Tangled in Moonlight のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 201 - チャプター 210

"Did you bring my stuff?" Matt suddenly asked, as if just remembering. "Yeah. Clayton? Where did you put the backpack?" she queried, surveying the room in an attempt to find it. Clayton bent over and picked it up, placing it on the bed beside Matt. "Did you by any chance bring my charger?" he asked hopefully. "Of course!" Camden assured him, reaching over for the pack and fishing out the charger. Matt smiled gratefully. "Thank you. My phone died just after I messaged you this morning," he revealed with an exasperated smile. "Where is it? I'll plug it in for you," Camden offered, heading over to the other side of the bed where the plug point was. She retrieved his phone from the drawer and plugged it in, allowing it to charge while they waited for Matt's discharge.The trio made idle chit-chat and Camden tried to guess what her surprise was, but Clayton assured her that he wouldn't tell her, even if she guessed right. Eventually, at around 1pm, Matt was finally discharged and he was de

Camden's face broke into an enormous smile and she raced over to the fence where the lone cow stood. Its shaggy orange-brown coat was gently tousled in the cool breeze as it chewed aimlessly, seemingly oblivious to Camden's presence. It was right on the fence line and Camden could have reached out to touch it with no trouble. Without much thought, that's exactly what she did. With reckless abandon, she ran her fingers through the long, soft fur on the beast's flank. She giggled with absolute joy. Making her way up, she drew her fingers over the fuzzy creature, eventually ending up with her hand trailing through the hair covering it's eyes, which she gently parted, allowing it to see her as she stroked its moist nose lovingly. Clayton and Matt had approached behind her and were both beaming, watching her with awe as she petted the enormous, horned beast. She was standing on the bottom beam of the wooden fence, trying to gain better access to

"Clayton, whose driving?" Camden suddenly asked, realising that Clayton was drinking. "Me?" he replied with a shrug. "You're drinking..." she added, uncertain as to how he wasn't putting two and two together here. "I've barely had two beers. It's going to take a lot more than that to get me to a point where I won't be able to drive," he announced with a chuckle. "I can drive if you want to drink tonight?" she offered. "Can you drive a stick shift?" he asked curiously, feeling that he likely already knew the answer. "Yeah," she replied, sounding a little offended. He looked taken aback by the revelation. "What?" she asked, wondering what was so surprising about this fact. "I can ride a bike too," she added with a smirk, hoping that would really knock the wind out of his sails. Not only did it do just that, but Matt started choking and sputtering on his beer. "What?!" he managed to gasp between coughs. "Jesus Christ... Do you guys think I'm like some kind of pathetic princess who is i

Camden excused herself, heading for the toilets to try and escape the awkwardness and embarrassment she was feeling. Once in the bathroom, she tried to reason it out. Matt was a joker, she knew that. He'd conveyed it as a joke, and Clayton had even piggybacked it with a joke of his own. It was a joke. It had to be, right? But for some reason, she was still struggling to take it as that. She reminded herself that he had also been drinking. So, obviously she shouldn't take everything he said so seriously. She just needed to push this to the back of her mind now, and try to enjoy the evening. It could be her last, after all. With a refocused mindset, she headed back out, determined to brush it off and enjoy the rest of their time at the pub. Matt and Clayton were laughing about something when she returned to her seat and she noted a fresh cocktail settled in front of her. "What the hell is this thing?" she asked, eyeballing the purple and green liquid swirling insi

Matt loosened his grip on her and whispered into her ear, "If I don't let you go now I'm going to get you in trouble." Camden sighed and reluctantly released her grip on his shirt, allowing her hands to drop slowly until they were resting loosely at her sides, but her forehead still lingered against his chest. "I never meant for this to happen. I never wanted to hurt you. I never meant to let you get too close. I knew it would just end up hurting more, and I was right," she said in a hushed voice, her words slightly muffled as she spoke into his chest. "I know. I don't blame you," he murmured as he lovingly brushed his fingers through her hair. "I wish it didn't have to be so hard," she added, finally looking up at him now as she wiped a glistening tear from her eye before it could fall. "Me too. But it is. And I guess there isn't much we can do about it," Matt finished with a resigned shrug. The unspoken tension enveloped them, a silent acknowledgment of what could never be.