The click signaling that the car doors had been unlocked sounded, and I climbed into Lauren's warm car, the passenger side this time. My hands were shaking from my encounter with Nate, so I struggled as I tried to take off Lauren's shirt.
"Leave it on." She didn't even spare me a glance before turning the ignition.
I hesitated. Her anger was visible as the muscles in her jaw clenched. "But I'm not cold anymore."
"And I can't look at your ripped shirt right now."
I shrugged the shirt back over my shoulders, put my belt on, and slammed into the back of the seat as she peeled out of the parking lot.
What the hell was her problem?
Was he mad at me or Nate? Obviously, Lauren didn't want to see me hurt— not physically, anyway. But why was she being so curt with me?
The car fishtailed slightly as it left the gravel lot and pulled onto the paved road of the highway. Lauren weighed down on the gas and shifted forcefully as we picked up speed. No music played, and she didn't speak.
The highway was deserted except for the haunting trees that loomed over us on the sides. Judging by how quickly everything flew past my window, Lauren was way over the speed limit.
Peeking at her through the corner of my eye, I saw that she was seething. She licked her lips and took several heavy breaths, while she tightened and retightened her grip on the steering wheel.

"What's your problem?" I grabbed the bull by the horns and asked.
"My problem?" She raised her eyebrows as if I'd just asked the dumbest question. "You come to the bonfire with that idiot Ben Jamison, who can't stay sober enough to drive you home, and then you traipse off into the woods, in the dark, and get groped by Dietrich. Maybe you're the one with the problem." Her voice was low but bitter and spiteful.
She was mad at me? Oh, hell no.

I turned in my seat and looked straight at her. "If you recall, I had the situation under control." I tried to keep my voice calm. "Whatever favor you think you were doing me only satisfied your own anger. Leave me out of it."
She sucked in her cheeks and continued down the highway.
As I glanced at the speedometer, my eyes bulged when I noticed that Lauren was driving over eighty miles per hour.
"Slow down," I ordered.
She ignored my plea and gripped the steering wheel harder. "There's going to be situations you can't handle, Camz. Nate Dietrich wasn't going to take too kindly to what you did to him tonight. Did you think that was going to be the end of it? He would've come after you again. Do you know how badly Madoc wanted to do something after you broke his nose? He didn't want to hurt you, but he wanted to retaliate."
Why didn't he then?
Madoc had been humiliated, no doubt, at that party more than a year ago when I broke his nose. But he'd just let it roll off him, or so I thought, and hadn't sought any payback. Thanks to Lauren.
I guess Nate Dietrich wouldn't be seeking retribution, either. Not with Lauren involved.
I felt gravity pull my body towards the other side of the car, and my heart thumped wildly when I saw that Lauren wasn't slowing down as we rounded the soft turn.
"You need to slow down."
Lauren snorted. "No, I don't think so, Camz. You wanted the full high school experience, didn't you? Football player boyfriend, casual sex, reckless behavior?" She goaded me with his sarcasm.
What was she talking about? I never wanted that stuff. I just wanted to be normal.
And then she switched off her headlights.
Oh, God.
The road was black, and I couldn't see more than a foot in front of us. Thankfully, there were reflectors that separated our lane from the oncoming traffic, but the country roads were busy with deer and other animals, not just traffic.
What the hell was she doing?
"Lauren, stop it! Turn on the lights!" I braced one hand on the dash as I turned to confront her. We were zooming down the road at a frightening speed, and a
lump formed in my throat.

The tattoo on her arm peeked out of her t-shirt, and it stretched with her
tensing muscles while she gripped the stick shift. My legs were weak, and for the first time in a long time, I was too scared to think.
"Lauren, stop the car now!" I yelled. "Please!"

"Why? This isn't fun?" Lauren's voice was disturbingly calm. None of this scared her, or even excited her. "Do you know how many squealing airheads I've had sitting in that seat? They loved it." Her eyebrows pinched together as he looked at me with mock puzzlement. She was pushing me.
"Stop.The.Car!" I screamed, my heart pounding with dread. She was going to kill us.
Lauren twisted her head to face me. "You know why you don't like this? Because you're not like them, Camz. You never were. Why do you think I kept everyone away from you?" Her voice sounded angry, but clear. She wasn't drunk, at least I didn't think she was, and this was more emotion than I'd experienced from him in years, except for the night of the kiss.

She kept everyone away from me? What did that mean? Why?
The tires screeched as she rounded another turn, and we drifted into the other lane. I was breathing as fast as the car was speeding now, I was sure. We were going to hit something or flip over!
"Stop the fucking car!" I bellowed with the full force of my lungs, pounding my fists on my thighs before hitting her on the arm.
The last thing I wanted to do was distract her, driving at a speed like that, but it worked. Lauren slammed on the brakes, using some choice words directed at me and down-shifted as he veered to the side of the road and stopped.
I scrambled out of the car, and Lauren hopped out at the same time. We both leaned over the roof, eye to eye.
"Get back in the car." Lauren's teeth were bared as she growled.
"You could've killed us!" My throat tightened, and I noticed her furious eyes graze over my ripped shirt that had poked out of the button down I was still wearing.
"Get back in the damn car!" She slammed her palm down on the roof, her eyes on fire.
"Why?" I asked, tears threatening.
"Because you need to go home," she spat out like 'duh'.
"No." I shook my head. "Why did you keep everyone away from me?" She'd
started this conversation, and I had every intention of finishing it.

"Because you didn't belong with the rest of us. You still don't." Lauren's eyes narrowed in disgust, and my heart sunk. She was being deplorable as usual.
I hate her.
Without another thought, I ducked inside and grabbed Laureno keys out of the ignition. Rounding the car door, I ran a few yards ahead and unfastened the twist oval key ring. Slipping one of her keys off, I held it in a fist near my face.
"What are you doing?" She approached slowly, annoyance evident in her eyes.
"One more step, and you're losing one of your keys. Not sure if it's the car key, but eventually I'll get to that one." I loaded my arm behind my head, ready to toss it at any second. She halted.
"I'm not getting in your car. And I'm not letting you leave. We're not moving from this spot until you've told me the truth."
Sweat beaded my brow, even with the temperature down to the mid-sixties.

Lips pursed, I waited for her to start.
But she didn't. She looked to be working something out in her head, but I wasn't about to give her to time to think of some lie to distract me.
When I raised my arm to toss the first key, her eyes shot helplessly between me and my fist, while she raised her hand motioning for me to stop.
After only a moment's more hesitation, she finally let out a defeated sigh and met my eyes.
"Camz, don't do this."
"Not the answer I was looking for." And I flung one of her keys into the brush off to the side of the road.
"Dammit, Camz!" She snapped, looking nervously between me and the dark forest where her key had disappeared.
I quickly unhooked another key and stuck my hand behind my head ready to catapult it at any second. "Now, talk. Why do you hate me?"
"Hate you?" Lauren breathed heavily and shook her head. "I never hated you."
What?

I was stunned. "Then why? Why did you do all the things you've done?"
She let out a bitter laugh, knowing she was cornered. "Freshman year, I overheard Danny Stewart saying he was going to ask you to the Halloween dance. I made sure he never did, because he also told his buddies that he couldn't wait to find out if your tits were more than a handful each."
I cringed in disgust.

"I didn't even think twice about my actions. I spread that rumor about Stevie
Stoddard, because you didn't belong with Danny. He was a dick. They all were." "So you thought you were protecting me? But why would you do that? You
already hated me by that point. That was after you'd returned from your dad's for the summer." My confusion sprang forth with every syllable. If our friendship had ended by that point, and she didn't care for me, then why did she care to protect me anymore?

"I wasn't protecting you," Lauren said matter-of-factly, pinning me with a heated stare. "I was jealous."
Flutters attacked my belly. It felt like something was circling a drain in my stomach, the tingles going further and further down.
I barely registered her inching forward, stalking closer as I tried to catch my breath. "We got to high school, and all of a sudden, you've got all of these guys liking you. I handled it the only way I knew how."
"By bullying me? That makes no sense. Why didn't you talk to me?"
"I couldn't." She wiped her brow before stuffing her hand into her pocket. "I can't."
"You're doing fine so far. I want to know why all of this started in the first place. Why did you want to hurt me? The pranks, the black-listing from parties? That wasn't about other guys. What was your problem with me?" I accused her.
Her cheeks puffed out as she sighed. "Because you were there. Because I couldn't hurt who I wanted to hurt, so I hurt you."
That can't be it. There has to be more.
"I was your best friend." Frustration pushed my patience further away from me. "All these years . . ." My voice broke off barely containing the tears that pooled in my eyes.
"Camz, I had a shitty summer with my dad that year." Her voice sounded closer. "When I came back, I wasn't the same kid. Not even close. I wanted to hate everybody. But with you, I still needed you in a way. I needed you to not forget me." Lauren's voice never cracked, but I could tell there was remorse in her tone.
What had happened to her?
"Lauren, I've turned it over and over in my head wondering what I could've done to make you act the way you did. And now you tell me that it was all for no reason?" I looked up to meet her eyes.
Her body inched closer, but I didn't care. I wanted to hear more. "You were never clingy or a nuisance, Camz. The day you moved in next door I thought you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. I fucking loved you." The last was
barely a whisper as her eyes dropped to the ground.

"Your dad was unloading the moving truck, and I looked out my living room window to see what the noise was. There you were, riding your bike in the street. You were wearing overalls with a red baseball cap. Your hair was spilling down your back." Lauren didn't meet my eyes with her confession.
We'd moved to a new house in town after my mom passed. I remembered seeing Lauren for the first time that day. She remembered what I was wearing?
I loved you. A tear spilled over as I closed my eyes.

"When you recited your monologue this week, I. . . .." she drifted off with a sigh. "I knew then that I'd really gotten to you, and instead of feeling any satisfaction, I was angry with myself. I wanted to hate you all these years, I wanted to hate someone. But I didn't want to hurt you, and I didn't really realize that until the monologue."
Suddenly, she was in front of me. Cocking her head to the side, her glistening eyes searched mine. I didn't know what she looked for, and I didn't know what I wanted to reveal. I hated her for the years of torment. She threw away everything we had because she was angry at someone else. Needles pierced my throat as I struggled to hold back more tears.
"You're not telling me everything." My voice cracked, as she reached up to cup my cheek and wipe the tear away with her thumb. His long fingers were warm on my skin.

"No, I'm not." Her husky whisper caused tingles to spread over my body, or maybe it was her thumb caressing circles on my cheek. I was becoming light- headed with everything that had happened tonight.
"The scars on your back," I choked out, my eyes fluttering with the sensation of her touch. "You said you had a bad summer, and that when you came back you wanted to hate everybody, but you haven't treated anyone else as badly
as . . ."
"Camz?" Her lips were inches from mine, and her body radiated heat. "I don't want to talk any more tonight."
I blinked and noticed how her body had drawn me in. Or maybe I'd drawn her in. We were like the positive sides of twin magnets again. She was so close now, and she'd eaten the distance between us without me noticing.
You're not getting off that easy.
"You don't want to talk anymore?" I spit out, not quite believing what I heard. "Well, I do." And I twisted around to launch another key into the air, but Lauren's arms darted out and circled around my body, trapping me from behind.

I gasped for breath, while I tried squirm free. Thoughts swirled in my head, and it was hard to latch onto just one. She'd never hated me. I'd done absolutely nothing! Even though I knew that, part of me always thought there had to be a reason. And now she didn't want to finish her story? I needed to know!
Her solid arms secured me, her breath was hot against my hair as I struggled to move out of his arms. "Shhh, Camz. I won't hurt you. I'll never hurt you again. I'm sorry."

Like that was going to erase everything!
"I don't care about you being sorry! I hate you." My hands gripped her forearms, which were braced over my chest as I tried to yank them loose. My anger turned to rage with her mind games and bullshit, and I was sick of the sight of her.
Her hold on me lessened as she used her hands to peel the keys out of my fist. She let go of me, and I stepped forward before turning to face her.
"You don't hate me," she asserted. "If you did, you wouldn't be this upset." The cocky twist to her tone made my body stiffen, but I eased up when I felt the sting of my nails dig into my skin.
"Go screw yourself," I snapped and began walking away.

Like hell was she going to get the upper hand! She wanted to me to forgive her in one night for years of embarrassment and unhappiness, and then she assumed that I cared about her. She thought she was coming out of this unscathed.
What a colossal douchebag!
The next thing I knew, my feet were being swept off the ground, and I was upside down. Lauren had tossed me over her shoulder, and all the air left my body as her shoulder bone dug into my stomach.
"Put me down!" The heat of anger was like a blazing fire covering my skin. I kicked my feet and punched her back, but she simply held me tightly by the backs of my knees as she walked back the way we'd come. I knew my skirt covered nothing in this position, but we were alone out here, and I didn't really care anyway, in my mood.
"Lauren! Now!" I barked.
As if following orders, Lauren swung me back up-right where I landed in a sitting position on the hood of her car. It was still warm under my thighs from when it'd been driven, but the heat was not a welcome comfort, since I was already burning with fury.
Lauren leaned in slowly, probably afraid I'd hit her, and placed her hands on either side of me. Her legs stood between mine, and I immediately flushed with
the memory of the last time we were in this position.
"Don't try to get away," she warned. "As you remember, I can keep you
here."

I sucked in a breath. Yes, I did remember.
My toes curled at the thought of that kiss, but I knew it couldn't happen
again.
"And I know how to use pepper spray and break noses." My voice sounded
like a pathetic little mouse, squeaky and barely audible. I leaned back on my hands to maintain as much distance as possible, but my heart was pounding like the Rakes of Mallow.
"I'm not Nate or Madoc," she threatened. "Or Ben."
And her meaning wasn't lost on me. I wasn't attracted to them, and she knew it.
She leaned in closer, her black-brown eyes making my body want to do things my brain knew it shouldn't. Her lips were an inch from mine, and I could smell her cinnamon breath.
I hate her. I hate her.
"Don't," I whispered.
Her eyes searched mine. "I promise. Not unless you ask."
Her mouth dipped to the side and lightly grazed my cheek. Unwanted
pleasure escaped my throat, and I let out a little moan.
Dammit!
She never kissed me. She never put her lips together or tasted me. Her mouth only glided along my skin leaving a delicious trail of desire and need. Down my cheek, her velvety lips caressed my skin before moving across my jaw bone and then descending to my neck. I closed my eyes, savoring the new sensations.
I'd never made love before, and I'd definitely never made out with anyone that made me feel like this. Hell, she wasn't even kissing me, and I was struggling not to surrender.
As her lips moved over my ear, she asked, "Can I kiss you now?"
Oh, God. No. No. No.
But I wasn't saying that. I said nothing. Giving in felt like letting her win. And telling her to stop was out of the question, too. I didn't want her to stop. She felt too good. Like a roller coaster multiplied times one hundred.
Her lips moved back over my cheek, inching closer to my mouth.
"I want to touch you." Her words were against my lips now. "I want to feel what's mine. What's always been mine."

Oh, sweet Jesus.
Those words shouldn't turn me on. But holy hell, they did. My mouth quivered with wanting to take her in. I tasted her breath and wanted to capture and taste all of her. I wanted to fulfill my need.
But my eyes snapped open when I realized that it would fulfill her need, too.
Shit.
I bit down on the corner of my mouth to stifle the ache between my legs, and used my weak muscles to shove her away.
I could barely meet her eyes. She knew she'd gotten to me. She had to know. "Stay away from me." I hopped off the car and walked to the passenger side. I heard her chuckle behind me. "You first."