Cameron was miserable. Her whole body was getting tender in random places and she was having a hard time keeping the most random food down.
Bananas.
She was craving bananas. Fresh bananas, banana pudding, banana splits, banana milkshakes... she was on banana overload and it was so hard hiding it from her parents. She just waved it off as a phase, but one night she had actually had a panic attack when she found out her father had eaten the last banana and she would have to wait until morning to go get one.
She'd ended up sneaking out after they went to bed to go to a 24-hour store further away. This wasn't normal right? Was five weeks in enough time to have such intense cravings? She would have to find a way to sneak in one of those pregnancy books that told you what to expect.
To make matters worse, Cameron hadn't seen Elias since she ordered him out of her room. She was still having issues with the idea that Shacrow VanMeter College was a breeding program for immortals of the vampire variety, and that she had been accepted because her bloodlines and attributes were attractive to the not-so-undead founding fathers. And mothers.
When she traced the whole thing back to getting the invitation in the mail, Cameron couldn't understand how things got out of hand so quickly. Or how she could have behaved so badly.
She had been a virgin when she went to tour the campus, and when she had met Elias in the president's office, no spark had shot between them. Admittedly she was more preoccupied with Gavin, though for more negative reasons. They had fought for her and Elias had won but only because she chose him in a split second decision.
She chose Elias.
Cameron wondered what would have happened if she had chosen Gavin instead. She supposed the same thing; she would have walked into the invisible barrier at the entrance of Gavin's hallway and he would have reacted the same as Elias. Or not. There could have been a multitude of reactions - he could have drained her, or deflowered her in a manner unlike the quick thrust Elias offered. It would have happened regardless how, Cameron was sure, but the future would have boiled down to whether or not Gavin would have fed her his blood and had her lusting after him.
The first time vampire blood flowed through her system, it had been Elias who had given it to her. She had obeyed an order he gave her - sort of. She had been suddenly overwhelmed with the need to get off, and since he'd taken her virginity, Cameron had let Elias have sex with her. Twice.
She could have been pregnant since the first go-around; who knew. That had been a mistake. But she had let Elias take her again later that night, outside, where anyone could have come across them. And seeing him again, having him sweep her away on his motorcycle and say all those things to her while he was in her room, in her bath, in her bed...
She was a complete moron.
Cameron got swept up in the whirlwind movie-style romance and, really, everything boiled down to a total of seeing him four days, or rather, nights, and having unprotected sex enough times for him to impregnate her. And as stupid as she felt, it wasn't because she was pregnant.
Something told Cameron this would have happened eventually and she practically had it confirmed by Elias; his school was some sort of breeding ground for half-breeds. Dhampirs, Danvy had called them. So she would have been in this situation eventually anyway.
She was a moron because some part of her actually made her think Elias liked her. That it was instant chemistry. But if that had been the case, wouldn't she have felt a zing or something when she first saw him?
Cameron blamed herself for her own creative imagination.
"Know what you want?" Brandy asked before rolling down her window and yelling at the drive-thru speaker, "I'll have a chocolate milkshake and a double cheeseburger." She turned to Cameron.
"Banana split."
"That all?"
Cameron nodded.
Brandy yelled the dessert at the menu and was given a total. "I hate this drive-thru. Hey, so um, wanna tell me about the party? I mean, you got out of there pretty quick and Kyle was pissed as hell when I found him with Brock and Trent. Oops! Sorry, I didn't mean to say the T word."
"It's okay," Cameron said. And it really was. The whole Trent debacle seemed light-years away now that she was faced with her current problem.
"Oh and you should have seen Matt's face. He was so mad he missed the whole thing, but his girlfriend had been helping another girl puke her brains out in the bathroom. Which reminds me. Someone told me you threw up too but by the time I heard, you were gone, of course. With a guy. I mean, are you dating a college guy because I heard he was the hottest thing since lava. Spill."
Cameron stared at her friend, who finally stopped for a breath. Brandy was handing over cash for the food and sat there with an expectant look on her face.
"He's..." Cameron stared at Brandy, wondering what she should say. If she said she was dating Elias, Brandy would want to know more and Cameron simply didn't know what to say yet. She definitely couldn't tell her friend she was pregnant. "... a guy I met at the college I visited. I don't know what I think about him right now... who knows what will happen in the future." True enough.
"Oh my God, I love the idea of a campus full of college guys," Brandy said. "I mean, I'm still dating Kyle obviously but some serious man candy is always fun to watch. Oh, hey, is that Kristie?"
Cameron turned to see a person on a motorcycle reach for their helmet. She had a brief flash of Elias on his motorcycle but it faded when Kristie's red hair came into view. Cameron stared at Kristie, who was waving at her as if she had something to tell her.
Oh, God. Kristie had left the party with Daman. What if she were pregnant too? Or... should Cameron tell her to run like hell? Not that she would be able to do anything but hide after that; and who knew how easily they could find a person since they kept saying during the visit that the vampires of SVMC had connections all over the planet.
She was in so deep.
"What does she want?" Brandy asked with a sneer in her voice.
"Um, I don't know," Cameron said, unbuckling her seatbelt. "Let me check."
"What-" Brandy started to say; she was cut off by the lady at the window handing over the food. "Uh, okay."
Cameron opened the door to Brandy's yellow VW beetle and stepped out, closing the door. She walked over to Kristie who looked a little uncomfortable on her motorcycle; the girl actually squirmed in her seat.
"Hey," Kristie said, scrubbing a hand through her short red hair.
"Hey," Cameron returned, coming to a stop on the other side of the shrubs dividing the drive-thru lane and the parking lot. "What's up?"
"Uh, I need to talk to you... about... our mutual friends."
"Okay," Cameron said, knowing her curiosity and confusion was playing all over her face and in her voice. She waited a few moments while Kristie tried to figure out what she wanted to say. "It's okay, Kris, I've learned... a lot since I saw you at the party."
"Um, yeah. How are you?" Kristie seemed to have forgotten the party. Maybe she had been dealing with her own troubles since last weekend.
"I'm..." Cameron didn't know what to say. Should she tell her friend? As hesitant as Kristie was, maybe the other girl really was having the same issue Cameron was. "I'm dealing. I guess."
"So yeah, you are, like, the only one I can turn to for this. Other than..." Kristie was awkward in her confession but still seemed to consider Cameron's feelings toward Melanie Carver.
Melanie was only a minor itch Cameron wouldn't be able to scratch for the next four years. Cameron had bigger problems. And Kristie did too it seemed because the girl was squirming as she fought whatever hesitation she had.
"Look I'm gunna just throw this out there and you might not like it but you will understand it. I think," Kristie blurted out. "You know when you taste, um, their... stuff?"
