Page 16 of Ruin

Laughter bursts from him.

Filter, Cam. Filter, for God’s sake.

“I was just thinking of a walk. Maybe a ride on the Ferris wheel. But good to know where your head’s at.” He wipes the laughter from his eyes.

“Sorry,” I say.

“Don’t be. You’re right to be careful. You don’t know me.” He pauses and lifts his cap from his head. His hair is dark brown. He runs his hand over his sheared hair. Then, he puts his cap back on and fixes those bright blue eyes of his on mine. “But I want you to know me. And I really want to know you.”

I bite my lip and then tuck my hair behind my ear. “Okay,” I say.

He smiles. A full smile this time, showing his teeth. They’re white but not perfect. His front teeth have a slight overlap to them. But it suits him. Makes him even more handsome, if that’s possible.

“I’m Zeus,” he tells me.

“Like the god?”

He chuckles, and I realize how that sounded.

“Not that I think you’re a god, of course,” I add with a roll of my eyes to try to come off as nonchalant. It totally doesn’t work.

“Of course not.” He smiles. “But, yeah, like the god.”

“Cameron. But everyone calls me Cam.”

“Who’s everyone?”

“My aunt.”

“The cop.”

“And my friends back home in Baltimore. I just moved here a few days ago.”

He nods, like he already knows this. “Have you been on the Ferris wheel yet?” he asks.

I shake my head, not wanting to say that I wanted to but didn’t because of a couple of mean girls.

“Well, you can’t come to the fair and not go on the Ferris wheel. It’s like the law of Coney Island.”

“Really?” I lift a skeptical brow.

“No.” He grins boyishly, and I laugh. “But you do need to go on the Ferris wheel. Come on.” He holds his hand out to me.

“Um…” I hesitate, and he sees it.

“Do you not like Ferris wheels?”

“No. I mean, yeah, I do. I just…well, without sounding like a kindergartner, I was in line to ride it just before, and…some girls were mean to me. And, after that, I didn’t so much feel like going on it anymore.”

“How were they mean?”

“I can’t believe I’m telling you this.” I self-deprecatingly roll my eyes, exhaling a breath.

But he doesn’t say anything. Just waits.

So, I say, “They called me a loser because I was going to go on the ride alone.”

“And do you care what they think?”