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.
“It was just a cruel prank, Cameron.” Both of Hailee’s hands gripped my arms now, but I couldn’t figure out if she was holding me closer or trying to keep me at a safe distance. “Jason will—”
“Ssh.” I pressed my thumb to her lips. “Jase is the last person I want to talk about right now.” This shit with Thatcher, between him and Hailee, it had to end.
It should have ended long before now.
Her eyes flashed with surprise as she sucked in a shaky breath. “Why are you here, Cameron? Why did you come?”
It was the question I’d asked myself more than once on the ride over here. But the second I’d opened that link, I couldn’t think of anything but getting to her.
“Because I care about you, Hailee,” I confessed. “I care about you so fucking much.”
Her expression faltered and then she was burying her face in my chest, sobbing into my t-shirt. My hands slid into her hair, coaxing her face back to mine. “I will fix this, I promise.”
I didn’t know how yet but I would. It had gone too far. Hailee didn’t deserve this. She’d never deserved any of it.
And I’d been too much of a fucking coward to stop any of it.
Tears collected in the corners of her eyes and I slid a hand down her face, brushing the drops of moisture away with the pad of my thumb. “Don’t cry, Sunshine,” I said. I can’t bear it.
Hailee’s mouth curved. “I really hate it when you call me that.”
“And I really love the way you blush when I do.”
“What are we doing, Cameron?” Her eyes pinned me to the spot, searching for answers. Answers I wanted to give her but wasn’t sure she was ready to hear.
“What we should have done a long fucking time ago,” I choked out, my grip on her tightening.
And then I kissed her.
Hailee
“Cameron, wait.” My hands slid to his chest, pushing gently. He jerked