Chapter Five: Dirty Little Secret
Cameron Wright didn't talk a lot, but that did not mean he was not good with words. In fact, he had won the speech and debate tournament three years in a row and had made several speeches about fundraisers for student counsel. He usually only spoke to Travis and Alex, but he did speak a lot to them. Yes, Cameron Wright was good with words. Yet, he still found himself speechless as he stared directly at the boy he had met in a gay club a few nights before who was now standing in Cameron's school.
Cameron was already late for class, but at that moment it didn't matter much to him, and it didn't look like it mattered much to Matt, seeing how Matt grabbed Cameron's arm and dragged him into the boys' bathroom. Once inside, Matt ensured that no one else was in there, and then turned to face Cameron.
"What are you doing here?!" Matt stammered.
"What am I doing here?! This is my school! What are you doing here?!" Cameron snapped.
"You've got to be kidding me," Matt groaned as he leaned his head against the wall. Cameron felt somewhat offended.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I had no idea that me going to school here was such an inconvenience for you! I'll leave!" Cameron sarcastically stated.
"No, no. It's not that," Matt apologized. "Look, I'm not exactly out yet here. My parents know and so do my sisters, but no one else. Well, and you. I was hoping to graduate without anyone knowing."
"Wait, what grade are you in?" Cameron asked.
"I'm a senior. Why? Aren't you?" Matt inquired. Cameron shook his head.
"No, I'm a junior," Cameron explained. "That explains why I haven't seen you really. Oh, and by the way, if your worried about anyone finding out, no one knows about me. Not even my parents."
"Really? That makes me feel a little bit better." Matt smiled. "I'm sorry I snapped. I just freaked out when I saw you. Not that I didn't have fun last Friday, I just am really afraid of being outed."
"That makes two of us. Don't worry, your secrets safe with me" Cameron winked.
"Shit, we should probably get to class" Matt jumped as he realized was time it was. "But, um, maybe we could meet up after school. My house isn't that far of a walk. I could meet you at your locker."
"Yeah. Okay. I just have a student government meeting until 3:30. My locker is 456, it's on the second floor near the music room." Cameron smiled. They both left with butterflies in there stomach about later that day.
James sat in his Math class listening to Mrs. Mendez discuss their latest Math Project. She explained that it would consist of half of their final quarter average and will be done in pairs. Each student was allowed to pick his/her own partner, and Kevin Trainer was an obvious choice for James.
"I'm not doing all the work this time," James whisper to Kevin. Last time they did a science fair project James had ended up building the volcano himself.
"Trust me, I won't make that mistake twice." Kevin laughed. The volcano experiment had not gone to James' advantage and had exploded all over the teachers face.
Mrs. Mendez began calling on each student and taking down who they were partnered with. "And Mr. Winters, who is your partner?" She asked.
"Oh, Kevin." He said, pointing over to him.
"I don't think so. I don't want the two of you working together." Mrs. Mendez frowned. She then began to search around the room for another partner for James. Suddenly, Cameron Wright burst in the room.
"Mrs. Mendez, I'm sorry I'm late. I just had to.." Cameron's apology was quickly cut short.
"Ah yes. Cameron Wright, you will be working with James Winters." Mrs. Mendez smiled at her own cleverness. Cameron looked at James, confused and annoyed. "Oh and Mr. Trainer. I have a student in my other class who you could partner up with. Her name is Alexis Lucas, very bright young girl."
"Fuck," Kevin mumbled.
James wasn't really sure how to react to his partnering up with Cameron. Part of him was excited, he did want the opportunity to become closer with him, but Cameron's recent actions had made him reluctant to think that Cameron was interested in him. Nevertheless, James knew that Cameron was a good student and was excited to get an A for the project.
After the bell rang, James approached Cameron's desk to try and discuss a plan for the project. Cameron was already packing up his books and seemed to be in a hurry. James stood blocking Cameron's path from the door.
"Hey," James smiled.
"Hi, sorry I have to get to my next class" Cameron said coldly.
"Okay, cool. But, um, I was thinking that maybe we could get together after school and go over the plans for the project or something." James said openly.
"After school? I can't today. I have plans. But maybe tomorrow" Cameron said as he walked out of the classroom. James realized that working with Cameron was not going to be as fun as he had once thought.
Marissa Tampa had often changed things in her life. The first week of her freshman year she was a longhaired brunette, but by the end she was a short haired blonde. She changed her fashion sense, making sure she was always wearing what was "in". But not once had she changed her overall attitude of superiority. Not once, until now. Many people had noticed a change in her demeanor. Her close friends, like Megan O'Halloran, saw a change in her style sense, or rather a lack of one. Marissa was now wearing t-shirts and sweatpants.
Marissa was also deviating from her social circle. She hadn't spoken to her close friends, nor had she flirted with any of the lacrosse players. People were beginning to talk. The strangest thing about all of it was that Marissa didn't care one bit. It was as if she wasn't the same person she had been her entire high school career. The only person that she had hung out with lately was Mrs. Wilmer.
After Marissa went to visit her at her house, Mrs. Wilmer had called her out for coffee the next day. Mrs. Wilmer had wanted to get to know the girl that her son had fallen in love with. Marissa also wanted to learn about the boy that had loved her more than anyone else had in her entire life. At first she found his "love from afar" somewhat stalkerish, but not she saw it in a completely different way. She realized that no one had ever cared for her that way.
It was hard for her to explain her newfound appreciation for Kieran Wilmer to anyone else. Especially now that he was dead. Despite her façade of perfection, she really was quite lonely. Her parents loved her dearly, but were overly concerned with there own marital troubles to express that to her. And boys only wanted her; they did not love her like Kieran had.
As Marissa made her way to her locker, she noticed that people were staring at her but she didn't care. Part of her did care, but the new Marissa wanted to tell everyone to fuck off. That is exactly what she wanted to say when she saw Kevin Trainer leaning up against her locker.
"Hey sexy," Kevin grinned. Marissa politely smiled.
"Can you move? I have to get to my locker." Marissa muttered. Kevin didn't budge.
"As soon as you tell me what's been up your ass lately." Kevin growled.
"Nothing. I've just been busy." Marissa lied. She did understand Kevin's reaction to her sudden withdrawal from social endeavors seeing how they had been hooking up for a couple weeks. Kevin just looked at her for a moment then moved away from her locker. Marissa seemed un-phased as he walked away from her.
Alex reported down to the guidance center right after she had been called down on the loudspeaker. She sat in the waiting room for a few moments until she was called in to Mrs. Mendez's office. Each teacher also served as a guidance counselor for a certain group of students.
When Alex entered Mrs. Mendez's office, she had not expected to see Kevin Trainer sitting in one of the chairs opposite Mrs. Mendez. Actually, he was probably the last person that she wanted to see. He was the epitome of everything she hated. Once he had tried to hit on her and he ended up with a black eye.
"Hello Ms. Lucas, please take a seat" said Mrs. Mendez, gesturing to the empty chair. Alex did as was told. "I have decided to make you both partners in the Math research project."
"I'm sorry, what?" Alex exclaimed.
"Trust me, I don't like it as much as you do." Kevin mumbled.
"Quiet, Kevin." Mrs. Mendez snapped. "Kevin isn't exactly the most hard working student in my first period class, and I thought that you would be able to teach him a thing or two."
"But Mrs. Mendez, I told you I wanted to work alone." Alex complained.
"Well I'm sorry but what's done is done." Mrs. Mendez shrugged as she got up from her chair and started to the door. "Oh, you both should probably exchange phone numbers and emails." And with that she exited, leaving Alex and Kevin alone.
"Well my screename is Laxman34 if you want to..." Kevin started.
"It's fine. I'll just do it by myself and put both our names on it." Alex said. She started to get up but Kevin grabbed her arm.
"No, let me help." Kevin said.
"Are you serious? I'm basically giving you an A. You won't have to do any work." Alex explained.
"As I said, my screename is Laxman34. We can figure out a time and place to start working on the project." Kevin said and then got up and left. Alex was left not really sure how to react. It appeared that Kevin wasn't the boy that she thought she knew.
Travis McCarthy rarely smoked by himself. He found it quite depressing and lonely. But he had just received some weed from his dealer in school and had no one to smoke it with, so right after school he went into the woods to smoke it. While there, he found himself depressed and lonely just as he always felt when he smoked alone. But there was something different this time. He figured it had something to do with his recent rejection by Alexis, but it was more then that.
All throughout Travis' life, he was always free to do pretty much whatever he wanted. It wasn't that his mother didn't care, because she did care. But, as a single working mother, she wasn't around to notice what he was doing. This led to him thinking that people would allow him to do whatever he wanted. This philosophy was changed when he suddenly lost Alex. He didn't really understand what the big deal was. He obviously cared about her, and the fact that he slept with two(three) other girls shouldn't have changed that.
Travis finished off his joint and then walked back into school. He needed to get his schoolbooks before going home. He thought about going to his friends Steve's house before heading home. He decided that he wouldn't study for tomorrow's tests anyway, so there wasn't really a point of going home.
As Travis approached his locker, he noticed that pretty much everyone had already left for the day. The hallway that housed his locker was completely empty, except for one girl putting up Student Government flyers. Travis knew the girl by her reputation. She was famous for being a huge high-class prissy bitch. Her name was Marissa Tampa. She didn't look as bitchy today though. She was wearing a t-shirt and sweats, which Travis though odd because Marissa was always wearing the most annoying clothes.
Travis watched as Marissa tried to stick a flyer to the wall. Apparently the tape had become un-sticky, but Marissa kept trying to get it to stick to the wall. She tried multiple times and then suddenly collapsed onto the floor. Thinking that she might've had a stroke or something, Travis rushed over to see if she was okay, but only found Marissa crying hysterically on the floor. Travis knelt down next to her.
"Are you okay?" Travis asked.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." Marissa sniffled. She tried to gain composure, but then quickly burst into tears again. Travis awkwardly placed a hand on her back. "Sorry, I've just had a really bad week. Couple weeks actually."
"It's okay. I don't care." Travis said, but then quickly realized that he must've sounded insensitive. "Not that I don't care that your upset. I just don't care that you've had a bad week. No. Wait. Sorry. I mean, you don't have to explain yourself to me. It's fine."
"Thanks." Marissa smiled, wiping the tears from her eyes. She slowly started to get up, feeling somewhat embarrassed for crying like she had. "Look, if you could not tell anyone about this..."
"Yeah, it's cool. It's our secret." Travis smiled.
Cameron's student government meeting had taken longer then he had expected. Luckily, he got out of putting up flyers and just had to write up a speech for the next weeks food drive. However, that had taken up an hour and he was nervous that Matt had left without him. He rushed to his locker to see Matt sitting on the floor doing homework.
"Holy shit, I am so sorry, you have no idea." Cameron apologized.
"No, don't even worry about it. I had to do some homework anyway. It worked out perfectly." Matt said.
"I'm seriously so sorry. Do you think we still have time to hang out?" Cameron asked. He hoped that he had not blown everything.
"Actually, I don't think we should hang out. I gotta go. Bye." Matt said and then started to walk away. Cameron didn't really know how to react, but then Matt turned around with a big grin on his face. "I'm kidding..."
"You asshole. You just scared the crap out of me." Cameron laughed.
"Common, let's go. If we hurry we can still have an hour before my parents get home." Matt said.
"Oh, your parents aren't going to be home?" Cameron suddenly felt nervous. He wasn't really sure what Matt had in mind, but he didn't want to rush into anything. Yes, he did find Matt attractive, but he wasn't about to lose his virginity a couple days after he had his first kiss.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to rape you. I just thought that you'd feel more comfortable if my parents weren't home." Matt explained. Cameron felt relieved.
"Yeah, okay." Cameron said. They both started to walk down the long hallway together. Both of them were nervous about what was to come between them, but they were also very excited.
However, as they started walking towards the exit, they both saw something. As they passed Mr. Reillys English classroom, they saw through the half opened door something they were not meant to see. In front of them, they saw James Winters and Mr. Reilly kissing.
Thank you so much for reading and please e-mail me at ryanwest25@yahoo.com with questions, comments and suggestions. Thanks again, and I hope you continue reading.