Page 18 of Brainwashed

“Yo, Darcey! You okay??” Cameron shouted as he and Cassie raced back toward me.

Cassie, the quieter of the two, hopped off first and rushed to my side. She looked concerned for me, and I appreciated it. But the attention I needed, deep in my gut, was from her twin brother.

Cam dropped to his knees as I pretended I was fine, brushing myself off and pushing my glasses back up my nose. I was in pain, sure, but I couldn’t let Cam know that. He was so tough, ballsy in a way that I’d never been. I admired it. I wanted it… Maybe I wanted to be like that. But I also sort of wanted to be around it.

I lusted after it.

“I’m good,” I grumbled. But then Cam grabbed my hand, and I froze, like a deer in headlights.

He lifted my hand to check the scrapes, then turned to Cassie. “Go grab the first aid kit.”

“I… I think I’m fine.” My voice came out gravelly and quiet. I hated how I sounded, but I couldn’t get over how amazing it felt to have him touching me… Holding my hand.

And I couldn’t stop staring at his face. The curves and slopes of his pointed nose and pouty lips, the carved jaw, and those damn dimples.

At that point, I knew I’d never be attracted to girls. It just wasn’t in my makeup.

I’d been trying to figure myself out for years… Looking at the girls at school and wondering if I could ever kiss them. Checking out nudie mags… The first time I looked at a Playboy, I was thirteen. It did nothing for me, but I just assumed it was because I was too young or something. Maybe I was still developing.

But in this moment, knowing for afactthat Cassie was into me—the way she looked at me, smiled and laughed at everything I said, even when it wasn’t funny, it was painfully obvious—I knew I could never date her. Because she wasn’t him.

“You’re bleeding,” Cam whispered, gazing at a cut on my palm with a distinct red dribble running down.

I watched the blood move myself, a tight burning in my lower stomach from the sight. And the feel of Cam’s warm skin touching mine. His smell surrounding me… It was overwhelming. But I couldn’t deny that I liked it.A lot.

Suddenly, he lifted my hand in his and lapped up the dribble of blood with his tongue.

I was fuckingshocked. Stunned that he had done it, but also more turned on than I’d ever been in my entire life. There was a hard jerk that happened in my pants at the feel of his wet tongue tracing the line of my blood, and it took everything I had not to openly moan. I think I sort of did… I soft sound escaped me.

Our eyes connected, and then I noticed that there was a dull red on his bottom lip. From my blood.

Even now, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to kiss someone as badly as I did in that moment.

But Cameron simply grinned at me, winked, and stood, hoisting me up by my arm. We stood next to each other, him casually unaware of howcrazyhe was driving me, and me spinning and whirling through images of him licking up my blood, and me licking his…

I cleared my throat as Cassie rushed over with the first aid kit.

“Your bike’s a little more scraped up than you are,” Cam said, examining my bike while Cassie cleaned up my hand and put a Band-Aid on me.

“My dad’s gonna be pissed,” I mumbled, so many emotions flooding my system I could barely even think straight.

Cam looked over the bike some more, then straightened. “Let’s trade, then.”

My brow furrowed at him. “Huh?”

“We have the same bike, and mine’s in perfect condition,” he said in that amiable tone of his. As if everything in the world was just so simple. It was specific to Cam, and I really loved it. I loved how willing he was to solve people’s problems… mine in particular.

He’d always been like that. To be fair, he was like that with everyone, but of course, when he did it for me, I chose to interpret it as some secret feelings for me he could have been harboring. I couldn’t even count how many times he’d made up excuses, taking the blame for things we’d done so that I wouldn’t get in trouble. Countless times he’d defended me, when the other kids at school would call mefour-eyes,weirdo, orFreaky Felix… make fun of me and laugh as they knocked books out of my hands in the halls.

Cam would tell them to get bent. He stood up for me against the jocks, because he got along with everyone. He would tell them I was cool until they laid off. It was just the kind of guy he was.He was always there because Cameron Kline was just a generally selfless person. A person who enjoyed taking the problems of others into his sculpted hands and making them his own, just to make their lives a little easier.

He wasperfect.

Gaping at him with wide eyes, I asked, “Won’t your dad know?”

“Nah.” He shook his head. “He doesn’t care about stuff like that.”

“Wow…” I muttered, rubbing the back of my neck. “You guys are lucky your dad is so awesome. I wish my dad was like that…”