Bad Things

Twenty-Three: Vendetta

Cameron and I have been doing this dating thing for nearly a month and everything has been going surprisingly smooth. I've spent multiple nights at the bar with him, we've drove around town in his beat up car and made out in the front seat like lovesick teenagers. As far as intimacy has went, we never went past making out in our underwear - it's just something that has to feel right before I jump into bed. I've thought a lot about it and deep down I want to come clean with everything before Cameron and I have sex. Though, even deeper down I'm terrified of what will happen when he finds out.

I've failed everything. I failed when telling myself to come clean before things went too far and I failed to leave the situation before it became too much to handle. But here I am, underage in a bar with my slightly older boyfriend who doesn't even know who I really am.

While taking a break from working the bar, I sit outside on the sidewalk and look at prom dresses on my phone. Last week I found a dress that I liked and settled for it. A beautiful tiffany bue slim fit dress that fell to the floor and had silver stones on the torso area. I had yet to speak to Carter and Thea again, but in my defense they haven't tried to contact me either.

I know that the last time I spoke to them I wasn't the greatest friend but I've reached my limit of having my friends dictate my life, so now my social life and circle of friends are practically non-existent.

"Now that's a hot dress... Going somewhere special?" I hear Cameron say as he sits next to me on the curb. He pulls out his pack of cigarettes and lights one up, taking a puff and waiting for my response.

"No," I answer quietly, "This is my prom dress."

"Yeah? I bet you look hot as fuck in it, how about you show me your prom photos sometime?" He asks, taking the cigarette from his lips and raising an eyebrow at me, "Let me see... You graduated a few years ago, yeah? I bet you don't even look that different."

I manage a small smile and sets my phone down beside me, "I'm practically the same person."

The air falls quiet and silence grow between us, but Cameron's arm finds my body and drapes around my shoulders. I look towards him and his eyes melt me on the spot, someone so careless and with a rough exterior could make my stomach turn to mush just by looking at me the way he does.

Cameron leans in and presses his lips against mine. The taste of cigarettes and whiskey linger on my tongue as we fall deeper and deeper into one another. His tongue traces my lower lip and just like that, we pull away from one another.

"I need to talk to you," He says softly.

"That's never good."

"It's about Vincent," Cameron adds and my heart sinks in my chest. "He's filing a lawsuit against the bar and me, saying that he was attacked without reason. At this point it's his word against mine, unless there's another witness who comes forward and backs up my reason for beating him up, this is going to court."

No. No, this cannot be happening. It needs to be me. Cameron needs me to go to the station and give a statement about what Vincent was doing to me that night. I can't let him get in trouble for protecting me, I would never allow that to happen but this was clearly where everything would tumble around me.

I gulp and look forward so I don't have to look Cameron in the eye when all of this is going through my head, "How much time do I have?"

"The judge will be picking a trial date at the end of the month... But babe, if you're not okay with talking about this I can handle it. The worse I can get is community service, I don't want you to have to relive that fucked up shit that he pulled."