Page 12 of Trust Me Always

Girl, stop.

You don’t care.

I cross my arms. “Why are you waiting outside my dorm, Alister?”

“This is our thing, isn’t it?” He gives a sad smile. “I follow you around until you pay attention to me.”

A hint of warmth slips over me, yet it’s swiftly followed by that bitter burn of betrayal, freezing out everything else.

Alister sees it, knows that his words backfired, and takes a step toward me. “Cam…”

He reaches for me, but I evade his touch, spinning and putting myself behind him, forcing him to turn too in order to keep me in his sights. A dejected sigh leaves him. “Can we please just talk for a bit?”

“No, Alister, we can’t.” I keep walking backward toward my dorm building entrance and he stays planted where he stands. “I told you before to just let it go. We were hooking up and now we’re not. We’re done. No hard feelings.”

His eyes narrow at that. “I don’t want to be done, and yes hard feelings. Cameron, I hurt you, and I’m sorry.”

I jerk to a stop, my emotions bubbling up inside me and making it hard to tell which is stronger: the feeling of being the pathetic, oblivious girl or the pissed-off, burn-the-world-down one. “I said I was over it. I’m good, so just…go back to whatever it is you did before playing my shadow became your favorite pastime.”

He watches me closely, his green gaze unsettling and making my palms start to sweat. When he finally does talk, it’s not what I want to hear.

“I can’t do that, Cam.”

“And why is that?”

He gives a woeful smile. “Because I realized something in the last several months.”

“That you’re a royal dickhead?”

“That I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with you.”

My face falls.

My lungs shrivel.

My knees fucking shake.

“Fuck you, Alister.” I hurry toward the dorms.

I don’t look back when he calls my name and I don’t wait around for the elevator, instead running up several flights of stairs until I reach my and Ari’s floor. Shoving the door open, I rush inside, tugging at my long, blond hair as I search for my best friend.

She pops up off her bed the second she sees me coming, her arms open and waiting.

I fall into them, and together we sink onto the mattress.

She doesn’t ask questions, and I don’t offer answers. Words aren’t necessary for us.

She just lets me pout and hugs me while I do it.

I feel the threat of tears burning my eyes, but I won’t let them fall.

I’m not lovesick and broken by what Alister did to me.

Was I hurt and confused and angry when I found out I was a pawn in his little game of revenge seeking? No shit I was. Maybe, more than likely, still am, but mostly that’s only when I think about it. It’s not this dark cloud following me around like a thunderstorm of misery.

The fact of the matter is I was starting to really like the guy, but I wasn’t in love with him by any means. I mean, shit, we were still sort of undercover when everyone found out I was but a fool who fucked a fool.

Yeah, that sounds bad. I mean, it’s college. We all have sex we regret at some point.

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