Between Us

Chapter 53

A/N: only two more chapters to gooo! Well technically one more and then an epilogue. Enjoyyyy.

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Caden had taken me out in his car, somewhere further away from everyone else. We came through a clearing and into a large field of grass, like tall trees.

I tilted my head back to look at the sky but I guess I was too short because Caden's arms came around my thighs and lifted me up onto the hood of his car before following suit. I had no time to breathe or prepare myself for him to touch me. I sat on the edge of the car whilst he laid back, one leg up and the other hanging off.

Shaking my head, this time, I was able to see the stars sprinkled across the twilight sky blink down at us properly. It looked so close to us from here, where there were no houses or buildings blocking the view.

I let the wind slap at my cheeks. It cooled down the heat from the anger and the humiliation that fettered me for a while.

"Are you okay?" I asked him after what felt like years.

"...I don't think I blame Harry for hating me."

"Don't say that," I urged. "You did a lot of bad things, Caden, but you're repenting. I know you are."

He turned his face away, a muscle in his cheek jumping. I couldn't help but catch a gloss over his eyes. "Fuck," he muttered, swiping at his face. "I'd never thought I was so bad that I would drive someone to suicide."

I tried to take a deep breath, not wanting to think about how the poor girl felt in that moment. "She tried to speak to you, remember? At the store? You were kind to her. You told her you regretted it, Caden. That you were wrong. If she's forgiven you, then what does it matter what Harry thinks?"

He looked down at me, features softening before it hardened again. "What about you? Those two idiots thought that the solution to this was hurting you."

I still didn't understand why me. Why not Paris who's known him for longer? Or Leilani when she showed up?

"I'm more shocked that they were such great actors."

I thought back to their every action. I never would have guessed, in reality. Harry never showed me any signs. Except for maybe tonight, just before he called out for Caden.

Tonight's gonna be a great show, he had said. Was he preluding to Trixie reading my diary? It made sense. He didn't expect her to call him out. He wanted to be the puppet master, pulling the strings from behind the show.

"And I can't help but feel so bad for blaming Leo. He'd begged me, you know. Told me over and over that it wasn't him."

"It wasn't your fault," he said gruffly. "Trixie did say he was in on it. He wasn't exactly innocent." He sighed. "I don't care as much for what Harry was trying to do to me. You should have let me break his nose for what he did to you."

"Why? To give him more reason to think he was right in doing what he did?" Caden thought about this, before nodding.

"Wise words," he said, softly, a gleam in his eyes. I nudged him with a small smile.

I needed to tell Sai about this when I could so that she could see that I had been right about Paris. There was nothing to be fishy about. She was only shady because she was hiding her own problems

I took out my phone and texted Paris about every doubt I had—and apparently that one time I'd seen Paris talk to Leo conspiratorially was because she wanted to talk to Leo about whether he was planning something—since she knew his story from Caden. I couldn't stop apologising to her, but she, being the angel she was, took it in stride. She deserved to have her name cleared.