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His face turns quizzical. “What flyers? I haven’t even gone on campus yet. I was out late, so I slept through my class this morning.”
I shake my head. “I guess it doesn’t matter, then. If you see them, ignore them, okay?”
Cameron’s warm brown eyes are full of concern as he takes me in. “Hey, it’s okay. Whatever is on the flyers is probably not true, right?”
“That’s the thing. It sort of is,” I mumble. “It’s complicated, but the flyers are images of me in my underwear and they’re calling me the “Proud Alpha Lambda Slut”. My voice shakes as I explain it to him.
“What the hell, that’s messed up! Who put those out?” he asks, a tinge of anger in his voice. “I’ll report them if you feel like you can’t.”
“No, don’t!” I cry out, my hand flying out to cover his. “Please? All it will do is make everything worse.”
“Are you in trouble?” Cameron asks, his brow furrowed. “I can help if you’re in some kind of trouble.”
“It’s… it’s really complicated, okay?” I say, sniffling as I wipe away a few stray tears. “Archer Hudson and his brothers put them up, but I can’t do anything about it.”
Cameron swears, fury in his eyes. “I can deal with them,” he says darkly.
“Please!” I say again. “Seriously, don’t. I don’t want to screw them over again.”
His expression morphs into one of confusion. “Again?”
I sigh and sniffle once more. “Back in high school, you remember the incident? The fire in the gym at the pep rally?”
He nods, patiently waiting for me to continue. “They were pulling a prank. It was just a dumb prank. I don’t think they meant to hurt anyone. But it all went wrong and they ended up getting sent away to military school.”
“Yeah, I remember,” Cameron says, a grim look on his face. “Those assholes deserved it.”
“No, they didn’t,” I protest. “It’s my fault. I got scared for them, so I told the police what happened. You don’t understand, they lost everything because of me. If I’d only waited and talked to them first, then this whole thing could have been avoided.”
“So this is their answer to your doing the right thing?” Cameron asks, his voice a mix of frustration and anger. “They post flyers everywhere degrading you?”
“I told you it was complicated,” I say, a shudder escaping me. “The same day that everything happened was the day I was going to tell them that I was pregnant with their baby. We were alltogether. We had been since that summer. I never got a chance to say anything.”
Cameron frowns. “Do they know now?”
“They still don’t,” I whisper. “When they saw me on campus, all their pain and anger must have come rushing back. I needed to protect my son, and I felt so bad for what I did. I agreed to be their errand girl and then things turned sexual.”
“Were they forcing themselves on you?” Cameron asks, his voice low. I shake my head.
“It wasn’t like that. It was consensual. I wanted it just as much as they did. But I got tired of the bullying and the bad attitudes. I tried to fight back and then they pulled this. I think they thought I was trying to use them, just like how they thought I did before.”
Cameron’s lip curls in disgust. “I understand you wanting to protect your kid, but this is going too far. Let me at least help you. I can help. You don’t have to go through this alone anymore.”
A little sob escapes me. “Thank you.” I reach out and hug him tightly, feeling relief flood me. The cafe door opens with a jingle and the last person I expected to see walks inside.
Archer’s eyes immediately land on us, and I break away from Cameron awkwardly.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” he says, storming up to our table. “After I told you not to talk to him again, you run straight into his arms?”
“Don’t talk to her like that!” Cameron says, standing up with his hands balled into fists.
“I’ll do whatever the fuck I want,” Archer retorts, getting into his space.
I stand up as well, not wanting to see them fighting. “Cameron, don’t. Archer, I have nothing to say to you right now. Please leave.”
Archer scoffs, rolling his eyes. “I came here to talk to you and make sure you understand why we are punishing you. But it doesn’t matter how hard we try to teach you a lesson, you’re always going to try to hurt us. So I guess screw it. We’re done with you. You got your wish. You got exactly what you always wanted. You used us up until there was nothing left and now we’re walking away.”
Despair fills me and my eyes well with tears once more. All I wanted was for the boys to leave me alone, but not like this. As I watch him walk away, I break down crying once more. Cameron reaches for me, but I push him away, unable to accept any physical touch.
