Or maybe it’s just me learning how to hide it better.
When we finish and I’m toweling sweat off my neck, Jade bumps my shoulder with hers.
“Lunch after?” she asks.
I open my mouth to say no automatically—because saying yes to things still feels like stepping away from him, like I’m leaving Pops behind.
But then my phone buzzes in my locker.
CAMERON
I stare at his name like it’s a sign.
Like the universe is saying,See? You still have people. You still have life.
I answer. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Cameron says, and for a second I can hear it—how careful he’s being with his voice. Like he’s still learning how to be my brother in a world where Pops isn’t there to soften the edges.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“Yeah. Just leaving practice.” A pause. “You on campus?”
I glance around. “Yeah. Just finished lifting with the girls.”
“Cool. You wanna grab lunch?” he asks, like it’s casual.
But I know it isn’t. Cameron doesn’t do casual right now. Nothing about him is casual. It’s all controlled, contained, held together with jaw tension and forced routines.
He wants to check on me.
He wants to make sure I’m still…here.
I look at Jade and Blakely. Jade raises her brows like, Say yes.
Blakely mouths,Go.
I swallow. “Yeah, okay. Where?”
“Student union?” Cameron says. “I’ll meet you in fifteen.”
“Okay.”
I hang up, and Jade claps once like a proud mother. “Look at you. Making plans.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s my brother.”
“That’s still a plan,” she says.
Blakely grabs my towel and snaps it lightly against my arm. “Go. We’ll see you later.”
“Don’t do anything illegal without me,” I mutter.
Jade grins. “No promises.”
I change quickly, tugging on a hoodie that still smells like laundry detergent and something faintly familiar—like Pops’s house, like home before it got broken. My throat tightens at the thought, but I force myself to keep moving.
Motion is survival now.
