Page 51 of Off Balance

"Your contact get back to you?"

Dwayne startles, looking up from his phone. His gaze tracks over my disheveled form. I'm wearing compression shorts, no shirt, I'm barefoot, and I'm still holding my toothbrush. My black eye from the fight is still discolored, but the swelling has gone down. I don't care what I look like right now, though. I want to know if his contact was able to get us the security footage of whatever happened to Cam the night he was drugged.

"Yeah, actually. I got an email this morning. I thought you'd want to watch it with me."

I nod and drag a chair around his desk to sit next to him. He opens the email and gestures for me to take a look.

D,

Here's the footage you were looking for. Video only, no audio. I had it cut down to the parts with your stepson.

Let me know what you want to do with it. I didn't exactly get the sign-off from the owner, so if you want to use it asevidence or report anything, let me know first so it can be official.

FB

That can't be good. I nod to Dwayne to open the video file, holding my breath as it loads.

The footage starts at the front entrance of the club, where Alistar's town car pulls up to the valet. The asshole gets out of the car, still tucking his junk back into his pants, and makes a show out of zipping his pants and straightening his clothes. The knowing grin he's giving the people waiting for him to arrive fills me with rage so hot, I start to sweat. He bends to look in the car, as if he's coaxing out a stubborn child. Finally, Cam emerges, and he looks like he's been crying. My jaw clenches. His eyes are wet and his lips are puffy, which, given how Alistar was just acting, I can guess what from. He also looks upset, like that fucker said or did something to him that he didn’t like.

Cam follows Alistar inside the building, and then the footage switches to them in an elevator. Cam is standing towards the back, arms crossed in front of him. Alistar places a hand on the elevator wall and leans over Cam, coaxing his arms apart with his free hand. Both hands come down on Cam's shoulders, Alistar saying something to him while fixing his shirt, unbuttoning the top few buttons and arranging the lapel to his liking. He taps Cam's chin before turning to face the elevator door as it opens.

The next feed is on the bar's rooftop terrace. Most, if not all, of the dancers from De Pointe Elite are there. My body relaxes a little that I'm no longer being subjected to watching Cam and Alistar alone, until I remember that something happened to him while he was around all those people. I watch the smallcrowd clap as Alistar steps off the elevator, Cam following a step behind. His face is a blank mask of polite indifference, letting Alistar lead him through the crowd to greet the partygoers. Other than his main dance partner, Marissa, no one bothers to greet or congratulate Cam, which annoys me because he was the star of the show. I may be biased, but he also got the loudest applause and a standing ovation after the performances. The audience loves him. But everyone here is focused on Alistar.

There's about an hour of footage of Cam standing silently beside Alistar that we fast forward through. Other than Marissa kissing him on the cheek before she leaves, he doesn't draw attention to himself or attempt to join in any conversations. At some point, he walks towards the bar. He leans forward to say something to the bartender, but a girl taps his arm and then pulls him into the small group that's standing just beside the bar. Cam looks surprised and uncomfortable, but he relaxes as the conversation goes on around him. He doesn't speak, but laughs when the others do. And when a guy starts handing out drinks, he accepts one. I want to reach through the screen and snatch it away from him when he takes a small sip after they do a toast.

The footage flips back and forth through multiple views of the drinks being handed out. We see a clip of one of the male dancers presumably ordering the drinks, and even behind the bar footage of the bartender making the cocktails. There's nothing obvious that would suggest any of the drinks are drugged, other than Cam being the last to receive his. The same male dancer that ordered the drinks passes him a glass, smiling as he holds up his own to start the toast.

After the toast, Cam mostly just holds the drink, probably to look sociable. He nibbles at the orange slice and cherries that garnish the glass and takes small sips now and then.

The change in his demeanor comes minutes later. The small crowd of people all seem to be giving him their undivided attention. Cam is blushing, but then lifts his hand and snaps, and everyone laughs, including Cam, though it doesn’t look sincere. His fake smile drops when a petite woman next to him says something. They go back and forth for a minute, and I desperately wish we could get audio of the conversation, because I want to know what they're talking about that has him getting so riled up. Finally, he tips the drink back and takes a gulp, then grimaces and decides better of it and places it on a table.

He stumbles a little as he walks away, looking upset. He's got one hand on his flat stomach, pushing himself up on his toes to look around, presumably looking for Alistar. He shakes his head like he's clearing it, then walks to the door. The camera angle changes again, this time showing us a view of the inside of the club. In the background, the door opens, and Cam immediately heads down a hallway to his left. He disappears, but the footage doesn't change right away, making me nervous that we won’t see everything. Five or so people come through the door before the camera view changes to show Cam walking down a dark hallway. He looks especially out of it with the night vision effect of the camera. He's swaying back and forth, looking down at his phone.

Two of the men that entered the club after him close in on him but stay far enough back that he doesn't notice them right away. One of them touches his back, and he face plants into the wall. He reels, trying to look around to see who pushed him, but he ends up steading himself on the wall to get his bearings. He holds his phone up again, and I suppose that's when he was calling me. Before he can even bring the phone to his ear, the assholes are back. The larger of the guys pushes him hard, and he crashes into a dark corner where the camera can't see. What we can see is two of what I’m sure are his coworkers throwingtheir drinks at him and spitting on him before they look behind them. The footage changes again to a view from the other hallway. It's not close up enough to see Cam's features, but he's crumpled on the ground. The people standing around him walk away, and then a second later Alistar is standing over him. Cam tries to sit up, but then his body lurches, and he vomits all over himself before slumping back onto the wall. Alistar takes several steps back when Cam gets sick, avoiding the spray with a wild gesture of disgust. When Cam is no longer moving, Alistar steps close again and nudges him with his foot. Then he looks down at the small, glowing rectangle that must be Cam's phone, and picks it up. He taps it once, then goes back to staring down at Cam before tapping on the phone some more and then throwing it in Cam's lap.

I shake my head, watching Alistar step back and take several photos of Cam before leaving him there, in a pool of vomit and whatever drinks were thrown on him. The footage follows Alistar back to the rooftop bar, where he rejoins the party like nothing happened. Then the camera view returns to where Cam is passed out in the hallway. An employee finds him there and gestures to another bouncer. They try to get Cam to stand, but he tips to the side. They end up carrying Cam by his arms and feet onto the elevator, out the side of the building to avoid the line of people waiting to get in, and then dump him out front where I eventually found him. Meanwhile, Alistar and the assholes that did this to him were still upstairs partying and having a good time.

Kicking back the chair I was sitting in, I start pacing Dwayne's office. "Tell your guy to do what he needs to make this official. It needs to be reported."

Dwayne leans back in his desk chair. "I don't know if there's enough here to prove anything other than Alistar and every other person we saw on that video is a monumental asshole. We didn't see the drink being drugged. Nothing we saw there would be more than a slap on the wrist. All it proves is that Cam has shitty friends and a shittier boyfriend. But I do think maybe he should see it."

"Cam knew Alistar left him there to rot, and he still stayed with him."

"Seeing it and being told are two very different animals," Dwayne says.

He's right. Whatever excuses Alistar came up with won't stand once Cam can see for himself how callously Alistar treated him before leaving him like that, with zero regard for his health or safety.

There's a gallery area where parents can sit and watch their kids take classes at the community center where Cam works. I knew I'd catch him here. Cora told me that today is the orientation for his spring and summer ballet class when she dropped in to have lunch with Dwayne.

Most of the parents are in the small studio with their kids, going over what they'll need and learning the basic positions to practice at home. There are three other men in the gallery with me. I'm assuming they're dads that didn't want to participate. Before coming back home, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. It'd seem normal and maybe even reasonable to me. Now I have the urge to roll my eyes at their fragile masculinity. I keepit to myself, but I don't do as well holding my tongue when they start talking shit.

"Did you see that little boy in there?"

"Yeah, man. You wouldn't catch my son in a class like this."

"Shit, I can't believe they're letting a guy teach this shit. I wouldn't let a guy like that around my son."

One of them snickers. "We sure he's a guy? He's awful perdy."

---