Hugging a pillow to his chest, Cameron stared blankly out his bedroom window. He was sitting on an armchair with his bare feet raised, and his knees up to his chest. He wasn't looking at anything in particular, just staring blankly into the distance.
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at his door. When he didn't respond, there was a short pause, then they tried knocking again.
"Honey, are you okay in there?"
He heard his mother call out to him from the other side of the door but didn't want to see anyone at the moment.
"Cameron, what's wrong? You haven't come out of your room for a few days and I'm starting to worry…"
"I'm fine mom, I just want to be by myself right now."
There was another long pause and a sigh before she left. He buried his face into the pillow for a few seconds before his phone started ringing. He fished it out of his pocket and saw it was Joel. He hesitated at first but then gave in.
"Hey Joel…"
"Cameron! I've missed you bro, how are you?"
"I guess you could say I've been better," he shrugged his shoulders.
"I know you're still bummed about Rylie, but I have something that will make you feel better. One of our old friends is in town and wants to meet up. Why don't you come over?"
"I don't know Joel, who is it?"
"It's a surprise but I know you won't regret it, you will if you don't come."
"I…fine, I'll go. Only because it's for you," he sighed.
"Awesome! I'm going to be late picking up ingredients so let yourself in first! Cameron, I'm glad you said yes."
Joel hung up and Cameron lifted an eyebrow as he wondered what that was about.
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Cameron punched the code to Joel's penthouse unit and opened the door but was met with silence.
"Hello?" he called out. He turned on the lights and noticed the place was tidy, as if Joel had just cleaned.
He strolled over to the white leather sofa in the middle of the living room and plopped himself down. Leaning his head back, he thought about who they could be meeting up with. He didn't know anyone who would want to see him that badly. He only had one person he wanted to see and that wasn't going to happen.
The rattle of the front door opening disrupted his thoughts and he headed towards the front to greet whoever it was. He saw it was Joel but found it odd he had a huge smile on his face. That is, until he stepped aside revealing the person behind him.
She was on the petite side with wavy long black hair. Her eyes had a natural glimmer and her eyes curved upwards when she smiled.
Without missing a beat, he ran towards her and embraced her in a tight hug.
"RYLIE!"
She smiled nervously and lifted her arms up to hug him back after the initial surprise.
"What happened? Are you okay? Why did you disappear?!" He pulled back and stared intently into her eyes.
"I'm sorry Cameron, I've been going through some personal things and thought it would be best to shut everyone out. But I see now that it's not the answer. I'm not ready to talk about it now but I promise I will when the time is right."
"That's okay Rylie, thank you for being honest. I'll wait," he hugged her tightly again. She smiled weakly and made eye contact with Joel. Joel gave her the okay signal with his fingers and smiled back.
As Cameron led her inside, a knot began to form in Joel's stomach. The happiness he felt for his friend made him uneasy.
'Why do I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach? Is it pain? Guilt? It's because I know I'm hiding something from him but I'm doing is for his own good. He'll understand.'
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Staring blankly at the papers in front of him, Yuki was trying to process what he was looking at how he should move forward. He was getting dizzy just trying figure it out.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming down the hallway. As if on impulse, he shoved the papers back in the envelope and tucked it into his back pocket.
"Yuki? Are you still in here?" Emilia peeked into the room and perked up when she saw him cross-legged on the floor. She made her way over but stopped when he put his hand up.
"Wait, can you go downstairs and get the vacuum for me? As you can see, it's dusty…"
"Why didn't you get it earlier?" she frowned.
"I didn't think about it at the time, and I'm almost done here."
"Fine, I'll get it," she groaned.
As soon as he heard her making her way down the stairs, he fell backwards and let out a big sigh. He just needed a few moments to compose himself. It was dusty but he'll just shower after anyways.
He noticed a photo frame on the corner of the desk and sat back up to reach for it. It was a photo of their family at Emilia's graduation ceremony. Mrs. Yoon was standing off to the side laughing at them as Yuki playfully had his arm around her neck in a choke hold while she made a silly face.
He had been on the fence about whether he should act on his feelings. When he was finally ready to decide, this was thrown into the mix. Before, she was like a childhood friend that lived in the same house. But now she was legally his sister?
If him and Emilia weren't related by blood and not raised as siblings, was what he was suppressing wrong? It wasn't, was it?
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James was preparing molding clay in his studio room on a random afternoon. He had been recommended by his professor to enter a competition the school hosts every fall. Professors from art schools across the country would recommend their most talented students to compete. The winners would get a monetary reward of course but the recognition from the community was why people wanted to compete.
He was going to create a sculpture and had a vague idea of what he was going to create. He was going to start with the base and knew what the lower portion would be but was stuck on what the face would look like since he found it so hard to find inspiration!
He was still thinking when he was interrupted by his golden retriever Vick, who came in to find his owner.
"Vick, you know you're not supposed to be in here! Common boy, get out!"
He was a big dog in general and if he could knock James down, there was no telling what else he could do! He chased him around for what seemed like forever. Luckily, nothing was damaged.
Finally getting Vick outside and into the yard, he kissed him on the nose and closed the door with glass panels. He could see through the glass and saw Vick pace back and forth excitedly before running off to chase a squirrel.
"Now what did I drop and where did it go?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something fall out of his jacket pocket while he was running around but couldn't be distracted for a second. He scanned the room and saw the sunlight reflect something shiny on the floor. He got closer and realized it was his keys with the new keychain he added yesterday.
He laughed as he picked it up and saw his stupid face. The keychain was a picture of their first roller coaster ride together. She was having the time of her life with her arms up and laughing with her mouth open wide. His mouth was open wide too, but his eyes were closed shut in fear. They decided to get matching keychains as a memory to symbolize their new friendship. Well, friendship was what they were calling it.
James knew what he felt for her was more than friendship. He found his gaze on her whenever they were together. She was on his mind all the time, even when they were together. Being around her just made things better, like he could breathe.
He never confronted her about it, but he noticed how she flirted and made sly comments. They often teased each other but when she said these, she never laughed after. Just smiled and searched his face to see his reaction.
He had asked Mickey, but all that playboy did was laugh in his face and say it "took long enough". I guess that was his answer. But he had never been in love before or liked anyone. How was he supposed to know what it felt like? The bigger question was, where did he go from here?!
He clenched the keychain and sighed. He looked at it one last time and put it back in his pocket. It was at that moment, an idea hit him. He grinned and stuck his hand into the molding clay.