We met halfway, just as he was ending the call. “Everything okay?” I asked him as he stood staring down at his cell phone.
“I, hmm, that was Fee.”
“Fee? As in Felicity?”
“Y- yeah.” He swallowed, running a hand through his hair. “She, uh, she asked me to get you to call her immediately.”
“Me, but why would she want—Hailee.” The air whooshed from my lungs. “You have her number?”
Of course he did, they had just been on the cell phone. But everything was a little hazy, my heart thundering in my chest.
“I put my number in her phone the time she cooked breakfast. You’d better call her, she sounded panicked. When I asked what was wrong she said there wasn’t time to explain…” he added and my eyes locked on his.
“Text me her number and tell Jase I had to leave.”
“Shit,” he breathed. “What should I—”
“Tell him it’s my mom or something.” It didn’t matter. I just needed to get to Hailee. If Felicity had called Asher....
“Cam?” Asher’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
“Yeah?”
“I said, are you sure you know what you’re doing? Maybe this isn’t a good idea—”
“Just text me her number.”
“Shit, yeah. Okay.” He started messing with his cell phone and I waited for the incoming message, and then I got the hell out of there.
Once I was clear of the dance, I pulled out my cell phone and called Felicity.
“Cameron?” she rushed out. “Is that you?”
“What happened?”
“I... she... crap, this is bad, Cameron. I don’t know what to—”
“Slow down. Where are you?” I was almost at my truck.
“At a party, across the river.”
Fuck.
“Okay.” I schooled my anger. “Can you text me the address? It’ll take me about fifteen minutes.” If I broke the speed limit.
“Y- yeah. And thank you. I didn’t know who else to call.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” I said before hanging up. Reaching my truck, I almost yanked the door off its hinges.
An East party.
They’d left Homecoming and gone to an East party. Asher was right; I had no fucking idea what I was doing. Because it was the last place I should go. Especially without back up. But Hailee was there, and from the despair in Felicity’s voice, whatever had gone down wasn’t good.
Dammit.
As I reversed out of the parking bay and stepped on the gas, restless energy zipped through me. Hailee needed me. Okay, so the reality was Felicity needed me, but I wasn’t about to split hairs over the fact she’d called me to help.
I couldn’t deny a small part of me was pissed though. I’d spent most the night searching for Hailee, hoping to catch another glimpse of her, and all along she had been at an East party with that douche Toby no doubt. My hands tightened around the wheel. I’d always known Hailee was trouble. But if Jason found out about this, shit would hit the fan. I couldn’t leave her there, though, I wouldn’t. Because Hailee Raine was under my skin.
And even worse, I liked her being there.
“What the fuck happened?” I was out of my truck and on Felicity in a second, pulling Hailee’s limp body out of her friend’s arms and into my own.
“I... she... I don’t know. God.” Her voice quivered. “This is such a mess.” Felicity wept as I slid my hands under Hailee’s thighs and scooped her up, cradling her against me. She moaned, her head rolling to the side.
“F- Flick?” It was a garbled murmur.
“Ssh, I got you,” I said, my voice thick. Glancing over at the house, it was obvious the party was still raging on inside.
“Cameron, we need to go. She needs—”
“Yeah.” My eyes snapped back to Felicity. “Okay.”
Coming around to open the back door of my truck, Felicity helped me get Hailee inside, and we laid her out across the seats. I went around the driver’s side and climbed in, my hands gripping the steering wheel as I watched her through the rear-view mirror. She looked like a rag doll, her hair hanging loose around her face, makeup smeared around her eyes. The rise and fall of her chest labored.
Felicity slid in next to me and let out a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know who else to call.”
“Tell me what happened.” I still hadn’t turned the key in the ignition, restless energy coursing through my veins.
“Drive, and I’ll tell you.” Felicity levelled me with a look that told me she knew exactly what I was thinking. “Cameron...” she added after a beat. “We need to go before someone sees you here.”
“Fine,” I ground out. “Fine.”
Gunning the engine, I backed out of the driveway and pulled onto the street. “Okay, talk,” I said as the house shrunk in the rear-view mirror.
“Toby texted her when we were at Homecoming, inviting us to another party. I got the impression Hailee was pissed at you, so we left.”
Pissed… at me?
It wasn’t a first, but I hadn’t even spoken to her at Homecoming.
“Did he...?” The words lodged in my throat, anger rising in my chest.
“What? God, no. Toby is a good guy, Cameron. I swear. But something did happen. We were drinking the same thing and I was fine, but Hailee started acting really strange. I wanted us to come home, but she said she wanted to stay and have fun. Next thing I know, she disappears. We looked everywhere for her.”
“We?”
“Yeah me, Jude, and Toby.”
Toby.
I was already sick of hearing that fucker’s name.
“What happened?”
“We couldn’t find her anywhere but then someone said they’d seen her go into the pool house, the pool house everyone said was off-limits....” her voice trailed off.
“And...”
“And we found her like this, almost passed out on the couch. She was completely out of it. Toby and Jude went to get her some water and to find out what happened, so I called you and managed to drag her out of there.”
“Why didn’t you just wait for them to come back?”
“I guess I panicked. I mean, look at her. That isn’t Hails, she doesn’t get trashed like that. What if someone...?”
I glanced over at Felicity and her gaze darted away. “What if someone what, Felicity?” It came out raw.
She inhaled a harsh breath. “What if someone gave her something?”
My eyes went back to the rear-view mirror. She was right, Hailee wasn’t drunk, she was completely wasted. “You think she was roofied?”
“Or something, yeah.”
“Fuck.” My back straightened, anger rippling up my spine. I wanted to turn the truck around, go back to the party, and beat the shit out of someone until I found out exactly what happened tonight. But I knew that wouldn’t help the situation. And right now, it wouldn’t help Hailee.
“Should we take her to the hospital?”
“I think she’ll be okay,” I said, checking on her again. “She just needs to sleep it off.”