Page 88 of Finding a Melody

“Like how you didn’t tell us about the rumors spreading around you?” Paxon asked.

“Oof. Is this how it works?” I asked.

“Paxon,” Justin warned.

Paxon blinked and realized what he said. He looked away from us. “It’s not that I’m trying to hold that over your head or anything, Cadence. But to learn that you were essentially being bullied for an entire week and we didn’t know. That hurt. I want to be there for you. And the others feel the same. So it was like you didn’t trust us to support you.”

Shame settled into my stomach and now I had trouble looking at them. “It happened. I didn’t want to make it into a big deal. What you guys did was precious to me and I didn’t want it to become something ugly.”

Paxon smiled. “We have zero regrets about singing to you. We fucked up by breaking your trust, so we had to do what we could to make it up to you. Frankly, it wasn’t enough. But it’s not a reason for you to have to go through this bullshit. That was never our intention. We care about you. You’re one of us, even if you don’t believe that. That means when someone calls you a name, even so much as looks at you funny, you let us know.”

“That’s... different,” I admitted, playing with the ends of my hair. “Communicating like that, it’ll take time. I only ever had Micah to talk with, but we were never this open with each other. We talked about our problems, sure, and supported each other when we could, but never like this.”

“What is Micah’s deal anyway?” Paxon asked.

“What do you mean?”

Paxon looked a little embarrassed. “I mean, who is he to you?”

“I already told you, he’s my childhood friend. We’ve known each other for a long time.”

A weird humming noise came from Paxon. He clearly thought something else, and I wanted to ask what, but then class was over and we had to go change.

“What are you doing after school?” Paxon asked.

“Laurens is in town for a short while and wants to meet up again about something. I’m going over to meet with him. Apparently, even though he’s traveling all over the place, he conveniently keeps coming back.”

“Isn’t that the creepy guy?” Justin asked.

“It isn’t that bad. He just needs to learn boundaries.”

“Is he touching you?” Justin’s voice was harsh.

“No.” I snorted at the thought. “He’s not doing anything to me. He just makes me feel uncomfortable.”

Paxon pulled out his phone. “Someone is going with you. Justin and I have practice after school. Toby has to stay after too. That leaves Bryan.”

“What are you doing?” I reached for his phone, hoping to stop him. “You don’t have to do anything. It should be a quick update meeting. I guess he wants to change a concept and wants to discuss it with me.”

“We aren’t leaving you alone. Not with everything going on,” Justin tuned in. “Let Bryan know. He’ll be more than happy to go with her.”

“Done.” Paxon grinned. We just made it to the lockers when he got a reply. “He’ll be waiting after you change.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” I said.

“It’s not about that and you know it,” Justin said, pulling me to a stop. He positioned us so we faced each other, and I had no choice but to see how serious he was. He held on to my forearms, unwilling to let me go, but his grip wasn’t tight. It was just to make sure he had my attention. “We don’t want to risk anything happening to you, and frankly, until everything is resolved with the Ryders, it’ll continue to be like this. We aren’t trying to get in the way of your freedom or taking it away. We just want to make sure someone is with you so that if something does happen again, you aren’t alone to face it. Like when they chased you into a ditch. Seth was with you.” He paused, his fingers flexing into my arm. “I hate to think about what would have happened if he wasn’t there with you.” Justin shuddered.

I didn’t want to think about that either. I was so terrified during the whole thing. Seth was too, but he at least was able to function enough to keep us on the road as long as possible and even thought to call the police. If the police hadn’t been close when we finally did crash, what would the Ryders have done? Would they have finished the job? Shoot us in the head execution style? Made sure the truck exploded with us in it?

I shivered at all the possibilities. It really was good that Seth was with me, even if I felt guilty for dragging him into danger with me.

“Fine.” I caved.

“Good. Go change and meet up with Bryan. We’ll see you after practice.” Paxon pulled me into a side hug before going into the men’s locker room. I waved at Justin before going into mine to change. The girls inside gave me side glances, but at least no one was whispering about me. It was just a bunch of curious looks.

I was finishing up changing when one of them finally approached me. She had short blond hair cut to her chin, with soft waves in them. Her brown eyes were filled with curiosity and something else that set me on edge.

“Hi,” she said.

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