Camp Paramore

by Wendy Lea Thomas

  “Why do you have to be such a dick?” I said. “You’re taking Nate’s word? You can’t trust him,” I said again. “He hates anyone who’s with me.”

  “I know you want to blame me for all of this, but you’ve been falling for Dorian’s bullshit all along.”

  “Turn the jet around. I want to go back. I need to hear Dorian’s side of the story.”

  “Dorian’s side?” he scoffed. “He would just lie to your face like he always does.”

  “Avery, he doesn’t lie to me. It’s something that you never quite got the grasp of. He told me about Lilly.” Avery’s jaw went slack then he recomposed himself.

  “Don’t bring her up. I’m sure anything he told you about Lilly was a lie. His whole life is a lie,” Avery responded. Avery’s eyes held steadfast in a moment of heartache.

  “Look, Aria. I know it’s difficult to hear the truth, but I know him better than you. I’ve known him for a long time.” I sat silent, staring past the dim lights of the cabin and listening to the hum of the plane. The plane bounced in and out of pockets of turbulence but it did nothing to move our argument along. My eyes locked on to Avery’s again.

  “I only became Dorian’s housegirl for you in the first place,” I protested. “ I did it to help you get that goddamn contract with Dorian, and don’t forget you paid me to do it! You paid me to be his whore!” I shouted as tears welled up in my eyes. A glimmer of regret arose on Avery’s face. “How do you think that makes me feel?” I said as my lip quivered.

  “You’re such a fucking, asshole, Avery. I will never forgive you for paying me. I did it out of love for you, to help you, and you turned it into this disgusting thing by turning me into a call girl! Fuck you,” I concluded.

  “Aria, your heart is the biggest I’ve ever known and it shines brightest when you’re helping people. Men are attracted to that light. I speak from experience,” he said. “Yes, it was my fault that you got messed up in all of this. I allowed you to get tangled in Dorian’s web,” he affirmed.

  “Remember, you were the one who broke up with me,” I asserted. “You pushed me away. You don’t have the right to storm back into my life like a night in shining armor and tell me everything’s going to be okay, because it’s not.”

  “I was angry at you for falling in love with Dorian. We all could see it. Sara, Colt, Ethan, and Pierce. We all were hoping you wouldn’t let it get this far. I made a mistake for not stopping it sooner,” Avery said apologetically.

  “A mistake? You paid me to fuck him,” I asserted again. “You didn’t want to stop it. You wanted that contract for Jameson International. You could have stopped it at any time but you let it go on and on. Does that make you feel good? Did you get off thinking about my being sex slave?”

  “Aria, the thought of you being with him sickened me, but you allowed yourself to fall in love with him even though we all warned you against it,” he said, raising his voice. “The housegirl classes were supposed to give you the psychological tools to prevent that,” he emphasized.

  “We never got that far in those stupid classes,” I countered. “You were in too much of a hurry to get me into his bed! But at least he was there for me. He didn’t hide at the first sign of us having problems. You still haven’t even told me what happened in your past to make you so goddamn distant. What the fuck did that girl do to you to mess you up this bad?” I added, raising my voice.

  His lips curved downward then his eyes fell away. “That girl was…” We were immediately interrupted by a small tapping on the cabin door then it eased open.

  “Hi guys…look, as much as I love that you two are finally talking, could you keep it down. Some of us are trying to get some sleep out here,” Pierce said. We both snapped at him in unison.

  “Go to hell, Pierce!” I stood, walked forward to the cabin door, and leaned around Pierce and took in most of Avery’s small army. I should have known we weren’t alone. I stood tall, laid my hand on Pierce’s chest, pushed him back through the door as hard as I could, and slammed the cabin door behind him, locking it. Then I made my way back to the seat across from Avery.

  I glanced out of the window as thick grey clouds partially obscured the full moon allowing the black of night to engulf us and put me in a trance as I tried to remember bits and pieces of what happened tonight. I sat across from Avery hoping that he would just go away. The silence between us was deafening until Avery finally spoke.

  “I’m sorry I’ve allowed my past to interfere with my feelings for you, but believe me, Aria, I only want to be with you. It doesn’t matter what has happened between you and Dorian. It doesn’t matter who hurt whom first. Just come back to me. I will make it better,” Avery avowed in a thick voice. I couldn’t say anything. I was too exhausted to fight with him any further. I breathed in a slow deep breath.

  “You hurt me, Avery. You paid me to be his whore and then when I needed you most, you abandoned me. At least he was there to pick up the pieces of what you shattered. You can fly me all the way back to Ohio, but I am just going to get on the next plane and fly back to Vancouver. I belong…to…I mean…with Dorian. I want to give him a chance to explain about what happened tonight.”

  Avery didn’t like that answer and took his turn staring out the cabin window at the Christmas Eve moon as it struggled to break free from the clouds obscuring it. It was now around three in the morning on December 24th. Christmas Eve was usually my favorite day of the year. My family always traded gifts on Christmas Eve. We’d have dinner and open presents, then head to church for midnight service. I hadn’t been to midnight service since my father died.

  I didn’t know how long we sat in silence, but I realized that it had been a long time since I went to the bathroom. Geez, I really had to pee.

  “Where are you going?” he asked with need in his voice.

  “I have to use the restroom,” I snapped back at him. Avery had a way of bringing the passion out of me. It was never our weak point. Avery’s phone rang and I used that as my escape. I headed over to the private bathroom in his cabin.

  I finished up and then splashed some water on my face trying, to sober myself up further and then I turned back to Avery’s private seating area.

  “Can we get something to eat? I’m starving,” I asked, making my way back to the seat across from Avery. Avery was perched on the edge of his seat, his face white as the freshly fallen Ohio snow. He lifted his eyes to mine. His shoulders were stiff.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, sitting across from him. He ran his hand over his unshaven face and looked to me. “What’s wrong, Avery?” I pushed again.

  “Something’s happened,” Avery swallowed roughly. I held my breath, waiting for him to tell me what was going on.

  “Aria, that was Nate,” he said with his phone still in his hands.

  “What now? What makes you think I care about anything that psychopath has to say. Fuck him,” I maintained. Avery placed his hand over my knee to still me.

  “He’s gone,” he mumbled.

  “Who, Nate?” What are you talking about? He’s not going to go away quietly.”

  “No,” he said, fighting to catch his breath. His eyes met mine. “You misunderstand,” he said empathetically. My forehead wrinkled as I searched his eyes for his meaning. Sadness and regret washed over his face.

  “It’s so much worse. After you…after we left, Dorian was very distraught. He relapsed. He was found dead an hour ago. Nate said they think he overdosed from heroin. Canaan found him with a needle still in his arm. Nate said he wanted you to know before he broke the story.”

  “What?” my breath caught in my throat.

  “Dorian has battled drug addiction in the past. I thought he was able to put that chapter of his life behind him,” he said.

  “No. No. No. You’re lying to me. Nate would say anything to hurt me. He’s sick and he’s obsessed with me. You can’t trust anything that asshole says.”

  “I’m so sorry, Aria. But I confirmed it when you were sti
ll in the bathroom. I was just texting with Dorian’s attorney who was representing him on the contract.” My face saddened.

  “Dorian was a good man. He…” I swayed as I stood up. Avery reached out to comfort me and I drew away.

  “Don’t touch me.” The shield around my heart slammed back in place. I fell to my knees in the middle of Avery’s suite. Avery’s jaw clenched as he stepped toward me to try and comfort me again. “I said, don’t touch me,” I shouted. “Nate’s friend Preston was the one supplying him. This is Nate’s revenge. He did this.”

  “Aria. Dorian had a problem. He just hid it better than others. Look, I’m here for you, Kitten. What can I do?”

  “You’ve done enough,” I growled. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be there with him. I could’ve stopped it. He only shot up because you stole me away from him.”

  I gritted my teeth, trying to stop the flood of tears from my eyes.

  “He was a drug addict,” he said simply. I shook my head, not believing him. Finally, I looked up from the floor and wiped several tears out of my eyes to clear my vision.

  “I have something I need to tell you. We got married up in Whistler last week. You have to take me back because I am his wife.” Avery’s eye’s strained in pure shock. He didn’t say anything but he looked down to my left hand for conformation of a wedding ring.

  “Dorian asked me not to wear my ring until he had a chance to announce it through his publicist. We were going to have a public ceremony in the spring. He said the one up in Whistler was just for us,” I said. Tears rolled down my cheeks.

  His eyes fell to horror. At that moment, I didn’t care what Avery felt. I had just found out that my husband had died. The biggest star in the world was gone and I would have to suffer in silence because we never told anyone except a few people. Then the stress of it all crawled up into my throat. I rose to my feet as turbulence shook the plane. I stumbled my way to the bathroom, slammed the door, and expelled everything I drank earlier.

  I wiped my mouth and suddenly felt disgusting. I plunged to my knees as tears and despair erupted from deep inside me. I would never see him again. I would never see his smile, smell his cologne, and feel his touch or his kiss…ever again.

  The cabin door opened slowly and warm arms lifted me, then a heavy robe was wrapped around me.

  “This is all your fault. I whispered angrily against Avery’s chest. I couldn’t contain the floodgates of anguish erupting from me.

  “I know,” Avery said softly.

  “I will never forgive you for this,” I sobbed.

  “Me neither, after everything we’ve been through he was still my friend. He wasn’t a very good one, but I still considered him one.” Avery replied. He moved me over to his bed as exhaustion overtook my body.

  My eyelids grew heavy as I cried. I lost my breath. I was panicking. What was I going to do now?

  The pilot announced our decent into the Pittsburgh airport. Avery left me for a moment as he stepped out of his suite. I could hear Avery talking through the door, letting everyone know the news.

  I reached for my phone but I didn’t have it. It was still on the floor of Dorian’s bedroom. He might have been trying to reach out to me. Maybe I could have stopped his relapse. Maybe I could have told him that it was going to be all right. If only I could have spoken with him. I could have saved him. I know I could have.

  With more determination than I should have had in that moment, I stood, got dressed, pulled back my hair, and then pulled on the hooded sweatshirt that Avery had laid out for me. I hid my face from everyone as I stepped out into the main cabin and took my own seat and waited for the plane to land. I could feel the sad stares on me, but I ignored the worried looks from everyone. The plane landed and the pilot taxied into Avery’s private hangar.

  When the doors opened, I waited for everyone to leave. Avery stood at the end of the aisle waiting for me. I lifted my carryon that Avery graciously placed in front of my seat and stood tall. I didn’t meet anyone’s eyes. I pushed passed Avery and the last few remaining stragglers and made it to the exit. I quickly descended the stairs and found Ethan at the bottom waiting for me.

  “Avery called me earlier and asked me to come pick you up and drive you home,” he said sadly. Ethan looked to Avery coming up behind me. He took hold of my arm and turned me toward him.

  “Aria, please. Can I have a moment?” Avery asked. I never looked at him. I cringed.

  “Please just let me go. I can’t do this anymore. Too much has happened. Besides, you’re right. I’m not the same person anymore. I’ve changed.”

  “I told you that I made a mistake. Let’s talk about this,” Avery urged.

  I turned and faced him. My eyes darted to his. “Now you want to talk. Okay, I’ll go first. I think it’s best if we both go our separate ways. We’ve hurt each other too much and because of you, I lost my husband. I can’t let that go. Whatever this was, I can’t do it anymore. I married Dorian and now he’s gone. My one chance at happiness is gone, too. Nothing between us will ever be the same.”

  “You’re upset. You’re not thinking clearly,” Avery argued. I laughed like a mad woman.

  “For once in my life, everything is perfectly clear.” Avery folded his arms in defensive frustration.

  “So, this is how our story ends?” he asked.

  “Someone once told me that there’s nothing more real than a love story with a sad ending,” I said matter-of-factly. “And right now, I am very sad. Goodbye, Avery.”

  “Goodbye, Kitten,” Avery whispered.

  “I’m not a kitten anymore,” I said as I turned away and crossed the tarmac as Ethan followed.

  “Thanks for coming to get me, Ethan. Now, please get me out of here,” I said with as much haste as I could muster in my exhausted state.

  “Anything you need, Aria,” Ethan replied. I knew that I could always count on Ethan.

  I glanced back at Avery one last time, then turned to Ethan, and quickly got in the passenger seat of his waiting car. I wiped my tears away with my sleeve. I didn’t like being alone with my thoughts anymore. It was torture.

  “Ethan,” I said as we pulled away.

  “Yes,” he answered.

  “Do you need a roommate in New York?” Ethan smiled widely.

  “Well, I’m meeting the realtor tomorrow to get the keys to my new place.”

  “Perfect.”

  “You okay?” Ethan asked, taking hold of my left hand.

  “I will be. I guess you need to know how bad shit can be before you can appreciate how good it can get.” My lips trembled.

  “You have a lot to tell me,” he stated, trying hard not to press me.

  “Yea. I do.” My gaze fell to the darkness outside my window as Ethan pulled out onto the highway. He clicked on the car stereo and the news flashed about Dorian Macallan. The world’s biggest star was found dead of mysterious causes. Nate got his news story.

  “Please turn that off,” I said. Tears fell from my eyes as my heart shook with the reality of what happened tonight. Dorian was gone.

  I didn’t have all the answers to what happened tonight but his death gave me the strength to finally do what I needed. From now on, I would live my life the way that I wanted. This was just the beginning of my story.

  The End

  Turn the page for a special preview of

  Book III in Wendy Lea Thomas’s

  The Camp Jameson Series

  CAMP EMBERS

  Please note:

  The following is not final and

  may differ from the published book…

  CAMP EMBERS

  CHAPTER 1

  March

  I tried to keep my hands from shaking. I took in a deep breath as I finished reading my favorite section of my first novel to the large Las Vegas casino ballroom. The scene where Austin and Haley had hot steamy sex at the Masquerade Ball. Sales had been good. In fact, they were great. The publisher called me a few days ago and gave me the news t
hat I had a best seller on my hands. It had been three years since I left Avery’s life, but reading our intimate moments aloud to everyone made it feel like it was just yesterday. The wounds were still fresh.

  After Dorian died of an overdose, I ran. I pushed everyone away. I hadn’t even spoken to my best friends, Sara and Colt. I moved away with Ethan that weekend to New York. Those two lovable idiots, Ethan and Wren, had been my only support system since I left. Wren still taught at Jameson but kept the gossip line open as to what was happening in everyone’s lives. But I even kept Ethan at a distance, until we started dating, after almost eight months living as roommates. I had just finished the rough draft of my debut novel Camp Jameson and we went out for drinks. That was the first night I had drank since Dorian’s death and we just seemed to click. I just didn’t have anything to celebrate. But writing this book was therapeutic. I got a lot off my chest. The publisher couldn’t believe it was real…well most of it anyway. I changed the names to protect the guilty.

  “Aria Mason, everybody,” my agent, Dana Winters said through the microphone as she broke me from my daydream. I blinked and brought myself back to the present as the applause filled the room. They were loud and boisterous.

  “Thank you,” I said smiling widely and waving to the large crowd. Dana ushered me off the stage and to a nearby table where I would spend the next few hours meeting and signing autographs for my readers. The crowds were getting bigger and bigger as the book caught on. But it wasn’t just the book; social media couldn’t get enough of the girl who married Dorian Macallan. Murder conspiracies were all over the interwebs. I had paparazzi following me everywhere. I had to stay inside for months just to get any peace and ended up writing the book just to keep from going insane.

  I chatted with each reader, signed their copies, and took selfies with them. I loved meeting them and hearing their stories. They came from all over the country to meet me and I loved them for it.