Cami's Decision

School was a place that Cami didn’t want to be this morning. Despite some of the positive things that pregnancy was doing to her body such as increased hair and nail growth, it also had it negatives. She was critical of the several pounds that she had gained within the last several months. As a result, she was always trying to wear loosely fitted clothing that would hide her weight gain. She had not received much sleep due to her constant vomiting trips to the bathroom, and she could never seem to sleep more than three hours at a time. She was exhausted and cranky; all she really wanted was to sleep soundly in her cozy bed.

  “Where have you been?” Marissa asked when she saw her at her locker.

  “At home sleeping—or at least wishing that I could. Where have you been?”

  “Here wondering where you’ve been.”

  Cami flashed a smile. “It’s nice to know that you care.”

  “Mind if I touch your stomach?” Marissa eyed her growing abdomen. She felt the need to touch her best friend’s stomach partly because it reminded her of a past horrific incident that had occurred to her a few years earlier—one that Cami knew nothing about.

  “No, I don’t mind.”

  “Aw. This is so cool! Your stomach’s so hard.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “It must be the baby’s head.”

  “No, I don’t think it’s that big.”

  Cami suddenly felt the urge that she felt every morning. She dashed into the girls’ restroom but only to find Leena and a group of her friends crowding it. If they didn’t get out of the way, she was going to vomit on somebody’s shoes.

  “Excuse us,” Marissa said politely.

  “Excuse you and pregnant girl,” Leena retorted not even bothering to bat an eyelash their way. As badly as Cami needed to get into a stall, she couldn’t. Neither Leena nor her friends would move.

  “So you and your stupid friends aren’t going to let us use the restroom?” Cami asked angrily.

  “No, Pregnant Girl. Why should we?”

  She didn’t want to do it but she couldn’t help it. She leaned forward and puked all over Leena’s designer stilettos.

  Marissa chuckled as Leena watched in horror. “This wouldn’t have happened if you and your idiot friends would’ve moved out of the way.”

  Leena’s mouth fell open for a split second, but she quickly regained her composure. Then, her face formed a look of disgust mixed with hatred that Cami hadn’t seen before. It was a look that almost frightened her. “Who the hell are you to…to call me an idiot?” She looked as if she could strangle Marissa, but she didn’t seem to be worried.

  “I called your friends idiots not you, but I guess you didn’t quite catch that.”

  Leena crossed her arms and clenched her jaw. It was apparent to everyone there that she was angry. Marissa noticed but remained calm despite the storm that was brewing in front of her.

  “I want you and that pregnant pig to get out of here now,” Leena said between clenched teeth. Cami had always been slender and being called a “pig” really bothered her. She’d never had any sort of battles with her weight. Although she wasn’t fat (even with the weight gain), it made her feel even more self-conscious than before.

  “We’re not leaving until we’re ready,” Marissa said while standing in front of Leena.

  A tall brunette with bangs got into between the two girls and while facing Marissa said, “You should just leave and take Cami with you. Your presence isn’t doing Leena any good anyway.”

  Cami could clearly see that Marissa was remaining calm despite the fact that she was dealing with selfish, self-centered girls. She wiped her face clean with a damp paper towel and washed her hands. Then she walked by Leena and whispered to Marissa, “Ready when you are.”

  Although it was a whisper, Leena heard it, and wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to butt in. “Yeah leave. Go you pregnant pig,” she said as she rolled her eyes. She hated them both and wanted them gone. Although she and Marissa use to party together, she hated her more than Cami. She blamed Marissa for her brother’s suicide. She knew the girl hadn’t killed him but she might as well have. Cami hadn’t ever done anything mean to her—not that she knew of. But she was a goody-goody who never did anything wrong. Plus, she was Marissa’s best friend and anyone who was a friend of hers was an enemy of Leena’s.

  Cami had had enough of people belittling her. She had to deal with Tammy telling everyone at school that she was pregnant, and she had to deal with being called cruel names on a regular basis at school. Her mother found out that she was pregnant before she could tell her. River now hated her for wanting to give their baby up for adoption. She had had to deal with so much and she was tired of it. “If I were you, I’d get the puke off my shoes. You smell terrible,” she heard herself say bravely.

  Marissa turned to look at her. This was the second time that Cami had stood up for herself. First she had to do it with Tammy and now it was Leena.

  Leena glanced down at her puke covered shoes. This was all Cami’s fault. If she just would’ve used another restroom, this never would have happened. She lifted her right leg to kick Cami with her vomit covered shoe, but before she could, her other leg slipped out from underneath her. “This is all your fault!” she screamed while pointing at Cami. “Hey, someone help me get up. Now!” Two girls practically ran to her side and offered their help to their so called friend.

  “Sure hope she pays you guys for that or at least says thank you,” Marissa mumbled.

  Leena gave the small crowd a look that specified that someone should do something. “Oh just get out of the bathroom,” a girl stated while as she made a shooing motion with her hands.

  Gladly.

  Without another word, Cami and Marissa exited the restroom. She didn’t intend to do it but it felt so good to puke all over Leena’s shoes.

  Cami was so relieved when the bell rang for lunch. She was starving! She had no idea what was on the lunch menu and she didn’t care. She just wanted some food!

  “Slow down,” Marissa chuckled. “No one’s going to steal your chicken wings or your mash potatoes.”

  “I bet they’re all too scared to,” Cami said with a mouthful of mash potatoes.

  “Probably are,” she agreed staring in the distance. Cami’s eyes followed her gaze and she soon saw why. Sitting across the lunch room with her little sister was Skylar Caldarelli. She knew that Kaci had been best friends with him since they were kids, but she didn’t know much about him other than what she had observed whenever she saw him at their house (which wasn’t often because her mother didn’t allow boys over the house unless she was there). There was one thing that she did notice about him: he was a gentleman. He always opened the door for Kaci, and he was always very polite. He seemed like a nice boy but then again all boys seem nice—or at least some of them.

  She watched Kaci laugh at something that Skylar said. Watching them reminded Cami of herself when she was dating River. Her eyes glued themselves to Skylar. There was something about the way that he looked at Kaci…

  “Are they dating now?” Marissa asked while checking her cell phone for new texts.

  “I don’t think so,” Cami replied.

  “He’s one of the good guys,” she said in a matter-of-factly way.

  Cami pointed at her stomach. “Look at what the guy who I thought was good did to me.”

  “Are you worried about her?”

  “It’s not really her. It’s him.” She knew that Marissa probably knew more than what she was saying. She always had her ears glued to the halls for the latest gossip.

  As if reading Cami’s mind, she said, “I haven’t heard much about him, but he is a really nice guy.” She went onto say that she had once dated one of his relatives and they frequented Skylar’s home on a regular basis. Whenever she would come over, he would greet her but didn’t say much after that. However, he did become more comfortable around her after he got used to her being around. But the juiciest part of it all was that sever
al months ago, he revealed to Marissa’s now ex-boyfriend that he had a serious crush on his best friend.

  “I knew it!” Cami exclaimed. “He has a crush on her.”

  “You can’t be too sure about that,” Marissa said in a low voice.

  “Why not?”

  “He does have other friends, and some people have more than one best friend. So how can you be sure that it’s her?” Marissa was right. She couldn’t be sure about that.

  Marissa excused herself to get an ice cream sandwich. She didn’t quite look like herself while she was telling her about Skylar. She looked a little sad. Could she have a crush on Skylar? He was very attractive, but he was younger than her and Marissa didn’t date younger guys. So maybe she didn’t have a crush on him.

  When she made it back, Cami asked her if she was okay. She told her that she was but Cami could tell that she was lying. Something was wrong; she just didn’t know what it was. She couldn’t believe that Marissa wouldn’t tell her what was bothering her because they had always told each other everything.

  But everyone has a secret.

  Chapter 23