Chapter 60 - Reaching Out

Sitting at a part of a table in a dining room, Cameron Dots looks down at his plate of pasta and starts to eat. The room has yellow walls and wooden flooring with several delicate tableware being displayed on nearby cabinets. Also at the table eating dinner are his parents; Jason Dots & Melissa Dots.

"So honey, how was school?" Misses Dots asks.

"Oh it was fine," Cameron replies, "I've been getting good grades on my recent tests."

"Really? That's great," Mister Dots says as he eats some more food, "a boy like you should be focused on getting good grades and making friends. How's that club you said you joined?"

"Oh it's been nice,' Cameron says, "The group gets up to a ton of wild things but it's fun."

As Cameron says that he begins to reflect on more of his time as a member of The Miracle Clinic. As he does so he realizes that when he first joined he thought that he'd be able to be more confident in himself. But he hasn't been feeling any different. The only thing that has happened is that it feels like he hasn't even done anything substantial in the group. 

Whenever they do something whether it's traveling to the east side, hunting ghosts, helping Mesto, or many other things he either isn't there or is just in the background. Just an afterthought to them. Sure there have been times where he excluded himself on purpose, but it still doesn't feel good for him to listen to them talk about past experiences and realize his involvement wasn't of huge importance.

As Cameron finishes his dinner, he looks over to see his father getting a call from work, Mister Dots sighs as he hangs up.

"Everything good?" Misses Dots asks.

"Yeah it's just they want me to come in on my day off to show around the new workers," Mister Dots says, "but I already planned a fishing trip with Cameron-"

"It's okay Dad," Cameron says as he puts on a fake smile, "I'm fine with you going to work."

"Are you sure?" Mister Dots asks his son. Cameron nods so Mister Dots replies with, "Thanks son, I'll make sure to spend some more time with you soon."

As his father leaves the room, Cameron reflects and wonders when the last time he truly spent time with his family for anything special outside of vacations and holidays. They have dinner together but besides that, his father is usually working even while at home and his mother tends to talk with the other housewives in the neighborhood most of the day.

As the day continues on, Cameron decides to catch some fresh air. As he does so he begins to walk down the street. As he's walking, he accidentally bumps into someone.

"Oh s-sorry," Cameron begins to say as he looks at the person, "Are you okay-"

It's there that Cameron actually looks at the person he walked into. The person has white porcelain skin, messy black hair with two black piercings above his right eyebrow, and green eyes. The man is wearing a black tank top with an unzipped white hoodie that's too big for him over it, gray sweatpants, and black slip-on sandals. As the two look at each other, Cameron gets the feeling that he's seen this person before.

"Cameron? Is that you?" The man asks.

That's when Cameron finally recognizes the guy, "Cal Hound?!"

Cal Hound gives Cameron a hug as he says, "Man it's been forever since I saw you! How have you been?"

"G-good," Cameron asks.

"Hey if you don't got anything going on, wanna catch up?" Cal Hound suggests.

Cameron thinks about it for a second and nods.

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Back when he was in elementary school, Cameron tended to hang around people in the older grades rather than those his same age. While most of them didn't care about Cameron or ignored him, there was one person who always made sure to include him in whatever it was they were doing. And that was Cal Hound. As Cameron & Cal sit down for coffee, Cameron notices just how muscular Cal is.

Cal, noticing Cameron's staring eyes, chuckles as he says, "I bet I can still carry you around now huh?"

Cameron gets nervous as he says, "Uh- y-yeah I guess."

Cal laughs before he says, "So what's new with you?"

"Nothing much, just the same old stuff as always. Go to school, after school go to a club, and then head home," Cameron says.

"Wow, that sounds pretty boring huh," Cal suggests.

"Y-yeah, I don't really have much else going on, I kinda wish I did though," Cameron admits.

As Cameron says those words an idea pops up in Cal's mind, an idea that puts a smile on his face.

"Well, how about we hang out some more, aye?" Cal suggests, "It'll be like old times!"

Cameron is taken aback as he asks, "Really? You sure you still want to hang out with me?"

"Positive, I know all the best places to hang out, so it'll be really fun. What do you say?" Cal asks as he reaches his hand out toward Cameron.

Cameron looks at Cal's hand and the smile on his face and he realizes that maybe by being friends with Cal again, he'd be able to get more confidence back. The two only stopped being friends because Cal left the elementary school to go to middle school. So it would be just like old times. After some hesitation, Cameron shakes Cal's hand.

"Yeah, let's do it," Cal says as he stands up.

Cal begins to walk away while Cameron sits there confused, "Hey wait aren't you going to pay for the coffee?"

"I did when I ordered and for yours as well," Cal admits.

Cameron catches up to Cal as they begin to leave the store he then asks, "How much do I owe you for the coffee?"

"Nothing buddy! It was only a dollar," Cal says.

Cameron looks confused as he looks over to the prices on the board to see that a cup of coffee here is $10, yet Cal only paid for $1.

"Oh that, well you see," Cal says before he takes out his ID.

The ID looks just like a regular one only for the fact that there's a light blue marking next to the date of birth.

Cal begins to explain, "I managed to get this and it essentially acts as a discount for a ton of stores. Pretty cool, right?"

"Y-yeah, but how is that even possible?" Cameron asks.

Cal's a bit silent before he says, "I guess that they want to be generous."

As the two leave, Cal glances over to the name of the cafe. The name of it is 'The Crescent Cafe' but below that in a much smaller font are the words 'Subsidiary of Club Azure'.

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As the days passed by, Cal & Cameron hung out more and more. Whether it was at an arcade, a movie theater, or a corner store. The two would have fun together, but Cal would always be the one to pay, and he'd use his ID to get a big discount on whatever it was the place sold to them.

Eventually, one day though Cal suggests something to Cameron.

"Hey buddy, if you want I'd like you to meet up with all my other friends, is that okay?" Cal asks.

"Yeah sure, where though?" Cameron asks.

"It was at this nightclub I think you'd really like," Cal Hound begins to say before sighing and adding, "But the only real problem is…you can only get in if you're over 21."

"Really?" Cameron asks.

"Yeah… but," Cal Hound begins to say, "You remember the ID I have, I can get one for you that'll say you're old enough to go and we can hang out. It's only 200 bucks."

Cameron stops at that word. 200 dollars? He only gets 25 dollars a week for his allowance. If he buys the ID he'd barely have any money in his wallet for anything else. But then again, the fake ID Cal has allows him to get stuff extremely cheap all over the place. So if he uses it then he wouldn't even have to worry about losing 200 dollars.

"Al…Alright," Cameron says as he hands Cal Hound 200 dollars, "When are we hanging out with them?"

"Tomorrow night," Cal Hound says as he checks all of the money, "I'll text you the location!"

As Cal leaves, Cameron begins to feel excitement for what's to come.

__________________________

The next day at school, the bell rings and Cameron begins to walk down the halls. As he does so, he notices a text from Cal Hound that shows his fake ID. As Cameron looks at it, he sees that besides the light blue mark, the fake ID looks just like the real one he has.

As Cameron begins to make his way to the doors to Starlight High's entrance, he feels a hand tap his shoulder. When he turns around he sees Elizabeth standing there holding a bag of tortilla chips.

"Oh hey, where are you going? "We got a club meeting today," Elizabeth says, "And it's gonna be a potluck."

As Cameron looks at Elizabeth he wonders if he should go. He'd probably just be in the background as per usual, an afterthought to everyone there. Whereas with Cal, he's given all the attention. He's a core part. Cameron realizes what he wants to choose.

"Nah, I'm good," Cameron says with a smile on his face before he continues to walk out of the school.

Elizabeth looks befuddled by Cameron's response. As she sees him walk away, Elizabeth recalls something Cameron once told her during lunch. He wanted to grow a backbone and say no to things, so as Elizabeth walks to the club she figures that this was his way of doing that.

When she would look back on this moment, Elizabeth would wonder that if she just stopped Cameron maybe all of what was soon to come could have been avoided.

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That night at around 11 PM, Cameron and Cal are in line as they make their way towards the front doors of a nightclub. The neon lights outside read 'Club Azure'. As they reach the bouncer, the big burly man looks at Cal & Cameron's fake IDs for a second before letting them through. 

As the two begin to walk into the nightclub and down the black stairs illuminated by pink fluorescent lights, Cameron gets a bit uneasy.

However, that uneasiness washes away as they fully enter the nightclub. There are numerous people in the nightclub all enjoying themselves. People are on the dancefloor dancing, some are chatting over by the bar, and there are some exclusive 'VIP' rooms that Cal is walking towards. Cal opens the glass door to 'VIP Room #01' which has a brown-stained wooden roundtable in the center with a spherical red leather couch next to it. In the room, there are several drinks as well as two other people there. 

One of them is a Chinese man with black hair in the style of a braided mohawk, a rose tattoo on the right side of his forehead, brown eyes, and black nails. He's wearing a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, chalk-striped blue pants, and brown loafers. The other is a Hispanic woman wearing a black beanie, a light brown-green flannel jacket over a black t-shirt with the words 'Club Azure' on it, jorts, and black boots.

"Hey everyone, this is my buddy Cameron, let's all show him a good time, okay!" Cal says.

As Cameron sits down, the Chinese man nods as he says, "Hey my name's Li-Wei Zhang nice to meet you."

"I'm Marcy Murphy," The Hispanic woman says as she scoots closer to Cameron so Cal Hound can sit down next to them.

"Nice to meet you two too," Cameron says shyly.

However as the night goes on, Cameron begins to feel more and more comfortable around these people. Because all three of them are there to chat with him. They want to be there with him. As the night goes on, Cal Hound steps outside only to return with a glass filled with alcohol.

"Hey, I got you this man," Cal Hound says as he hands the glass to Cameron, "Drink it."

Cameron is a bit nervous but Li-Wei says, "20 bucks says that you won't drink it."

"Oh now you gotta drink it," Marcy teases Cameron, "We gotta get that money from him!"

After some more teasing, Cameron grabs the glass of alcohol and drinks it all in one huge sip with Cal & Marcy cheering as he does so.

Cameron wipes some of the alcohol off of his lips on his sleeve as he says, "Guess I got that twenty dollars!"

Li-Wei sighs as he pulls out his wallet and takes out 20 dollars, he then says, "Fine, here you go man."

As Cameron gets the twenty dollars in his hand he smiles to himself as making bets, enjoying each other's company, and challenging people… it is exactly what he's been looking for. 

"Say you guys want some more drinks?" Li-Wei asks as he stands up.

"You bet!" Cameron says.

"Only if you're paying!" Marcy Murphy says.

"Alright alright," Li-Wei says as he begins to exit the room. Though as he does so, a sinister grin grows on Li-Wei, Cal, & Marcy's faces. Cameron is oblivious to it though as he sits there.

Li-Wei Zhang makes his way to the bar where he sits down. The bartender walks over and pours him some glasses. The bartender has light brown skin, curly dark brown hair, gold eyes, a chiseled jawline, and tattoos from the neck down. He's wearing a white button-up with the sleeves rolled up underneath a black suit vest, a black & gray tie, black suit pants, and brown loafers.

The bartender, Logan Stewart, begins making a cocktail as he asks, "So how's the new kid?"

"Cameron?" Li-Wei says as he chuckles to himself before saying, "He's a great fucking tool."

"Is that so," Logan Stewart says as he finishes the four cocktails, "I guess Cal has a good eye when it comes to finding them."

"Yeah though he does oversell our fake IDs. But still, he's also good at slipping in the substances," Li-Wei says as he takes out a small zip-lock bag with some white powder and puts it into one of the cocktails.

"Do you even know what's in there?" Logan asks.

"A bit of molly but a ton of other shit," Li-Wei says as he begins to walk towards the VIP room, "And it's just what we need to make him our next big buyer."

As he walks back into the VIP Room, Li-Wei goes back to being a friendly person as he hands Cameron the special cocktail. 

Cameron stares at the drink while everyone else in the room chants for him to drink it.

So Cameron puts the glass to his lips and begins to chug.

See You Next Chapter!~