Camp Closeted

Chapter 53: Care Bears

Me, Sascha, and Rama stayed in the library with complete dead silence. We didn't know what to do to

help us process what just happened and I don't think we ever will.

Romeo just casually kept rocking his head to the music he was listening to and it made my blood boil.

Was he that heartless to the point of not willing to care for something so serious?

I quickly averted my eyes away from Romeo before my anger only gets fueled more and empowers me

to break a chair behind his back.

Sascha didn't bother loosening his grip around Rama's tan muscular arm as he was quietly

whimpering. Every time I heard him whimper, it didn't fail to rip a piece off my heart.

"T-there's no way he's dead." I blurted out, my voice slightly cracky as their eyes slowly landed on me.

"He can't be. He just can't."

Rama sniffed as he deeply breathed, Sascha's large brown eyes filled with such broken emotions. "I

don't know man, taking 4 Xanax pills is a lot."

Just before anyone could've talked, the sound of Romeo's smug chuckle emitted around the library,

causing us to sharply glare at him in strong disgust.

"Are you seriously laughing right now?" I spoke slow, my voice magnifying great fury as Romeo leaned

back against his chair, amused.

Romeo carelessly rolled his hazel eyes as he threw his head back out in annoyance. "4 Xanax pills?

That's it?" He let out loudly. "You guys are fucking stupid, he's not dead. He's probably just in a deep

sleep."

I quickly thrashed my body up, my fists clenching as I ran towards him. Romeo's narrowed eyes

followed me darting towards him as my fist rapidly swung towards his smirking face. "Fuck you!" I

screamed, his hand effortlessly stopping me from punching him.

"How are you so weak?" Romeo raised an eyebrow at me as it only made me angrier.

Just before I could've tried swinging again, Romeo quickly looked behind me, Sascha's fragile voice

appearing, making my face quickly soften. "Do you really think so?" He croaked out.

Sascha's pale lips we're subtly quivering together as tears bunched up in his reddened eyes. Romeo

taking a closer look at how broken Sascha genuinely looked visibly caught him off guard, almost

embarrassing him for some reason. "Y-yea." Romeo stuttered as he stared back at Sascha with

widened eyes.

"Sascha we should go." Rama, whom was a distance away from Sascha quietly started to speak. "We'll

drive to the hospital and see how Cade is doing, come on."

Sascha ignored Rama for only a second, still looking at Romeo. "I don't really know you, but I just

wanna say that I'm not stupid." He sniffed, his voice sounding like it could break anytime now. "When

you love someone, seeing them even get a small cut can even mean such a big deal because you

don't ever want them to get hurt. You probably don't understand it but caring a lot is not stupid." He bit

his lip, slowly beginning to walk away with Rama. "It just opens up a different part of your humanity."

I glanced back at Romeo as his face was now clear from any facial expression, Rama and Sascha

proceeding to quietly leave the library.

Silence struck throughout the whole room as I glared at him now. "You're a terrible person Romeo." I

shook my head as I went back to sit at the table, deeply sighing as I didn't know if I was even in the

mood to continue working again.

Romeo slowly put his head down, his deep voice responding back. "It's not my fault that you guys

made a big deal out of nothing. It doesn't matter if he loves him or not, the guy is a druggie. If anything,

he deserves to die for being so careless, but he won't."

"You just don't get it." I slightly squinted my eyes at the bright light coming from my laptop, darkness

slowly looming over the library. "You're nothing but a cold, selfish, asshole. I know you know how to

care but you choose not to." I began to type.

I didn't bother looking at Romeo as I figured he wouldn't just give in. "What the fuck even is the point in

caring about someone else?" I thought he was just trying to be rude, but he genuinely sounded like he

was asking a question, which made me realize how kind of sad that is.

Has this boy ever seen an episode of Care Bears? "Romeo." I breathed out audibly stressed. "Caring

about other people is important and I know you know this. Without care, the world would just be filled

with terrible people. Doesn't someone care about you?" I asked.

"No." He dryly responded.

I just tiredly looked at him. "How about your dad?"

"Hell no." He shrugged, annoyingly repeating himself.

I just rolled my eyes. "I'm pretty sure he does Romeo. Even if he doesn't fully understand you for you,

there has to be at least an ounce of care there."

"He doesn't. I know he doesn't." He quickly spoke, volume starting to grow. "He already said if I come

home from this place still gay then he'd disown me or send me back to Russia to get killed or some

shit."

My face unconsciously crinkled. "He said that?" Romeo remained quiet, indicating that responding yes

would probably want unwanted emotions to come up for him. "Why Russia?" I asked.

"Cuz Russia is homophobic and people there would be down to kill anyone that's gay." Romeo

explained, my mouth slightly dropping.

I didn't move and instead just began to wonder how gay people are surviving in Russia. "Would they?" I

asked.

"Yea." He softly replied, our eyes now meeting.

"W-well I doubt your dad would let that happen to you." I breathed, making him tightly clench his jaw at

me in sudden anger.

"How the fuck would you know?" He exclaimed loudly, making me slightly tense back. "How can you

doubt someone's actions if you never even met him? Are you that dumb? Just because you felt care all

your life doesn't mean everybody has. God I feel so fucking stupid when I talk to you!" His voice slightly

stabbed me, making me just remain quiet to myself as I kept looking at him.

The dark orange sunset coming from the windows casted shadows on his pale cheeks and defined his

sharp jawline even further. His curly brown hair looked like a soft caramel cloud and it slightly covered

his hazel eyes that were fiercely burning at me, blending well together with the sun.

Romeo looked like he had his own captivatingly attractive sunset, right on his chiseled face and I didn't

know how to feel about it.

Romeo began to slightly look at me weird so I quickly looked away from my creepy gaze. "Well, I don't

really know what to say other than I'm pretty sure there's people out there that care for you." I sighed.

"Maybe you just choose not to notice it." I tried to sound hopeful as I spoke softly.

His face was fully furrowed down now as if what I just said completely angered him. "Maybe, maybe

you're just fucking stupid! If there were people who cared for me don't you think I'd choose to notice it?

If there were people who cared for me I wouldn't be here sitting with a dumb fuck like you, arguing

about it! Who the fuck chooses not to notice care!?" He screamed out, my shoulders visibly tenser

again because of his raised growl.

"Romeo." His name left my mouth as a deep breath as the lines on his perfectly carved face were

defined by his frustration. "Okay, fine, maybe nobody cares about you, but so what? You don't have to

be like that. I know you're able to care because as much as you want to try and deny it, I know you

know how to."

Romeo stayed quiet, his facial expression remaining the same as I continued to speak. "Like that day

when I was clearly drunk from that party, you cared enough to take me home. When I was high, you

cared enough to feed me." I continued to weakly speak as Romeo's face slowly softened, but not

much. "You cared enough to get off your car and kiss me back. You know how to care Romeo."

Silence surrounded us again.

Romeo slightly moved back as his cheeks began to burn so bright, his dilated eyes almost shifting at

me. "Micah." My name left his mouth like deep velvet silk as hearing him say my name sounded so

differently satisfying this time.

"It's true, so don't even try and deny it." I blurted out, interrupting his sentence that he was being so

hesitant on saying. "I don't care how much you hate me. You can call me names, make fun of me, and

do whatever shit that makes you feel comfortable, but I know you know how to care."

Romeo's sharp jaws clenched, not responding as a fierce glimmer went across his eyes. I knew him

being able not to deny it angered him greatly as I just sighed.

I know it must sound incredibly out of place right now but it seemed like whatever facial expression

Romeo did, it never managed to make him less attractive.

His perfectly shaped brows, his brown curly hair fluffed down onto his enticingly hazel eyes. All this,

complimented by his tan dewy skin that always glowed radiantly against any light that hit against it.

All of a sudden I felt a sudden rush of emotions inside me, my body being hot all of a sudden as I

breathed out heat, my cheeks burning.

Knowing that Romeo was everything that described perfection but his personality was so damaged

made me feel slightly frustrated.

We just awkwardly broke eye contact and looked down at each other's phones.

The second I saw my first text I immediately let out a deep sigh of relief and smiled widely. I held my

phone closely to my stomach. I couldn't even hide my sudden relief anymore.

"What?" Romeo softly asked.

"Cadence is okay." I breathily responded as I glanced back at my phone to read over Sascha's texts.

"The doctor said he's just in a deep sleep. He should be able to wake up soon."

It was true.

He is okay. NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.

Romeo just sighed as he looked back down. "Told you." His tone sounding slightly proud at himself for

being right.

I skimmed over the billions of texts that flooded my phone. It was just Jesse sending me piles of

nothing. My name over and over again, pictures of his face and body, and also him wanting to take me

out on a date.

God as much as I want to not believe it, something in me is starting to make me believe it.

Could Jesse be too good for me?

A wild thought, maybe, I don't know. What if Jesse deserves to date someone better? My growing self

doubt quickly took over me as I just put my phone down, stopping myself from texting Jesse back.

I figured I better get back to the cabin before the sun sets and the night takes over. Walking in the dark

while carrying so many things won't be fun at all and I wasn't about to deal with that.

Romeo glanced at my sudden movement as I just deeply sighed, countless thoughts racing through my

head. "A-are you hungry?" He deeply asked, slightly hesitant in tone, rapidly making my whole body

freeze from any further action.

"Yea." I breathed out, blinking my slight shock away. "I was just about to leave and eat right now." My

tone was intentionally cold as I responded.

"Well I-" Romeo's eyes shuffled out of nowhere as he gnawed on his lip. "I can take you."

"No thanks." I quickly added, making his eyelids slightly fall. "You know, thank you." I threw him a small

smile.

"For?" He breathed.

"For dealing with my bullshit." I shrugged. "I know you hate me, and if it helps you feel better, you'll

never see me again. I'm glad I helped you realize who you truly are. I'm also glad I helped you realize

what guys you aren't into. Hopefully if you do find a significant other willing to deal with you, I wish your

life complete happiness." I nodded, proceeding to walk out the door.

Romeo's mouth slightly opened as his hands slowly took his earbuds off his ears. "Goodbye Romeo."

And with that, I was out the library.

No, Jesse isn't too good for me and I shouldn't even doubt myself. I deserve him and he deserves me.

We deserve each other.

We deserve love..

My feet were incredibly fast as I stepped out the library and out to the halls. I didn't get to see Romeo's

reaction to me declining his fake request as I honestly didn't care anymore. The only thing I wanted to

do now was just go home and go out on a date with Jesse.

The second my body exited out the halls and finally was outdoors, I just took a deep breath of the crisp

air. Cadence's situation today was insanely crazy and to know he was fine eased me quite a bit.

As I tried to begin walking back to my cabin to go back and just tell Jesse my true feelings, a pair of

strong hands forcefully gripped onto both of my shoulders, turning me around.

Before I knew it, here I was, standing tensely with my dilated ocean blue eyes, widened at a pair of

familiarly light brown ones.

Our unbreakable eye contact made an island of heated emotions as I was the deep blue ocean to his

vast sandy land.

Just like puzzle pieces that has been kept unsolved for way too long, Romeo's plump reddened lips

were now merged with mine, once again.