Bree
By the time the bonfire’s heat seeped into my skin, I’d almost convinced myself this day hadn’t been a disaster. Almost. The glow of the flames licked the darkness, crackling in steady rhythm, wrapping me in its warmth as if it could burn away all the ugliness clinging to me. For a little while, I let it. For a little while, I pretended my morning hadn’t been shredded by an email that threatened my future, or that the scholarship I’d worked my whole life for wasn’t dangling by a thread. I even managed to forget the whisper in the back of my mind—the one that hissed that when this camp ended, my life as I knew it would too.
Gage helped with that. Honestly, he was the only reason I wasn’t curled up in bed, staring at the ceiling and crying myself raw. He hadn’t left my side all day. N
