She nods once and lifts a finger. "One night," she mouths back, pushing the door wide open and flattening her palm against it to keep it in place.

-LUCY-

I wake up with Cameron's arms wrapped around me, along with a pounding headache. Picking up his phone from the nightstand, I look at the time. Two a.m. Slowly, I lift his arm off me and make my way downstairs in search for aspirin. His dad—no... his mom's boyfriend is at the dining table. Papers and a box of envelopes in front of him.

"Hey." He leans back in his chair and raises his hand in a wave. "Everything okay?"

I hold a hand to my head, hoping to ease the pain. "Aspirin."

He smiles and motions to the chair opposite him. "Take a seat. I'll be right back."

And he is, with two aspirins and a bottle of water. He waits until I've swallowed both before sitting back down. "Rough night?" he asks. Even though his tone is casual, I can sense the concern in his words.

I nod. "What are you doing up so late?"

He laughs once, understanding my need to change the subject. "Working. Always working."

I eye the mess of papers in front of me. "Need help?"

"You don't want to go back to sleep?"

I shake my head. "I've slept enough. I'm not used to more than a few hours."

"Okay." He perks up. "I need all the help I can get." He pushes the box of envelopes to my side of the table and hands me a list of names and addresses. "I hope you have neat handwriting."

We spend the next few minutes in silence, but I can feel his eyes on me. I keep my head down and write out the addresses like he asked. Then he drops a stack of papers next to my hand—flyers for a sale at a car dealership. Cameron told me that that's how his mom and Mark met. She went in to buy a car, he wouldn't sell her the one she wanted... told her to come back next week when the right model was available. He told her that for a whole two months. For two months she showed up every weekend, wanting to see this new model. Finally, he told her there was no new model, he just wanted to see her.

I examine the flyer again. It's hand drawn, like a comic strip. The general gist is that the buyer leaves as a superhero. 'Let your next purchase empower you' the headline says. "This is great," I tell him.

"It's pretty awesome, huh?"

"Who drew it?"

He's silent for so long I don't think he heard me. I finally pull my gaze away from the artwork and look up at him. He smirks before he answers, "Cam."

My eyes go wide. "Cameron did this?"

He nods, a sense of pride taking over him.

"He can draw?" My voice comes out louder than expected.

He chuckles. "Yeah, Lucy. He can draw. He's kind of amazing, right?"

I lift the flyer so I can inspect it closer. "Amazing is an understatement."

"I can't believe you didn't know," he muses, shaking his head. And then it dawns on me; all these days he's been at my house, all the hours I've spent with him, he never told me anything about him. It was always about me. He was always about me.

Mark must read my thoughts because he asks, "You don't know much about him do you?"

I shake my head, my mind still reeling from my realization. "Tell me about him?"

He laughs. "I'll tell you as much as I think he'll let me."

"Okay."

"Where do you want me to start?"

"How long have you known him?"

"Since he was six."

And that's how we spend the next few hours; with Mark telling me as much as he can about Cameron.

Cameron is an artist. He's an athlete. He's an unbelievably respectful son. Above all that, Cameron has a heart the size of the ocean. But he didn't need to tell me that part. If anyone knew the size of Cam's heart, it was me.

I get up and stretch my back when we're done. "You know you can enter those names and addresses into a spreadsheet and print directly onto the envelopes."

Mark's eyes go wide. "You're a liar."

His seriousness makes me smile.

When I get back to Cameron's room, he's sitting up in his bed with his phone in his hand. "Lucy," he sighs. "Where have you been? I thought you left." The panic in his voice creates an ache in my chest.

"I just needed aspirin. I'm sorry."

He sucks in a huge breath and lies back down, patting the spot next to him. "Come here."

I climb back into bed with him and rest my head on his chest, the same way I fell asleep earlier. His heart's racing, thudding hard against my ear. "I can feel your heartbeat."

"I know," he replies. "I got worried. I don't like not knowing if you're okay."

CHAPTER FIVE

-LUCY-

He's not in bed when I get up the next morning. I shower in his bathroom, dress for school and head downstairs. "He's in the garage," his mom tells me. "Lucy?"

"Yeah?"

"You're going to be staying with us for a few days... and I know that it's hard—what you're going through at the moment—but I can't let Cameron stay with you every night." She grimaces slightly. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." I fail at my attempt to smile. "I'll try to be stronger."

She places a hand on my forearm as I try to walk past her and shakes her head slowly. "It's not about—" she cuts herself off with a sigh. "I just can't have teenagers sleeping in the same bed under my roof. You get that, right?"