by Kent, Rina
My face flushed at his words. Even he had heard the rumors. He knew exactly what ‘Easy Eden’ meant.
“Right,” I said, shifting my bag once again.
Please tell me I can go.
He must’ve noticed my fidgeting because a moment later he eyed my bag and let a sigh rush over his lips. “Well, you better head to lunch.”
I nodded and turned toward the door. “Thanks, Mr. Gordon,” I called over my shoulder. I rushed out of the room and found Sebastian waiting for me just outside.
“Was he mad?”
I shrugged. “I don’t think so. Honestly, I think he gets it.”
Sebastian’s lips quirked up a hair and he nodded. “Listen, Eden—”
“Don’t.” I forced my face to relax and let my hands fall from my bag straps to my sides. “I know what it looked like… I get it.”
“So you’re not… you know?”
“No. I’m not.” I nodded toward the vacant hall and started walking that way. Sebastian matched my pace and didn’t question why I wasn’t headed toward the lunch room. With the way things had been, there was a good chance I wouldn’t show my face in there the rest of the week. Eventually, I would. My pride wouldn’t allow them to scare me off forever, but right then, I just needed a break.
We pushed through the same doors the jocks had lured me to the other day and took a seat on one of the benches. Sunlight warmed my face in the chilly fall air, and finally, I could breathe again.
“Why would he say those things, Eden? Why’s he doing these things if none of that is true?”
It’d been a few minutes since I’d answered his last question, and I was really thinking we could just let it go. I had no desire to talk about him right then. Not during the twenty minutes of peace I had left before getting to go to next period and listen to people whisper about me.
As much as I wanted to pretend none of that existed right then, Sebastian had a point. He didn’t know half of the reason the jocks hated me. I’d told him about my calling the cops on Hunter’s party, so the rat and the football field incident made sense to him, but I’d said nothing about Jade… or Camden with Hunter’s mom. It seemed wrong to tell anyone about those things, and the last thing I wanted to do was have the whole school talking about either of those events. Jade had been a bitch to me the past week, but how would I feel if people were talking about me being raped? Probably shittier than I felt now.
And Hunter’s mom. What if that got back to Hunter’s dad? I wasn’t about to ruin a marriage over the temptation to share juicy gossip.
Sebastian wouldn’t say anything, though. And even if he did, who would he tell? Our other friends? We didn’t run in the same circles as the jocks, and Paige knew about Jade, so she was bound to tell someone. If anything got out, it would be because of her.
I turned to face Sebastian fully. “If I tell you, you have to promise me you won’t say anything, okay?”
His eyes narrowed and he leaned my way. “Okay.” He said it like it was more of a question than a statement, but I accepted it anyway.
“I didn’t tell you everything that happened at Hunter’s party.”
“Okay, so what else happened?”
I bit my lip and peered over his shoulder. This was so wrong.
“Eden, please. Just tell me.”
I returned my gaze to his face and took a deep breath. Just spit it out. “I saw Camden having sex with Hunter’s mom.”
“Oh my God.” Sebastian’s jaw dropped and he leaned in closer, glancing around as if to make sure we were still alone. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah… Then on Monday he made it seem like that was what the football field thing was really about. He’d told all of them that he and I had slept together and that I had this ‘fantasy’ of being with the whole football team. I have no idea why he did that, but when it was just the two of us, he told me he hoped I’d ‘learned my lesson about talking too much’.” I paused to take a breath and gauge Sebastian’s reaction. His lips were still parted and his eyes were still glued to me in concentration. “Honestly, Sebastian, the guy’s a freak.”
He gave a slight shake of his head. “Wait, is that why you called the cops? Because of what you saw?”
“Not exactly.” I cringed just thinking about it.
This was the part I really didn’t want to repeat, but if I told him, everything would make sense. It was the only thing that would make sense. And he’d already promised not to tell anybody.
Another deep breath and I spilled everything to him. Jade. Hunter. Paige. What I saw, not being able to fathom how I’d been wrong. If I was wrong. Everything. By the time I was done, a weight the size of an elephant had lifted off my chest, and my eyes were burning yet again.
“Holy shit, Eden.” Sebastian was staring off in space. He’d reacted the way I’d expect him to react. The way Paige should’ve reacted.
It was freeing to tell Sebastian, and I instantly felt more at ease. At least I wasn’t alone.
“I know.”
“And Jade really doesn’t even care?”
“I don’t think she even gets it…”
“Whoa.” He gave his head another shake and slumped in the seat. We sat in silence for a few more minutes until the bell rang.
Sebastian peered over his shoulder toward the door and perched on the bench like he was about to stand. “We’re definitely talking more about this later, but are you okay? I’m so freakin’ sorry. I’m a shit friend.”
I frowned. “No you’re not. Honestly, I don’t blame you for thinking what you did, and I even told you it was true.” We stood at the same time and glanced toward the door again. “I just didn’t want you to get involved, and I couldn’t think of anything else to say that would make you stand down… I’m sorry I lied.”
“No, I get it.” He stepped up to me and wrapped his arms around me in a hug. “Just no more lies, okay?”
I pulled back and lifted my lips in a small smile. “Promise.”
“We should get to class.” He stepped toward the door and I went to pick my bag up off the bench, but the slip of paper Camden had given me was sticking out of the side pocket and caught my eye.
Sebastian paused when he noticed I wasn’t following him.
I glanced his way and gestured toward the door. “You go ahead, I’m right behind you.”
His eyebrows pinched, and his gaze shifted between me and the door, as if he was deciding if he should really leave me.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and pretended to be texting until the door to the school shut and Sebastian was no longer in sight.
Shoving my phone back in my pocket, I hurried to my bag. My chemistry class would be starting any time now, but for some reason, I needed to see what he put on that damn piece of paper. Even when he wasn’t around, he got to me.
I snatched the paper and unfolded it. My eyes narrowed as I read the words scribbled on the page.
The course of true love never did run smooth
Confusion surged until I recognized the line. It was from the first act of A Midsummer Night's Dream and was part of the required reading for last night.
He read it?
With a shake of my head, I crumpled the paper and stuffed it back into my bag.
Camden Knight was a mystery that would have to wait.
Chapter Five
Eden
Thursday was no better than it had been. The jocks continued their torment. I spent lunch sitting in Mr. Gordon’s class, pretending to work on my trig homework while he ate his lunch and awkwardly tried to talk to me about ‘when he was a kid’. And Sebastian had a dentist appointment, so my only ally was gone the whole afternoon.
At least orchestra practice had been nice. It’d become my only reprieve from the jocks, and I began to thank the heavens above that it was deemed too lame for them to associate themselves with—even if it was to torture me.
By the time practice was over, I was smiling. The world didn’t seem so bad, and what Mr. Gordon said about high s
chool not mattering began to make sense.
Berklee, that’s what mattered. And in a year’s time I’d be surrounded by people like me and I’d truly belong.
I couldn’t freaking wait.
I was still daydreaming about my life a year from now when I stepped through the door of the auditorium that led to the parking lot. Oklahoma wind whipped through my hair, and I wrapped my arms around my chest on instinct.
The smile I’d finally managed to have fell when I saw who was waiting for me by my car… again.
I sighed but began making my way to the parking lot. He hadn’t shown up yesterday, so I thought maybe he was done with that. Guess not.
When I approached, he was already blocking my driver’s side door, as if anticipating my next move. His arms were crossed in front of him and he lazily leaned against my car.
“Do you find it odd that football practice lets out before band?”
I paused a foot away and narrowed my eyes. “Orchestra. And no, I don’t find it odd. One requires serious skill and dedication, the other requires moving a ball.”
“What instrument requires moving a ball? I thought you played the cello?”
A bit of surprise ran through me at him knowing what instrument I played, but I didn’t let it show on my face.
I gestured toward the door he was blocking. “You gonna let me go now, or do I need to threaten to call the police? Maybe I could get a restraining order granted. That’d be helpful.”
“You don’t need to threaten, I’m well aware you’re not scared to tattle.” He winked but didn’t move.
“Do you honestly think this is a game I’m playing with you?”
His smirk deepened, revealing a dimple on his right cheek. My eyes zeroed in on it, and for just a moment I forgot what I was doing.
Telling Camden to fuck off. Right.
I pulled that day’s note from my pocket and unfolded it as if I hadn’t read it a hundred times to try and decipher its meaning. It’d been the same Old English type quote as yesterday, only this time it wasn’t from the required reading.
I cleared my throat. “Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, should be so tyrannous and rough in proof.” The paper crinkled in my hand as I let it fall to my side. “What the hell is this?”
He cocked a brow. “Romeo and Juliet? Act one scene one?”
“Right, I know how to google, but why are you giving me this?”
He shrugged. “I figured you’d like to be wooed first.”
My face froze in a permanent scowl. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I couldn’t even bring myself to ask.
“Can you move, please?”
He chuckled and lifted off the car. “Well, since you said please.”
I took a step toward the door, but as soon as I grasped the handle, Camden placed his hand on mine and leaned in. He was right up against my face, that damn dimple perfectly in my view.
“What’re you doing?” Instead of the strong, confident sneer I’d intended, my voice came out shaky.
He was right there. His breaths skated over my face, a minty scent filling my nostrils.
I should’ve jumped back, pushed against his chest, slapped him for committing the crime of being Camden Knight.
I hated him.
Yet, I found myself frozen in place.
Warmth spread through me, and despite every brain cell I had telling me to be repulsed by him, I closed my eyes and waited for him to lean in…
And waited.
“Come to the football game tomorrow night.” It was a whisper, moving from his lips to mine, and it had my eyes shooting open.
“What?”
“Tomorrow night. I want you to come watch me play.”
Just like that, the spell broke.
I cleared my throat before yanking my hand from underneath his and stepping back. My eyes locked onto my car mirror—anywhere but that smirk.
“No thanks.”
“You know I have ways of being persuasive, right?”
My hands ached to touch my face to cool it down. It was so hot, I could only imagine the shade of red it must’ve been.
I’d been about to kiss him.
My tormentor.
My enemy.
Shit.
“Yeah, well, not sure how you’re going to persuade me into a setup like that, so I’m still gonna pass.” I took a step toward him, once again trying for the door.
He didn’t budge.
“Seriously, Cam, I need to get home.”
“Finally, you get my name right.”
I threw my head back and groaned, my shoulders slumping in surrender. I let the paper still in my hand fall to the ground, and Camden’s gaze followed it.
“No games, Eden, I’m serious. It’s not a setup. I just want you there.”
I dropped my head back down and narrowed my gaze on him. B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T.
“Why?”
His shoulder lifted in a shrug. “Just do.”
“Just do? Yeah, that’s not gonna work for me.”
This time, I didn’t give him the chance to move on his own. I stepped up to my door and shoved him out of the way with my shoulder. He could’ve stopped me, but instead, he stepped back and watched as I climbed into my car.
He gripped the door before I had a chance to shut it and leaned into the car. “I want you to remember that I asked, Eden. I’m giving you a chance to say yes.”
He smiled, probably sensing the goosebumps that rose over my flesh from his threatening tone. He stood up straight and, just before shutting the car door, he said, “See you tomorrow.”
I waited until he got into his Jeep and drove off before I opened my door and snatched the crinkled paper still lying on the ground. I stuffed it back into my bag, cursing myself the entire time for caring about the piece of paper at all.
But what if it meant something?
It didn’t. They were just some lame lines Camden was using to mess with me. Maybe he wanted me to think he liked me.
I thought you’d like to be wooed first.
First? Before what? What kind of ominous shit was that?
My palms were sweaty as I gripped the wheel, so I wiped them on my jeans before putting the car in reverse and pulling out of the parking lot.
His words stuck in my mind on the drive home, but by the time I pulled into the garage at my house, my nervousness had turned to resolve.
He wouldn’t scare me into doing what he wanted, and I couldn’t wait to see his face when he realized that.
See you tomorrow, Cam.
Chapter Six
Eden
Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
I flattened the sheet of notebook paper on the table and read that day’s note again. It was eight o’clock on Friday night, and I’d already changed into pajamas and was sitting in the kitchen, trying to figure out why the hell this was today’s note.
The words came from Much Ado About Nothing—another one of Shakespeare's plays. We hadn’t studied this one in class, so I really did have to google it this time.
He chose this line specifically. It wasn’t from the required reading, and it wasn’t from one of the more common plays. He’d picked it to tell me something.
That he was going to trap me? That the game was a trap?
No shit.
I sat back in my chair and sighed.
“Trig homework again?”
Roman, my stepdad, had sauntered into the kitchen behind me and peeked over my shoulder. I slapped a hand over the words, then immediately realized how ridiculous that was. It was Shakespeare. Only Camden knew the perverse meaning behind it.
I lifted my hand from the paper and turned in the chair to see Roman eyeing me warily. I lifted my shoulder in a nervous shrug. “No trig homework today. Mrs. Morris doesn’t assign it on game days.”
He nodded, still with that skeptical look, and made his way for the fridge. “Seems a little strange that football games are considered more important tha
n math homework, doesn’t it?”
He pulled a couple of twelve-ounce bottles of apple juice from the fridge and shut the door with his hip.
“I guess. I don’t know, pretty much everything revolves around football here.”
He nodded absently and sat next to me at the table, glancing around before sliding the juice in front of me.
“Don’t tell your brother.”
My icy mood thawed and I laughed at the joke. My little brother, Jordan, was obsessed with apple juice, and my mom had to stock up every time she went to the grocery store or we’d be out of it in a day.
Roman smiled at my laughter and rested his elbows on the table. “So why don’t you go to the football games?”
I raised my eyebrows and smiled wider to punctuate the hilarity of that question. “Football’s not really my thing.”
“But it’s your peers’ thing. It wouldn’t hurt to try it out, share in the joy, so to speak.”
You have no idea how much it would hurt.
“Does Paige go?”
Paige. I’d almost forgotten we used to be friends. She was the one my parents knew the most from the sleepovers we had every few weekends. Is that what this was about? Did he notice Paige hadn’t been over lately?
“She goes.” I could hear the contempt in my own voice, and inwardly, I cringed.
I hadn’t planned on telling Mom or Roman anything about Paige or the jocks. Roman would probably be cool, but my mom would, without a doubt, call the school. Maybe even force me to file sexual harassment charges for them stripping me down. She was a lawyer that wasn’t afraid to fight back. I loved that about her, but no way was I going to go through that. It would be a mess.
I opened my juice and took a swig before returning my gaze to Roman. He seemed to be waiting for me to continue.
I trailed the ring of condensation the bottle made on the table and sighed. “Paige and I aren’t really friends anymore.”
“Did something happen?”
I paused, trying to think of what did happen. The night of the party we’d crashed here. Neither of us had been in the mood to talk about what we’d seen, but I thought we were on the same page. I drove her home Saturday morning, and that was the last I’d spoken to her.