Path of Destruction (Broken Heartland, #2)(46)
“I don’t know...friends?” she asked with a sheepish grinning, hoping he agreed.
Of course we are friends, she told herself, trying not to let herself get lost in the thought of how much she enjoyed the feel of his hands and mouth on her. The way he seemed to know exactly how to move his fingertips across her skin and allow her to not so much as think a single thought. How in the short span of their time in that closet, she was free from every single thing that seemed to be dragging her down—her parents, the idiots at school, the memory of Kyle. But she refused to let herself confuse lust for love. What she’d had with Kyle was love. What she had with Brantley was not. It couldn’t be.
“I can’t thank you enough for helping me with my...” she trailed off. “Issues. I’m pretty sure that, if you wouldn’t have found me in that closet, I might have had a heart attack the first time those sirens went off.”
“Anytime.”
“I’d probably still be down there rotting. All alone,” she added. “It’s not like anyone would have come looking for me.”
“Now you’re just being dramatic,” he told her with certainty. “There is no way that people wouldn’t have noticed you were missing, Cameron.”
She shrugged, unsure if she believed him. The only time anyone ever looked for her was if they wanted something and as of late she wasn’t in the giving mood. So they all left her alone. All of them except him. The second Tuesday of every month the school district had deemed “Disaster Preparedness Day,” firing off the sirens at promptly ten o’clock. At nine fifty-five, between second and third period, Cami and Coop would find their way to the utility closet—each taking different routes. Hers through the east wing where the Summit Bluffs students had lockers and his through the west wing of Hope’s Grove transfers. By the time the sirens were blaring, they were already lip-locked in an act of urgency. She knew why she did it—to distract herself. To get lost in his touch for the next ten minutes. But where his motivation stemmed from, she had no idea.
“Why do you meet me every month?” In their nine months of encounters, she’d yet to ask him why he kept showing up.
“Because you need me,” he answered matter-of-factly.
Her heart fluttered at the sincerity in his words. On his face. The sudden realization that it might be more than just lust sucker-punched the air from lungs, but it was quickly followed by guilt. Like she was pushing aside Kyle and replacing him with someone else. She couldn’t do that. The boy she loved was gone and she deserved to be alone because she’d waited too long to tell him that she loved him. Not to mention the fact that the boy standing in front of her was Kyle Mason’s best friend—brother, according to Coop—and he had no idea that she was Kyle’s mystery girl from the summer.
“Can’t very well just leave you down there to rot, now can I?” Coop took her hands in his for a brief second before releasing them. “We better get back in there before someone starts a rumor that we’re sneaking off to hook up,” he said with a wink that seemed to ground her thoughts from running away with her.
“Yep.” She nodded.
They were friends. That’s all they could ever be.
“Do you know how many girls get pregnant on prom night?”
Ella Jane’s mom’s reflection frowned at her from over her shoulder. “How many, Ella Jane?”
“I don’t know the exact number. A lot. It was rhetorical. I don’t think I should go. I don’t even want to go. You’re basically forcing me to go to a dance historically known for drugs, date rape, and unplanned pregnancy.”
“Do you plan to have unprotected sex or abuse any illegal substances at prom?”
Now it was EJ’s turn to frown as her mom stuck a pin slightly too close to the skin on her hip. “No, ma’am,” she mumbled. She was still hungover from drinking too much with Jarrod Kent at a party the night before.
“Then you should be fine. Here. Turn around.”
Their eyes met and Ella Jane knew what her mother saw there. Frustration. Anger. Plenty of residual sadness. Kyle had gone to prom with Mindy Christensen. Their picture was still up on the mantel. He didn’t even really like her that much and she was just a cheerleader hooking up with a football player just because. EJ hadn’t even seen her at his funeral. Though she was kind of out of it on pain meds, but still. If she came, she didn’t bother to speak to any one of the family members.
Ella Jane didn’t have a date—not that she cared. But knowing there wouldn’t be a picture of her and her date to go up on the mantel next to Kyle’s made her strangely sad. She could read her mother’s eyes, too. Pity and heartache. She knew it was painful for her mom to look at her and she understood why. Because now that he was gone she could see it. That she was basically the female version of him with smaller features. No wonder Cooper never wanted anything more than her friendship.
“If Lynlee was here, the two of you would be going together. Have you spoken to her?”
“Her dad’s job is moving them to New York. She’s kind of bummed about leaving the beach but said she was ready for a new crop of boys anyways.”
Her mom bit her lip and her brow wrinkled. “Maybe it’s a good thing she’s not here. If you don’t want to go tonight, then don’t. But you look beautiful. Look.” She turned her back around so that Ella Jane could see the way the short strapless champagne-colored dress flattered her figure. She guessed it did, but couldn’t have really cared less. It was her mom’s dress from her senior prom. It had a sequined bodice and taffeta skirt that had to be shortened a bit because her mom was taller than she was. Millie Mason had wanted to put a sash around the middle and curl Ella Jane’s hair, but EJ had reminded her mom that this wasn’t the kindergarten princess pageant. It was the junior-senior prom and she was going alone.