Love and Loss

23. Charity Case

3:56 am
Los Angeles, CA
Deija

My eyes snapped open, my chest feeling constricted as I breathed heavily, jumping out of my sleep.

I reached over to the bed side table and grabbed my phone off of it. Tapping the Home Screen, I saw that it was almost 4 am. Shaking my head, I looked next to me, where Cam was sleeping peacefully, and I wanted to keep it that way.

Rolling out of bed silently, I practically tip toed out of the bedroom and through the hallway until I could step into the bathroom and shut the door behind me.

I looked at myself in the mirror, removing the pieces of hair that were stuck to my skin with sweat, in disgust. I turned the faucet on, splashing my skin with the cold water to cool it down.

Suddenly, a soft knock sounded on the door, snapping my attention to it. I cut the faucet off, and dried my skin on the towel that hung from the back of the door, before opening it.

Cam stood in the doorway, his torso bare, his abs on full display, with his sweatpants hung low on his waist displaying the deep v that was only enticing me more and more.

"You okay?" Cam asked, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "What happened?"

"Just a bad dream." I spoke, in almost a whisper.

"Again?"

I nodded, blowing air from my mouth exasperatedly.

Ever since I was released from the hospital almost a month ago, I had been waking up from nightmares about Derek. His words just kept haunting me.

"I'll see you soon. Real, real soon."

What did that mean? Was he just trying to intimidate me or was he serious? Did he even know where I was?

Those thoughts kept me up at night, because as of right now my only fear in this world was that he'd find me. Even worse, that he'd hurt Cam, and I couldn't let that happen.

Cam's eyes trailed from mine down to the bathroom floor. I followed his line of sight, but there was nothing there, just rows and rows of tile. I looked back up at him, but his eyes were locked in place and the look in those brown orbs made everything click in.

This was where he found me.

Switching the lights off, I gently pushed him out into the hallway and shut the door behind me. His eyes snapped back to my own and even in the darkness of the hallway, I could feel the intensity of his stare.

"Will you go out on the balcony with me?" I asked.

He nodded, grabbing ahold of my hand and pulling me towards the back of the apartment. He unlocked the balcony door, opening it wide for me to walk through before he followed. He grabbed the furry blanket off of his day bed. He wrapped it around him before sitting back on the bed and stretching his arms and legs out for me to sit in.

"Come here." He jerked his head slightly, motioning for me to come in.

I smiled slightly, crawling onto the bed until I reached him. I sat down in between his legs and welcomed the feeling of his arms wrapping around my body with the blanket, pulling me close to his chest. He placed his head on top of mine and I couldn't help the feeling that warmed my chest as we stared out into the dark LA sky.

"I'm tired of waking up thinking about him." I spoke suddenly. For whatever reason I always wanted to get everything off my chest when I was with Cam. He made me feel safe. "I'm just so scared."

"You don't need to be." Cam said. "He doesn't know where you are."

"What if he finds out?"

"He won't."