The Return of the Bad boy

Chapter 34: Summer

"Okay, you're probably wondering why you were both called here today?"

"Are we in trouble?" Rosie said, fighting a smirk.

I shook my head. "No, of course not. Don't be silly." I rolled my eyes.

Kenny sat up in the bed. "OHMYGOSH!" She covered her mouth with both hands. "She's dating Cam again!" Her hand flew to the left to slap Rosie's bicep.

Rosie flinched with surprise. Kenny felt terrible and started rubbing the spot. "Sorry," she whispered apologetically. "I got excited."

"Well, um... We're not official or anything." I thought about all the people who caught us holding hands last night, including my mother.

After we came home, I tried to ask her about the Mayor, but she shut me down. I think she had no idea about his past, and maybe she felt stupid for working with him. I would, too, if I spent the last few years supporting a man like that.

A special new report aired last night, and I immediately tuned in for it. All those people that spent weeks bashing Cam knew the truth, and their hateful glares were now turned to the Mayor.

There would be protesters outside his house and office soon enough. I did feel bad for his wife and maybe Jason as well. They didn't deserve to be attacked along with him. But apparently, that's how it worked sometimes. Cam's mom lost so much business during the summer. If it had continued like that, maybe she wouldn't have had a business to manage by the end of the year.

So I was glad I could turn it around for them. The salon was getting the hype it deserved. Special thanks to one of my favorite social media stars as well.

"Cam and I haven't had that talk yet, but he knows how I feel about him and vice versa. So it's not a big deal right now," I said.

"You know he's madly in love with you?" Kenny blurted out.

I gasped. "NA UH!" We haven't come close to saying the L-word to each other. At the same time, we care about each other very much. I wouldn't say it was love. We're just teenagers.

"UH HUH!" The girls shouted at me, and my heart rate picked up speed.

My thoughts ran with the idea of Cam and me loving each other.

If it weren't love, I would have been able to let him go and move on, but instead, I chose to fight for him.

OH MY GOSH! I'M IN LOVE WITH CAMERON ALEXANDER ST. JAMES.

My mouth formed an O as I stared blankly at the wall.

"I think we should have made her come to that realization by herself. Poor thing has gone into shock." One of the girls muttered.

"Summer. Summer. Summer! Snap out of it!" Kenny caught my attention, throwing a pillow at me. It hit me in the chest.

I rubbed it absentmindedly. "Enough about Cameron and me. Moving on," I told them before losing my nerve. I picked up my laptop, opening up my blog tab. "I have something to tell you both, and it might come as a shock, and I've been keeping this secret for a while. I didn't know I would continue doing this or if I wanted people to know it was me because this could fail, and that would suck but anyways." I turned the screen to them. "I made a blog, and this is it."

They glanced at the screen then they both froze before turning to look at each other and bursting out with laughter.

"What? WHAT SO FUNNY!" I was getting offended that they would be laughing at all my hard work.

"Yeah, we've known for a while now." Kenny flicked her wrist. "I mean, it's kind of obvious that it's you," she stated with a shrug.

"What do you mean? What gave it away?" I hadn't used any of my lingoes or mentioned something that would scream, "this is Summer Bennet here!"

"I think it's the sun symbol that matches your necklace." Rosie pointed to it.

"That and there's the fact that you left the tab open on your laptop a few weeks ago, and when we grabbed it to research something, we stumbled across it," Kenny confessed, and then it all made sense.

My jaw fell. THEY KNEW!

"I'm sorry. We wanted to wait for you to tell us," Rosie said, getting up to hug me. I placed the laptop on my desk and welcomed the embrace.

"Yeah, we figured you'd spill soon enough. It took you months, though. But I'm not bitter." Kenny began picking at her nails. "Nope. Not salty or bitter at all. I understand why you left us out of the loop. It's totally fine." She moved on to the next hand, admiring her nails. "Yup. I'm not upset or anything."

Rosie whispered in my ear. "She's gonna hold a grudge for a bit. But I forgive you."

We laughed quietly.

Kenny's eyes narrowed at us.

I brought Kenny into a hug next. "You know I love you, right," I said, squeezing her shoulders with one arm.

"Yeah, yeah." She smiled a bit but still turned away from me.

"Anyways, we've been reading your posts and secretly replying," Rosie told me.

Then they launched into a discussion about my topics and asked where I planned to take the blog.

I told them I created it for fun, but it's also been one of my dreams to create a space that talks about everything. I had so many interests. I wanted to shine a light on them all.

"We like your content so far. But we think you should take it to the next level, and we got some ideas if you're up for it."

"HIT ME!" I told her, ready to get creative.

After the girls left, Cam pulled up on his motorcycle a few minutes later. I grabbed a light jacket and ran out to meet him.

"Do you want to come in? Mom's not home. She's been gone for a bit and said she would be back late. I think she's trying to salvage that shit storm from last night." I snickered. "Don't know why she would waste her time, though."

Cam sighed, and I couldn't figure out why. I almost asked him, but he spoke first. "Do you want to get some ice cream and talk a walk by the lake?"

"UH, YES!" I slipped on my jacket then Cam helped slip on the helmet.

Swinging my leg over the seat, I comfortably situated myself behind him, wrapping my arms around his taut abs.

"Hold on," Cam told me before speeding off.

We spent an hour circling the small lake with our empty ice cream cups in our hands.

The moon was already out, and a blanket of stars lit up the sky.

"I think it's time we threw these out." Cam laughed, snatching the cup out of my hands toss it away in a trash bin.

Then he led me to the edge of the lakeshore, where we stood watching the still water.

I turned to Cam. "Things are going to change again. Are you ready for that?" I asked, tilting my head to look up at him.

We had been talking about school and town gossip earlier.

Cam took his time replying. "Depends if I'll have you by my side." Smooth.

I wrapped my arms around his neck. "The better question is, are you going to try and get rid of me again?" I gave him a blank stare. To think we could have been the way we are now, weeks ago, if he hadn't been so stubborn.

Cam smirked. "Nope. Never." He pressed a kiss to my forehead.

Good.