“So that’s Miley,” I said. “She’s pretty. Were the two of you, like, a thing?”
“Hailee, don’t do this.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Miley is not important to me.”
“But she was someone to you?”
Cameron crowded me against the locker again, cupping my jaw, angling my face to his. “Listen to me when I say this. It’s you, I want. You, I need. Miley was someone to fill the void for a little while. But that’s all. Me and you, this, it’s real.” He lowered his head to mine. “I need you, Hailee. I need you so much it fucking terrifies me.” Vulnerability glittered in his eyes like stars across the night sky.
Lifting my hand against his cheek, I breathed him in, and said, “You have me.” Every single piece. “Now take me home and show me just how much you need me.”
Cameron didn’t come to school again after that. He wanted to be there for his mom’s appointments and to help with Xander. So I was surprised when he asked me to go to the game with him Friday night.
“Are you okay?” I squeezed his hand as we watched the Raiders run out onto the field below. We were in the family section, using his two tickets reserved for his parents, and Asher had been kind enough to let Flick have one of his tickets since his parents were out of town.
“I’m okay.” Cameron nodded before leaning down to capture my lips in a slow kiss.
“Hmm, guys, right here. I’m right here.”
“Sorry.” I peeked around Cameron and pouted at my best friend.
“You’re so cute I can’t even stay mad at you, ugh,” she groaned, readjusting her Raiders ball cap. “I need a man.”
“What about Ash—”
I clapped my hand over Cameron’s mouth. “Don’t put ideas into her head.”
“He’s nice and all,” Flick said completely ignoring me and Cameron. “But he’s not my type.”
“There’s another type beside cocky arrogant jock?”
“Sunshine,” Cameron warned.
“What?” I played dumb. “It’s true. You jocks are all the sa—”
He dipped his head silencing me with his lips and tongue. I melted against him and a couple of people behind us snickered.
“Cam,” I breathed. “We have to... stop.”
“You’re no fun.” It was his turn to pout.
“How’s your mom, Cameron?” We both turned to Flick and her expression grew serious.
“She’s doing as well as can be expected, thanks. The good news is her doctor seemed confident they got it all.”
“That’s great.”
It was great. Karen had survived the surgery and her prognosis was looking good. She wasn’t out of the woods yet, and she still had a long road ahead of her if the doctors decided she needed radiotherapy; but it was as positive as it could be given the circumstances.
Wrapping my arm around Cameron’s waist, I snuggled into his side. Despite his mom’s surgery going well, he’d still wanted to remain off the roster for tonight’s game. Coach and his teammates begged him to be on the sidelines, but in the end, he decided to watch from the bleachers. I think, deep down, he was still waiting for the call to say something had gone wrong.
“She’s okay,” I whispered, squeezing him tighter. Cameron glanced down at me and smiled.
“I know.” He kissed me again, and Flick grumbled.
“I think I liked you both better when you hated each other.”
“You’re practically glowing.” Flick linked her arm through mine as we followed Cameron around the back of the stadium to meet the team and congratulate them on a well-deserved win.
“I’m happy,” I admitted. “He makes me happy.”
“Well, duh.” She chuckled. “You managed to score yourself a Raider. I guess some things do come true.”
I gaped at her unable to school my indignance, but she only laughed harder. “You should see your face. Just be thankful I didn’t get you a shirt for your birthday with ‘hashtag I ride a Raider’ printed on it.” Flick winked.
“You’re just jealous.”
Her eyes clouded for a second, the air around us cooling considerably, but then Flick was smirking as if nothing had just happened. “Of course, I’m jealous. I mean, I have eyes. Look at him.”
So, I did.
Cameron was fist-bumping and guy-hugging his teammates. His friends. We hovered while he did his thing, letting Kaiden and Asher give him a play-by-play account of every touchdown as if we hadn’t been front and center watching the whole game. But I realized it was probably just their way of including him in their victory.
“How are things at home?” Flick pulled my attention away from Cameron.
“It’s weird. Mom and Kent are acting as if nothing happened, and Jason barely acknowledges either of them, so not much has changed there. I’m at that weird place where I want to be mad with her, but I’m not sure I have the energy to keep it up for much longer.”
“Look,” my best friend said. “She made a mistake. Yes, it was a pretty fucking epic one, but you can’t help who you fall in love with. You of all people should know that.”
“I...” Flick was right. She always was. But it didn’t quell the sting of Mom’s betrayal. I think I was more hurt by the fact she’d lied all this time than the fact she’d had an affair.
People had affairs all the time. I didn’t condone it, but she and Kent were adults. They knew what they were doing. Jason and I knowing wouldn’t have changed anything.
But something told me, he was in no rush to forgive his dad.
“And you and Jason, what’s going on there?”
“Yeah, sister.” He appeared out of nowhere. “What is going on there?”
Flick rolled her eyes at him, but he barely looked twice at her.
“Don’t be a dick, Jason.”
His hands went up. “I come in peace.” His eyes flicked over to where Cameron was. “How is he?”
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” There was no malice in my words. Cameron was right; life was too short. After sitting with him in the hospital waiting room while his mom underwent a life-saving craniotomy, I realized this grudge between me and Jason, the stuff with Thatcher, it didn’t matter. This was high school. Kids were mean and got off on bringing each other down. But the real world, where things were hard and painful and uncertain, was waiting for them. High school didn’t define me. I knew my worth, and this moment, right here, defined me.
Jason ran a brisk hand through his damp hair as I stepped closer to him and lay my hand on his arm. “You should go talk to him; he misses you.”
It didn’t matter what Jason did or didn’t think about me, our lives were entwined now. Whether he liked it or not. I loved his best friend, his brother in all the ways that counted, so we had to find a way to co-exist.
“I...” he hesitated.
“Go,” I said quietly. “He needs you; he needs to know you’re okay with all of this.”
Cameron might have said he was ready to quit the team, but I knew he wasn’t. Not really. But this thing between him and Jason was swaying him toward making the wrong decision. And regardless of what I thought about football, I didn’t want him to give up his dreams.