Page 60 of Butterfly

When Mason dropped me off,he dragged me into another dizzying kiss before setting me free. Lost in the memory of his lips on mine and already missing him, I almost didn’t see Chris skulking past me in the hallway.

“Oh!” I said, surprised.

He shot backwards, like I’d burned him.

“I’m sorry,” I started, then looked more closely at him, freezing in shock.

He was a mess. Two black eyes, his nose out of joint like it had been broken, a split lip. His left arm was in a sling.

“You,” he spat. “You need to stay away from me.”

“What happened?” I didn’t like the guy—he was a complete creep, after all. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t concerned.

“Your jackass stepbrother is what happened,” he said. “He didn’t like that we were getting close, and he let me know with his fists.”

“What?” I could barely get the word out, my heart was hammering so hard. “He couldn’t have, I’ve been with him all weekend.”

“It didn’t happen this weekend. It happened on Thursday. He was waiting for me in my room when I got back from partying. Beat the shit out of me, told me to stay away from you. Which I’ve been trying to do. You need to get away from me. I don’t want that psycho coming after me again.”

I didn’t understand. Refused to understand. I knew by now that Mason was jealous and possessive, and he hadn’t liked that Chris had flirted with me, but there was no way he could have known that Chris had drunkenly come onto me in my room the other night.

And he’d promised me he wouldn’t hurt anyone for me. That would have been the time to tell me,oh, by the way, I beat up your RA.

Which meant he’d lied to me.

He’dlied.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “He would’ve told me.”

Chris raised a split eyebrow, then rubbed at it like it hurt him. “You sure about that? Because my face says differently. He didn’t like that we almost hooked up the other night.”

“We didn’t almost hook up the other night,” I said automatically, my brain spinning as I tried to figure out how Mason could have known about that.

Chris shook his head. “You fucking tease. Get away from me before you get me killed.”

With that, he left me in the hallway, staring after him.

Back in my room, I paced trying to figure out how Mason could have possibly known that Chris had harassed me in my room. Had someone overheard and told him? Had he been lurking outside? But if he had, why hadn’t he stormed in here and come to my rescue?

And he’dliedto me. By omission, sure, but it was a lie just the same.

My father had lied to us, too.

A realization stopped me in my tracks. I immediately started scanning the small room for something unfamiliar, something out of place.

There.

I hadn’t noticed it before, I was so distracted by how bad I’d needed to come, but the picture frame holding a photo of me, Bea, and my mom was out of place.

And in the corner was a small black dot.

With shaking hands, I lifted the frame and picked at the plastic and glass circle until it came free.

A camera.

And if there was one, that meant there were probably more.

Frantic and filled with an almost manic rage, I tore my room apart, searching books, other frames, my laptop, the wall, the bookshelf I’d built, the art on the walls. I wasn’t sure how much time passed, but by the time I was done I was sweating and I’d found five other cameras.

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