And I'll Sculpt My Life For Your Acceptance

When I got back to my apartment that night I checked my answering machine, I had 1 new message. I pressed play while I went to the kitchen to get some food.

“Hey Girl Kid, it’s Cameron. I need to talk to you as soon as you get this, can you call me? Don’t call home though, I’m at Sara’s. Um, yeah, I’ll talk to you soon. It doesn’t matter what time you get this just call me tonight, please. Love you.” my brothers voice sounded like he was angry but also upset.

I grabbed my phone book from beside the phone and found Cam’s best friend’s number. I dialed it quickly and listened to it ring a few times before a girls voice answered.

“Hello?” she sounded like she was half asleep.

“Hey, Sara, sorry to wake you but is Cam there? It’s Karmony.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll just wake him up. He’s pretty exhausted, both physically and mentally.” I heard her put the phone down and then her murmur of voices on the other end of the phone.

“Karmony?” Cameron’s voice asked into the phone.

“Yeah, bud. What’s up? You sounded upset and shit on the message.” I was worried about him.

“Oh yeah, Igotkickedout.” He mashed his words together, causing them to come out in a mumble.

“What? Say it slower.”

“Dad kicked me out.” He said slower. I didn’t know what to say; do I yell at him? Or ask what he done? I know that my father wouldn’t kick anybody out if they hadn’t have done something terrible. “Are you there?”

“Yeah. Dude, what did you do?”

“Dyl gave me his weed to hold while his parents painted the house and dad found it and thought it was mine and he told me that he didn’t want me going down the same path as you and when I tried to explain to him that it wasn’t mine and that I hadn’t even tried the stuff, he accused me of lying and told me that I had to either smoke it all in front of him to see that it isn’t as great as I think it is, or leave and I didn’t want to smoke it, I seen you when you were high as a fucking kite and I didn’t want to be like that so I left and he told me that I couldn’t come back and I have no where to go. Sara’s parents don’t have enough room for me to be here for a long period of time and I don’t trust anybody else enough to stay with them.” He sounded like he was going to start crying.

“I’ll talk to dad for you, see if I can get him to listen to me and if not- I don’t know, um, I’ll figure something out.” I told him. “I’ll have to call him tomorrow though because it’s too late now. I better let you go back to sleep, you have school tomorrow don’t you?”

“Uh, no, I left a few days ago. I thought dad told you?”

“No, he failed to mention that. Why did you leave you idiot?!” I yelled. I left school in my senior year because I was always too high to go and it’s something that I regret now.

“You know how much I hated school, I didn’t do well with the whole learning in the class room thing and dad said that if I could find a job it would be okay.”

“And did you find a job?” I already knew the answer to my question but I asked anyway.

“Well no, but I’m working on it.”

I sighed. “Okay, kid. I got to go because I’m almost falling asleep, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Will it be early in the morning or in the afternoon?”

“Probably not, maybe in the early afternoon. Why?”

“I’m not going to be able to stay here during the day so-”

I cut him off. “Go to Edie’s house in the morning and I’ll call you there.”

“Okay, well, I guess I’ll talk to you then. Bye Kar, I love you.”

“Love you too, you big idiot.” I said as I hung up the phone, forgetting about my hunger and going straight to bed.

The next morning I called my old home number. Nobody answered so I called my dads office. His secretary told him I was on the phone and he picked up the phone.

“Hunny, how are you?” he asked happiness in his voice.

“Hey dad, I’m pretty good. How are you?”

“Oh, you know, I’ve been better.” I didn’t know if he was purposely not telling me about Cameron or if he just didn’t know how to tell me.

“Anything interesting happen since I spoke to you last? Like Cameron quitting school, or maybe him getting kicked out with no where to go?” I snapped.

“Karmony, I don’t have a say in whether or not he stays or leaves school, you should know that.” He said, sternly. “And as for him being kicked out, it was his own fault. I told him, I told both of you, that if I ever seen that stuff in my house again I would kick the one with it out. And he had it so he got kicked out.”

“But it wasn’t his! You know Dylan is the biggest pothead out. You should know that Cam wouldn’t do something like that anyway, he’s a responsible kid. He knows the difference between good and bad.”

“Sweetie, I know that. But with him quitting school so suddenly and now the whole pot thing, I need him to know that I have rules and if they aren’t followed there are consequences.”

“So you’re not going to let him come back?”

“No, not until he gets a job and I know that he isn’t into any drugs.”

“What if he can’t get a job? What if this leads him into getting into all different drugs? Than what? Are you just going to leave him to rot!?” This didn’t sound like my dad at all; my dad would understand and he’d listen to us when we told him the truth.

“I know, Karmony, you take him.” He suggested. “You let him live in California with you for a month and if he doesn’t touch a single thing up there than he can move back.”

“I can’t afford to look after him and I’m hardly home.” I said, I would love for him to live with me for a while, it will give me company but I really can’t afford it and I have enough on my plate.

“I’ll give you money every week for him and it’s not like he’s never been home alone before.” He was serious about this.

“Are you really suggesting this? It makes no sense!”

“It does from my point of view. So it’s settled? He’s going to Berkeley?”

I thought about it for a few minutes. I groaned, it was the only way to get him to move back into home. “Yeah, fine. But I need a decent amount of money and he has to try and find a part time job to get him out of the house.”

“Deal.” Was all he said.

“So I’ll call him and he’ll fly over?” I asked, there was no chance I was driving over to get him.

“Yeah, tell him to come by and get his stuff and I’ll drive him to the airport.”

“I don’t think he will want to see you, you’re packing him up and shifting him across the country, I’ll get Edie to drive him.” I explained.

“I’ll call him now. And I’ll talk to you later on today to work out the plane times; the sooner he gets here the better.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later, Sweet Heart.”

“Yeah, bye.” I concluded the call and hung up. I groaned and grabbed the phone again, this time calling Edie’s number.

She answered on the second ring. “Why is your brother sitting in my lounge room?”

“Oh hey Edie. It’s nice to hear from you too! I’ve been great, been working everyday and I’m completely worn out plus I just found out that my sixteen year old brother is going to be living with me for a month! How’s life with you?” I spat sarcastically.

“Whoa! Chill, girl. I was just kidding. Cam explained everything except for the part about him living with you.”

“Well yes he is now going to be living with me since my dad is a complete ass and thinks that it’s the greatest idea he has ever came up with.”

“Alright, I’m going to let you talk to him about this and I’m going to go shower or something.” She mumbled and I heard the phone passing hands.

“I’m living with you?!” Cameron’s voice yelled through the phone. I explained to him what our father had said to me and he seemed to agree even though he wasn’t too happy with it. But he understood that for him to move back into home he needed to do this. He was also going to go around to the house and get his stuff once he got off the phone.

When I got off the phone, I called Tony and asked for a few days off because of a family crisis, he said it would be okay and to just let him know when I could go back, I told him it would be no later than Tuesday.

Once I got off the phone I had a shower and got ready for the day. I ended up going shopping and just looking around Berkeley before heading home to call my father again.

Apparently he booked a flight for him which gets in here at about 8pm. He already called Edie and told her about it so she was going to make sure that he got on the plane. All I had to do was meet him on the other side of the gates.

I made by self busy for the afternoon by cleaning. By the time the apartment was spotless and I had eaten my tea it was time to go. I grabbed my handbag and keys off the table before heading off to meet Cameron.

I only had to wait about 10 minutes for him to come out of the gate. I walked towards him while he was looking around for me. His eyes landed on me and a huge smile made its way to his face.

“Hey kid, how was the flight?” I asked him.

He rolled his eyes and walked towards the luggage claim to get his bags. “I do not like flying.” He admitted, his voice low like he was afraid people would hear him. I laughed.

“Why do you think I drove? I hate flying too.” I told him.

He grabbed his bags when they came around and we left, talking about stupid stuff on the drive back to my apartment.

When we pulled up he stared at the building in front of us. “I thought you would be living in some dump.” He admitted.

“So did I, to be honest but it’s pretty good. The only problem is, it’s only one bedroom so I’m going to used dad’s money to buy you a futon.” I said as I held the door open for him.

We made our way up to my apartment and I told him to have the bed tonight and I’ll crash on the couch, he agreed and the moment we got in I changed quickly and made myself comfortable on the couch before drifting off into an uncomfortable sleep.