No Matter What You Do

7. Kylie and Dana

Walking to the dining hall, I search for Tamara. About thirty seconds is how long it takes for me to find her at a booth. She is sitting with someone. The closer I am, the bigger picture I get of who that person is. Cameron. I wish he would just leave me alone.

Tamara greets me when I stop at her booth, and Cameron arches an eyebrow. “Hey,” he says.

I groan as if he is the most inconvenient guest in the world.

“I saw him and thought we could eat together. We’re all friends, aren’t we?” Tamara says sweetly.

“I’m not sitting next to this buffoon.” Despite my words, my heartbeat quickens. The dream re-enters my mind.

Cameron throws his head back. “God fucking forbid,” he says just above a whisper.

I slide in next to Tamara and ask her, “What do they have to eat?”

Cameron answers, “Shit.”

I give him the dirtiest look I can muster up.

Tamara motions between us. “You guys hate each other? Because there is definitely some tension here.”

Cameron shrugs. “I don’t hate her. Never did. This whole thing is a one-way street. I can’t imagine why though.” Then he slurps loudly from his paper cup. Maybe all my rudeness has finally affected him. Good.

“You have to know why,” I tell him.

“I don’t.”

“Cameron, you’re a pig. You’re a dirty cheat.”

He drops the cup onto the table and coughs, placing his hand to his chest. “Excuse the hell outta you, Coleson. I am not.”

“You two dated?” Tamara cuts in.

“Hell, no,” I say.

At that, Cameron winces. “Because that would be the worst thing to ever happen.”

“It would be with the way you treat women.”

He flinches a bit then releases a long exhale through his nose.

Tamara places a hand on my arm. “Hold on. That’s not really fair, Lainey.”

“You cheated on Kylie. You’ve probably done it to other women too.” Once a cheater, always a cheater is what they say.

He raises a single brow, and one of his eyes twitches. “Your high school frenemy, Kylie? I didn’t cheat on her.”

“Wait.” Tamara shakes her head at me.

“I didn’t.” Cameron leans over the table, resting on his crossed arms. “That’s why you ghosted me after she and I broke up? Kylie told you I cheated?”

“For me to do that we would have had to have been some kind of friends. We weren’t. Not really.”

Another blow, but this time I cannot bear the look on his face, so I excuse myself to get food. We were friends. Why the hell am I being so mean?

I return to the table with buttered pasta and a cup of water. When I sit back down, Cameron is leaning against the back of the booth and is staring past Tamara. She lightly elbows me and tilts her head in Cameron’s direction. I look back to him, and I analyze him. His shoulders rise and fall with his silent breathing. He’s also biting hard on his cheek to keep from snapping back at me, I gather. He looks down to his phone and clears his throat. Then he grabs his backpack.

“We were friends,” I say.

Cameron’s eyes dart to me immediately. “Save it.”

“Yes, Cameron. She told me you cheated, so I believed her.” I take a deep breath. At this point it would be cruel to insult him again. “If I somehow have the wrong information, enlighten me.”

He shakes his head. “No. You tell me what Kylie said. What made me such a garbage human being in your eyes?”

“New Year”s Eve, 2018. She came to me and ranted about seeing you at the mall with some blonde girl. She was already upset from an argument you guys must have had a few days earlier, so that didn’t help.”

Cameron perks up with a laugh. “And that means that I’m an unfaithful jackass?”

I shrug in response.

Cameron clears his throat with a fist to his mouth. “May I?”

I give him my full attention.

“You say I cheated on New Year”s Day. She dumped me on Christmas. She had asked me to buy her this gold necklace with a ruby pendant.”

“I remember her always talking about it. She was sure you were going to get it for her,” I add.

“It was so fucking expensive that not even an extra shift could have helped me. Especially since my main concern was helping my parents pay off some bills.

“Christmas day she didn’t get it. Instead I bought her a stupid blouse I thought she’d like. It was this aquamarine, silky thing—whatever—that was her favorite color, and she threw it in my face. That was the fight you were referring to. Her yelling at me because I didn’t care enough to buy her something I couldn’t afford. She called me cheap and told me she could find a better man who would get her all the things she wanted. At that time, we hadn’t even been dating for a whole year.

“You know her.” He motions to me. “I constantly felt like I was being judged for everything I did. She wanted me for show, I’m sure.”

Tamara sighs. I assume she’s probably heard this story before, seeing as they are actually friends.

“And the blonde girl?” I ask.

“Dana was a sweet girl.” He looks down with a sad smile then lifts his eyes to mine. “She worked at the pretzel cart a few stores down. Her energy was so much healthier than Kylie’s. We weren’t official, but we hung out a couple of times before Kylie kind of… Kylie scared her away from me. I don’t know the full story and have no desire to. I just know one day Dana and I were having fun and the next Kylie was all over me and Dana never spoke to me again. And I think she quit her job.”

Oh my God. That New Year’s, Kylie got me and a couple other girls together. She convinced us this blonde girl was terrible and malicious. Told us she knew her. She mentioned she had a plan to cut her out of the picture. I just didn”t know she actually went through with it despite my objection. I mean it wasn’t murder, but it wasn’t a basket of muffins either.

“I didn’t realize you and Kylie were so close given the way she always spoke about you.” He sighs. “I mean, I hated that.”

Great to know my old so called best friend liked to talk shit about me. I grind my teeth.

He gathers up his things and stands to leave.

“Where are you going?” I ask.

“I’m not wanted here, and I have stuff to do.” Then he’s off.

Normally, I wouldn’t be so quick to believe his story, but my gut is telling me he’s authentic. If his genuine hurt feelings at my comments weren’t enough, it’s the fact that I was friends with Kylie. I knew she could be judgmental and hotheaded. I just didn’t fully understand or comprehend the extent of her behavior.

Did she do it because she was possessive of Cameron or the attention she received when they were together?