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I couldn’t forgive him.
By the time Monday morning rolled around, I was exhausted. I’d barely slept last night. My conversation with Mom, and the one I’d overheard between Jason and Kent, replayed over and over, until my dreams became a skewed reality; lies and truths becoming a tangled web of uncertainty. Jason hadn’t returned home and I assumed he’d stayed over at Asher’s, or his latest hook up’s. I’d overheard Kent reassuring Mom things would blow over, as if the truth was just something we could all brush under the rug and ignore. But whatever they needed to tell themselves for an easy life.
“Good morn—you look like crap.” Flick’s brows knitted together. “What happened?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got precisely,”—she checked the clock on the dash—“eleven minutes, hit me.”
So I told her what happened, from the moment Cameron showed up at her house yesterday, right up to when I’d heard Jason and Kent arguing last night.
“Okay, let me get this straight,” she said, pulling into the school parking lot. “You had hot delicious sex with Cameron; found out your mom and Kent had an affair behind Mrs. Ford’s back, effectively ending their marriage, and Jason knew all this time?”
“Don’t forget the bit about Cameron being a jerk to me all these years because my step-brother made him choose between us.” My lips flattened into a tight line.
“I don’t even know where to start. Let’s start with the sex.” Her eyes twinkled with possibilities. “Yes, let’s definitely start there, although you owe me so much for the fact you had sex in my bed. I mean, really? I had to sleep in there.” Her nose wrinkled.
“Flick, focus.” I groaned, burying my face into my hands, partly from embarrassment and partly from frustration that we were even talking about this. “Did you hear anything I just said? Cameron basically treated me like crap all these years because—”
“He was protecting you, obviously,” she said the words without hesitation, her eyes rolling the way they did whenever she thought I was being dumb, as I peeked over at her.
“Protecting me, right.”
“Come on, Hails.” She leaned over, tugging my hands away from my face. “You can’t deny it has a certain romantic poetry.”
“Romantic poetry,” I muttered under my breath, shouldering the door and climbing out of her car. “Well romantic or not, I’m not sure how I feel about it all.”
“So, you’re not going to have a Romeo and Juliet style reunion in the cafeteria?” Her brows waggled and I pursed my lips.
“You do know they both ended up dead?” My brow shot up and she smothered a laugh. “That won’t be happening, Flick. Besides, you seem to have forgotten one very minor detail, I have to survive that first.” I pointed at the gathered crowd, all staring in my direction.
“Shit,” she whistled between her teeth. “Maybe we should cut class today. I’m not sure—”
“Nope.” I hitched my bag up my shoulder and started forward, ignoring the chorus of insults.
Slut.
Whore.
Eagles skank.
I bit the inside of my cheek, forcing down the tears building. “I will not let Lewis Thatcher, or anyone else for that matter, run me out of school,” I said with wavering conviction.
So they had all seen the video of me passed out and naked? Shame on them for watching it in the first place. I had bigger things to worry about now. Like my homewrecking mother and my conflicting thoughts for a step-brother I’d spent the best part of six years hating.
Not to mention the guy who consumed my every waking thought but gave me whiplash at every turn.
Flick plastered herself to my side, slipping her arm through mine. “You’re either very brave, Hails,” she whispered, her hard gaze sending warning signs to a few girls nearby who were blatantly pointing and snickering. “Or very stupid.”
“Yeah,” I breathed out, feeling my classmates judgy stares brush up against me as we filed into school. “I’ll let you know which when I figure it out.”
What I really wanted was to turn and run, to get far far away from them. But I would not cower. Not today. Not over the video or my classmates. I was better than that.
Better than them.
And it’d take more than this to break me.
Cameron
