TRUE LOVE 2 [Chapter 7: Breaking Point]

As I sat in our lonely apartment, I began to assess the past few months of my relationship with Cameron. There was no doubt that I loved Cameron, but things were not as they were when we first met. We always had disagreements and eventually made up with sex. As much as I enjoy having sex with Cameron, it wasn’t fixing the issue at hand. Were we drifting apart? Was our love story coming to an end? We promised each other on the hill that we would be together…forever. The fact that I was even contemplating this had to be a sign that we needed to have a serious talk.

Just as I was thinking about it, Cameron walked in the front door without a word. He threw his keys on the counter, hung up his leather jacket in the coat closet and sat on the stool at the breakfast bar. He hunched over the counter top with both elbows on it, resting his head on the palm of his hands. I walked over slowly to him and gently ran my hand up his back to the back of his neck.

“Cam.” I said in a low tone

“Yeah?” he said softly

“I’m sorry.” I genuinely said

“Me too.” He looked up at me

The problem with me is that I couldn’t stay mad at him. He was my everything. I wanted to be his everything as well. He spun on his stool now facing me, opened his legs to pull me in closer. His tight embrace against his firm body made me melt.

“I hate fighting.” He confessed

“So do I.” I agreed

We held each other for a few minutes without any further words. Eventually we headed up to our bedroom and went to sleep. It was the first time we didn’t have sex after an argument.

            The sound of the waves crashing and seals barking woke me from my deep sleep. Through my closed eyes I could see the brightness of the sun shining through our bedroom windows. I stretched out my left arm, thinking I would feel Cameron there, but he wasn’t. I opened my eyes and cocked my head towards his side of the bed. On his pillow was a red rose with a note. I sat up and picked up the note; it read – My sweetest Joey…meet me at the beach at noon. Forever yours, Cameron. Butterflies erupted within me. It was moments like this that made me happy to be with him.  Perhaps I was jumping ahead last night and overthinking things. We were just fine, these are issues that every couple has. Wait a minute. Noon? What time was it? As I rubbed my eyes to get a clear view of the clock, I noticed it was 10:30am. I had to get ready. Cloud stretched at the foot of our bed as he covered his eyes with his tiny paws from the beaming sunlight coming into our room. I kissed his fluffy head, grabbed some clothes and headed for the shower.

As noon drew near, I grabbed my beach tote with extra clothes, a towel, sunblock and of course my rose. I left my apartment and walked the twenty to thirty minute walk to the beach. Although, our apartment was beach front, I knew where Cameron had meant. He wanted us to meet near Cherry Blossom Cliff. As I turned the street corner towards the direction of the cliff, I felt a breeze blow past me. A beautiful blue butterfly rode the current, missing my face by inches. I had never seen such a bright blue butterfly before. The butterfly flew up the side of the cliff towards the cherry blossom tree where I lost sight of it. The memory of Cameron and I at the top of the cliff making our wish came rushing back to me. It was a moment when I knew that I had feelings for Cameron.

I continued my trek to the beach seeing in the distance Cameron along with our friends on a beach blanket. I was able to get close enough to greet them from a distance before I joined them on the blanket. I placed my things down next to Cameron, took off my shirt and sat down next to him. Phillip, Natalie and Larissa continued to talk while I leaned in to kiss my boyfriend.

“Hi.” He smiled

“Hi.” I smiled back only inches from his face

“I see you got my message.” He laughed

“Duh.” I said pulling the rose out of the bag.

“I love you.” He whispered in my ear

“You better.” I joked kissing him again

“Go get a room, you bag of dicks.” Larissa snapped at us as she sipped from her wine glass

“Did you bring that wine glass from your place?” I laughed

“Of course she did.” Natalie said embarrassed

“Hey…if I’m going to get drunk at the beach, I’m doing it with class.” She laughed

“At least it’s a warm day. I’ve wanted to get in the water.” Phillip said

“Me too, but I can’t now.” Cameron said

“Oh that’s right! You’re new tattoo will burn in the salt water.” Natalie said

I tried to ignore the tattoo, even though it was hard to miss with his shirt off. I didn’t want this to become an issue while we were with friends. I quickly changed the subject.

“Did you guys see that new building near the park? I wonder what it is?” I said uncaring

“Oh, that’s going to be an enclosed garden filled with exotic butterflies.” Natalie said with excitement

“Really?” I asked curiously

“Yeah. It opens in a couple of weeks.”

“I wonder if the butterfly I saw just now was from there then.”

“Really? Did it look exotic?” Natalie’s eyes lit up

“Actually, it did. It was bright blue.”

“Phillip, we need to go!” Natalie said

Of course we all knew, Natalie loved butterflies and would give anything to be a butterfly if she could.

“Hey, did you guys hear that Nick is back in town?” Larissa said staring directly at me

“Fan-fucking-tastic.” Cameron smirked

“I just hope he doesn’t rally up all his douchey friends again and start shit.” Phillip said firmly

“Ditto.” I interjected

“I wonder what made him come back to Depoe Bay.” Natalie thought out loud

“Maybe he got expelled from Seattle too.” Larissa joked as we laughed

“It’s getting hot.” Cameron said

“Want me to rub some sunscreen on you?” I asked

“Yeah babe, please.” He said turning his back towards me

His hideous tattoo was looking right at me and I knew I had made face of distaste.

“Why didn’t you get a matching tattoo, Joey?” Phillip asked

My eyes darted directly at Phillip, giving him the death stare. I caught Natalie shaking her head as if to sign to him, “Nope. Just don’t.”

“Because he thought it was ugly and immature.” Cameron answered

Holy fuck, here we go.

“That’s not what I…” I began

“Yes, you did say that.” Cameron interrupted me

“Cameron, I just wish we had talked about it before you decided to go and do this. We could have come up with something together, that we both loved.” I clarified

“This is a symbol of my love for you.”

“Babe. There are other ways we can symbolize our love for each other.” I said

“Do you not have faith in us anymore?” he snapped

“What?” I asked confused and embarrassed at the fact that we were arguing in front of our friends

“I get it…you don’t feel confident in us…” he said

“Why would I not feel confident, Cameron?” I snapped back at him

“I don’t know…maybe it’s because you’re money hungry and hate that I don’t make enough money!” he snapped at me

A lump grew in my throat. Is that what Cameron really thought of me? Some snob that is only looking to be with someone who spends money on me? My eyes filled with water. I held back the tears as I got up, grabbed my bag and threw the rose in the sand. I stormed off towards the street.

“Cameron!” I heard Natalie snap

As I walked down the street passing the cliff, a stream of tears ran down my face. I had never been so insulted. I don’t remember how long it took me to get home, but it only felt like five minutes. I was so angry that time had no meaning. I burst through the front door of my apartment dropping the tote bag near the coat closet. I sat down on the couch trying to focus on how to handle the situation. I knew this wasn’t over. I heard the small jingle of a bell. I looked over my shoulder to see Cloud trotting down the stairs towards me. He gave out a small squeak of a cry and jumped into my lap. His loud purr gave me a moment of peace as I smiled at him. Moments passed and the front door opened. My smile and peace shattered.

“Joey.” Cameron said walking towards me.

I placed Cloud on the ground and stood up facing him.

“Cameron. I don’t want to do this. Just drop it.” I said calmly

“I can’t drop it. Do you truly love me?” he asked

I could feel the anger growing in me. I clenched my teeth and turned away walking towards the sliding doors of our balcony.

“Well?” He asked again

“No.” I said

“What?!” he asked shocked

“No, because as you said at the beach in front of our fucking friends…I only love money!” I yelled

“I was angry.” He admitted

“Well I’m fucking pissed now. How dare you say that about me!”

“Let’s try to resolve this…”

“No! I’m done.” I snapped

“What?”

“I can’t…” I said

“What do you mean?” he asked in a low voice

“Cameron…I just…” I looked into his eyes which were wide and full of fear, “I can’t do this anymore.”

“No…please don’t.” he pleaded

“We fight about nonsense. Almost every day.”

“That’s normal.” He said

“No it isn’t. We argue about money, about tattoos, we try to make it up with sex…”

“I’ll be better…I promise.” He begged taking a step towards me

I put out my hand, suggesting he stop as I took a step back.

“We’ve lost our connection. Maybe we need time apart.” I said honestly

“No…Joey…don’t.” he began to cry

“I’m sorry, Cameron.” I said

I kissed Cloud as a tear ran down my face. I grabbed my keys, my phone and the tote bag near the door. I turned around to see Cameron still facing the direction of the balcony, sobbing.

“Maybe this is for the best.” I said fighting back tears once again

With that, I opened the door and walked out.

 TO BE CONTINUED…

© 2015 Copyright J.M. Casas Jr. of Royalty Novels / The True Love Saga. All Rights Reserved.

All characters and likeness are pure fiction. Any resemblance is pure coincidence. Models and Actors used in marketing material for the True Love Saga were used as inspiration and to provide readers with an image of what the characters may look like.