The Perfect Promise

Chapter 4: The upside of falling:

~Chapter Song: One Way Or Another, One Direction~

"That's Cameron?", Christine said -not so quietly- in my ear.

The first two periods were over, and we had our first break, which gave my friends a twenty-minute chance to yell at me.

We sat on the bench, and she punched my shoulder.

"Why didn't you tell us? We are your best friends. We are supposed to be included in those pieces of information."

"And besides,", Ben decided to jump in, "why would you hide that-", he pointed at Cameron, who was standing a bit further away, "-from us".

Cameron was surrounded by the same group of girls from before, barely being able to speak. He looked like he was being tortured.

"I didn't know."

The situation was already giving me a headache.

"This is incredible. Unbelievable. Totally and undoubtedly fantastic", Christine mumbled.

She was excited about this.

Way too excited.

The three of us were sitting at the same side of the bench staring in a not-so-settle way. If he turned in our direction, I would officially die from embarrassment.

And speaking of the devil, Cameron noticed us, making my time of death: 9:17.

Did he have eyes on his back?

Once again, he started walking our way. I tried to warn him not to, but he didn't seem to be afraid of my -very well-practiced- death stare.

"Hello", he said with a smile. He looked... friendly? "I'm..."

"Yes, Cameron. We know", Christine interrupted.

Cameron kept smiling, in a natural, charming way, as if he wasn't the person who used to put salt in my cereal.

What was he doing?

"I'm Christine and that's Ben."

"Nice to meet you. We've heard a lot about you.", Ben shook his hand.

At that point, my jaw had reached the floor.

I had never, in my life, talked to him, about him or Cameron, to my friends. Not once. Nada. The only reason they knew his existence was because of the question 'What are you doing this summer?', when the answer was, holidays with family friends.

Now, Cameron was being polite. Too polite.

"What are you doing?", I said again without thinking. Something I seemed to be doing a lot lately.

"Just meeting your friends Winnie."

Uh-huh! That was it. He was trying to embarrass me. Of course, he did! I should have guessed it immediately.

Ben started laughing hysterically.

"Winnie? Like we say Winnie the Pooh?" -tears were running from his eyes- "This is the best day of my life. Is it because you pooped yourself at kindergarten?"

Never say any embarrassing childhood stories to your friends.

Noted. That one was on me.

The story might have been one of the only ones, Cameron didn't know. Until now.

He choked a laugh.

I stared at him in a way that completely mirrored my thoughts, which were "Leave or I'll make you."