Page 58 of The Sky Between Us

Camilla sniffed and pushed her head into my shoulder, her golden hair falling over and giving her shield. “I hate it.”

“I know, honey,” I muttered quietly, because I did know how it felt to hate the world around you. I knew what it was like to think everyone was against you. And I knew how terrible it felt to be powerless.

She held onto me as if her life depended on it. She clenched onto my shoulder, her bony fingers digging into me as I hugged her curveless body.

“It’s going to be okay,” I encouraged her. “But only if you want it too.”

Camilla nodded and blinked up at me with her huge blue eyes that reminded me of Aiden. “You are really good at this.”

I didn’t ask her to define what “this” was, just simply smiled.

“Let me guess, you are a psych major,” she went on, but her words were missing the edge she wanted them to have.

“Marketing, actually.”

She shook her head, but a knock stopped her from replying.

“All good here?” Aiden’s cheerful voice echoed through the studio. Camilla squealed and jumped up and launched herself at her brother.

“I didn’t know you were coming!” she almost screamed, her voice growing high pitched and choked on tears.

Aiden wrapped his arms around her, and only then did I truly realize how tiny she was in his strong embrace. “Surprise.”

Camilla giggled, which sounded more like a cry and they remained entangled. Aiden bent his head down and whispered something to her ear that seemed to put her at ease.

Turning away, I slid my phone out of my pocket, to give them a bit of privacy, and just as a sign, the little device vibrated.

Dad: Tell me when you arrive.

With a frown, I quickly swiped my thumb across and texted back a short message.

Me: All good. See you Sunday!

Just as I hit send, a notification popped up on my screen making me drop my device in my lap, and I just stared at it speechless as thought swirled in my head. My heart rate doubled and my vision blurred as I kept re-reading the same notification.

Jake_K started following you.

Without my brain’s consent, my fingers moved clicking on the profile. Maybe it was a joke. Maybe it was a fake account and someone wanted to tease me. I kept thinking this until I saw the 35.7k followers and the little blue checkmark next to his name.

Scanning through his photos, my eyes stopped at one where he was hugging a blonde girl in a Harvard cheer uniform, in black long sleeved crop top and black cheer skirt. Both of them had crimson-white-black stripes in the school’s colors. I didn’t need to see the Harvard name printed across the top, I knew this uniform very well because Harvard Law was my dream and cheering for Harvard was a package coming with it. Jake signing with them was just an added extra that made us perfect high school sweethearts. But that was before everything. Because he followed through with the plan, without me. He left, not even looking behind, so why was he now looking me up?

Jake_K liked your photo.

The next notification just annoyed me more than anything. I have had around six posts so far, only one with Aiden. Giving in, I clicked on the notification and watched as a photo of me in my red one-shoulder sequined crepe mini dress pulled up. The dress, of course, belonged to Sarah as it was too short for my liking. My hair was carefully curled and was held back from my face by a devil horns headband. Aiden stood next to me in his black dress pants and suit jacket, wearing a burgundy red shirt under to give him the perfect Lucifer look. Minus the blonde hair. He didn’t let me color his hair black and he refused to wear devil horns but still, he looked perfect. I loved that picture as we looked great in it. My face was morphed into a smug smirk, while Aiden flashed a cocky half-smile to the camera. We weren’t hugging, just standing against each other. Yet, it was perfect.

Swiping, I exited the picture and realizing I had a direct message, I opened it up to see if Sarah had sent me some funny meme. It was indeed Sarah’s username in bold, but my eyes zoomed in the little bold blue text in the corner.

1 Request

My heart pounded against my chest and I darkened the screen of my phone.

You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s no way in hell Jake messaged me. Why would he?

Chapter 13

Hazel was distracted.

I could see it in her eyes as we sat at dinner with my parents. She tried to smile, but her eyes remained dark and focused. Something was weighing down on her, but I didn’t know what it was or how I could help her. In the meantime, Camilla looked at her as if she was her role model, watched her every move and even ate.

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