Just For You (17 page)

"Agree to disagree, then."

Cameron stood and walked a few steps forward, to the lake. In his mind he was walking back down the boulevard to Charlotte's house. He was eighteen. He was still in high school. He still had a spring in his step and a smile on his face and he was bringing her a handpicked bouquet of yellow and purple wildflowers.

"Cameron!"

Imogen and Cameron turned at the same time in the direction of the voice. It was Alex, who was waving his arms in the air and jogging toward them.

"Yeah?"

"Hey, Mom said to tell you…" Alex stopped to pant, bending over at the waist and supporting his weight on his arms, which gripped his thighs, just above the knees. "Whew, it's hot out here and I ran all the way from the house." He gulped. "Dinner. Now. Both of you."

Cameron and Imogen smiled at each other and then walked over to Alex, waiting while he caught his breath. The three of them turned and started to walk when Imogen placed her hand on Cameron's forearm.

"Hey, remember how I told you I was going to get your mom to do something fun with us during our trip?"

Alex looked up, interested. His attention shifted between Imogen and Cameron, who flanked either side of him.

"Yes?"

Imogen smiled so big that her mouth seemed to stretch from ear-to-ear. "I've figured it out. Karaoke. Tonight, after dinner."

Cameron chuckled.

"Hope your singing pipes are ready," Imogen said. Before Cameron could protest, she interrupted him, throwing the blanket she carried at his chest. He caught it with one hand. "Race you to the house!"

Cameron could feel the breeze on his face, left behind by Alex and Imogen as they left him so suddenly, racing each other to the back porch.

Alex won.

Chapter Nine

Pull Yourself Together Now And Fall In Love With Me

Cameron was surprised that Imogen was able to get his mom out of the house. They walked into the bar. Darkness invaded their eyes and they were made to adjust to it. Gray smoke undulated slowly in the air, twisting and turning, making patterns that were both beautiful and deadly. The smoke settled onto their skin and hair and burned their eyes and throats.

On the bar was a man, balding and pudgy, in his mid- to late-thirties. He was already well past drunk, singing a terrible rendition of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." His singing was more of a wailing, so loud that no one inside the bar could even hear their own thoughts.

"Perhaps this was a bad idea," Cameron shouted to Imogen over the screaming. He winced, wondering just how much longer the song would go on. It was beginning to give him a headache. He could feel it, just at the temples. It was a dull ache, but he knew that a few more songs by tone-deaf drunkards would turn it into a full-fledged sledgehammer pounding in no time.

Imogen made a face at him and shook her head. She was leading Sylvia toward the bar, ready to order drinks. Sylvia wasn't as averse to the idea as Cameron thought she might have been. In fact, he was surprised at her readiness to jump in.

"What are you having tonight?" Sylvia asked Cameron. He had been watching the man on stage embarrass himself further by attempting to grind against empty air, and he turned when his mother asked him the question.

"Hu? I'm not drinking. God knows what you two are going to get yourselves into and one of us has to be sober."

"Lighten up, would you. It's a bar, that's what you do. You drink!" She signaled to the bartender that she was ready to order. Just as he slid a cold beer toward a young man, he wiped his hands with a towel and made his way to Sylvia and Imogen. Two martinis for the both of them. Dry.

"I wouldn't have pegged you for a martini type girl," Cameron said to Imogen. He had to stand closer to her than he was comfortable with. Her body heat was tangible against his chest and legs, where their bodies made contact. He was forced to speak directly into her ear.

She looked up at him and smiled, holding her martini toward him. If he had a drink of his own in his hands, she would have clinked their glasses together.

"Shows just how much you don't know about me."

"Yeah," Cameron raised an eyebrow. "Just when I think I have you figured out, there you go and throw me off again." Imogen noticed the way his shirt pulled across his chest when he stuck his left hand in the corresponding pocket of his pants. The top two buttons were left undone, leaving exposed a sliver of flesh she never took notice of before. She gulped down a sip of the alcohol, focusing on the burn it left down her throat as a way to forget the bare skin in front of her hungry eyes.

Before he knew it, something cold was placed against Cameron's chest. He realized that it was Sylvia, holding a dripping beer against him.

"Loosen up, Cameron. Have some fun tonight."

Imogen laughed. "You should, you know. This was supposed to be about getting your mom to have fun and you're the one who ends up needing to be unwound."

"In more ways than one," Sylvia joked. "See any ladies around here, Cameron?"

He rolled his eyes, taking the beer from her, gripping it with three fingers around the top of the bottle. He lifted it to his mouth, reveling for a split second in the way its crisp coolness felt against his lips. "No," he said finally, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Don't go there, please. This is no place for work."

Sylvia laughed. "Fine, tonight I'll be on my best behavior then, just for you."

"I appreciate the effort."

"It's only because you're my son and I love you." Sylvia drew her arm around his neck and pulled Cameron down and toward her. She wasted no time placing a wet kiss on his cheek.

Cameron gave his mom a fake smile once he escaped from her and took another drink. He figured he was going to need quite a few tonight.

He was right.

After Imogen and Sylvia had their turn with the karaoke machine, having managed to somehow get the rest of the bar moving and singing along with them, they decided it was time to enact Operation: Torture Cameron Moody.

He saw it coming the second he watched Imogen walk over to him from across the dance floor. Cameron decided to hang around the bar, and that was exactly where he stood, the counter digging into the middle of his back, his arms up and elbows propped upon the high backs of two chairs next to him.

She seemed to move gracefully, almost ghostlike. Her movements were soft and fleeting, but yet she moved in slow motion. If Cameron hadn't known her, he might have been inclined to call her sexy, but since he
did
know her, the word didn't enter his mind.

For too long.

"If you think you're tricking me into going up there, you're wrong." He didn't look at her as he shouted the words. His eyes were on the group of girls currently fixing the karaoke microphones to their appropriate heights. Briefly he wondered what terrible song he would next be forced to endure, and just to stave off his headache for a little longer, hoped that it was short and that they were not wholly terrible singers.

Imogen smirked at Cameron, sliding fluidly into one of the seats upon which his elbow rested. His arm dropped into his lap.

"You shouldn't underestimate me, you know."

"I smell a threat here."

She shrugged. "I have my ways."

"And I have mine." His eyes glittered with the challenge.

The bartender motioned to Imogen, asking her if she wanted another drink. She declined. Biting her lip and crossing one leg over the other, she half turned toward Cameron when the group of girls began to sing "Freebird." A good portion of the crowd groaned; Cameron was one of them.

Imogen watched him until he finally scowled at her.

"What?"

She laughed, breaking eye contact for a moment. "I'm just trying to figure out what it's going to take to get you up there with me."

"I already told you," he crossed his arms over his chest. "I am not going up there. No way, no how."

"Okay." She slid down from the chair. The dark, skinny jeans she wore outlined every part of her just so. Cameron gulped and pretended not to notice. Slapping her open palm on the bartop, she said, "You're missing out, you know."

She turned and made her way over to the dance floor, where no one moved. Finally, after the group of girls finished their song, "Baby Got Back" started up and Imogen, along with Sylvia, started to dance wildly while others made their way to the floor.

He kept the cold bottle of the beer close to his lips. His already firm grip around it tightened, reminding him that this was his reality at this present moment. He was horrified when he realized his eyes were glued to Imogen's hips as she swayed and gyrated to the rhythm of the music. She was graceful and alluring in a way which he never saw before. There were certain things about her that he never noticed, and now, standing across the club, watching her without being seen, he wondered just how long all that beauty had been standing right in front of his face.

Cameron blinked rapidly and downed the last of the beer. It went down his throat, hard, and he immediately ordered another one. The bartender complied, slamming another bottle onto the bar.

He tried to look away from her, but he always found his gaze going back to her, like a ship heading toward a lighthouse in the dark night. Out of everyone who surrounded her, she wasn't difficult to lose, despite the sea of sweaty swimming bodies on all sides. It was like she had a light glowing from the inside out of her, and Cameron, unable
not
to see it, was drawn by a presence there that he could not fathom nor could he comprehend.

Nostrils flaring, he closed his eyes tight, seeing stars and bits of color there behind the lids. This time when he placed the beer bottle to his mouth, he didn't so much as breathe until it was entirely consumed.

He gasped for air afterward. Feeling lightheaded, he grasped for the back of a chair and, finding one, eased himself down into it. Tonight was a disaster; he wasn't even supposed to be drinking.

Then again, Imogen wasn't supposed to look appetizing. Alcohol was the only way to make him forget that he liked this new girl that, somehow, without his noticing much, she turned into.

For all his eye-opening revelations that night, he never noticed that he, too, was being watched. Imogen snuck a look over in his direction every so often- probably too often. Someone's body brushed against her own but she ignored it. She was too focused on watching the way Cameron's entire body slumped into the chair in which he sat, as if he were weary. His head was down, resting in his upturned palms.

The DJ was speaking.

"Very good, very good." He said, clapping his hands together. The crowd followed and there was mild applause. "Up next we have a duet from
Grease
- 'Summer Lovin''- everyone welcome Imogen and Cameron to the stage!"

Cameron's world spun right before his eyes and then stopped with an audible crunch. His heart dropped into his stomach and he looked up to see Imogen standing on the stage, her hands folded in front of her in an infuriatingly innocent stance. She was smiling in his direction, not able to see him for the lights that shone in her eyes and limited her view to just the few faces closest to the stage.