The following day, Taylor and I were walking through campus to our music class. Rather, I was walking next to Taylor as he bitched at his younger brother, Zac, on the phone. Zac was scheduled to come visit the next day for the weekend and they were arguing over where he would be staying. I was just trying not to look too annoyed at being ignored for the better part of our trek along the river.
“Zac, look. I could honestly give a shit what you do the whole time you’re here, but if Mom and Dad call and you’re not with me, what am I supposed to say? I don’t… no, dude, I get it that you want to hang out with Hunter, too, but you know that they’re going to be checking in… Okay, fine. It’s your ass, not mine. Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon,” with that, Taylor snapped his phone shut and thrust it into his pocket. I ventured to look over at him and raise an eyebrow, and he just shrugged at me.
“Trouble in Hansonland?” I asked.
“He wants to stay with Hunter, his friend from high school, and I don’t care if he does, but I know that Mom and Dad are going to get all kinds of pissed if they call and he’s not with me. I just don’t really feel like having them any more mad at me than usual over his stupid visit,” he spat, fishing his cigarettes out of his messenger bag and lighting one, holding it in the hand closest to me.
“Hunter who?”
“I don’t know, Michaels or something. You’ve never met him. He’s okay, obnoxious in all the same ways Zac is. So, do you want to go with me to get them wasted tomorrow night?” I just nodded and pushed his hand away as he offered me his cigarette. God he was annoying. “Oh hey, it’s Brooklynn!”
With that, I officially no longer existed. Brooklynn Stahler. The bane of my existence. She was the resident whore of our dorm and had made it her goal to get into Taylor’s pants as soon as possible. So far he’d taken only to flirting with her and appeasing all of her requests for hanging out. I hated how he treated every other female like a girl and I was the one who got his verbal bile and was privy to all of his habits that would make these girls cringe. They never got to see the real Taylor, the one that I actually had feelings for. Instead, they just got to see the schmoozey, flirty Taylor with the smile that could drop girls to their knees. Literally. That boy had more girls offer him oral pleasure than I could ever care to count on all of my appendages.
“Hey Taylor!” she said, her sugary-sweet voice already making my skin crawl, “Cameron.”
I just looked at her before taking out my cell, pretending to send a text. There was no point in trying to be nice to her. She was the only girl to realize that I was some kind of potential competition and treated me as such. I never saw her as much competition, though. It was a well known fact that she had cheated on all of the boyfriends she’d had at school and that she was an incredibly possessive girlfriend. Taylor was not the kind of guy to deal with drama like that, so I knew that she was wasting her efforts.
“Hi Brooklynn. Going to class?” he asked, flicking the end of his Marlboro and almost getting the ash on me. I just aggressively rubbed at my jeans and repocketed my cell phone.
“Yeah. ‘The Ethics of Business’… really exciting. So, are you going out tomorrow night?”
“Definitely. My little brother is coming into town and I have to show him a good time.”
“Oh, is that Isaac?” I couldn’t believe her.
“No, Zac. Isaac’s my older brother.”
“Of course! My mistake!” she laughed, reaching out to touch his arm. I cleared my throat as we reached the music building. Taylor broke away from his conversation with her to look at me as if he had just remembered that I’d been next to him the entire time.
“Oh, I should go,” he said, “See you tomorrow night?” Brooklynn nodded and gave him a little wave, pretending like I didn’t exist.
“Bye Taylor.” I grabbed the strap of his bag and began to drag him in the direction of the doors.
“We’re going to be late,” was all I said as I walked away.
“What’s your problem? We still have ten minutes!”
“Yeah, and if I’m not mistaken, you still have to finish the assignment. Thank me later when you get an A+ on it like always.” He slung an arm around my shoulders.
“Oh my little Cammy. What would I do without you?”
“Well, let’s see. You’d never go to class or do your homework or get your lazy ass out of your room.” He released his arm as we entered the building.
“Believe it or not, you really don’t have that much effect on my life,” he stated. I chose not to validate his comment with a response and just walked in front of him, trying not to let it show how much those little comments of his really hurt me.
The next evening, I was up in my room getting ready for the night. I was actually looking forwards to Zac’s visit. I’d never had the chance to meet him and since I was an only child, I’d always found people’s siblings to be interesting. Growing up, I’d always jumped at the chance to stay at my friend’s houses when they had brothers and sisters. The chaos was always a nice contrast to the constant quiet of my own home. I was sitting at my desk putting on some makeup while Sophie and David were making out on the futon. I really didn’t understand why they couldn’t wait until they were alone to paw at each other. I layered on my mascara as quickly as possible before grabbing my purse and heading out the door, not even bothering to say good-bye. They wouldn’t have noticed anyway. They probably didn’t even know I was in the room to begin with.
Zac had arrived a few hours earlier and Taylor had requested my presence around dinnertime. Apparently I was going to be some kind of buffer in case they didn’t get along so well. They’d always been pretty amiable, but there were times when their fights would reach apparent epic proportions. I really wasn’t in the mood for a fight, so I hoped for a good and calm weekend.
I smoothed my hands down the front of my outfit, hoping that I looked okay for whatever we were doing that night. The prospect of going back into my hormone-overfilled room wasn’t top on my list of things that sounded particularly appealing. I adjusted the strap on my cami before opening Taylor’s door without knocking. I found Taylor inside digging around through his closet and a guy who I assumed to be Zac sitting at Taylor’s desk on the computer looking incredibly bored.
“What’s up, loser?” I asked, standing next to Taylor in front of his closet stuffed with very metrosexual clothing.
“I don’t know what to wear.” I grabbed a button-up shirt and a jacket and pushed them into his hands.
“Wear this with some jeans,” I said. He gave me a look and hung the clothes back up.
“I think I can pick out my own clothes, thanks,” he said, “Oh yeah. Cams, this is Zac. Zac, Cameron.” I looked over at Zac, who immediately sat up straighter when he saw me.
“Hi Zac. Nice to meet you,” I said, sticking my hand in his direction. He hesitated a minute before shaking my hand.
“You’re Cameron?” he asked, not releasing his grip on my hand. I looked over my shoulder at Taylor who was now swearing at his drawer of jeans.
“Yeah, surprised?” Now I was uncomfortable. I pulled my hand from his and took a step backwards in an attempt to regain some control of the situation by distancing myself from him.
“It’s just that from the way Taylor described you, I didn’t expect…” He never got to finish his sentence because Taylor had finally decided on an outfit and had thrown it on in record time.
“Come on, let’s go to dinner,” he said, sounding annoyed with us.
“Don’t order me around. I’m not your dog,” I said, walking right past him out the door. I heard Zac laugh behind me.
“Now that’s how he described you,” he said as he broke into a slow jog to catch up with me.
“So he basically told you that I’m the bitch from downstairs who keeps his scrawny ass in line?” I asked, still reluctant to make eye contact. The way he had been looking at me earlier made me feel very uneasy, as did his comments about Taylor’s description of me.
“More or less,” he laughed.
“Dude, shut up,” Taylor said. I could tell just from his voice that he was annoyed.
“I’m glad I mean so much to you,” was my reply as I shoved open the door to the stairs and began my descent.
“Thanks a lot,” I heard Taylor say to Zac before he caught up with me, “Cams. Come on. Don’t be mad at me.” I ran my hands through my hair and slowed my pace. No matter what Taylor did or how much he bothered me, all it took was a cute little smile and a half-assed apology and I was back to being the unknown putty in his hands.
“I’m not mad at you,” I relented, “I’m just hungry.” With that, we were all out the door and into the parking lot.