Felicity peered up at me. “You’re right. This is all your fault.” Her lips flattened into a grim line. “Well, Jason’s fault. But that makes you guilty by association.”
“Felicity, come on—”
“No, you come on, Cameron. Someone drugged her, stripped her naked, and filmed her...” She swallowed, a fresh wave of tears tracking down her face. “It’s gone too far. I told her to stop. I told her to quit this thing with Jason. I told her...”
But it wouldn’t have mattered. Thatcher wanted payback. He wanted to humiliate and hurt Jason the way he’d done to him.
And Hailee was the perfect target.
“I need you to do something for me,” I said.
“Me?” Her voice shook, her green eyes wide with disbelief.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but I need you to go over to Asher’s house and help him talk Jase down from doing something stupid.”
The blood drained from her face. “You want me to what?” She clutched her throat.
“I know he can be... difficult.” Felicity scoffed at that. “But the last thing we need right now is Jase going across the river and doing something that’ll only make everything ten times worse.” Not to mention jeopardize his whole future.
“Cameron, I don’t know—”
“Please. There isn’t anyone else to ask.” And there was something about her. The way she’d taken control that morning in Asher’s kitchen, making us all breakfast as if we actually deserved her kindness.
“Fine. Fine. But you owe me. And you’d better find a way to fix this because my best friend is up there, and she’s broken. Broken, Cameron. And I hate it. I hate seeing her like that.”
I dragged a hand down my face, blood pounding between my ears. Felicity was right, of course she was right. Jason, Asher, even me, we’d all had a hand in dragging Hailee into this shit.
Felicity was busy pulling on her shoes when she said, “My room is the last one on the left. I’ll text you when we’ve contained Jason. And don’t worry about my parents, they’re out of town for the night.”
I smiled at that. “Thanks.”
“And there’s a box of brownies on the counter in the kitchen.” She pointed down the hall. “They’re her favorites.”
“Brownies, got it.”
“And last thing, don’t hurt her. I know you two have this weird thing going on where you both pretend not to care. But she cares. Hailee cares about you Cameron; she’s just too damn stubborn to admit it. And I think you care too. So I’m warning you, as her best friend, if you hurt her, I’ll find a way to destroy you. I’m talking full on Carrie-style revenge.”
I choked over the breath in my lungs. “Jesus,” I mumbled.
“I’m serious, Cameron.” Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
Oh, I didn’t doubt it. Asher was right, it was the quiet ones you had to watch.
Felicity gave me a curt nod and slipped out of the door, and I released the breath I’d been holding. Everything was such a fucking mess and the worst of it was, it wasn’t over yet. When school rolled around tomorrow, everyone would have seen the video of Hailee. And she would have to walk the halls at school knowing they’d seen it.
My fist curled as I swallowed the roar building in my throat. I couldn’t let my emotions get the better of me, not while Hailee was upstairs. So I stuffed it all down and went in search of the box of brownies and then I went to find her.
Brownies in hand, heart in my throat, I rapped my knuckle against the door only to be met with silence. “Hailee, it’s me. Cameron.” Way to go, asshole.
Silence.
“Hailee?” I peeked around the ajar door. “Can I come—”
“No,” she snapped, barely meeting my eyes.
“Too bad, Sunshine, you’re stuck with me.” I slipped inside, closing the door behind me, aware the action seemed to suck all the air from the room.
Hailee was sitting in the middle of Felicity’s bed, her back pressed against the headboard, knees bent, hugging a pink, fluffy cushion. Silent tears tracked down her cheeks. She looked so fragile and sad, a complete contrast to the girl I was used to dealing with. And the sight of her gutted me, squeezed my heart so tight I thought I might pass out.
“I’m so fucking sorry.” I moved closer, my eyes flitting between the end of the bed and the desk chair. Opting for the safest choice, I dropped the box of brownies on the desk and took the chair.
“You... you saw the video?” She blanched, a fresh wave of tears flooding her eyes. “Did… did Jason see it?”
I pressed my lips together wondering what the fuck I was supposed to do here.
“Oh God,” she groaned.
“Hey, it’ll be okay. We’ll make sure—”
“The whole school has probably seen it by now. You can’t make people unsee it, Cameron.”
No, I couldn’t. But I could threaten any fucker who tried to bring it up, to ever mention that shit in the halls at school.
“I keep trying to remember what happened,” Hailee said, her voice quiet. “Keep trying to see their faces, hear their laughter... but there’s nothing. That’s what I hate the most. That they did that to me, and I didn’t even know. I mean what if they...” She retched and the sound was so full of pain, it ripped open my chest. “What if they tried to do... more.”
“More?”
Her eyes slid to mine, widening with meaning. “No,” I said, unwilling to believe it. “Thatcher is fucked up, but he wouldn’t... Why, do you think someone hurt you?” The words lodged in my throat.
I’d assumed the video was the end of it, but what if it wasn’t? What if someone had actually physically hurt her?
Bile rushed up my throat as I breathed in through my nose, trying not to lose my cool.
“No, I... I don’t think so. I didn’t feel anything... you know?” She gave a little shrug as if it was no big deal.
But it was a big fucking deal.
“Fuck,” I ground out, clutching the back of my neck. “And I... we...” I’d touched her yesterday morning. Me. After someone might have... I leaped up, pacing back and forth.
“Cameron,” Hailee said, but I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t get the image out of my head of her lying there, out of it, while someone stripped the dress from her body, laughing, whispering taunts about how much she wanted it, how easy she was.
Bile rushed up my throat. No one had been recognizable on the video, the angle of the camera zeroed in on Hailee. Her body.
Hailee’s hand curled around my arm and I froze, my heart jackhammering in my chest. “It’s okay. I’m okay. I would know if anything had happened, and it didn’t.”
But it could have. If Flick hadn’t have found her when she did, it could have.
Slowly, I turned to her. Hailee’s eyes were red and puffy, and her smile didn’t reach them. “None of this is okay,” I said quietly. “When I think about them doing that to you... of them possibly hurting you, I...” Swallowing, I wrapped an arm around her waist, anchoring us together, and dropped my head to hers, breathing her in.