Never Alone

Chapter Two

*Cami's POV*

My schedule wasn't terrible but it wasn't the greatest either. To start the day I had art, biology, and AP English, then lunch, followed by my worst nightmare-a block of speech and debate, then a free period and study hall to end the day. Since I wasn't doing anything extra and didn't need anymore credits, study hall was the only thing left. Which was fine, I could sit in the library and relax for the end of the day, that honestly sounded wonderful. The first half of the day went be semi smooth, it was all normal first day bullshit-class syllabi, expectations and end of the year readiness. Lunch turned out to be okay as Wyatt had the same lunch hour as me, so I at least had someone to sit with, even if it was out of pity. His friends felt honored to have a senior sitting at their table, but I'm sure that would change once they found out my reputation here.

I felt a tap on my leg from the girl next to me, Olivia. "Who is THAT?!" I followed her finger to where she was looking and saw that she was laser focused on none other then Wesley Lewis as he came out of the lunch line. "Oh, um, that is Wesley Lewis. He is a senior and serves as the editor of the newspaper or creator of the Clearwater Crackle app." At that, I felt my brother straighten up and watch Wesley walk to the senior table. "Do you think he is gonna have open interviews for the newspaper for the freshmen, Cami?," Wyatt looked at him like he was the king of the school. "I'm sure he will Wyatt, but probably not until next week sometime. He will want you guys to get comfortable in your new surroundings first." Wyatt nodded, never taking his eyes off of Wesley. Suddenly, I could see an idea forming in that little brain of his and I didn't like the look in his eyes.

"Cami, sister, leader of the pack, do you think you might be able to put in a good word for favorite little brother?" He pouted his lips and widen his eyes, trying to look desperate and needy. "One, you are my only brother, so that doesn't work on me, two, I don't talk to Wesley, so it would seem weird to just go ask him for a favor." Wyatt looked at me with puppy dog eyes that I could have sworn started to water. When he jutted out his bottom lip, I held up my hand, "I will see what I can do, but no promises, k?" He jumped up and hugged me from behind, causing me to let out a slight giggle. I didn't have any real intention to talk to Wesley about my brother, but Wyatt didn't need to know that just yet.

********

I dragged me feet to the 3rd floor after lunch. Speech and debate was next and, even though it was only the first day, I didn't want to go. I knew my ex-friend Michelle would be there, since she is always on the speech and debate team, even though she could find a valid point in an argument if it bit her on the nose. I was sure that Ms. Summers kept her on the team as a distraction; Michelle was beautiful, and that always worked in their favor come competition time. The geeky boys from rival schools would always get so flustered when they saw her. I made it to the middle of the hall when I started to feel my vision tunnel. I watched as Michelle, her boyfriend Mason, and a few other kids from their clique walk into the classroom. He was with them. Him, the one that turned me into the shy, awkward person I am now. Jason Myers. Star pitcher for the varsity baseball team for the last three years. Ladies man extraordinaire and...my ex boyfriend.

I don't know if you could really call him my ex. We only "dated" for about 2 months in the summer after sophomore year and no one even knew about it, not even Michelle and Amanda. Not because I didn't want to tell them; I was ecstatic that he had asked me out. It was the perfect fairytale-star baseball player and the co captain of the cheerleading squad. He was tall and lean but also very fit. He had gorgeous black hair that he kept shaved on the sides on long on the top. His eyes were blue bottomless pits that you would stare into for hours. It was my parents story to a T and I knew that they would love him for that fact alone. The first month was absolute bliss. He treated me like a princess, like ever love story you've ever heard. We had picnics on the beach, stayed up to watch the sunrise, laughed and held hands and skipped down the pier. He was my first real boyfriend and he was my first kiss, which was magical, of course. He was the utmost gentleman, he never pressured me into doing anything that I wasn't ready for or didn't want to do. That is until...

I had to leave, I couldn't sit in a two hour class with him. I couldn't do it. I turned around planning on heading to the office to see about getting my schedule changed when I ran into another wall. No. Not a wall again. Wesley Lewis. I stepped back and stared at my feet in embarrassment. "Hey Cami, if you are gonna make a habit of ramming your head into my chest, I might need to start wearing padding to school," he chuckled breathlessly as he reach out a hand to steady me. I took another step back; I couldn't stand guys touching my anymore. I made me feel dirty. "Hey," he said softer, "look at me." I don't know why, but I slowly raised my head to meet his gaze. He stared into my eyes, and I immediately felt calmer, like I could breath a little. "Do you have the speech and debate block with Ms. Summers right now?" All I could do was nod while holding his eyes with mine. "Okay, well, the room is the other way. I am heading there too, I could show you." His mouth pulled up in a crooked smile and I bristled. "I know where the room is, thank you."

I turned and walked away from him and toward the class. Why do guys think we don't know what we are doing? Why do they feel the need to treat us like lost children and then come over to swoop in and save us? Ugh, it was gross and so typical of a high school boy to play the white knight role. I heard him jog up behind me, and we fell in step together. "Hey I didn't mean to offend you, I was just offering to walk you to class. Sorry if I seemed rude." He did sound a little disappointed and I shifted uncomfortably. This was all getting a little to personal, a little too close for my liking. Better to shut this down now, "yeah, well I'm sure you don't want to be seen walking into class with Clammy Cami, so I was just saving you from the social suicide that it would cause." I stopped right before the door and waved my hands in front of me, indicating that he should go in first. He stared at me with a dumbstruck look on his face. The bell rang and we stood there in a stand off, neither one of us wanting to move first.

"Ahem, if you two wouldn't mind finishing this fascinating conversation after class, I would love to get started," Ms. Summers said from inside the classroom. I glanced away from Wesley to see that the entire room was watching us, on the brink of laughter. I felt my heat up to the point it felt like I was melting and I wanted to cry. I could feel Jason's gaze on me and when I looked over, he was the only one not laughing. He stared into me with a look I knew too well. I could practically hear what he was thinking, careful Cami, you have a secret to keep remember? I shuddered and looked away from him. Wesley put his hand on my back and guided me into the classroom. I stepped away from him and made my way to an empty seat in the back of the room, as far from Jason and Wesley as I could get. I pulled my hood up and slouched down in my seat, making sure to stare at the floor so no one could see the tears welling up in my eyes.

Ms. Summers got started and everyone quickly forgot about the scene at the door and I blew a sigh a relief. I started taking notes as to what would be expected for the year but couldn't shake the feeling of eyes on me. I glanced up for underneath my hood to see Wesley, two rows up, turned slightly in his seat looking at me. When he saw that I was looking as well, he mouthed You okay? and I just shrugged my shoulders and looked back down. Why did he care? He, no doubt, was going to hear about this from his friends later on and I'm sure he would be sick with embarrassment when they did. He would made sure to steer clear of me for the rest of the year after this, and that is exactly what I wanted. I didn't need anymore attention then what I had already created for myself. "Alright, so that brings us to the end of the year projects," everyone groaned as Ms. Summers continued. "Now that we are all seniors, I feel, it would be appropriate to try and tackle some deeper issues than we have in previous years." She started to pass out papers as she went on. "Here are topics that will be deemed acceptable for your final piece. You can take the pro side or the defense, just make sure it's how you actually feel about the topic." I gazed down at the paper as she made her way to my desk. Abortion, adoption, and teen pregnancy were the top of the list as those were hot topics. I continued to scan when my eyes rested on one that made my breath catch. s****l assault and why victims failed to report was the last topic on the page. I quickly looked away and without thinking, my eyes went to where Jason was sitting. He was also looking at the paper with look of anger on his face, so I am sure that he just saw the same topic I did. He looked over at me and just shook his head no. His eyes held the threat that he couldn't say out loud. I quickly looked away. I knew what I had to do. Could I do it?

*Wesley's POV*

After my second run in-literally-with Cami in the hall, I could tell that there was something really wrong with her. And I didn't mean that in a bad sort of way, just in the fact that I could tell she had been through something, something that had made her the way she was now. I turned to look at her in the back of the room and found that she was also looking at me. I mouthed You okay? toward her to which she just shrugged and looked back down. I still couldn't believe that this was the same Cami from just two years ago. How did she go from the bright and bubbly girl to this shell of a person? And why all of the sudden could I not stop thinking about her? I was a fixer by nature; people would bring me problems of all kinds, relationship issues, home life issues, schools issues, and I found a way to help them out. All I wanted to do now was fix Cami. I could tell that she was suffering and I wanted to help lift at least some of that suffering.

The rest of the class went by just fine and I was excited to get to the editing room. I had some plans for the paper this year and I was ready to get all the details sorted. I also had to start thinking about holding interviews to fill some positions in the next few days. When I entered the room, Cooper was already sitting at one of the computers typing away. "Hey man, what you got there?," I asked as I walked up behind him to see what he was doing. "I thought I would get started on the Welcome Back issue. I was hoping to get it out be the middle of next week to welcome all the new freshmen in." He continued typing and I left him to focus on his work. I sat down at the desk at the front of the room and pulled up the Clearwater Cackle app on my phone. Since school was officially back in session, I had opened the app this morning. I decided to see what kind of drama people were talking about already.

As I was scrolling through the drama section of the app, I noticed that a few people had uploaded a string of pictures. As I took a closer look at the pictures, I saw that they were from last period. More specifically, they were of Cami and me standing in the doorway of Ms. Summers' room staring at each other. Some people were commenting about how much weirder "Clammy Cami" had gotten this year already, but there was one comment that was different. This one was from someone who was using a screen name instead of their real name. It was from BBStar21 and it said "He better stay away from her if he knows whats good for him." I paused and reread the comment a few more time. People had replied with "LOL" or "it would ruin his popularity" but BBStar21 didn't say anything else. I decided to direct message this person to see what they were talking about.

WLewisMOD- hey man, saw ur comment. wats up?

BBStar21- nothin else to say. stay away

WLewisMOD- and if i dont?

BBStar21- u might not like what u find out about her

After that last message, their name disappeared indicating that they had gone offline. To say I was confused would be an understatement. Who was this and why did they care so much if Cami and I were friends? Not that we were, Cami made sure to keep her distance and hardly say anything to me the few times we were together. I scrolled through the message section of the app until I found who I thought was Cami and sent out a message.

WLewisMOD- hey just wanted to check on u. make sure there wasn't any lasting effects from your multiple head injuries today.

It took a moment before anything came through, but soon enough, my phone buzzed with a notification.

CSutton- thanks im fine

CSutton- hows ur chest?

I smiled. It seemed that Cami was more open to talk if it wasn't face to face. That was fine with me.

WLewisMOD- i will live lol but really, if u need to talk, im an open ear

CSutton- good to no. i do have a question

WLewisMOD- oh? k shoot

CSutton- my little brother wants to interview for the paper. mind giving him a shot?

WLewisMOD- of course. holding interviews next week, tell him to come down

CSutton- cool i will let him no.

CSutton- and wes?

WLewisMOD- yea?

CSutton- thanks for being nice

Before I could reply, she had logged off. I sighed. It had only been a day, but I was couldn't help the attraction I was feeling for Cami. I don't know if it was the mystery behind her sudden change or just your normal high school crush, but I was going to get her to open up to me. I knew it.

*Cami's POV*

I waited in my car for Wyatt to finish up. I more than ready to go home and it was annoying at how long he was taking. When he finally jumped in he shot me a smile. "Hey there, how was you first day of high school?" He answered me by giving me a play by play of his whole day with the excitement of a kid that had just met Santa. When he finished I spoke up, "oh by the way, I talked to Wesley. He said interviews are next week and to come down. So you better go." I shot him my sisterly death glare and he wooped with excitement. "Really Cami?! You talked to him for me?! Oh thank you so much! I won't let you down. I will make sure to be the best part of that newspaper." I laughed as we pulled up to the house. He jumped out and ran up to the door, no doubt getting ready to give mom and dad the same speech he just gave me.

I walked inside and went straight up to my room. I wanted to change and just relax a little before getting everything organized for the next day. I wanted to forget about everything for just a bit, so I decided to check the Clearwater Cackle app. Nothing drowns out personal despair like nonsense high school drama. I had been scrolling for a bit when I saw a picture of Wesley and me from speech and debate. Someone must have snapped it while we were having our silent argument. I sighed. Great, just another reason for people to think I am crazy. I saw that it had some comments but no way was I going to be reading those. I scrolled past when an alert popped up, showing I had a new message.

WLewisMOD- i take it back, my chest is bruised

I felt a small smile play across my lips. What was with this boy and his determination to get me to talk? I had to admit, it felt good. It felt good to have someone to talk to that didn't know me as "Clammy Cami". It was nice to feel like I had a friend again. But I had no plans on taking this friendship into the real world.

CSutton- are u saying i have a hard head??

WLewisMOD- HAHAHAHA

WLewisMOD- i knew there was sum humor behind that hard exterior

CSutton- its not a hard exterior. its wall so ppl like u cant get in

WLewisMOD- ppl like me??

CSutton- guys

I sent that last message before my brain could process what I was doing. Well s**t. That was more than I wanted to admit to. Now he knows I have issues with guys. Why was it so easy to talk to Wesley?

WLewisMOD- well i will have u know, im not like other guys

CSutton- GAG u did NOT just say that

WLewisMOD- ok yea i agree that was bad

WLewisMOD- sit with me at lunch 2morrow

Whoo. That was forward of him. I started at that message for a long time thinking about how to turn him down. I didn't want attention. I didn't want people to start talking-more than they probably were-because then Jason would hear. And I did NOT want to have to deal with any drama that came from that.

WLewisMOD- cami? u dont have to say yes. no pressure

Yeah okay, no pressure.

CSutton- ill think about it g2g dinner is ready

Before he could say anything else, I logged off. There was no way I was going to sit with him at lunch tomorrow. No way. Right?