Right now, that was all that mattered.
Chapter 17
Cam
The hours Anya and I spent at the cabin melted into days, and soon we’d been there for almost a week, doing nothing but talking to each other, hanging out, even bathing together in the tiny tub in the bathroom. I’d only left the house once to pick us up some groceries from a tiny general store in the closest town, and luckily, no one there seemed to have recognized me.
Our phones had reception out here at the cabin, and they’d practically been ringing off the hook, but we hadn’t answered a single call. We’d both texted our parents to let them know we were safe, and that had only poked the bear. Dad had sent me a torrent of abuse in return, and Christina had done much of the same to Anya.
So much for escaping their wrath.
Right now, it was a Tuesday, and I’d just woken up. A familiar chill was in the air, and I rubbed my eyes and looked out of the window.
“Anya,” I said, gently shaking her. “Wake up. Look outside.”
“Mm…no,” she grumbled. “Let me sleep.”
“It’s snowing,” I said. “Weren’t you saying yesterday that you were hoping it’d snow soon?”
She was wide awake now. “Yes! I love snow.”
“Do you wanna build a snowman?” I sang in a dumb little parody of that Frozen movie everyone seemed so obsessed with these days.
Anya rolled her eyes. “I’d rather have a snowball fight, seeing as you woke me up.”
“Are you sure you wanna challenge me?” I asked, flexing my muscles.
She flashed me a mischievous smile and flicked one of my biceps. “I think I’ve already proven that it doesn’t matter how big you are…”
“It’s how big you play,” I finished. “Yes, I remember you telling me that very well. It’s kind of hard to forget, given that it was prefaced by a horny old man coming into my hotel room looking to score.”
She snickered. “I want to say I’m sorry, but…”
“But it was hilarious?”
“Yep.”
“It was,” I said. “But I’m gonna get you back. I’m gonna bury you in this snowball fight.”
“Game on,” she said, getting out of bed and pulling on some warm clothes.
I shook my head. “Take those clothes off. They’re only gonna get wet and dirty. This fight happens in our underwear, or it doesn’t happen at all.”
“Do you want frostbite?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“We won’t be out there for that long. But if you’re too scared…” I let my voice trail off, and Anya’s cheeks turned pink.
“I’m not scared,” she said, taking off her jeans, jacket and top. “Well, come on then!”
As soon as we got outside, we realized what a terrible idea it was to be out here in the freezing cold in only our underwear, but neither of us wanted to forfeit the snowball fight. It was nice to be able to act like immature little kids once in a while and pretend like we didn’t have all these adult responsibilities back home.
I scooped up a handful of snow and chased Anya around the back of the cabin, and she shrieked and dodged it as I launched it in her direction. As I picked up another handful, I saw her duck behind the small shed that stood out by the back of the cabin, and I called out to her. “Careful! Last time I was here, I saw a bear right where you’re hiding!”
She peeked out from behind the shed. “You mean like the bear that’s right behind you now?”
“What?” I turned my head over my shoulder, and a second later, a snowball hit me full force in the chest. “You sneaky little…”
I chased Anya around again, and by the time we were both ready to admit that we were freezing to death, I’d relented. She’d won fair and square, having hit me with four snowballs as opposed to my measly one.
I picked her up and carried her back over to the cabin in my arms, and she looked up at me as she wrapped her arms around my neck.
“After we get cleaned up, I think we should head back home,” she said in a soft voice. “It’s time. We can’t just hang around here acting like children and having snowball fights forever. Besides, I can’t keep missing my classes, as much as I don’t want to go to them at the moment.”
I carefully put her down in the kitchen and sighed. “I know,” I replied. “You’re right. We can’t keep hiding for the rest of our lives.”
Neither of us were looking forward to what faced us back in the city, and we fell into silence as we packed and cleaned everything up. When we were done, I hauled our bags out to the car, and Anya locked the cabin before taking a few steps back and looking at it with a wistful expression on her face.
“Well,” she said. “I guess it’s finally time to face the music…”
Chapter 18
Anya
My stomach was in knots as we drove. I was terrified of facing everyone back in the city, and most of all, I was terrified of facing my Mom and Pierce. Judging by the texts they’d sent us over the last few days, they were even angrier with us than I’d initially thought they would be…and that was saying something, considering I’d thought they’d want to kill us.
After a couple of hours on the road back home, Cam turned to me. “Hey, I completely forgot to ask…what’s with your gaming cam stuff? The other day, you said it was a long story and that you’d tell me later. We’ve still got two hours left on the road, so now’s as good a time as any.”
I hesitated. We hadn’t discussed my gaming channel in the last six days for one major reason—it reminded us both of the terrible mistake I’d made in leaving my webcam on that night.
“What do you want to know about it?” I finally replied.
“Why is it a secret from your friends and family?”
“Well, the easy answer is that I’m kind of embarrassed about being such a nerd,” I said. “But that’s not really the truth.”
“I figured.”
“Well…I make money from it,” I said. “Every time I stream a new video of me playing, I get one cent for every viewer I have clicking on my channel. So say I have fifty thousand people watching me one night—that gives me $500.”
“Oh, wow. I had no idea. So you use that to help pay for college?”
I shook my head. “No. I have a scholarship to pay for that. I don’t keep the money for myself.”
I shifted nervously in my car seat, unsure of how to tell him the truth. He glanced at me for a brief second and arched his eyebrows before returning his gaze to the road ahead.
“Who gets the money?” he asked. “Your Mom?”
“No. My half-sister,” I mumbled.
“Your what?”
I looked over at him and repeated my answer, louder this time. “My half-sister. Her name is Shania.”
He shook his head. “I don’t get it. Since when have you had a half-sister? Your Mom’s never mentioned it, and neither has my Dad.”
“That’s because they don’t know she exists,” I said. “And that’s why my gaming thing is a secret. I don’t want Mom to know why I need extra money, so I never talk about it with anyone except Kara.”
“Okay, I’m confused. Why doesn’t your Mom know about her? And why does your sister even need the money?”
“It’s a long story,” I said. “But you know what my Dad was like, right?”
“Kind of. I’ve heard a bit about him from my father. Bit of a douchebag, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah. He was an asshole, as horrible as it sounds for me to say that about my own father. He was horrible to my Mom, and while he was still alive and married to her, he had a lot of affairs.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, about two years ago, I got a Facebook message from this girl who looked like a young female version of him. She said my father was her father. I didn’t believe her at first, but she showed me old photos of the two of them together and everything. He was already dead at this point, so I couldn’t confront him. But basically, he had a secret lovechild with some other wo
man. She’s a year younger than me.”
“Shit. And your Mom didn’t know?”
“No. She already went through enough with him when they were married. I didn’t want to add to all her stress by telling her that he’d fathered another daughter while they were married. It figured it would just hurt her all over again.”
I sighed and continued. “Anyway, Shania and I wanted to get to know each other, and we started talking regularly on Skype. I found out that my Dad had been sending her Mom money to help support her while she was growing up, but obviously that stopped when he died. Her Mom is an alcoholic and has this boyfriend—Eric—who used to hit Shania, and she kicked Shania out of the house last year and refused to help her with anything anymore, all because she tried to tell her what Eric had been doing to her. When Shania told me, she didn’t ask me for anything. She said she’d stay at a friend’s house until she figured out what she was doing, and that she’d be okay. But I felt awful, and I wanted to help. She’s my half-sister, after all. So I started sending her money. I don’t have much spare from my scholarship after paying for my dorm, books and classes each semester, and I didn’t want to tell my Mom, so I couldn’t send much at first. Then I found out that I could make money from streaming games. Kara helped me set it up, and I’ve been sending Shania almost everything I get since then.”
Cam wrinkled his brow. “Anya, that’s really generous of you, but are you sure you’re not being scammed?”
“Yes,” I said. “Shania is for real. Like I said, she’s shown me pictures of her and my Dad together when he was still alive, and she really is the spitting image of him. She never even asked me for help. I insisted on sending her money, and she was really unsure about it at first because she didn’t want to think that I saw her as some sort of leech or scammer. But I convinced her to at least take enough money to pay for school and other necessities, and also enough to give her friend’s parents money for board, seeing as they’re still letting her stay with them.”
“So she’s still in high school?”
“She was. She graduated six months ago. Now she works part-time at a diner to make some money for herself, but it pays less than minimum wage, even though I think that might actually be illegal these days. If she doesn’t get good tips, she basically makes nothing. So now I’m trying to help her save up so she can have a better life. She never had the opportunities that I had growing up, and I want to help make up for that. The gaming money has been pretty good so far.”
I clapped my hand over my mouth as I suddenly realized how much I would have made from the accidental sex tape. “Holy crap. With a million people watching, I would’ve made over ten grand from that accidental home movie of ours!”
Cam raised his eyebrows again. “Silver lining, maybe?”
“Hardly. I’d rather owe ten grand and not have had everyone watching us have sex,” I grumbled.
“True. Well, Kara texted you yesterday and said the tape is down everywhere now, right?”
“Yeah. So no one else can see it now.”
“Well, that’s something, at least. Anyway, back to Shania….have you ever met her in person?”
“No. We only chat over Skype. I’ve never had a chance to go up and visit her, with college being so busy and all. It’s over a four hour drive from home.”
“Where exactly does she live?”
“Syracuse,” I said.
“We just passed Albany. Syracuse is only about two hours west of where we are right now, I think,” Cam replied.
He made a quick right turn, and the sudden movement made me squeal. “What was that for? God, you turned so fast I almost had a heart attack.”
He grinned at me. “You know I’m a race car driver, right? Thought it was time I showed off my awesome skills. And I also think it’s about time you met your sister…”
Chapter 19
Cam
Anya’s eyebrows practically shot through the roof of the car as I continued along the road heading west.
“You better not actually speed, Cam!”
I grinned. Typical Anya—always the good girl.
“I won’t,” I promised her. “I was kidding. You can see my real racing skills another time.”
She smiled. “Thank you…for this,” she said softly. “Do you think it’s a good idea to go and see her now, though? We really do need to get back home, and Shania isn’t expecting us or anything…maybe I can go and see her another time.”
I shook my head. “No. I know we need to get home, but that can wait for one more day. You should meet your sister. Remember what I told you about my Mom the other day?”
“Yes.”
“So you remember how I went looking for her so I could finally meet her in person after all those years, only to find out she was already long-gone?”
“Yes. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. What I’m trying to say is, you should seize the day. I’m not saying it’s likely that something awful is going to happen to you or Shania, but still…you never know what’s going to happen in life. We’re only a couple of hours away from her, and you should really meet her in person as soon you have a chance to. And right now you have that chance. I think it’ll be good for you.”
Anya sighed. “You’re right,” she said. “I guess I’m just kinda nervous about finally meeting her. It’s different when you talk to someone online, you know? What if she hates me in person?”
I laughed. “Have some more confidence in yourself, Anya! She won’t hate you. No one in their right mind could hate you. And even if you guys end up wanting to claw each other’s eyes out for some reason, then so what? That’s what siblings are for, right? To have dumb fights with.”
Anya’s smile grew wider. “Yes, Cam, that’s the only reason siblings exist,” she said sarcastically. “But…you’re right. I’m being silly and insecure. I really have wanted to meet her in person for ages.”
“Do you know if she’ll be at work today?” I asked.
“Yeah, she will be,” she replied, glancing at the time. “She works from early morning until lunchtime on Thursdays, so she’ll almost be finished by the time we get there.”
“Cool. What’s the diner called?”
Anya told me the name of the place Shania worked at, and I plugged it into my car’s GPS. She continued to fidget nervously in her seat for the rest of the drive in a mixture of excitement and apprehension, and I gave her an encouraging smile as we finally pulled into the parking lot of the Syracuse diner.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “She’ll love you. You’ve helped her out so much, and I bet she’s been wanting to meet you for ages too.”
Anya smiled and nodded. “Yeah. She’s always said she’d love to move to the city eventually. Maybe while we’re here, we can plan for her to come visit us one day and see how she likes it.”
“Good idea. You guys can crash at my apartment when she does that.”
“Okay. I guess there’s no other reason I’d want to stay in your apartment,” she replied, poking her tongue out.
I chuckled, and as we approached the diner, we caught sight of a girl coming outside, curly brown hair blowing in the breeze. She looked a little bit like Anya, only her hair was lighter, her nose was wider and she was slightly taller.
“Is that her?” I murmured.
Anya nodded. “Shania!” she called out.
The girl looked over at us, confusion etched in her features for a second, and then her eyes widened. “Anya?” she squealed. “Oh my god, it’s really you!”
She dashed up to us and immediately enveloped Anya in an enormous hug, and I grinned. I’d known this was a good idea. There was no way in a million years that Shania wouldn’t have wanted to see Anya after all the sisterly support she’d lent her over the last two years.
“We were sort of in the area, so we decided to show up and surprise you,” Anya said, finally breaking away from the hug.
Shania looked at me. “Oh! You’re…”
“Hi,”
I said, extending my hand. “I’m Cam. Anya’s boyfriend.”
Anya looked at me with surprise, as if she couldn’t believe I’d introduced myself as her boyfriend rather than her stepbrother. I grinned at her, and she relaxed and smiled back at me.
“Cam Meyers…wow,” Shania said with a smile as she shook my hand. “I know who you are. I used to watch you race whenever they played it on Channel Ten.”
“Cool. So you like cars?”
“Love them,” Shania replied.
“Maybe I picked the wrong sister to date?” I joked, earning an immediate playful slap from Anya.
“Hilarious,” she said. “Anyway, Shania…is there somewhere we can get lunch with you? Preferably somewhere that has cupcakes. I’m craving one so badly.”
Shania grinned and gestured behind her. “How about right here? I get an employee discount, and there’s six different sorts of cupcakes. I guess that kinda makes up for the dismal pay.”
“Sure,” Anya said. “But don’t worry, we’re paying!”
Three hours later, we were still in the diner, and Anya and Shania were talking each other’s ears off about everything in their lives.
“Did I tell you about the night classes I enrolled in?” Shania asked as a waitress delivered our third round of coffees.
Anya shook her head. “I don’t think so, no.”
“Oh, I thought I did. Well, last time you sent me money—which by the way, I don’t know how I can ever thank you for—I enrolled in a few night classes at a community college here.”
“Cool. In what subject?”
“Just admin and business kinda stuff,” she replied. “There’s also this short public relations course which I’m hoping to get into next semester.”
“That’s great,” Anya said, reaching over and squeezing her hand. “I’m proud of you.”
“Well, like I said, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you. Anyway, enough about me! How did you two meet?” Shania said, arching an eyebrow. “I’m very interested as to how a relative of mine scored Cam Meyers.”
Anya hesitated. “Um…I guess you haven’t read many gossip sites lately?”
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