It Started With A Run

~26~ The Ultimate Mini-Golf Master

Cameron POV
~Edited~

"You brought me mini-golfing?!"

She turned around and jumped on me. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Cameron. Do you know how much I love mini-golf? Because I love mini-golf!"

I chuckled a little bit at her excitement. "Yeah, you told me while we were on the phone earlier."

She let go of me and shook her head. "Don't tell me you planned all this during our facetime call."

"No ma'am. It was all planned out beforehand. You talking about mini-golf just sealed the deal."

"Okay, well I'm excited now so... let's go!"

She pulled me over to the counter and I pulled out my wallet. I paid and the cashier told us where to get our golf clubs and balls.

"I'm going to dominate you at this game!" Anna said while already running out of the door to go to the first hole.

"In your dreams babe," I smirked and winked at her.

"No, actually, in your dreams."

I rolled my eyes. "What makes you think you're better than me at this game."

"You mean how do I know? Because I'm better than everyone at this game. I'm... the ultimate mini-golf master."

"And how did you become 'the ultimate mini-golf master'?"

We stopped right before the first hole and waited for a family to finish. "Aaron and I used to go mini-golfing with our parents all the time before they started going on business trips that lasted months."

"That sounds like a lot of fun." I was staring at her while she stared longingly at the family in front of us.

"Yeah... it was." 

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Turns out Anna isn't as good at mini-golf as she thought she was. Maybe it's because she hadn't played in a while, but she was doing awful. 

"Ugh!" She groaned after trying for the 4th time to make the shot, even though I made it on my first try.

We were only on the 5th hole out of 30 and she was already extremely frustrated.

"Do you want the actual mini-golf master to help you?"

"How would I be able to help myself Cameron, that doesn't even make any sense." She rolled her eyes at me and went back to trying to get the ball perfectly into the hole.

After trying two more times Anna finally got the ball into the hole and we moved on.

She wasn't getting any better and she was losing by a landslide. By the 15th hole she finally got desperate enough to ask me for help.

"Cameron... I'm going to hate myself for saying this but... will you please help me actually get a ball into the hole on my first try."

I smirked at her, a plan forming in my head. "But... I thought you were the 'ultimate mini-golf master'..." I said looking down at her mischievously.

She gave me an unamused look. "I was... once upon a time but... I seem to have uhm... lost my master skills and I need to relearn them."

"And who's the master mini-golfer now?"

"You..." She mumbled under her breath.

I held my hand up to my ear and said, "Sorry, I couldn't hear you. Who was it?"

"You..." She said a little louder this time.

"I still couldn't hear you. Can you say that one last time?"

She scowled at me before yelling, "YOU'RE THE ULTIMATE MINI-GOLF MASTER!"

A few people looked over at us. Some laughing, some rolling their eyes. When she realized people were staring her face turned bright red and she stomped over to the start of the next course while I followed her, crying because of how much I was laughing.

"Okay, now show me." She said holding out her golf club to me.

When she did that I hesitated for a second. What I was thinking of doing was very cliche and everything... but it could work to my advantage.

"Nope. Turn around."

"What?"

"I said..." I held her by her shoulders and turned her back to me. "Turn around."

She didn't respond so I took that as my cue to start. I wrapped my hands around her waist and covered her hands with mine. I lined up the ball with the whole and positioned her hands in the right place on the club.

"You have to angle it so that it goes into the hole perfectly." I saw her nod from under me. "Now comes the hard part. Make sure you put just the right amount of strength behind it so that the ball gets to its destination. No closer and no further."

I pulled the club back and did just as I told her. It was a hole in one.

When I pulled away from her she couldn't even look me in the eye. Mission accomplished.

"Uh... should I play on your turn since you pretty much just played mine." She said, still not looking me in the eye.

When she went it wasn't a perfect hole in one, but it was a lot better than anything else she's done thus far. 

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

By the end of our game of mini-golf, she had caught up significantly. She still didn't beat me, but she didn't end up losing as bad as I thought she would. 

She also stopped being all awkward and flustered a couple of holes after the one where I gave her that little lesson.

We were walking towards my car and neither of us were saying anything and I knew that this was it. I had to do it. I had to ask her out. 

Now or never right?

"Hey, Anna?"

"Yeah, Cam?"

"Do you know why I brought you here?"

"Because I'm your favorite person ever and you wanted to spend the day with me?" She looked at me with playful eyes as we reached my car, but that cheerfulness quickly went away when she realized I was being serious. We both got into my car and I continued.

"No, well yes, but... no. I brought you here because I... I really like you, Anna. I've wanted to tell you for a while but didn't know how so I thought maybe if I took you out then I'd be easier but it's not. I'm still just as stressed to ask you this but... Will you be my girlfriend?"

I finally dared to look up at her, and the look in her eyes was one I didn't quite understand.

"I'm... I- I'm sorry Cameron." She looked down at the floor of the car "I can't."

I looked down at my shoes and sighed. I knew it was too good to be true. "I respect that Anna... I still want to be friends if you're okay with that-"

"Cameron it's not because I don't like you or love being around you if that's what you're thinking."

I looked up at her with hope in my eyes.

"I just... Tony. I can't risk that with you. I care about you too much. I can protect you if you're my friend, but if you're my boyfriend we'll both want to hang around each other more often and I can't risk you getting hurt. Either he beats you beyond recognition or you leave because you want nothing to do with me after you see what he can do."

"I wouldn't do that Anna, you know I wouldn't..."

"No Cameron, you don't! I never told you exactly what Tony did because I didn't want to scare you off, but you seem to want to know so I guess I will." I didn't say anything, and she took that as her cue to continue.

"My first boyfriend after Tony was beaten so bad I couldn't even recognize him anymore. His parents were so scared that they moved all the way across the country and the police couldn't find Tony anywhere, it's like he fell off the face of the earth. The next guy wasn't hurt as bad. A couple of bad scars, but he didn't even want to look at me. Didn't take him a day to lose my number and pretend I didn't even exist. The third guy, he... he tried to get help from the guys. He knew them so he thought it would help him, but Tony found out that he knew them and caught him off guard. He wasn't as harsh when breaking up with me as the guy before, but ended up doing the same thing. Neither of the last two even thought about pressing charges, they were too scared."

Anna stopped for a second to take a deep breath, I could tell she was on the brink of tears. This seemed to be a really hard story to tell for her. "The fourth and last guy was really brave and was more like you. He wanted to fight off Tony. The first time Tony came he wasn't beat up all that bad and stayed. A few days later Tony realized he hadn't left and came to finish the job. Thankfully the ambulance got there before he could die but... he's brain dead now. Can't even talk, and somehow, someway, Tony got the police to drop the charges that the family had against him. I go to visit him sometimes, but his whole family blames me, rightfully so."

"It's not your fault Anna."

"Yeah well, it feels like it is. I'm not doing that to you too Cameron. I... I honestly care about you more than I did any of the others and I couldn't bear to see something like that happen to you. Just take me home Cameron. I'm sorry, but I can't do this with you. I can't... I can't be with you... like that."

"It's fine Anna, I understand."

I did as she asked and took her home, but a plan was already forming in my mind about how I was going to get Anna to see that we could work, and a way to get rid of Tony.

A/N
Hey guys!

Did you guys enjoy this chapter? Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. 

What do you think Cameron's plan is?

Did you expect Anna to turn him down? 

Are you surprised Tony did all that to Anna's ex-boyfriends? 

Also, guys, I can't believe I'm saying this right now, but... 

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 580 READS!!!!!! AHHH!!!! You guys are the absolute best!!

If you liked this chapter please comment and vote, it motivates me to write more :)

Bye loves~
Syd.