I shake my head again. “You didn’t need me for anything more than comedic relief. I mean, who actually calls on the dunce in a crisis?”
Everyone goes dead silent apart from Theo, who curses under his breath. Even through the screen, I can feel palpableamounts of regret and guilt coming from his sage green eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell any of us you felt that way?” he asks softly. “If we…ifI…would’ve known the jokes hurt your feelings…”
All I can do is shrug, utterly helpless, before my words come out all grated and raspy.
“I guess I just felt like I had to play my role, you know? And I don’t know, maybe part of me was worried that if I wasn’t okay with that, then you guys wouldn’t know how to be around me anymore.”
“Cam, we want you around because we care about you. Not because we like laughing at you,” Oakley, whose brows are drawn together tightly, replies.
“Yeah, man. That part is just a bonus,” Phoenix adds, a little smile forming. “And I get to say that because I chose to love you thanks to this idiot bringing me into the fold.”
He wraps an arm around Holden on the last couple words, who just shoots a dirty look back at him.
“Hey, didn’t we just establish name calling is uncalled for?”
“It’s really okay, guys. I don’t want you to tip-toe around me or whatever,” I insist after clearing my throat, but Oakley isn’t having any of it.
“And we won’t be. But that doesn’t mean we also can’t cool it a bit, all right?”
Everyone nods in agreement, Theo included, whose features are still drawn down in guilt when his gaze flashes off the screen, likely to Madden.
“My ride is here,” he utters a second later, attention flicking back to me. “I’ll see you at the hotel in a couple hours, all right?”
I nod, not trusting my voice at the moment, and with that, his frame on the screen goes blank before disappearing entirely.
There’s a somberness after Theo disappears, leaving only Holden’s and Oakley’s frames on the screen, and a sense of guiltslices through me like a laser.
“I’m sorry, guys. I wasn’t gonna say anything, but Oakley asked what’s wrong and it just…” I gesture vaguely, a watery laugh slipping out.
“The shoe dropped,” Quinton whispers with a sad smile.
Oakley’s gaze flicks to Quinton before returning to me. “How’d you find this out, exactly? About Lexi and the real reason for the fake relationship?”
I shake my head before clearing my throat. “I overheard him talking to our other roommate, Bailey. He asked what Logan was going to do now that she’s available, and he said he didn’t know.”
“Fucking Christ,” Oakley mutters under his breath. “Sometimes he makes it really hard to not wanna kill him.”
“Please, don’t say anything to him, Oak,” I plead, my voice cracking. “I know he’s your brother, and I don’t want you in the middle of this more than you already are. Just…let me walk away from this with some dignity.”
Oakley’s lips roll inward before he nods in agreement, although I can tell it’s reluctant from the way he goes rather silent after that. They all go relatively silent, in fact, only making the occasional comment or conversation, but they still stay on the phone with me, making sure I’m not alone as I drive to the hotel address Phoenix texted earlier. They don’t hang up once I’m checked in and up in the room either, despite me collapsing in the bed, completely drained mentally and emotionally.
It’s only when Theo texts the group chat, saying he’s arrived and needs the room number, that they’re finally okay with letting me go.
There’s a knock on the door a couple minutes later, and I somehow find the strength to haul myself off the bed to answer it.
I was holding it together, for the most part, after the initial breakdown. There were a couple moments they even pulledlaughter out of me, however half-hearted it may have been. But the second I pull open the door and see Theo in the flesh, overnight bag in hand, I lose it all over again.
“Shit.”
He rushes through the door, drops his bag, and wraps his arms around me in the tightest embrace I’ve ever had. As if it’ll be enough to hold together all my shattered pieces while I break down in his arms.
“I fell for real. God, I’m so fucking stupid.”
The words leave me in a nearly hysterical gasp, and my body shakes as I bury my face in his shoulder. But he just squeezes me harder against his chest.
“No, Cam,” he whispers, his voice cracking. “No, you’re not.”
