The Last Goodbye

Cameron’s POV

After last period ended, I went to my locker, shoved everything that I needed into my backpack, and went out to the parking lot and into my car. I usually would go hang out at Bella’s house or something but I had band practice with Nate, Michael, and Zach. We were in this band called ALLSTAR. When we first formed this band, Zach came up with the name OuterSpace Politicians. Then, we decided to change it to ALLSTAR.

I pulled up to Nathan’s house and let myself in. We’ve all be here so many times it felt so natural to just walk in, grab something from the fridge, and go to Nate’s room. Although, I went straight to Nathan’s room and saw the guys eating burritos. There was another one on the plate and I grabbed it and started eating it.

“Hey, man!” Michael said.

I was in the middle of chewing my burrito so I just nodded my head towards him and managed to say, “Hey.”

Michael was also too busy eating to say anything back. I was waiting for someone to jump in and ask about Bella and what had happened. I waited.

Nothing.

“We should go practice.” Said Nate. We all nodded and got to his basement and got ready to play, “Dance Forever.”

It sounded pretty good. But I think we needed a bit more of practice on this song. Nate and Zach had wrote it a long time ago and now we were finally putting it all together with tunes and beats. We had it all figured out about how the music for this song was going to go but we still had to work on performing it together as a band and doing it right.

After band practice was over, we were all hungry. Again. So we all went to Nathan’s room and sat down while Michael ordered pizza. While we were waiting for the pizza delivery guy to come, we played Guitar Hero. It was epic. I did pretty awesome and Zach, well he wasn’t playing the right notes but he sure did rock out jumping all over the living room.

When the pizza delivery guy came, Michael grabbed his money that was on the table, ran to the door, yelled “PIZZA!” at the guy’s face, handed him the exact money for the pizza, slammed the door shut and ran to the living room holding the pizza.

He opened it once he set it on top of the table and immediately we all started grabbing a slice. We all sat down and started eating. 15 minutes later, the whole box was emptied and we were all full. Michael burped loudly after drinking soda. Nathan got up and went to his room. He came back to the living room carrying an acoustic guitar.

“So, Cameron, what happened with the plan for you to tell Bella about how you felt?” Zach asked. He was leaning back on the couch with his head touching the wall.

“Yeah, man! What happened? I can’t believe she’s going out with Jack now,” said Michael.
Nathan started strumming a quiet, yet an amazing melody, softly on the guitar.

I sighed. “Well, I waited for her when before school started at the parking lot. She came late so I didn’t get a chance to talk to her. Then I didn’t see her before 2nd period. Then when 2nd period was ending, Jack came up to me and said that he liked her and asked whether he should ask her out. I told him to go for it.”

Michael spit out the soda he was drinking, Zach sat up straight and Nathan stopped playing the guitar and looked at me.

“What!?” They said together.

“Man, why’d you do that for? If you hadn’t maybe that would’ve been you going to dinner with her on Saturday!” Said Michael.

“So, you basically let Jack take over? You basically handed him the chance!” said Nathan.
I stayed quiet with my head down studying my big toe. Zach looked at me.

“Guys, he did it for her. He wanted her to be happy since she has always wanted to be with Jack.” Zach said.

I nodded. “Yeah, I mean I knew I just blew my chance away but if she’s happy, then I’m happy. Her happiness is all that matters.”

No one said anything. Then Nathan spoke up, “Are you really happy, man?”

I looked up at him. “No, it kills me to see Jack kissing her and hugging her. But it’ll kill me even more if she was unhappy and miserable. And it would be my fault for misleading Jack. I don’t want to be the reason she isn’t smiling.”

Again, silence filled the room. “You really like her, huh?” asked Michael.

Zach shook his head. “No, not like, I think it’s more like he loves her.”

I didn’t hesitate at all and said, ” Yes, I do. I love her. She means everything to me.” I smiled at them a bit.

“Cameron’s in love!” Nathan shouted. Then he started playing a melody and started singing, “Cameron’s in love! Oh! Cameron’s in love! Bella’s got him head over heels up above! OH! CAMERON’S IN LOVE!”

Soon Zach and Michael started singing along. I just laughed and shook my head. “You guys are nuts!”

Before I knew it, I was singing along, too.

Then we all got tired, but Nathan still played the melody. He kept changing the melodies, though.

“You know what, man? We’re gonna get Bella and you together!” Michael said to me. I looked at him.

“How?”

“What if we like switch up her date for Saturday?”

“What do you mean?” I asked Michael.

“Well, how about we somehow convince Jack that Bella can’t go to the dinner date so he doesn’t go. But Bella doesn’t know about this so she’s still going on the date. Then when she gets to the restaurant, BAM! Instead of Jack, you’re there! And you to have your first date together!”

“It won’t work. Jack is supposed to pick Bella up for the date!”

“Then we’ll give her a note something saying that it’s from Jack and that he has something going on and that he’s going to be a bit late so one of us offers to drive her to the restaurant!” Michael said.

Zach and Nathan nodded. “ I think that might work!” Said Zach.

“Yeah, it’s a perfect plan!” Said Nathan.

I wanted to go with this plan. I wanted to do this but I knew I couldn’t.

I shook my head. “No, we’re not doing that. I’m not going to sabotage her date with him. She’s wanted to go out with him for some time now so we cant do that. If she found out, I had some part of this, she would get really mad at me.”

“You’re lovesick, aren’t you?” asked Michael in disbelief.

“I think so.”

“So what are we going to do?” asked Nathan.

“Nothing. We’re not going to do anything.”

“Well, we have to do something! You love her. You’re not just going to give up on her, are you?” asked Zach.

“Of course not! I just want her to be happy. She looks happy being happy with Jack. I don’t want to come in and cause drama and start frustrating her.”

Michael shook his head. “You’re unbelievable.”

“I know.”

“Well, if you’re not going to do anything, then we will!”

I looked at them.

“You don’t have to do anything. But we have the right to do whatever we want to do! So you can’t fight with us, Cameron.” Said Nathan.

Michael and Zach agreed with him.

I sighed. “Fine. But don’t go to any extremes!”

“We’ll try not to!” said Zach.

Nathan, Michael, and Zach started coming out with plans. I zoned out. I didn’t want to hear any of this.

I just kept thinking about whether Bella really was happy. She seemed happy, but she and I held hands in Art. Did that mean anything to her? I thought it might’ve been a sign that she liked me. But when I saw her with Jack after Art Class, that thought faded away. I saw how happy she was to be with him. I hope Jack knew how lucky of a guy he was to have a girl like Bella. An amazing, beautiful girl like Bella.