RhondaWeasley.com

Title: Coming Together
Rating: R
Summary: Camille makes a mistake that changes her life forever.
Notes: It’s a good idea to read “My Sister” before reading this story.
Warning(s):
Disclaimer:  This is a work of fiction. Not intended to represent any real persons, places, events, or things. This story is copyright Dawn Kelley and all rights to these characters belong to me.

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As rain crashed violently agains the walls of the abandoned house Camille lay silent between Marcus and Tricia staring up at the celling. A chill wind seem to whistle through spaces in the boarded up windows and doors. In the distance she heard a leak in the roof hitting the tin bucket under it. In the distance she heard the squeak of what was likely a rodent of some sort. She hated this life.

She was cold and felt very much alone, despite being sandwitched between her two former foster siblings. She knew exactly why she allowed Tricia to touch her, but she had no idea why she allowed Marcus the same thing. She didn’t want him to touch her, but she was afraid “no” would get her kicked away from them, permanently. If she lost them, she truly would be alone.

Tricia stirred, rubbing closer against her in he sleep. When it was new, this might have turned her on, but now it was just a bother and she wasn’t drunk enough to block it out. She wiggled her way out of the two of them, grabbed her sweatshirt and some jeans, then walked out the little room. There were warped and weather beaten cabnits in the next room. Cam slid on top of one of them and rested her head against the window over it. She looked out at the rainy street through a broken board.

Her mind traveled back to the first time Marcus had touched her. It was only moments after her first time with Tricia. It had been a beautiful moment and a pleasing first time. She’d forgotten all about Marcus, as she lay nestled in Tricia’s arms. She didn’t even hear him come in.

Out of nowhere she heard, “Damn, that was hot.”

She looked up and saw Marcus standing in a doorway, drinking a beer. Her first instinct was to cover up as she was laying fully nude and exposed on the dusty mattress. Tricia stopped her from covering up. She didn’t fight her on it, only because she didn’t want Tricia to be upset with her.

Marcus came over and kneeled in front of them. He ran a finger up her arm and she jumped away. He, of course, read it wrong.

“Don’t worry,” Marcus told her. “I won’t hurt you. I promise.”

Despite his promise, it had hurt. It had hurt a lot. She wanted Tricia to get mad about him touching her so it would never happen again. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen. From that day on, Alcohol became her best friend. Cam made sure she was sufficiently buzzed before they crawled under the covers at night. She couldn’t say no, because no meant she would be alone. So she played the game, pretended to share this wonderful bond with Marcus and Tricia. But the bond she was playing at with them, she had only had with one person… Maddy.

Four days of heavy rain had cut her off from her alcohol supply and her mind was clearer than it had been in months. The liqour haze made her forget and now that it was gone, she had to face the truth. She didn’t want this life. There had to be something better. But what?

If she hadn’t kissed Maddy, maybe she would still have her. She’d gone over that moment a million times in the past few months and still couldn’t figure out what had compelled her to kiss Maddy. She didn’t want her, not really, not in that way. In had been a crazy moment where a lot of repressed desires had come to a head. She’d accepted she was gay now and all she wanted was her sister back.

“I’m sorry Maddy,” Cam told the wind.

Across town, in a warm room, Maddy twisted and turned in bed. It had been six months and Cam hadn’t been found. She knew Mr. Davis was quite sick of her calling, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted her to get that letter so bad. She wanted her to know even though she couldn’t love her that way, she hadn’t stopped loving her because she loved that way. The thing was, letters were useless without an address.

Maddy sat up in bed. “I hope you know someone loves you Cam.”

She got up out of bed and walked downstairs. When she reached the kitchen, she was shocked to see her mother sitting there. She was looking sullen as she stared into a cup of coffee.

“Maddy, when was Cam here?” her mother questioned suddenly.

“What do you mean?” Maddy asked, playing dumb.

“Your little sister asked me if her other big sister was ever coming home. When I asked her to clarify, she said ‘oops’. I pushed and she finally told me about your sister coming through the window.” Maddy said nothing and her mother continued to eye her. Finally, she spoke again. “How long have you been letting her in?”

“It was only the once Mom, really,” Maddy told her. “But I’ve been hoping to see her again.”

“Maddy, she made you run away.”

“No, I made me run away. Maybe it was her idea, but I didn’t have to follow. I made the choice, not Cam.” Maddy sat down beside her. She couldn’t let her parents distrust her again. She had to tell the truth. “Mom, it didn’t exactly go well. I mean, it started out alright. She told me she had run away from her foster mom because she wasn’t a good mom. I still thought it was better than the street, but she didn’t think so. And then, well, something really weird happened. Cam, she…” Maddy paused. She didn’t want to admit Cam had kissed her. Her mother might take it wrong, as wrong as Maddy herself had in the moment. “She told me she was gay.” Ah, that was simpler. Cam had told her that, even if it wasn’t with words.

He mother was taken aback, not expecting the conversation to lead here.

“And was she here for… well you?” her mother questioned cautiously.

“No, we’re sisters. She just wanted me to know I think,” Maddy explained.

“You sure that’s it?” her mother questioned. “I mean if there was one thing your father and I were sure about, it was the fact that you were the only person Cam really loved.”

“Like a sister,” Maddy emphasized. “Unfortunatly, I didn’t get to explain that. I reacted… badly. Then she ran away and now I don’t know how to find her and I’m scared for her.”

“You should be. No thirteen year old should be on the street alone, but maybe she’s learning a lesson about reality only the streets can teach her.”

“Well I just hope the lesson isn’t fatal.”

Rain poured down on Cam as she made her way to the corner store. If she didn’t get her hands on a beer or a wine cooler soon, she would go mad. She just couldn’t stand it anymore. Besides, Marcus and Tricia would be awake soon and she couldn’t deal with them without a drink available. She supposed they could entertain each other until she got back.

Luckily, the rain had kept most people out of the corner drug store. There was only the old chubby security guard, the cashier (a pretty Asian teenager) who was invested in a magazine, and two customers. The customers were a black woman in her mid forties and a sickenly thin man who seemed more than a little high.

Cam made her way over to the beer and scanned it for awhile. Unfortunately, the black woman was standing nearby and it was painfully obvious Cam wasn’t old enough to legally purchase beer. The woman was staring at soda selection in the refrigerated area two doors down and Cam decided that it was quite unlikely she would pay her any attention. She quickly grabbed the closest six pack and slipped it into her jacket. Then she turned to head out the door. She hadn’t made two steps when a hand grabbed her arm.

“Get the fuck off me!!” Cam yelled.

“Excuse me,” the black woman said.

Her grip was strong and Cam couldn’t quite pull away from it. She fought to anyway, dropping the beer. The cans hit the ground hard and the cashier looked up from her magazine as three of the cans began to leak on the floor.

“Hey, you’re paying for that!!” the teenager yelled.

“She shouldn’t even be touching it,” the black woman told Cam.

Cam stopped fighting to get away from the grip. She sulked instead.

“So what you gonna do with me now?” Cam asked, meeting her eyes with the coldest stare she could manage.

“I’m going to do what I wish someone had done for my son,” the woman explained. “Call you parents.”

“Well I guess you’re fucked then, bitch. I ain’t got no damn parents.”

Shock at this statement registered on the woman’s face. Cam took advantage of her distraction and yanked away. This time she came free. She started to run, but the strong hand recaptured her in one swift motion.

“What do you mean you don’t have parents?”

“My parents use to be the state, now it’s nobody.”

“You’re homeless? A runaway maybe?” the woman questioned.

Cam didn’t answer.

“You’re coming home with me.”

“Fuck you,” Cam said, fighting to get away again.

Unfortunatly, this woman was quite strong and the skinny underfed thirteen year old had no hope of escaping. The woman reached into her pocket with her free hand and tossed more than enough money for the beer at the teenage cashier.

Then she used both hands to hold Cam tight and pointed her in the direction of the man who was high. He was talking rapidly to someone who wasn’t there.

“You don’t want to become that, little girl, do you?” the woman questioned.

“He on something. All I do is drink.” Cam replied. “It’s no big deal.”

“It is when that’s just the starting point little girl.”

“I ain’t no little girl, now let me go.”

“No,” the woman told her. “I let go before, I’m not doing it this time.”

The black woman took the teenager out the store, holding fast to her arm. Once again, Cam tried to yank away. Within a day she would proably be back in foster care. She didn’t want to go back.

The woman put her in the back of the truck, which had a child safety lock. She couldn’t get out. The woman climbed in the front of the truck and started the engine. Then she turned to her and presented her hand.

“I’m Helen Parkington,” the woman told her.

“Fuck you,” Cam replied, crossing her arms in front of her.

Helen sighed and pulled out the parking lot.

Three hours later they were in front of a small, but well kept one story house. The house was in a neatly blocked neighborhood of similiar houses. They were almost too uniform. The lawn was bigger than any seen in the inner city and Cam wondered what this Helen woman was doing so far away from home.

“This place looks boring,” Cam told Helen as she peered out the car window.

“It’s all military families,” Helen told her.

“Your husband’s in the Military?” Cam questioned.

“No I am,” Helen told her.

‘That explains why she’s so strong,’ Cam thought.

She opened the door and Cam stepped out of the car. There was no point in running as she had absolutely no idea how to get back to Tricia and Marcus. To be honest, she didn’t really care. She’d never really felt all that connected to them, just dependant on them to fill the space and keep her from being lonely.

“So what do you do?” Cam asked. “In the Military I mean.”

“I’m an engineer. I use to work on things like Jets. Now I basically manage other people doing those things.”

“Cool,” Cam told her.

She followed her into her house. The inside was far more interesting than the outside. The walls were splashed with color and there was an assortment of framed albums across the walls in every direction. Most of the artist on the album covers, Cam didn’t know. They were before her time and she was no music buff. In fact she wasn’t an anything buff, but someone obviously was. Music equipment was everywhere, a guitar here and a keyboard there.

The art on the walls was just as varied and colorful as the albums. Each room seemed to have some exotic theme from around the world. The kitchen had all these African accents, but the living room reminded Cam of a room out of Chinese Art work.

“Well this is less boring,” Cam said outloud.

“Ahh yes, since he can’t touch the outside, the inside is Cameron’s canvas.”

“Cameron?” Cam questioned.

“Yes, my husband,” Helen told him.

She heard a string guitar playing from bedroom farthest from the front door. She beaconed Cam along and she followed. She opened the bedroom door.

A man sat there playing near a boy in a wheelchair. Well, not really a boy, he was at least two years older than Cam. The man was handsome, a black man with long locs down his back and the oddest combination of bright clothing Cam had ever seen. He looked a bit like a hippy.

The boy, who had soft brown skin like his father and braided kinky hair, was a sad image next to him. He was dressed all in black and looked permanently depressed. He was kind of lost in the eyes, staring off into some great beyond only he could see. One hand seemed akwardly positioned as it rested on the arm of the wheelchair. He wasn’t looking at his father. He was looking at the wall when they openned the door, but he was the first to look in the direction of Cam and his mother.

“Hey C.J.” the mother said. The boy made no repy and returned to looking at that ‘great beyond’ in the wall, but his father looked up.

“Whose this?” Cameron asked surprised.

He put down his guitar and walked up to them.

“I don’t know,” Helen told him.

“Camille,” Cam told them. “Most people just call me Cam.”

“No way,” Cameron replied, smiling. It was a very warm smile and despite herself, Cam felt comforted by it. “Well, I’m Cam also. Cam-eron and this is Cameron Jr. who we just call C.J.” He turned to his son. “Come on son, say hi.”

He said nothing of the sort and turned his chair away from them. Both parents frowned and left his room, sandwiching Cam between them. They went into the living room and sat down together. The couple joined hands and allowed Cam to sit across from them.

Helen quickly explained to her husband how she had found Cam in the store stealing beers. She also filled in her reason for being so far out in the inner-city. It seemed Helen happened to be visiting her sister, who was ill and had simply stopped in the store for a soda. When she was done telling her story, Cam stood up.

“So how long till you call the cops?” Cam questioned.

“Sit down,” Helen instructed.

Cam sat, sulking.

“So you’re a foster child?” Cameron questioned.

“Technically,” Cam replied.

“You know, I was adopted,” Cameron told Cam. “I was four and this white couple adopted me. I only kinda half remember coming to them, but I know it was hard changing homes. I mean I came all the way from India. I suddenly had white parents, there were no other kids that looked like me around, I had a new name..”

“You know nothing!” Cam snapped. “You were lucky. Someone got you and wanted you while you were still cute. Me, I’ve floated around in the system all my life. No one’s adopted me, no one’s going to adopt me, and I’ll never belong anywhere. So go ahead, call the cops, I’ll just end up in another home. No big deal.”

“What about the home you left?” Helen questioned.

“That bitch…”

“Don’t use that word in my house!” Helen repremanded. Cam sneered, but didn’t continue on with the rant. Helen spoke again. “Now why do you think she’s a ‘bitch’. Is it because cares about what you do? Is it because she reprimands you when you do wrong?”

“No, the exact opposite. She didn’t give a…” Cam stopped, she decided not to curse anymore. “She didn’t care, okay? I had a foster brother and sister, Tricia and Marcus. They hooked up in the house and she knew, she didn’t care as long as she was getting that check. She locked the refrigerator and bought us crap to wear from the goodwill. You know how embarrassing it is to go to high school with run down ten year old sneakers?”

“Yes, I know,” Helen told her. “My mother couldn’t afford to buy me nice clothes as a teenager, so I know very well. I also know it’s not important.”

“That’s bullshit,” Cam snapped, temporarily forgetting she had resigned herself not to curse. “You know you gave a shi–you cared back then.”

“Yes I cared,” Helen replied. “But I got over it. I knew my mom had given me the best she could afford. Cameron, my son, had all the beautiful things money could buy including his own car at sixteen. But guess what, it didn’t stop him from starting to drink at fourteen or smoking weed at fifteen or moving on to harder drugs by sixteen. And it didn’t stop him from wrapping his brand new car around a telephone pole. In fact, it’s the reason his brand new car ended up wrapped around a telephone pole. And his punishment for that is that wheelchair. Do you want to end up there or like that man we saw in the store?”

“No,” Cam replied. “But maybe I’ll get lucky and end up dead.” She added smartly.

“You don’t mean that,” Cameron said.

“I don’t know, what do it matter. I ain’t got nothing or nobody. I ain’t got no reason for being here. I survive, I don’t live. I don’t even know what living is anymore.”

“Cam, give us a minute,” Helen told her. “Go in the kitchen. Eat whatever you like.”

Cam paused, surprised. This all seemed so unreal. Some woman picking her up off the street and offering her free roaming in her kitchen.

“For real?” Cam questioned.

“Of course,” the woman told her.

When Cam left the room, Helen turned to Cameron. Her eyes were filled with saddness and obvious sympathy for the teenager she had “rescued” from the street. It wasn’t the first time Helen had stopped a young teenager she caught stealing liquor, but in that instance she had simply returned the offender to his parents. What could she do, however, with a girl who had no parents to go to?

“It’s fate,” her husband suddenly said.

“What?” Helen questioned.

“Her name is Camille for goodness sake. What were we going to name Cameron if he was a girl?”

“Camille,” Helen replied.

“We’ve talking about adopting a little girl, maybe when Cameron Jr. was feeling a little better. But maybe this little girl needs us more than some baby will. This is a teenager with a lot of problems that we can save a little sooner than…”

“Well, that’s another thing,” Helen began. “We don’t know how far reaching her problems are.”

“I know that, but even with all we gave him look what happened to Cameron. There are no guareentees with any child,” Cameron explained. “And this one, she hasn’t had much. So maybe she’d appreciate the chance to have something she can depend on.”

“I just don’t know. If all she says is true, asking to keep her and actually keeping her will be an uphill battle.”

“But would it be worth it to save this little girl?” Cameron questioned.

It had been a long time since Cam had such a selection of food items to eat. She, truthfully, couldn’t decide what to eat. After a few minutes indecision she settled on an easy to prepare sandwich. She put everything she could think of on it; mayo and mustard along with several layers of ham, cheese, salami, and bologna. When she had it all prepared and sat on a paper towel, she returned to the room where young Cameron Jr. was sitting staring into space.

“You’re such a dumbass,” Cam told the teenager.

He looked up at her.

“You have all this and your stupid ass goes and wraps a car around a pole. First time I saw you, I felt sorry for you. But now I know you’re just a dumbass.”

Suddenly he turned toward her.

“Yeah, I’m talking to you,” Cam told her.

“You, don’t understand,” he said suddenly.

“What don’t I understand?” Cam questioned.

Helen and Cameron had made their decision, as hard as it was. They had to let Cam go. As much as they wanted to help her, they had enough on their plate with their son’s problems. They were hoping, however, Cam might be open to joining one of the families from their church. Helen knew Ella, a wife of a fellow solider, had two foster children. They were younger, but maybe she’d be open to helping out Cam as a favor.

The couple found the kitchen empty and wondered where the teenager could have gotten to. Then they heard voices. Cam’s voice and… their son. They looked at each other shocked. Their son hadn’t spoken to anyone since he was told he would never walk again. He ate very little and sulked in his room all day. His will to live seemed sapped from his body. Yet they very clearly heard him talking, talking like a boy alive again.

They moved closer to the bedroom to verify what their ears were hearing. Cam’s words were now clear.

“And you let that dumb shit get to you?” Cam’s voice questioned clearly.

“It’s not dumb when you’re in the middle of it,” C.J. explained. “I just wanted to be liked. I’ve moved so much and each time it got harder and harder to fit in.”

“Well I wish your troubles were mine. My mom beat the shit out of me and put me in the hospital when I was two. They thought I was going to die in the hospital, but for some crazy reason I didn’t. Then mom played a game for two years and got me back when I was four. She played good mom for about six months and I bought it, but then she got tired of me and left me with someone. He couldn’t take care of me so he called the cops. Since then, I’ve been in more homes then I can count.”

“And they were all bad?” C.J. questioned, sympathetic.

“No,” Cam said. “But I screwed up the good ones as fast as I did the bad ones.”

“So you’re a dumbass too?” C.J. questioned.

Cam laughed. “Yeah, I guess I am. But it’s just cause I wanted to know that I had what you got.”

“What’s that?”

“Someone who loves me no matter what fucked up thing I do.”

C.J. looked thoughtful. “Then maybe I am the bigger dumbass here. I forgot I had that.”

“C.J.?” his mother suddenly questioned.

C.J. looked up to see his parents in the doorway. Cam jumped to her feet guiltily.

“Sorry for disturbing him,” Cam said quickly.

“You didn’t disturb me,” C.J. told her plainly.

“Of course she didn’t,” Helen said, her eyes brimming with tears. The nearly comatose son she left just a few minutes ago was completely changed in one conversation with this girl. Maybe it was fate.

She walked up to Cam with the biggest smile she had ever seen. She had tears in her eyes now and Cam didn’t quite know how what to do with that. She backed away from the woman’s approach. Helen still managed to catch her in her arms.

“Thank you,” Helen told her, tears falling on Cam’s shoulder. “He hasn’t spoken to anyone since the accident. His dad and I have done everything.”

This shocked Cam. How had she brought him out of his silence? She hadn’t planned on this and she didn’t quite know how to handle Helen’s gratitude.

“Cam,” Cameron said. “Would you like to stay with us?”

“Are you serious?” the teenager questioned.

“If you’re serious about changing,” Helen replied. “We can’t have another alcholic teenager.”

Cam looked unsure. C.J. rolled his chair close to Cam. He took her hand and she looked at him.

“We’ll keep each other from being dumbasses,” the boy told her.

***

“We found her,” Mr. Davis said to an astonished Maddy.

She certainly hadn’t expected to hear that when her mother called her to the door. Yet, here he was, telling her Cam had been found. She’d hoped for this moment day in and day out, but Cam was with him in the dream. Safe, happy, and glad to know Maddy didn’t hate her. She’d thanked her for the letter in the dream… the letter.

“Did you give her the letter?” Maddy questioned.

“No, I’d like you to give it to her.”

“Why?”

“Can I come in?” the man questioned.

“Sure,” Maddy’s mother said.

The man came in and they settled in the living room.

“Maddy, there’s a family that wants her,” the worker explained. “Amazingly, they’re the family that found her on the street. The mother’s in the army, the father is some kind of musician, and they have a handicapped teenage son. It could be a good place for her, but I think she’ll be less likely to mess up if she knows you still care about her as well and wants the best for her. With your parent’s permission, I’d like to take you to see her.”

“But I don’t want her somewhere else,” Maddy told him. “She needs to be here. This is home to her.”

“That can’t happen,” her mother told her. “I’m sorry but we can’t risk having Cam around your little sister.”

“Oh please,” Maddy replied. “She’d never hurt her.”

“Sorry Maddy, no,” her mother stated firmly.

Maddy sighed and turned to the worker. “Her fourteenth birthday is next week. Do they know?”

“Yes,” the man replied. “I think they’re actually planning a party.”

“And they really care about her?”

“As far as I can tell, yes. The weird thing is I never would have picked them for her, but it seems the perfect match.”

Maddy frowned. As happy as she was to know her sister was safe, she had long fantasized about her returning home reformed and about the two of them growing up together. She wanted them to go to high school together. She’d been reading all about being gay and she wanted to help her through the tough steps of coming out. She knew it would be just one moment, it would be many collective moments of saying “I’m gay” to this group and that. She wanted to be there to say “you’ve still got me”.

“So, do you want to see her?” Mr. Davis questioned.

“Yes,” Maddy replied.

Cam had never been to a black church. Though she had known plenty of black people (and even had black foster siblings), she had never lived with any foster parent who wasn’t white. Cameron was choir leader and was currently heading a group of black youth in song. The youth choir had given odd glances when she came in with C.J. and his father. It was then she decided to sit in the back.

As the youth choir practiced their song at the front, she and C.J. chatted in the back. Cam never thought she could love someone the way she loved Maddy, but now she had C.J. She learned quickly that C.J. respected the fact that she didn’t treat him with kid gloves. That’s why he’d spoken to her.

“Stop, stop, stop,” Cameron suddenly said. “Dominique, what’s wrong? Your carried your solo last week.”

“Sorry, I think my voice is a little strained,” the tall fifteen year old said.

“Then go home and rest it,” Cameron said.

Dominque looked worried. Cameron smiled and put a hand in her shoulder. “I’m not putting you off the choir. But I’d rather you not strain yourself when you can go home, rest up, and be even stronger for next Sunday, okay?”

“Okay,” the teenager replied, her eyes sparkling.

Cam got the distinct impression that she had a crush on the choir master.

“Cam-Cam,” Cameron said, addressing his new daughter.

“Yeah,” Cam said, standing up.

“Can you carry a note?” he asked. “I’d like to have another lady up here to balance things out.”

“Don’t know,” Cam replied. “Never tried.”

He gestured for her to join the group. She looked at C.J. unsure.

“What’s the worse that could happen,” the boy said and smiled, looking very much like his father.

Encouraged by C.J. Cam got up and headed to the front of the church. Cameron took a mike off the mike stand and handed it to her.

“Do you know the words to Jesus loves me?” Cameron questioned.

“No,” Cam admitted, slightly embarrassed.

“Here you go,” a teenage boy said, handing her a hymn book.

A few of the other teenagers snickered at her. They were obviously anticipating failure.

“We’ll just test your voice a bit,” Cameron told her. “Listen for the tune”

Camille inhaled briefly to curb the fear than began as the piano did.

“Jesus loves –” She started, but it was ahead of the music.

“Hold on,” Cameron said. “Listen to them.”

He began to play and the choir sang, waiting for the music to cue them into the tune. Cam listened attentively, not wanting to be embarrassed and wanting to prove the doubters in the crowd wrong.

This time when Cameron asked her to sing alone, she waited for her cue. She saw everyone look on in astonishment as her voice took on the song. Amazingly, she wasn’t bad at singing. The awed look of the choir, who obviously was looking for her to fail, pushed her forward. She completed her verse with a smile on her face.

“Wonderful, wonderful,” Cameron said. “You need a little training, but it’s pretty good. Rachel, you take Dominique’s solo. Cam-Cam you go balance out the girls.”

Cam joined the girls in the choir without hesitation. She wasn’t sure about staying with this family at first, but she figured they were better than any alternative she would be sent to if her worker got involved. Where she was she at least half liked.

Still, Cam felt a little guilty when all the singing was done and choir practice was over. She felt a little guilty about the words she had just sung. Despite the fact most had smiled and said “good job” before making their exit, she felt afraid of the truth.

“Mr. Cameron,” Cam suddenly said.

“What?” Cameron questioned.

“Think Jesus will get mad at me for singing something that isn’t true?”

“Isn’t true?” Cameron questioned.

She hated that she was asking at all. She never considered herself very religious and at first she just sang the words to prove something to the doubters in the choir. But for some insane reason the words were getting to her.

“The song says Jesus loves me, but he doesn’t.”

“Jesus loves everyone,” he told her.

“Even gay people?” Cam questioned.

C.J. was stationed near them, rolling up a cord and paused suddenly.

“Why do you ask?” Cameron questioned.

“I’m gay,” Cam admitted. “If you hate me now, it’s okay.”

“You’re really gay?” C.J. questioned.

“Yeah,” the girl admitted. “Don’t think I could change it even I wish I could.”

“And why do you want to?” Cameron questioned.

“Cause it’s wrong,” the girl said.

Cameron smiled and put a comforting hand on her cheek. “Cam-Cam, you’re family now. You have a dad and a mom and a brother. There’s nothing wrong about your life.”

“Even liking girls?”

“Hey,” C.J. said. “I like girls a lot, a whole lot and they haven’t gotten rid of me.”

“It’s not weird Cam, it’s just who you are. Who you are is okay with us.”

Cam smiled. She couldn’t believe it. She hadn’t planned on saying anything about this to them, but she was glad it was out.

A couple hours later, the three of them entered home. It was weird that it felt more like home when she returned than it had when they left. C.J. thought it was quite cool they both liked girls, as he thought it just gave them more to talk about. Cam was shocked at his quick acceptance of it most of all.

Much to their surprise, they heard voices in the kitchen as they came through the door. Laughing and chatting rapidly. It was Helen and someone neither of the guys knew, but Cam knew the voice. Why would she be here?

Cam headed into the kitchen, slowly, not quite believing it could be true. There were four people in the kitchen when she got there, but only one that mattered.

“Cam!” Maddy exclaimed. She jumped off a kitchen chair and ran to Cam. She threw her arms around her and held her tight. Her welcoming embraced shocked Cam.

“Maddy, what are you doing here?” Cam asked.

“Cam, all this time all I wanted was to let you know I accept you. I accept that you’re gay.”

Cam finally looked up at the other people in the room. At Helen, at Maddy’s mother, at her worker Mr. Davis, and finally back at Cameron and C.J. None of them seemed very upset about what Maddy had said.

“Lets give them a minute,” Helen told the group. She got up and walked over to Cam. She kissed her on her head. “It’s okay,” she assured her.

She left and the rest followed. This left the two girls alone.

“Here,” Maddy said, shoving a letter into her hand. “I wrote this right after you left.”

“After I kissed you?” Cam questioned.

“Just read it,” Maddy told her.

Cam unfolded the letter and read:

Dear Cam,

I’m sorry I let you leave me that way. The thing is, I can’t be your girlfriend. I don’t like you that way, but I still love you. You’re my sister, my sister in the only way that really counts, in my heart. I’m so upset with myself for letting you leave without telling you that. So know that you can still depend on me, call on me, visit me for whatever. And if it feels like there’s no one in the world who loves you, remember you’ve got me. I love you as a sister…no matter what.

Your sister forever,

Madeline

Cam put down the letter and looked up at Maddy.

“Did you mean it?” Cam asked.

“Yeah, I know how this looks but I really can’t be your grilfri–”

“No, I know that,” Cam interrupted. “I mean that kiss, it wasn’t right. I knew it right away, but you being my sister. That’s what I thought I had lost all this time.”

“No Cam, you’ll always be my sister.”

Cam smiled and hugged her. “I’m sorry for kissing you.”

“It’s okay, it’s forgotten.”

The hug parted.

“So, behave yourself here alright,” Maddy said. “Prove to mom you want to come home.”

“Maddy, I am home,” Cam told her. “I mean it’s only been a few days but Helen and Cameron are the best Mom and Dad I’ve ever had. And C.J., that’s my brother, he’s great.”

“Better than me?” Maddy asked sadly.

“Maddy, all I’m saying is at your house I just had you, only you. Here I have a mom and dad as well as a brother. I feel like I belong with all of them.”

“But they don’t even look like you Cam. At least you looked like you belonged with us!”

“Maddy I can’t believe you said that.” Cam snapped back.

” I’m sorry,” Maddy replied. “It’s just I always thought you’d come back home one day. Now it seems like that’s never going to happen.”

“Maddy, you know where I am now, we can exchange phone numbers, we can talk. This is better than we’ve had it in years.”

“Only now you got a reason to forget me,” Maddy replied.

“No, Maddy you were the first person I ever knew for sure cared about me. I’m never going to forget you.” Cam took her hand. “You’re my sister and I’m yours. No one’s going to take that from us.”

That wasn’t how Maddy thought this was going to turn out, but Cam was right. As long as Cam was living here, they at least would have contact. It hurt, however, that the great reunion she’d been looking for since the day Cam left home wasn’t going to happen.