’t actually looking at the camera, which seemed to be held down low, and that made me think the photo had been taken without his knowledge.
My heart sank.
No. This couldn’t be. After all this time, he couldn’t be lying to me and hiding things like this from me, could he? I recalled everything he’d told me about his mother and how he’d never touched drugs or even considered touching them after discovering what had happened to her. His eyes had been filled with so much pain when he’d discussed it. Only a psychopath could fake emotion like that, and he wasn’t one of those.
That was when I made my decision.
Right then and there, I decided to stick by him. I’d told him that I trusted him, and I was sticking by that. There had to be some sort of explanation for the photo I was looking at. Maybe it was Photoshopped? Like he’d told me the other week, a lot of people wanted to steal the limelight from him, and making him look bad was a good way of doing that.
“Anya? What’s wrong?” Mom asked, frowning as she saw my expression.
I glanced up from my phone. “I think Cam is in trouble again.”
Her eyes widened. “What is it?”
I showed her the picture and told her of my suspicions about the picture being a setup, and her eyes widened even further. “Oh no.”
“What’s going on?”
A masculine voice startled us, and we looked up to see Pierce. In our shocked state, neither of us had even seen or heard him come in. “Well?” he asked again. “What’s wrong?”
“Pierce…it’s Cam,” I said. “They’re saying he’s ‘back on cocaine’ in the tabloids, but it’s got to be a Photoshop job or something. I think someone is setting him up.”
Pierce’s eyes narrowed. “What?”
I showed him my phone, and he stared at the screen, staying silent the whole time.
“He didn’t do it. I know he didn’t. He’d never touch the stuff!” I said. “He told me that after he found out what happened to his mother, he never wanted to have anything to do with drugs. Please, Pierce, you have to believe me. He didn’t do this!”
I knew I was babbling, but Pierce still didn’t respond. Mom and I exchanged fearful glances, afraid of how he would react, and a moment later, he got up and strode out of the apartment without another word to us. Just as he reached the elevator, I heard him mutter something to himself under his breath. It sounded like he’d said something about wanting to kill someone.
Oh, shit….
Cam was really in trouble now.
Chapter 24
Cam
By the late afternoon, I’d finally managed to get the cupcakes right, and I was actually quite proud of how they’d turned out. I’d decorated them with pink frosting and pink and purple candied love-hearts. It was probably the girliest thing I’d ever done, and most of my old friends would probably think I was the biggest pussy on earth if they saw me right now, but I didn’t give a shit. I knew Anya was going to love her homemade surprise, and all I cared about now was making her happy. If this was what being pussy-whipped was like, then bring it on.
My phone had been vibrating like crazy all day, but I figured it was just more emails and voicemails from various tabloid people wanting to set up interviews with me to discuss my relationship with Anya. Fuck that. Our relationship was between us and only us, and we didn’t need everyone getting all up in our business, even if it meant more publicity for me.
Screw the publicity. I got enough anyway.
I took a quick shower, put the cupcakes in a container and then glanced at the wall to check the time. Four o’clock. Anya would be finished classes by now, and she’d mentioned that she needed to go back to her dorm to do a few things afterwards, so I figured I’d surprise her by showing up at her door.
Speaking of surprises…the minute I stepped out of my building, I was greeted by flashing cameras and a mob of gossip journalists.
What the hell?
A couple of days ago, they seemed to have cleared off after finally losing interest in the sex tape scandal, but they were back in full force now. I pushed through them, shouting at them. “I’m not giving any interviews about Anya or the tape, so leave me—“
I was cut off by a journalist thrusting a photo into my face. “Is it true? You’re on drugs again, Cam?”
“Huh?”
I squinted my eyes at the picture, and my stomach dropped.
Jana. That fucking bitch. She must have taken the photo when she had her phone out earlier, and it looked bad. I thought I’d wiped all the powdered sugar off my face, but apparently I’d missed some earlier, and in the photo, there were smudges of it around my nose.
Shit, shit, shit.
“This is why you were suspended from racing six months ago, isn’t it?” another journalist said, thrusting a microphone in my face. “Can’t kick the habit, huh?”
“No, I’ve never touched the stuff. This is a misunderstanding, just like last time. Now back the hell off.”
My voice was barely audible over everyone else shouting, even though I’d been talking loudly, and the throng of journalists around me thickened. I tried to push through
them again. “Jesus, get the fuck out of my—”
I was cut off by a familiar voice barking at the crowd. “Get the hell away from my son! Now!”
Everyone fell silent. Clearly, they hadn’t expected my Dad to show up in my defense, and I hadn’t expected him to do so either, given what he’d said about me the other night. Honestly, I was dumbfounded.
He easily maneuvered his way through the crowd as journalists stepped aside to let him through, and he nodded at me before putting his hand on my shoulder and standing next to me.
“I’m sorry about the other night,” he murmured to me. “I should never have said something so awful to you. You aren’t like your mother…at least not in a bad way. She had her faults, but she had her good moments too, and I think you actually got a lot of your good traits from her.”
I was about to thank him when he cleared his throat and addressed the reporters and photographers milling around.
“All right, listen up, you pack of vultures! My son has never once touched drugs. The racing scandal earlier this year involved his pit crew, who were on cocaine, and Cam was cleared of all wrongdoing, as any of you would know if you’d bothered reading the goddamned report! He was only suspended because of his link with the wrongdoers which reflected poorly on the Auto Racing Association. As for this picture you’re currently circulating around, I know for a fact that it’s a load of crap. It’s clearly Photoshopped. So you need to leave us the hell alone, or I’ll sue you all for defamation. In fact, I think I’ll just go ahead and sue you anyway, seeing as you’ve already published all this utter bullshit about my son.”
A hint of a smile quirked up the corners of my lips as my father gave the media a stern dressing-down. I still couldn’t believe he’d come to my defense. Good old Dad. He’d always been there to help me in the past, but the other night, I thought I’d finally lost him as an ally.
Nope, he’d come through for me yet again.
I nudged him. “Um….Dad. It’s actually not Photoshopped.”
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