Beyond the Cameras

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Cal stormed into my room and turned off my speaker, abruptly ending my karaoke session.

"What's going on between you and Noland Milton," he demanded.

"What do you mean," I sputtered, trying to catch my breath from all the dancing and singing.

"You know what I mean," he rolled his eyes. "Are you guys a thing now?"

"No," I responded, shaking my head and grabbing the water bottle off of my night stand to quench my killer thirst.

"Do you like him," he asked next.

"What is this? Twenty questions," I laughed, going to stand beside him.

"I'm serious Rory. Do you like him?"

His eyes were pinning me down and I could pratically feel the tension on his body rolling off, onto mine. I squirmed under his scruntiny and and mumbled, "What if I say yes?"

He let out a sigh and paced my room a few steps before standing back next to me.

"Rory, I told you that you can't trust the guy, much less fall in love with him."

"I didn't say I was in love with him," I defended, growing agitated. "I just said I might have a slight crush on him."

"Well, you can't. He's vile and will hurt you at the first chance he gets."

"Since when have you been so worried about my feelings," I countered, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I've always been worried about you. It was just brought back to my attention that...Nevermind. Look just stay away from him."

He started to walk out of my room, but I stopped him.

"What were you going to say," I inquired, watching his jaw clench.

"Nothing. I was just thinking of something else. I shouldn't have said that."

"No. I want to know what you were going to say. Tell me what this is all about."

He rubbed a hand over his face and sighed in defeat.

"Fine. After the halloween carnival, I went to grab something out of Ashton's Jeep and the tires were slashed. I would have had no idea who did it, but I found a bracelet."

"So," I responded, clearly not understanding what he was trying to say.

"It was Noland's bracelet, Rory. It's his good luck charm for each soccer game. I would know because I have the exact same one," he responded.

As much as I didn't want to believe him, doubt was creeping into my mind faster than the mothers on Dance Moms betray each other.

"That doesn't mean he did it," I mumbled, still trying to defend him.

"Rory, I know you don't want to believe Mr. Perfect did something wrong, but he did. And this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Trust me."

Trust me.

Those two words struck me harder than anything else he had ever said.

Trust was such a hard thing to build, but so easy to break. Much like a pyramid of cards.

Each card has to be placed carefully and strategically, as not to cause the rest of the cards to fall. However, the minute a small breeze passes through, the entire pyramid tumbles down.

It's the same thing with trusting someone. You work for a while on saying nice things and being honest with one another until one lie or untold story unfolds and the trust breaks.