Page 87 of Call the Shots
“There’s forty thousand students at Marrs, I promise that’s not true.” She untangled her crown of golden leaves from her hair. “How hard was it to take the video down from those sites?”
“What do you mean?” I frowned. “It’s the internet, June. That shit’s forever.”
“Your school didn’t…?”
“There’s nothing they can do.”
“My best friend, Kassie, she’s an animation major, and she volunteers for this archive site because there’s so many lost movies and so much missing footage—servers get old. Phones get broken. Things get deleted.”
“I don’t want to deal with it anymore.”
“What if I could do something about it?”
I kept waiting for the jokes to crack, but they didn’t come. There had to be some reason why June was saying this, but I didn’t know what that was.
“Do something?” I finally asked.
“I have friends in high places who owe me favors. Do I have your…um…permission to do something if I can figure out something to do?”
“There’s nothing?—”
“But if there is…?”
“Yeah. Whatever.”
I faced away from her. She wouldn’t do anything, it was one of those empty promises like my last coach gave. Was that June being nice? Because that was nice. After the shit I put her through, it was nicer than I deserved.
I nodded towards my bedroom. “I—uh—I’m going to pass out.”
“Do you…want a hug…?”
“Well, I’m not eight years old so no,” I said, sharper than I meant.
June’s eyes fell to her bed, and I mumbled through an apology before leaving. I should’ve offered to close her door, she always closed it before bed, but I didn’t.
I always closed mine too. I started to and stopped, holding it open.
My bed was against the wall, with no eyeline towards the living room. Muttering, I pulled my mattress off, I was too drunk to do it properly, sliding it until it was as close to the door frame as I could make it. The blankets were next, piled on me, and I turned to the right, in direct eyeline with June’s door.
If she needed anything, I’d hear her.
I put my hand to my chest, breathing in slowly. I felt sick. In that hazy temperature when you’re too warm but nothing cools you down.
I didn’t know what it was.
CHAPTER 33
JUNE
NO CONCHA
The hangover hadmy brain feeling like Swiss cheese and I groaned into my pillow, faintly aware of the knock at the door.What time is it?My phone was off, and my alarm clock was…unplugged?
Unplugged?
The door creaked open, and Bear glanced in, freshly showered, hair slicked-back.
The hangover took a backseat as sympathy coursed through me. I had no idea that Bear’s nudes were leaked, but it was more than that. While he’d been going throughthat,I’d been vacationing with his family, complaining that Bear didn’t want to join. Something wasn’t adding up. I didn’t believe that Bear had been avoiding family time anymore. But what was the alternative?
