"He's over there," Avery says, pointing to the corner of the room we were in before we went outside. "I'm gonna find the bathroom but I'll meet up with you in a minute."
"O-okay," I stutter out lamely.
Should I wait for her or should I go to Cameron? I don't want to stand around by myself, so I head over. He's standing around with some people, but his parents aren't in sight.
He looks flustered. When he sees me approaching, that expression doesn't change.
"Hi," I say. "Where are your parents?"
"Looking around. Socializing, I guess."
"Oh. Didn't you want to show them around?"
"Not really."
He's had enough of them.
He runs his hand through his hair, looking at a loss for words. I want to ask if he's okay again, but with all these other people around I won't get a straight answer. Hell, I probably still wouldn't even if it was just the two of us.
"Where'd you decide to put up your installation pieces?" I ask instead.
Cameron chuckles at that. "Over on south campus. I didn't leave them up though. I wanna stick'm up somewhere downtown in the middle of the night."
I force myself to laugh along, but I don't know if I love the idea of a sculpt of my dick being plastered up on some building.
"Won't they just get taken down?" I reason.
"Yeah, but that's half the fun of it," he explains. "That's why I made so many. They can't take them down that fast."
"True," I agree. "It will take some time."
"People will talk about it," he says.
"Maybe it'll make the news," I add.
He gives me this cocky smile. "Yeah, maybe. It wouldn't be the first time."
That doesn't surprise me. He seems to like doing shocking projects like this. It's probably far from his first. It makes me curious. I wonder what other crazy things he's been a part of.
"So, um," I pause. "Do your parents like your showcase?"
"Probably not," Cameron snorts. "I don't know. They're hard to please."
"Yeah," I say quietly. "Avery mentioned."
He scrunches up his nose at that but doesn't say anything. He probably doesn't like to know that Avery and I were talking about him, but it was only about stuff that was obvious anyway. It's not his fault his parents are uptight.
Before I have the chance to say much else, Cameron perks up a little and nervously glances over my shoulder. When I turn around to look, I see his parents approaching.
"We saw everything!" Lisa exclaims. "We're going to head home now. Good job, sweetie."
The compliment feels empty, but at least it's there.
"All right," Cameron says. He's quiet for a moment before asking, "So, what did you think?"
His mother immediately begins to praise him, but his dad stays silent. When she's finished, Cameron looks at David.
David shifts, crossing his arms. "You should learn to be a little more subtle."
"David!" Lisa whispers to him, putting a hand on his arm.
I glance at Cameron. He looks… I don't know. I can't really read the expression he's wearing.
"What does that even mean?" he asks.
David gestures around the room. "Some of the art here…" he trails off, keeping things vague.
"It's not really the type of thing someone's supposed to just put in their house," Cameron tries to explain, sounding exasperated. "The whole point is that it's not subtle."
I have a feeling this is about to get very awkward very fast and I don't really want to be around to see it. Maybe I should excuse myself and go find Avery.
"The point is shock value?" David asks, sounding even less impressed. "Do you really need that type of attention?"
Cameron scowls and looks beyond uncomfortable. "It's not...I don't know," he states flatly. "Sorry, okay?"
It surprises me that he apologized. I expected him to keep trying to get his dad to see his side.
I leave, not wanting Cameron to feel worse with me standing there and listening to it all. I wait outside of the gallery and spot Avery approaching from down the hall.
"Hey…" she says. "Why're you out here?"
"I left," I tell her. "Things got uncomfortable. Cameron's dad… pretty much said he didn't like it."
"Ouch. That sucks."
"He said it wasn't subtle," I relay. "Which, I mean, it's not, but that's kind of Cameron's whole thing."
Avery fiddles with her septum ring. "Yikes," she says, pushing it up inside her nostrils.
"I thought it would get weird if I stuck around," I scuff the heel of my shoe against the concrete floor. "So, I left before I heard anything else."
"Oh, I'm sure we'll hear about it," she grimaces.
"Is this how it usually goes?"
"Every time," she says with a nod. "Cameron wants to get his dad's approval, but David just won't give it. He makes comments like this all the time."
"Cameron wants to get his dad's approval, but David just won't give it. He makes comments like this a lot."
"Jeez," I say. "That's sad."
"I mean, David loves him and shit, it's just that he wants different things for him," Avery adds. "I think he wishes Cameron would do something a little more… I don't know."
"Like, what?" I ask. "Become a doctor?"
Avery snorts. "Yeah, I guess so."
We hang around in the hallway for a minute until we see Cameron's parents exit. When they walk past us, they stop.
"Nice to see you, Avery," Lisa says cheerily. "Nice to meet you, Rudolf."
Again, it feels empty.
"Good to see you, too," Avery smirks and I give them both a little nod.
"Have a good evening," David holds up a hand to gesture his goodbye.
With that, they turn to leave. "You too!" Avery calls after them.
Once they're out of earshot, I turn to Avery and through clenched teeth say, "That was weird."
"Oh yeah," she agrees with a laugh. "They're fucking weird."
"Should we go find Cameron?"
She shrugs. "Probably. He'll be in a bad mood, I bet."
Gee, great.
I follow her inside and we find Cameron standing alone in front of one of his sculptures.
"Hey," Avery says, putting a hand on his shoulder.
He turns around and says hey back.
"You okay?" she asks.
"Yeah," he insists. "It's nothing new."
Avery nods, urging him to go on.
"He doesn't get my art," he informs her with a laugh.
"Yeah…" she mumbles. "I know."
I stand there staring at both of them and not knowing what to do or say. I don't try to comfort Cameron. I don't think that's what he wants.
"Let's just get the fuck out of here," Avery suggests, jutting her thumb over her shoulder back towards the door.
"I'm supposed to stay until everyone leaves," Cameron grumbles.
"So? Give Patrick the rest of your business cards and tell him to give one to anyone who wants to buy anything or talk to you," she tells him. "People know how to use the internet."
At first, Cameron looks annoyed that she's being so pushy, but after a minute he seems to consider it.
"Okay, whatever, let's go," he finally says.
Cameron hands off the rest of his cards to Patrick and the three of us leave. He lets out a long sigh once we're out of the building. Without saying a word, we all head to the parking lot.
"Want to go downtown?" Avery asks. "We can hit up a bar or two."
"Yeah," Cameron mutters as we pile into his car. Avery takes the passenger seat and I sit in the back. She offers me the front seat, but I don't feel right taking it.
"Rudolf, you down?" she asks.
"He's down," Cameron answers for me, starting the car and backing out of his parking space.
All right. I guess I'm down.
While we drive, Avery chatters at Cameron about plans for the weekend. He's not really responding, but I think she's trying to normalize things, which I can appreciate. Otherwise, we'd just be riding in silence and I don't think I could handle that.
Cameron picks the first bar and when we arrive I immediately feel underdressed. This place is fancy. I'm literally wearing a zip-up hoodie.
"Jeez, Cam, go easy on our wallets," Avery comments.
"It's fine, I'll pay," he tells us. "Then when my mom checks my credit card statement like she does every fucking month she can know how badly they pissed me off tonight."
"You're gonna give her a heart attack," she laughs.
"She'll live," he mutters.
We're seated and given menus. I glance at all the cocktails, completely unsure of what to order. Everything is so expensive.
"I feel bad making you pay," I admit.
"Well, too bad," Cameron says. "Get over it."
I hope his mood improves because it's not going to be any fun if he keeps acting like this all night. I mean, I get why he's upset, but I don't like how he's taking it out on us.
When the waiter comes back to take our order, they check our IDs. I give them my fake which is actually pretty well made. Once the waiter is gone, Cameron practically grabs it out of my hands.
"Damn!" he exclaims in a hushed voice. "This looks just like you."
"It is me," I tell him, sticking my palm out in the hope he'll return it to me.
Cameron passes it off to Avery who stares back at me incredulously.
"Where'd you get this?" she asks.
"A friend of mine worked at one of the DMV's back home," I explain. "He printed it for me as a favor."
I use the term friend so loosely. Obviously, it was one of my older acquaintances. I don't like to think about him much, which is why I avoid using this ID as much as possible.
"A friend?" Cameron immediately asks, giving me a sly look. "What kind of friend? You said you didn't have any."
"Well, someone I used to screw around with."
Cameron starts laughing like he expected me to beat around the bush instead.
Avery rolls her eyes. "Come on, Cam, don't be a dick."
"Aw, he's not shy," he says, glancing at me. "Right, Rudy?"
He pauses and smirks. "Well, maybe you're a little bit shy."
"Maybe a little bit," I agree, knowing he's referring to the other night.
Avery scrunches up her nose. She probably doesn't want to hear anymore. I wonder what she thinks of our interactions...if they're weird or if Cameron is like this with everyone.
Not too long after, our drinks show up. I ordered something simple, a gin and soda, but Avery really took Cameron up on his offer to pay. The two of them get something pricey looking.
"So, tonight was a mess," Avery says cautiously after a few sips, probably trying to gauge whether or not Cameron wants to vent.
"Uh, yeah," he agrees. "How about we never talk about that again."
She presses her lips into a flat line. "Your show wasn't the problem," she reassures him. "I'm sorry your dad said that."
Cameron lets out a groan. "What? Did Rudy tell you already?"
"Sorry," I immediately apologize.
"It's whatever," he shrugs before glancing back at Avery. "He's always like that."
"Doesn't make it any easier," she tells him.
"God, he's such an ass," Cameron seethes. "If he's going to act so unimpressed all the time, I don't even know why he comes!"
"Maybe he has a hard time expressing himself," Avery ventures.
Cameron laughs and shakes his head. "No, he doesn't. He said exactly what he wanted to say. He always does."
She gives him a sad look but Cameron just sticks his nose in his drink. I wonder if he's planning on getting shit-faced tonight.
"Your mom liked it," Avery tries to compromise.
"My mom likes everything. Her opinion doesn't matter."
Jeez. I get that Cameron has issues with his mom, but that seems unnecessarily harsh.
"Well, then," Avery chuckles, backing down.
I guess if Cameron wants to talk about it, then he will, but not right now.