90

“Give me a second,” he said to me before guiding Miley down the hall just out of earshot. My stomach knotted as I watched them talk. They stood close, him staring down at her, her gazing up at him. She was gorgeous, lean and toned, an athlete for sure. And for as much as I didn’t want to feel jealous, it burned through me like acid.

After a minute or two, Miley nodded and turned on her heel and walked off down the hall. Cameron approached me slowly, his eyes drinking me in. Trying to tell me things I couldn’t quite decipher.

“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.