A Reckless Bet.

Everly 5 - new knowledge

You're the only reason why.
Oh I don't wanna live a lie.
Mark my words.

I woke up to Cameron stumbling into my room. His eyes were bloodshot and he lazily grinned at me, he seemed drunk.

"What's up Cam?" I sleepily asked, as he came sitting down on the bed besides me. I looked over and my clock read 2.40am. What a time, remind me to ask him my spare key back.

"I have to tell you something." He said, fumbling with his hands.

"It's late and you're drunk.." I stated. "We can do this another time?"

"No, I need to tell you before you're gonna work with Ryder." He said, shaking his head grabbing my water bottle.

He made me even more clueless of what this was about.

"Before I knew you and Ryder, I was friends with Zarah."

Ah. Zarah.

"We didn't have a friendship like yours, but we were good friends nonetheless. Sometimes I was even a little jealous of your close friendship with Ryder. Not that I so badly wanted to be friends with either of you but just that kind of friendship." He started.

"When we got to know you both, I immediately saw things in him I knew you didn't." He paused, making my insides itch with curiosity. "He was clearly in love with you."

I widened my eyes, "He was?"

Cameron looked at me with eyes filled with pity. "Ev, he one-hundred fucking percent was in love with you. Trust me.."

I nodded, not knowing what to say about it.

He drank a little water before continuing: "But, that was not the point. The point is that Zarah wasn't what you thought she was.

"When I started to be friends with her I always noticed how she did things different than most girls I was friends with, like she was always trying to hide her inner-self.

"I hated the fact she wouldn't open up to me at first, later I got to understand why she wouldn't.

"Over time I became closer with her and Ryder, than with you. It just felt weird to hang out with you alone, as I didn't really know you like Ryder did, plus I didn't want him to think I would want to come in between you two. But then Ryder and I had some classes together and we got closer.

"The thing with you and Ryder happened and then I realized I really had feelings for Zarah."

Cameron paused and chugged down the rest of his water before continuing:

"When I told her, she acted so awkward, I really didn't know what to think of it. Turns out she was already crushing on someone else."

What? Why didn't I know that?

"Eventually Ryder and I got closer and he told me about his anxiety. That he sometimes was so scared of himself, that he hurt himself over the fact that you didn't like him.."

I tried to blink my blurry vision away at his words. What the heck?

"But he was even more scared of the power you held. He told me—once when we were drunk together—that you had his mind occupied like all day and night, and he didn't know what to do anymore. He hated the fact that you weren't as close with him as you were before. I then told him on accident about Zarah, that she didn't like me either because she was crushing on someone else. I shouldn't have told him it that but I was fucking drunk."

My eyes were watery by now, hearing how much Ryder had hurt because of my stupid actions made me hate myself even more.

Cameron swallowed. "We then made a bet. The most stupid bet ever. A reckless bet."

"What bet?" I asked, my voice cracking, scared of what might come.

"We made a bet on Ryders account, for him to get with someone, just to make you jealous so that you'd finally see Ryder was the only one who'd eventually love you."

"No." I shook my head wildly. This wasn't true. This couldn't be. They weren't like that.

"That someone appeared to become Zarah, she was there the right time right place and I pushed him to get with her. As she didn't like me I wanted someone good for her in my place."

Let him be wrong, please.

"We thought it would be a good thing, Ryder wanted to hurt you for what you did to him back then. And Zarah, I really don't know why she agreed with Ryder to get together. She knew it was a set up for you to get with Ryder but I thought she wouldn't give in as she wanted Ryder for her own. I think she secretly hoped they would've fall in love..? I don't know."

"Stop." I pushed his voice to the back of my head.

"Ever, you need to hear me out. It's been wrecking me for a fucking long time." Cameron pried me, sounding desperate.

Tears blurred my sight as visions came drowning into my thoughts.

Cameron started talking again but I zoned out.

All these years I had ached for Ryder, for him to acknowledge me as a friend again, all these years I had needed to realize Ryder had been telling me the truth that time.

That time where he said he'd love me like no one ever would, that he'd be the only one there for me.

But I didn't believe it, thought he was pulling a prank on me. So I rejected him harshly as he asked me out. I never had seen him so hurt, so deeply wrecked when he walked away.

I hurt him, all the while I thought he wanted to hurt me. 

And in the end, he had hurt me even more with getting with Zarah than I thought he had when I thought he pulled a prank on me.