I nod.I’m such a lying bitch.
“We are going to head out, and you’re coming,” Cam states to Harmony, helping me to my feet.
Harmony pulls her dark hair back into a ponytail when she rises too, taking a seat on the edge of the bath where she begins to shake her head. “Chase promised me we’d work on a song we’ve been writing together after lunch.”
“Well, do it tom–” Cam starts to say, but Harmony cuts her off.
“Is everything okay?” she asks, her long fingers gripping the edge of the stone. “You can stay–”
“I can’t stay here,” I whisper.
Harmony’s eyebrows pinch, pure worry and confusion sliding across her face. “If you’re sick and you don’t want to be here, you can–”
“I’m not sick, Harms. I should be dead.”
A silence so thick fills the space around us, and I don’t know what comes over me, but my words are out before I can force them back down. “And that man down there, not Harlen’sfather, the other one, hurt me really fucking bad,” I whimper, then repeat, “I should be dead.”
Her green eyes break like shattered glass. “Blaine. I-I-I…” Her words are stuttered. “Does he know you know–” She pauses, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear nervously. “That it’s him?”
I shake my head. “No, I never saw his face, but I recognized a tattoo on his hip.”
“Shit,” she whispers.
“Come with us,” Cam states to Harmony, and I can’t help but notice how Harmony looks kind of frightened, but she finds a way to erect a shield as thick as the ones that both Cameryn and I carry–one made from trauma, one we had to learn to build on our own.
“Plea-” I begin to say, but Harmony cuts me off with a shake of her head.
“No…” She swallows her next words, then cracks her knuckles.
I shiver.
She exhales roughly. “He will know that you know who he is if we all leave, and that could be risky. We just need you two to slip out quietly. I’ll make up some bullshit in front of everyone, but I’ll let Tyler know.” She flicks her attention to me and asks, “Should I tell Harlen?”
I swallow. I don’t know if I can trust him, so I make a choice, one that could make or break us,even after everything he did for me.“No.”
She drops her chin and nods.
“Should we head to the club? It’s closed today, right?” Cameryn asks, and I just nod.
This is so fucked.
“You guys should go before someone comes looking,” Harmony states, and she’s right, the clock is ticking. Tyler andHarlen are too curious, way too fucking intuitive for their own good.
Cam reaches out, curling her fingers between Harmony’s. “Thanks, Harms.”
Harmony nods her reassurance before Cameryn walks away, then Harmony steps forward, wrapping her arms around me. “He won’t get to hurt you again. We won’t let that happen.”
A couple of hours have passed when the fifth text message from Harlen pings on my phone.
The first three were normal, fine even.
Harmony did what she promised.
But as they went unanswered and the fourth had arrived, I think Harlen had realized something was very wrong. My trembling fingers hold the phone in the palm of my sweaty hand as I struggle to navigate through the weathered storm erupting at my fingertips.
Harlen
Cherry, talk to me.
