The receptionist looked toward Mr. Yank’s office, whose door was closed. “He’s in there with Ms. Tomago right now, and I don’t think this is an opportune time for anybody—especially you—to interrupt him. Let me see if I can get that information for you.” She left toward the back of the office.
A few minutes passed and another secretary came out. “Are you James… sorry… Jim Crittenhouse?”
“Yes.”
“I have the information you requested,” she said, handing me two pieces of paper.
The first was a library pass, and the second was a piece of memo pad with the phone number for Swift Holdings, where Kristen’s father was the founder and chairman.
“Thank you, ma’am,” I said politely.
I took my cue from the hall pass and left for the library, which was just a few doors down the hall. I showed my pass to the librarian, who took it without really looking at it.
I was surprised to see Camille sitting at one of the desks.
“Hi, Cammy! Do you live here?”
Camille looked up from her book and smiled. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have English?”
“Ms. Taylor is out today,” I explained. “The substitute gave me a front office pass, and when I was in the front office, the receptionist gave me a library pass for the rest of the period.”
“Why the front office pass?”
“I needed Kristen’s father’s business number. I need help planning Kristen’s birthday party, and I figured that he might be planning something as well. I can let him worry about renting a hall or whatever he wants to do, and get whatever family or friends that he’d like to get. I wanted to see what I could contribute.”
Camille looked impressed. “That’s a great idea, Jim!”
“Kristen doesn’t have much family,” I said. “There’s her brother Will, and he’s at college. I bet we could have him come out here to celebrate his sister’s eighteenth birthday.”
This brought a thoughtful look from Camille. “Is that a good idea? What is the relationship between Will and Kristen?”
“Will worships the ground Kristen walks on,” I said. “I met him in Boston last year.”
“If you say so,” Camille shrugged. “I remember…”
I knew what Camille was going to say. “It’s not like that. They really do love one another, Cammy.”
“I’ll take your word for it, Jim.”
“Anyway, I think I can get the people from the jazz band to play a special set for Kristen,” I said. “I’ll need to ask them privately tomorrow. Maybe I will be able to get Amy to distract Kris for a bit tomorrow.”
Camille smiled as she heard me thinking aloud.
“Enough about Kristen,” I said, finally winding down. “What are you reading?”
“Dostoevsky,” Camille answered. ”Crime and Punishment. A classic.”
“An assignment for school?”
“Nah. Light reading.”
I wasn’t familiar with the work, and her dismissive comment would only make sense to me a few years later when I actually was assigned to read the book. She was doing some heady reading for a high school senior.
“Kris seemed a little jealous on Friday when we talked for a couple of hours. Since she’s out of town, would you like to talk some more this afternoon?”
Camille thought for a bit. “No. I need to take my mother to the doctor’s today. Annual physical.”
“Oh, well. I thought I’d try. People expect to see me with a blonde, you know.”
“I’m not your Goddess, Jim,” Camille pointed out. “I mean, I love you and…” Camille paused, apparently shocked at what she just said.
“What?”
“I mean… I love… shit!” Camille looked upset.
I was very concerned. “What’s wrong, Camille?”
Camille looked at me, saying nothing for a couple of minutes. Finally, she said, quietly, “Fuck. I’ll take you home today. Come with me to the doctor’s office.”
“With your mother?”
Camille sighed and nodded.
“Sure.”
There were only a few more minutes left of school.
“Let’s go now,” Camille said.
“Now? The bell hasn’t rung!”
“Won’t matter,” Camille said. “Perk of being in the Honor Society.”
“What?” I asked.
Camille didn’t answer. Instead, she dragged me out of the library, leaving her book on the table. The librarian saw us but said nothing.
We were alone in the parking lot, and Camille went straight to her car and said, “Come on, get in.”
Once inside the car, Camille said, “Jim, something happened after our conversation the other day.”
“What?” I asked.
“Remember how I said that I was drawn to you?”
“Yeah…” I said, confused.
“It’s stronger now. Sometimes when I’m with you, it gets really strong. Like just now in the library.”
“You’re drawn to me?”
“Jim, I’ve never, ever loved anybody,” Camille said, starting her car. There were tears in her eyes. “Not romantically. I’ve fucked, sucked, licked and done whatever with countless people—some who I can’t even remember—but I never loved anybody.”
“How about Patty?” I asked.
“Patty likes me, but I think she pities me. That’s not love,” Camille said, starting to sob.
I didn’t think Patty’s relationship with Camille was based on pity, but I said nothing. Luckily, Lake Shore Point wasn’t far away. Camille pulled in and parked the car. She turned to me and said, “Jim, what I feel for you, I’ve felt for nobody else. I know you don’t love me and… for some reason, I don’t care.”
“You love me?” I asked, stupidly. “Why?”
“I don’t know! I know you didn’t do anything,” Camille said. “I felt it strongly when we were here last week, and it got stronger when I kissed you last week. I’m…” Camille’s voice faltered and was replaced by sobs.
I didn’t know what to do with this. Girls were falling in love with me, and there was no explanation about what was happening. Back in September, Patty told me that Kristen loved me, and then a couple of weeks later, Sherry told me the same thing. Now I was hearing it from Camille. What was happening to me?
Another more interesting question was, if Camille felt this way last week, was it a good idea that we were back here at Lake Shore Point? I liked Camille as a friend. She helped heal a rift between Kristen and me and she was one of the smartest people I knew. I knew about her reputation, although I was taken aback that both Kristen and Patty seemed to know that she was bisexual.
“Camille, it’s probably not a good idea for us to be here…”
“It’s OK,” Camille answered, sniffing. “I’m not about to rape you, you know. I’m quite capable of controlling my actions. I think it’s those damned tickets. It’s the only explanation.”
Deep inside me, despite my concern about my friend, a soothing thought came into my mind. “Calm down, Camille,” I said.
Camille nodded and started to take deep breaths.
I saw my friend start to calm down. “Kiss me,” I said.
“Huh?” Camille said, confused.
Nevertheless, she moved closer to me, her lips pursed.
As our lips met, I kissed Camille. I felt her tongue touch my lips, but I knew instinctively that this was not the time for that. I kept my lips closed, and Camille noticed and stopped.
We continued kissing for a minute and finally, Camille broke away from it.
“What did you do?” Camille asked, amazed.