Undeniable (Haven Falls 5)

Candice cringes and I see the regret heavy in her eyes. “Did I ever apologize for that?”

I think back but I’m drawing a blank. “To be honest, I have no fucking idea. I’ve put it all behind me and I’ve had so much going on that I haven’t even thought about it in months. So really, who cares if you did or didn’t? I just want to forget about it.”

“Ok, well, for what it’s worth, I am sorry. I didn’t intend to start senior year like that. It just sort of happened and I really wish I was a better person and could say that it never happened, but it did and that’s something I have to live with the rest of my life.”

I shrug my shoulders, not wanting to revisit the topic. “We’ve all done some really shitty things this year,” I admit. “But it’s over and now we get to start over and fuck it all up again.”

“Not all of us get a chance to start over,” she tells me. “You’re one of the only seniors who made it into a good college. The rest of us are just fucking around, hoping we can find a good enough job to pay the bills. We all peaked already, but you have so much more to give.”

“At least I hope so,” I say, feeling a strange connection between the two of us. I mean, what the hell is happening here? We’re not friends, yet here we are talking about our lives and moving on in the world. At the prom, it was Monica and now Candice. What’s next? I’ll be knocking at Anton’s door asking if he’d like to go see a movie? What the fuck is wrong with me? Maybe I’m just searching for drama now that it all seems to have faded away.

Candice steps back from me with a tight smile. “Well, umm…thanks for this,” she says, holding up the picture. “You didn’t show anyone, did you?”

“God no,” I say taken back. “Who do you think I am? Flashing it around to everyone I walk past is more your style, not mine. I might be a bitch at times, but I know a thing or two about respecting another person’s privacy.”

Candice cringes once again and we both know I’m right. Had the tables been turned, that picture would have been copied a million times and stuck up on every available surface in Haven Falls. Hell, she probably would have sent a few to Broken Hill too.

With that, she walks over to her locker and puts in the combination for her lock before opening the door wide and tearing it apart. She emerges a moment later with a lighter and instantly lights up the picture so it will never see the light of day again.

I leave her to it and get my ass out of the locker room. After all, it’s graduation and I’m supposed to be celebrating.

I get back to find Aiden and Spencer have joined our group while Dad talks animatedly with Mr. Carver about the science program at Broken Hill University. I have to laugh at how smitten he appears with the teacher. Dad is going to have to take back his comments about the teachers at this school not giving a damn about the students’ education. After all, without Mr. Carver, I never would have even considered applying for that scholarship.

I owe that guy everything and I’m hoping that one day the other teachers here can take a page out of his book and pull their shit together, because dad is right, my little sister will be attending here one day and I want the best for her. Hell not just for her but for the whole next generation of students who come through Haven Falls Private.

The idea that kids from here can’t go anywhere in life is ridiculous and if we only had a few more good teachers helping to mold us into great students who want to learn, Haven Falls might just be able to break free of that stereotype.

“You all good?” Noah murmurs, wrapping his arm around my waist and drawing me into his side as I return to our group.

“Yeah, just had some old issues to put to rest.”

“With Candice?” he questions warily, making it clear that he was watching me earlier.

“Yep.”

“Alright.”

Aria groans when her feet start getting sore from standing around, so Noah plucks her off the ground, raising her high into the sky so she can sit upon his shoulders. I can’t help but laugh, but it’s interrupted by Tully who barges into me and throws her arm over my shoulder with her phone hovering in front of us. “Selfie,” she declares, giving me only a slight chance to make myself presentable before she starts taking hundreds of pics.

She pulls her phone back in and instantly turns it around, scanning through the pics before finding the perfect one and getting busy adding a ridiculous filter. “I think we should send this one to Rivers. He’d like to see it.”