A Previous Selection

Chapter Thirty-Two

"Are you sure you're okay?" Cameron asks, and I squeeze his hands as I give him a small smile.

"Yes, I'm sure. Now, you need to get going before you're late for your meeting."

He nods his head.

"I know." He glances down at our hands before looking back up at me. "Are you completely positive? Because if you don't want me to leave you, I can totally reschedule this meeting. It's not that important."

"Cam," I say as I look him deep in the eyes. "I promise that I'm going to be okay. I'm getting better, and I think I'll be able to manage a couple of hours without you."

"As soon as it's over, I'm going to be right back here. Okay?"

I smile at him.

"Okay."

He pauses.

"I'm not being too like protective or clingy, am I? Because I promise I'm not trying to be that way. I just really care about you and want to make sure that you're going to be okay, and - "

I cut off his rambling by kissing his cheek.

"Don't worry about it. I think it's cute."

He smiles back at me.

"So you think I'm cute?" he says, and I giggle.

"Maybe. But we can talk about that later. Right now, you need to get to work."

"Fine. But this isn't over."

His playful expression melts into a soft, loving one before he pushes a strand of my hair behind my ear and places a gentle kiss on my lips.

"I love you."

"I love you too, Cam. Now go."

"Okay, okay. I'm leaving."

He places one last kiss on my cheek before running out of the room, and when he's gone, I walk over to the table in the back of my room and sit down at it. I pick up a few pieces of paper, grab a pen, and take a deep breath before starting the letters for my family.

It's been a couple of days since Cameron sent HIM home, and even though the relief came immediately after I knew he was gone, unfortunately, all the other bad stuff seemed to linger. I was no longer afraid since I knew he couldn't hurt me, but the memories didn't automatically go away like I was hoping they would. Neither did the hurt.

So these past few days I've been struggling to get past them and get back to my old self. I'm getting there, slowly, but it's been hard.

Cameron's been there with me pretty much through it all. He's barely left my side which has actually helped a lot. Having him around makes me feel safe, and he reminds me of the hope that I was able to find when I got here. Just looking at him is enough of a reminder that there's more to life than what that jerk did to me. There's more to life than what the past has given me.

This time I haven't been pretending to be sick. I was serious when I said that I was done with that. So I've been participating in everything that I need to. I've went to every meal. I've been to all of Evelynn's queen lessons. Everyone has been able to tell that something's wrong, but thankfully, they don't ask questions. They just let me be.

I know that when I told Addison that there were just some things that I was dealing with that she automatically knew that it was about my past, and she didn't pry any further. And the other girls don't really talk to me on a normal basis anyway, so if they're talking about me, they're not doing it to my face which I honestly don't care about anymore. I'm just going to let them think what they want and not worry about it.