by Rina Kent
Me: Be right there.
A piece of my pride chipped as soon as I hit send on the last message, but I stood from the table and grabbed my keys anyway. “I’ll be back,” I called to Mom, scurrying from the kitchen before she could stop me.
“You headed out?” Roman asked from the living room, looking up from the Lego Star Wars ship he was putting together with Jordan.
I nodded. “I shouldn’t be gone long.”
He went back to the ship. “Tell Camden I said hi.”
“And me too!” Jordan said, excited at the mere mention of Camden’s name.
I turned and left before they could see the color draining from my face. I hadn’t even stopped to think about how Jordan would be affected if Camden and I ended up not working out. Camden had quickly become his best friend. His idol. He’d be crushed.
That’s not going to happen.
I tried to push those thoughts from my mind during my drive to the football field, but more thoughts surfaced. What would happen next year when I went off to Berklee? What if he didn’t go with me?
I had a chance to live my dream, so why did the prospect of it make me want to vomit? I should’ve been nervous about not getting into Berklee during my interview, but all I could think about was what would happen if I did.
The sinking feeling only got worse as I pulled into the parking lot next to Camden’s Jeep.
What if he was breaking up with me?
No.
Things had been too good. I was too important to him. He’d invited me into every part of his life, and I’d let him into mine. He wouldn’t throw it all away in a week.
Would he?
With shaky hands, I turned my car off and stepped out into the cold air. The stadium lights were on, but they did a poor job of illuminating the parking lot, so I couldn’t see through Camden’s tinted windows. I tried to open his door, but it was locked.
He must’ve been at the stadium… which would explain the lights, I guess. Did he know how to turn them on? Probably. Hunter knew how to get keys to the school, so I’m sure Camden had access to the lights.
I started that way, shoving my hands in my pockets to keep warm.
“Camden?” I called when I got closer. No response came, so I continued on toward the bleachers. Just as I was about to hit the field, Hunter popped around the stands.
“Hey, Eden.”
“Hunter, hey.” I stopped and pulled my hands from my pockets to rub them over my arms. I was wearing a sweater but hadn’t thought to put on a coat. Hunter didn’t say anything more, and I glanced around him expecting Camden to appear at any moment.
“Where’s Camden?”
“He’s in the locker room.” He nodded toward it. “Come on, I’ll walk you there.”
“I-is something wrong?” Dread came over me like a weighted blanket. This was weird. Why would Camden want to meet me here? Why was Hunter here?
Hunter sighed. “Some of the guys found out about Camden sleeping with their girlfriends, and they flipped out over it. He’s fine, but he’s a little beat up, so he’s hanging out here until it blows over… He has some things he needs to tell you.”
“He cheated on me,” I whispered, searching Hunter’s eyes for the answer.
Hunter frowned and looked toward the locker room. A sigh blew over his lips, sending a white cloud through the air.
My breath caught, and I let my arms drop to my sides.
“I’m sorry, Eden.”
“Al—” My voice cracked, and I cleared my throat. “Already?”
“I really think he should be the one to tell—”
“Hunter, please,” I said, tears stinging my eyes. “Just say it.”
He finally looked at me, and his frown deepened. Pity reeked from him, making me feel even smaller… but at least he cared.
He held out his arms and took a step toward me. “Come here.”
My heart burst, but I still hadn’t shed a tear. I leaned into Hunter’s chest, letting him wrap his arms around me. He was warm, like Camden, but it wasn’t the same thing.
Nothing was… and it never would be.
“You don’t deserve this,” Hunter whispered, smoothing a hand over my hair while the other rested on my back.
I closed my eyes and held my hands to his chest, allowing myself to take the comfort. Just for a minute.
“Who was it with?” I asked, pulling back and tucking my hair behind my ears. I took a deep breath and stood up straighter. Whatever happened, I could take it. I chose to take a chance on Camden, and if it was a mistake, I’d live with it.
If it was a mistake?
“Leilani… He really wants to talk to you himself, though. He’s real torn up about it.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” I said, scoffing and taking off toward the locker room.
Poor poor Camden. Had to go a whole weekend without screwing someone.
My hands balled into fists, and heartbreak transformed to anger. I’d feel it again later. I’m not sure I’d ever stop feeling it, but Camden wouldn’t see it. I’d never let him see it again.
Hunter’s footsteps sounded behind me, but I ignored them. I didn’t even care if Hunter heard what was about to go down. He’d already seen me cry. He’d seen me weak.
But never again.
The locker room door swung into the wall as I entered. I’d stormed in with rage, my feet carrying me a few steps before confusion crashed down on me, stopping all muscle movement.
Five of the football guys were standing in the locker room, hands in their pockets and smiles on their faces, but none of them were Camden.
Hunter’s shoes echoed on the tile, but I still hadn’t regained enough control of my muscles to turn around. He brushed my hair off my shoulder and tugged the neckline of my sweater, exposing more skin.
My breath hitched and eyes widened, but still, I couldn’t move. I was frozen.
The other guys, including Trey and a couple others I recognized from the party at Hunter’s house, took a step toward me.
“Relax, Eden,” Hunter whispered in my ear, pressing his lips just below my earlobe. My skin crawled and I bunched my shoulders, frantically looking around for my best option out of there. “I’m helping you. Trust me, there’s no better way to get back at Camden than living out that fantasy he made up for you. Remember how badly he humiliated you?” He leaned away from my ear to look up at the others. “Shit, most of us even believed it.”
Several of them chuckled.
“What are you doing, Hunter?” I asked, as if I didn’t already know. As if I didn’t already know what Hunter was capable of. I’d turned a blind eye to it because he was nice. Because he was Camden’s friend.
How could I be so stupid?
“W-where’s Camden?”
“Your friend told me about what you saw,” Hunter said, running a hand under my shirt and gripping my hip hard enough to make me yelp. My brain searched frantically for an escape strategy, but Hunter was blocking the door. I couldn’t even jump away from him because the others were there, and I wasn’t sure who to be most afraid of. I didn’t like the looks in their eyes or the smiles on their faces. “You really should’ve told me yourself, Eden. I thought we were friends.”
I was swimming in a state of confusion and fear, but I tried to concentrate on his words. On what he was referring to.
“W-we are friends. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His hand on my waist slipped beneath my jeans and panties. I squirmed, but his other hand threaded through my hair, and he yanked my head back. “Camden already admitted it to me, so there’s no reason to lie.” Venom laced his words, but there was also something that sounded distinctly like pain.
The confusion cleared and Sherry’s face entered my memory. She’d treated me so kindly that I’d almost forgotten about her and Camden, and what I saw… and who I told.
Sebastian.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice cracking. “You’re right, I should’ve told you… bu
t you don’t need to do this. I’m sorry, Hunter.”
“Shhh, it’s okay.” His grip in my hair loosened, and he kissed my neck. His lips trailed down to my shoulder, and his hand moved farther into my jeans. Cold fingers bit into my skin, too close to my bundle of nerves. Instead of arousal, revulsion spread through me. “Camden’s fucked all of us. This is your chance to get back at him.”
“I don’t want to get back at him.”
I gasped as he yanked my hair. “Then help me get back at him.”
Tears brimmed from the force he had in my hair, and I closed my eyes to avoid the looks from the others. Would they really rape me too, or were they just there to watch? How far was Hunter willing to take this?
I cringed as he popped the button on my jeans so he could move his fingers lower. A thick finger dug into my folds. There wasn’t any lubrication, so even if he was trying to be gentle, it would’ve felt rough. Forced.
“Did he even cheat on me?” I blurted out, bending forward as much as possible to get away from his touch. I wanted to distract him more than I wanted the answer. I already knew the answer—no. He hadn’t cheated on me. This was a setup, and one I’d fallen into embarrassingly easily.
Hunter’s hand paused, and I opened my eyes, peering up at the guys who were looking at me like they were confused. Like I’d caught them off guard.
Perfect.
“What does it mat—”
I jerked up as fast and high as I could, my head connecting with his chin mid-speech. He screamed and pulled his hands from me on instinct, and I spun around and sprung for the door.
“Shit!” One of them yelled and hurried toward me.
I ripped open the door and screamed as I ran into the chest of another man. I threw up my hands and prepared to fight, but he gripped my shoulders. His blue uniform registered and so did the badge sewn onto it. “Are you all right?” he asked, craning his neck to look behind me.
I pushed off of him and ran a few yards to the side, throwing my hands over my mouth and muffling my cry as red and blue lights filled my vision. A few other police officers were there, and their yells were muffled as they entered the locker room.
“Eden!” Sebastian ran up to me and gripped my shoulders, but I pushed him off of me. “Eden, are you okay?”
I leaned against the side of the locker room and crossed my arms over my chest as I focused on my breathing.
It was okay. They didn’t hurt me. I was going to be okay.
“I didn’t know they were going to do that,” Sebastian said, shaking his head. “I-I’m so sorry.”
Tears streamed down his cheeks, and he reached out his hand only to let it fall. “I was waiting on them to leave so that I could help Camden, and I saw you go into the locker room. Eden, I’m so so—”
“Camden?” I asked, pushing off the wall. “Is he okay?”
A siren reached my ears, and my head snapped to the parking lot where more lights flashed, this time from an ambulance. “Where is he?” I asked, grabbing Sebastian’s collar and shaking.
“H-he’s on the field.”
I peered over at the field where a couple cops were crouched on the ground. My legs moved me before my brain could fully process it. I started off in a walk, but by the time I’d made it a few yards, I was in a dead sprint. I fell to the ground beside Camden who seemed to be coming back to consciousness with the police officers prodding. The officer held a flashlight to Camden’s eyes, making him squint.
“Camden!” I screamed, touching his chest. He groaned, and the second police officer gripped my shoulders and pulled me back.
“Wait for the paramedics.”
I scanned the blood on Camden’s chin. He looked like he’d taken a punch, but it didn’t look that bad. It looked okay.
The paramedics rushed over to us, and the officer shone the flashlight on Camden’s arm. Words muffled around me, but I couldn’t make out what they were. My eyes widened as I took in the disfiguring on his right forearm, and my mouth dropped open.
Something was wrong with it. It looked like there was something poking into the skin, like a stick, or a—
Bone.
The paramedics loaded him onto a stretcher, and Sebastian came up behind me.
“I couldn’t stop them. They... they wouldn’t listen to me. Eden, please believe me.”
“I believe you,” I said, turning to him. His face was pained, as if he was the one with the broken bone… the career ending broken bone.
I sniffed and threw my arms around Sebastian’s neck, squeezing him.
“I fucked up so bad,” he said, crying into my shoulder and hugging me tight.
“So did I,” I whispered, shaking my head. I pulled back and peered at the stretcher being taken to the ambulance. “I have to go.”
He nodded and I turned to follow them to the ambulance. Camden was just barely awake, and he mumbled each time the paramedic asked him a question.
I tried not to look, but my eyes found the cop cars anyway. Hunter was in handcuffs, but his gaze was on the stretcher. Pain seemed to envelope him, but when he sensed me staring, he hardened his expression.
They lifted Camden into the back of the ambulance, and then climbed in.
I stared after them, my eyes wide and palms sweaty. Camden’s mumbling reached my ears, but I couldn’t understand what he said.
The paramedic nodded and turned to me. “Are you Eden?”
“Yes.”
“He says he’d like you to ride with him.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Cam
“Hold still.” Eden swatted my leg as if to reprimand me, and I leaned back against the bed frame and sighed. My fingertips brushed over the carpet we were sitting on. My eyes were closed at her insistence, and it only made the stench of Sharpie more potent. She must’ve been at this a good ten minutes.
“You almost done?”
“You don’t rush art, Camden. Hold still.”
If my eyes weren’t closed, I would’ve rolled them at her. Ten bucks said she was drawing a picture of a dead rat above my head just to spite me.
Minutes passed with the sound of Sharpie scratching along my cast, until finally, it stopped. The marker clicked as she popped the lid back on.
“Now?”
The sound of her breath blowing over my cast registered, and I opened my eyes to see her trying to dry the ink. She met my eyes. “So impatient.”
“You let me draw on you for thirty minutes, and we’ll see who’s impatient.”
“It was more like five.” She laughed and moved her hand-held mirror for me to see. It wasn’t so much a drawing as it was a quote done in calligraphy.
I smiled and read it aloud. “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind… MIT class of 2024.” I glanced up at her. “You tryin’ to get my ass kicked again?”
She pouted. “Do you know how much time I spent looking through Shakespeare quotes? It’s mine to you.”
My smile widened, and I leaned forward to kiss Eden on the forehead. “It’s perfect.”
Her face lit up, and she scooted so that she was leaned back against the bed with me, her head carefully resting on my shoulder.
“And I love you, too.”
She shot back up and turned to face me. “What?”
I fought the urge to cringe from her accidentally bumping my cast and swallowed down the pain. “I said, ‘I love you, too.’”
Her lips twitched, but she fought the smile, still probably trying to figure out if I was serious. I was, and I’d known it for the last two weeks. She hadn’t left the hospital in all the time it took for them to do X-rays and put the cast on my arm, delivering the news I didn’t need a doctor to tell me—my football career was over.
Everyone knew about me and Sherry now, including my parents, and I’d been home all of five minutes before my dad had ripped into me. It was like his entire world had shattered that night, while all I could think about was how I wouldn’t ha
ve to tell anyone why I wasn’t going to OU. I wouldn’t have to hide what I’d done or who I was. It was freeing for me. There were a hell of a lot of things I’d have done differently, but it’s like the hard part was over.
I’d walked out of the house and called Eden, and I’d been staying in a guest bedroom at her house ever since.
“Have we been dating long enough to be saying things like that?” she asked, overanalyzing the shit out of it like she did everything else.
I twisted so that I faced her fully, and I placed my hand on my knee. “Time doesn’t make a difference to me, but if it does to you, we can wait.”
“I just… I want to do this right, ya know?”
She was biting her lip and fidgeting with her hands. I wished so badly I could see inside that head of hers. Watch her thoughts racing around the track of her brain at a thousand miles an hour, always trying to figure out what the ‘right’ thing was. It was cute, and I wasn’t quite sure I wanted it to change. On one hand, it caused her way too much stress, but on the other, it made her so much fun to play with.
“I know.”
She fidgeted more, and I could practically see her brain churning. I tilted my head as I watched her staring off into space, lost in thought. “Eden, really it’s fine if—”
“Do you think I should drop the charges?”
What?
That’s what was running through her head after I tell her I love her?
I sighed and knocked my head against the bed. This conversation had been brewing in that racetrack brain of hers for a while, but I wished we could put it off for a little bit longer.
“I think you’re making the right choice, but you should do whatever feels right for you.”
“You don’t really think that, though, do you?”
I glanced over to see her studying me intently. Her lips were in a tight line, and her eyes were narrowed to slits. It’s like she was waiting for the truth to slip from me. For me to ask her to spare Hunter, drop the charges. Chalk this up to a bad situation that we could all put behind us.
It made sense for her to imagine that’s what I would think. I’d never filed charges against Hunter, and denied to the police that anything had been done to me at all. I’d told them I fell off the stands and didn’t remember anything else. It was an obvious lie, but it hadn’t mattered. My parents hadn’t even pushed for me to press charges. Everyone knew I deserved Hunter’s backlash.
