Chapter Twenty-One

Jeff strolled into the drama room on Friday feeling nervous and giddy and incredibly grateful for his small victory.

“Mr. Martin!” Jackson shouted from across the room.

The moment he yelled Jeff’s name, all the other kids locked eyes on him. They wore a mixture of surprise and excitement on their faces. They’d been told over the morning announcements to gather in the drama room after school today, but they clearly had not been informed of the reason. A lot of them had probably assumed the worst, which saddened him.

Within seconds Jeff was overtaken by a mob of theater kids, all of whom wanted hugs, answers to their questions, or both.

“Are you back for good now?”

“Is the play back on?”

“How does it feel to be famous?”

“Are you still dating Cam’s dad?”

Jeff held up his arms in a half-hearted attempt to restore order. In actuality, he was just as excited as they were. His sister had been right, as usual. The buzz created by his TV appearance had put enough pressure on the school board that they’d decided to let him resume his directing duties as long as he was only on campus after school hours and all of the students were comfortable working with him. He told them as much.

The fact that he was still on a strict leash seemed to dampen the good mood pretty quickly. He could tell that his students were dissatisfied, but happy to have their teacher back, even if it was just in a directorial role.

“You never answered the other questions,” Danielle pointed out. She’d had her hair redone since the last time he’d seen her and her braids were thinner and farther apart. The look suited her well, but the difference made his heart hurt just a little bit. His time with these kids was already running out as it was, even without the school board’s intervention.

“I’m not famous and who I’m dating isn’t any of your business. Now how are things going? Have you guys been keeping up with rehearsals?”

They began to tell him all about the progress they had made and the things they were still struggling with.

“I mean, I think we all have the basics down, but it’s kind of hard working without one of the leads,” Enrique explained.

Jeff nodded. He had stubbornly kept up hope that maybe Cam would keep coming to rehearsals as long as Jeff wasn’t there, but it seemed that the boy had abandoned the play in the midst of this PR nightmare. Jeff couldn’t say that he blamed him. His disappearance was disappointing, but not particularly surprising.

“That's all right,” Jeff said. “He has a lot on his plate right now. I can see why he might want to head straight home after class.”

The small room suddenly became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

“Cam hasn't been coming to class either,” Danielle admitted. She sounded exhausted and frustrated.

Jeff narrowed his eyes.

“How long has he been gone?”

“The last time anyone saw him was last Friday. I don’t think he’s been coming to school at all since you left.”

Jeff saw red. He had to shut his eyes and count backwards from ten several times in order to get the urge to scream out of his head. He gave the mother of all exhales.

“Okay,” he said finally. “We’ll deal with it. For now, why don’t you show me what you still need help with.”

Jeff got through his first rehearsal back and managed to be his patient and helpful self despite the fact that he was seething inside. As soon as he was done though, he was in his truck, speeding down the road on his way to Cam and Luke’s place.

In that moment, he didn’t care about his job or the fact that he hadn’t spoken to Luke in a week. All that mattered was getting to Cameron and giving him a piece of his mind. Next thing Jeff knew, he was parking in his usual spot, marching up the walkway, and knocking on the door.

Cam opened the door and tried to slam it in Jeff’s face before he’d even gotten it open all the way. Quick as a whip, Jeff reached out and stuck his right foot into the doorway. Thankfully, despite his anger, Cam wasn’t closing the door hard enough to hurt him. Jeff wasn’t sure if that would have gotten him to remove his foot anyway. He was just that worked up.

Cam crossed his arms in contempt.

“Get off of my property. My dad’s not even here.”

“I’m not here to see your father.”

Jeff stared directly at Cameron, radiating disappointment.

Confusion came over Cam’s face, followed by suspicion. He opened the door just a tiny bit wider. 

“Why are you here then?”

Jeff wanted to rip his hair out. He hated this kid for making him care so much about him, and he hated himself for not being able to let it go.

“Do you really not have any idea why else I might be here?” he asked. “You haven’t shown up to school in five days, Cameron! Do you realize how irresponsible that is? Especially at this time of the year. Finals are coming up soon. How do you think all of those colleges we applied to are going to react when they see that you flunked all of your finals?”

Cam rolled his eyes and tried to close the door again.

“No.” Jeff placed his hand up on the door as well. “You’ve made so much progress with your studies and now, what, you’re throwing it all away for something as stupid as this…this drama started by a bunch of idiots and people paid to make a big deal out of other people’s lives? This story will be dead in a month, Cam. Everyone will have forgotten about us when the next shitty reporter finds someone else’s life to broadcast. You, on the other hand, don’t have as much time left for making things up as you used to, and you can’t play catch-up forever.”

Cam let go of the door and stood quietly in the entryway. Jeff released the door as well and took a step inside.

“Do you really want to come back and be a second-year senior and go through this all over again? I don’t even want to consider the possibility that a kid as smart as you is planning on being a high school dropout. Especially not when you’ve come this close and worked as hard as you have. And don’t you get it twisted, Cameron Davis. This isn’t about me or all of the personal time I invested into helping you learn proper studying habits. This is about you, and your own damn stubbornness getting in the way of your future success.”

Jeff was so worked up that he hadn’t even noticed Luke coming up the walkway behind him with a bag of groceries in hand.

“Jefferson?” Luke asked quietly. He looked back and forth between Cam and Jeff in confusion. “What’s going on here?”

Jeff didn’t know how much of the lecture Luke had heard and he didn’t particularly care. He’d already said everything he came here to say. The rest was in Cam’s hands.

Jeff jammed both of his hands in his pockets and stormed out the open door, brushing past Luke without another word.