Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
KAMILA
T he rest of the week flew by. After I spoke to Cameron last Tuesday, Levi asked me about our past, and I responded by telling him the very, very brief version of it: him and my sister dated, we were all friends, it ended badly, we stopped talking, the end.
Of course, he wasn’t happy with my answer, and he does deserve to know the whole story, but I’m still not ready to tell anyone. It’s emotionally draining and I know this because there’s only one person who knows the entire thing other than my sister.
Emma. And the only reason she knows is because I got extremely drunk one night during our freshman year and ended up blacking out. Next thing I knew, I was throwing up on the bathroom floor, pouring my heart out about something that had only happened a couple of months prior. I never drank tequila again.
My class with Cameron on Friday morning was uneventful. He didn’t taunt me and only spoke when the professor made us work together. Even then, his whole demeanor was professional. We finished the work quickly as a team and were able to leave class early. That’s one thing that hasn’t seemed to change. We still work well together, even if we barely communicate. This past Tuesday and today, Friday, the same thing happened. He barely looked at me, barely spoke; we just did the work and left. He didn’t seem angry, he was…indifferent. I should be relieved. Maybe he put the past behind him, and I can too.
There’s something that doesn’t feel quite right, though. I saw the way he looked at me last week. The way he presented himself and the way he spoke. He’s holding back. All of his emotions are bottled up, and he’s a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. And when that happens, I refuse to be close to the blast.
I finish my makeup and snap out of my haze.
“What do you think?”
Em and I are getting ready for our first night out and I decided to go extra heavy on the eye makeup. It’s a light smokey eye with gray and red eye shadows, along with red glitter and some winged eyeliner. My hair is in small, tight curls that will later turn into large waves.
She studies my face. “It looks perfect. Mine?”
Em’s a minimalist and it suits her. White eyeliner sweeps over her water line, her full lashes are curled and done, and for a final touch, light brown eyeshadow. Meanwhile, she’s also a fan of blush and bronzer, making her already high cheekbones look more defined than usual. All of it complimenting her fair skin and blue eyes.
“Also perfect.”
She nods. “What are you wearing?”
“I’ll be right back to show you.” I’m so damn excited about tonight, to let loose and forget about classes, work, and certain people for a while.
I head to the mirror and am satisfied with my look. The outfit is all black except for a thin red belt around my high-waisted mini leather skirt. The top is a sheer long-sleeved shirt with a solid bralette underneath that my aunt gifted me for my birthday last year. It took me a long time to build up the confidence to wear these types of clothes .
I’ve never been thin. I’ve always had thick thighs, big breasts, wide hips, and a lower tummy. Ana was and still is the thinner one. I constantly compared myself to her in middle school and freshman year of high school. That was until I tried out for the cheerleading team. I became my own person and learned to accept, love, and appreciate my body more and more each day, but the insecurities never fully left. Old thoughts about my weight will still pop up from time to time. However, improvement is improvement, no matter how small.
Picking up my tiny purse to leave, I take one more look in the mirror before opening the door to Em.
“I would totally fuck you in that. Who’s attention are you trying to get tonight?”
I give Emma a twirl. “Yours, of course.”
She fans herself. “You succeeded. Now it’s my turn to get changed.” She runs to her room and slams the door.
My phone vibrates, and I groan when I see who it’s from.
Mike: Hey, you didn’t answer my last message. Wanna come over tonight?
Me: Sorry. I’ve been super busy. I’m having a girl’s night out so I can’t.
Mike: All good. Just let me know when we can hang out, ok?
Me: I will.
Me: We also need to talk.
I cringe internally at my last message. He isn’t going to respond well, not that I blame him. I mute his messages for now and tuck the phone into my purse. Jesus, I feel like such a bitch sometimes. Mike texted me two nights ago and it completely slipped my mind to answer after seeing the notification. It’s time to end things with him.
Faking my orgasm once is one thing, but twice? Hard pass.
I’ll tell him in person this weekend. For now, I want to enjoy the weekend. Either way, Mike always has another booty call on standby .
Em opens the door and lifts her arm dramatically, revealing her fit for the night. It’s a white v-neck long-sleeved cropped top showing off her midriff with low-rise dark jeans and short-heeled brown boots. Her blonde hair is tied up in a messy bun with her bangs hanging out.
“I look hot?” I snort. Em is too humble to realize how gorgeous she is.
She motions to her clothes. “So, it looks okay?”
“Hell yeah. You look sexy.”
“Yay.” She claps. “Let’s take a shot before we go.”
“I’ll get the vodka.” Unfortunately, neither one of us is twenty-one. Em’s twenty, and I’m still nineteen due to my late birthday. Meaning we have to hide all of our bottles between our personal items. We down two shots in a row and chase it with some orange juice.
“Did you text Luna?”
“She’s meeting us at the bar in fifteen.”
“Oh my God, our first night out since we got on campus, finally.” Em squeals jumping up and down.
“I know, took us long enough. Fake?”
“Got it.”
Our fake IDs, courtesy of Jake’s connections, have gotten us into every club and bar here and in the city. They look a little too real, yet like always with Jake, ignorance is bliss.
“Perfect.”
“Time to go.” She grabs my hand and drags us out of the dorm.
By the time we get to King’s Wolf, there’s already a short line starting to form outside. This girl Rachel we see from time to time decided to join us when we ran into her on the way here. She tells us about this insane party she went to last weekend while playing with the hem of her denim dress. She’s nice enough, but I’ve always kept my distance from her. She parties every week, four times a week, which is fine, but those are not the kind of people I want around me constantly.
We finally reach the entrance and hand our IDs to the bouncers, who scans them and let us in. “You Need Me Now?” by girl in red and Sabrina Carpenter floods through the speakers when the door opens, and we begin our search for Luna.
King’s Wolf has sports memorabilia along the walls, serving as a restaurant, pub, and club all in one. There are also pictures from when the school first opened. It has a long bar towards the left of the room made from dark wood that’s always cramped up by students trying to get their drinks. There are small and large booths all around, excluding the back of the bar where the dance floor is. It’s where most students over the age of twenty-one come, or others with decent fake IDs.
Luna spots us and waves from the corner round booth by the windows. Her sequined lilac shirt glints, highlighting her brown skin. Luna and I met in a Zumba class sophomore year. She’s a fellow Latina, specifically Colombian. The South American community in Driscoll is disappointingly small, so when I met her and she reminded me of home, I kept her close by. Any time we go out to the bars, she tags along.
There’s a girl that I don’t recognize sitting next to her. She’s gorgeous. Supermodel level gorgeous.
“Hey, guys. I hope you don’t mind, but I brought a friend with me. Zoey, this is Emma, Kamila, and Rachel,” Luna introduces us excitedly.
Zoey smiles. “It’s so nice to meet you guys. I’m sorry for crashing your night like this, I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course, we don’t mind,” Em and I respond in unison. Zoey’s shoulders visibly relax.
“You guys got the biggest booth in here. How’d you score that?” Em sits next to Zoey. Rachel is next to Luna on the other side, and I scoot beside Em.
Zoey scrunches her nose. “Well, I kind of brought some guy friends along,” she says fidgeting nervously. “I know it’s supposed to be a girl’s night out, but they begged me to come. I swear they’ll leave us alone once we start dancing.”
We all look at the new girl and grin with anticipation. Rachel is the first one to ask what we’re all thinking.
She leans forward. “Are any of them hot?”
“Oh yeah.” Luna nods before Zoey is able to. “Both of them are, and they’re both single, too.” The new girl's smile doesn’t reach her eyes when reacting to Luna’s comment.
Interesting.
“Well, where are these beautiful men?” my roommate asks. Both of us look around the bar, which has already gotten so crowded to the point where we can’t see past the people right next to our table.
“They’re getting our drinks, and they’ll be getting yours too once they get back. It was the deal we made in order for them to tag along. First two rounds are on them,” Zoey says with a wicked grin.
I point to her. “I like you.”
“Well, hello ladies.” A gorgeous man with blue eyes, brown hair, and dark brown skin approaches us. I sense the moment when Em, Rachel and I’s mouths drop open. The man is simply gorgeous. His biceps flex while he hands Luna and Zoey their drinks. Turning to Em, whose mouth is now closing, I take a quick look at Zoey, and the answer as to why she reacted to Luna’s response the way she did is written all over her face. Her eyes roam over the man’s facial features more than his body. She beams at him with adoration in her eyes, that is until she sees Rachel, who hasn’t stopped drooling over him. Her smile fades, replaced with jealousy, which is obvious to anyone who’s paying attention.
I stick my hand out to introduce myself before any of the other girls start to flirt with him. Even if Zoey isn’t officially with this man, it’d be rude to hit on him when she’s obviously known him longer than any of us have .
“Hi, my name is Kamila. These are my friends Emma and Rachel.”
He takes a moment to look at me and gives me an appreciative smile. While I’m flattered by the interest in his gaze, I continue to hold out my hand, not returning the flirtatious grin.
“I’m Will.” He shakes my hand before doing the same with the other girls.
Em looks way too happy, and I know she’s thinking about making a move. Before she opens her mouth to do just that, I nudge her side and get close to her ear while Rachel and Will start talking.
“I was going to call dibs on him and look at what you did,” she whispers.
“Zoey likes him, I can tell. So technically, she called dibs,” I whisper back.
She glances quickly to where Zoey is and back to me with wide eyes. “How can he be so oblivious? I mean, just look at her face.”
“He’s a boy. They can never tell.” We both giggle quietly at the truth in my statement.
We straighten our backs again, acting casual.
“Where’s your other friend?” Em asks him.
Will swivels his head, gazing over the crowd. “He should be back in a minute. He had to stop by the bathroom—oh wait, there he is. I think he forgot where we’re sitting. For crying out loud the guy is six-foot-five and still doesn’t use it to his advantage.” Will starts waving a hand. “Cameron, we’re over here!”
Oh, come on.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Em blows out an exasperated breath.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me is right.” My hand starts itching again.
Zoey turns to me. “You know him?”
“Oh, we know each other.”
Five seconds later, Cameron is standing next to Will with a douchey smirk plastered on his face. “She’s the girl who gave me that black eye last week.”
Zoey’s mouth falls open, and Luna chokes on her drink.
My face reddens, and I’m glaring at Cameron for outing me like that in front of strangers.
“Oh, shit, that was you?” Will howls. “You got him good, color me impressed.”
“Yeah, it seems like her sister’s temperament has rubbed off on her. Although I’m not sure where she learned how to hit like that.” He shrugs and takes a sip of his drink.
“Ah, sounds like there’s some history here.” Will nudges him.
So Cameron hasn’t told his friends anything either. I smile.
“You know Cam never told us why you hit him. Maybe you could enlighten us?” Will looks at me, amused.
My smile falters at that.
“Why don’t we get some drinks, huh?” Em basically pushes me out of the booth.
“Sounds like a great idea.” Anything to get out of here. I step out of the booth and stand directly next to Cameron. It’s a different view with these five-inch heeled boots, but I still feel small on the inside and out. He turns, flashing that same ridiculous smirk I’ve come to hate. I really thought he was ready to let go of the past, considering he’s been ignoring me for the past week and a half. That he would stop talking about my sister and comparing me to her, but it’s just as I suspected, he’s a ticking time bomb.
I stare directly into his dark eyes and don’t back down. He must read my thoughts because his smile falls, and his gaze turns cold and harsh as if remembering why our relationship is the way it is.
A small rush of satisfaction courses through me.
“Aw, come on, Cam, we’re all friends here, just trying to have a good time,” I whisper and tap his nose. “Don’t be a party pooper.” He flicks my hand away. “God, what happened to you? You used to be so much fun in high school. Remember all those parties we used to go to?” Making sure only he can hear me, I lower my voice. “Oh, and let’s not forget the epic senior bonfire. Remember that, Cam ?”
He takes a step forward and hisses, “Don’t you dare mention?—”
I raise my hand to stop him from spitting any venom my way. “You’re right. No more mention of the past. We’re here to have fun.” Smiling innocently at everyone, I excuse myself. “We’ll be back in a minute.”
Em is on my heels once I start moving and even though I can’t see him, I know Cameron’s eyes are following me every step of the way.