Vanilla Twilight

Chapter Twenty-Five

He takes my hand and walks a short distance away from Micah and Hannah, out of earshot.

"What's up babe?" I ask looking him straight in those fiery eyes of his.

His breathing has picked up, I could tell by the way his shoulders are now moving along with his chest.
He doesn't answer me, but instead reaches into his pockets to retrieve a piece of paper.

He shoves it to me, jaw clenched tight.

"What's this?" I take the folded paper out of his outstretched hand as he swiftly pulls it towards himself, careful not to brush his fingers against mine.

Odd, I thought.

Without prolonging the suspense, I unfold the paper, a bit nervous as to what it might be but assured that it was nothing major.

The last fold unravels and if my heart could pause for five seconds, I could've sworn it did right then.

There in my hands was a paper, with a picture on it.
A black and white picture of a body, a female's body.

It was noticeable by the lack of clothes she wore and her breasts that were out on full display.
Her body was close to the camera and it looked as if she was blowing a kiss.

She had curly hair and pink lips, and even though the mask hid her identity, I could tell who this woman was.

It was me.

Beads of sweat form on my forehead as I tried to think of any possible way I can convince him that it wasn't.
But the bright neon orange dog in the background, lying on the bed allowed me to do no such thing.

"You want to tell me what the hell is going on?" His voice is low, dangerously low.

I've known Cal for quite some time to understand that when his voice drops, so does his patience.

"Cal- I.......... it's not what it looks like," I try, voice already breaking.

"Then tell me what the hell it is! Because it damn well looks like my girlfriend being naked on camera!" He raises his voice.

I flinch, ill prepared to have taken cover from the harsh blow of his tone.

Hannah and Micah come running over, deeply worried.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Micah asks, inching closer to Callum.

He ignores them, heated emerald eyes still on me.

"Neveah, I'm going to ask you again.

What. The hell. Is that." He says the words piece by piece.

I am frozen in fear, not of him because I know that Cal would never physically hurt me. But of the fact that I may lose everything I've built in this moment.

"Tell me that isn't you," he says softer, tears building in his less intense eyes.

It breaks me before I even have the time to formulate a lie; the sight of this strong, guarded man on the verge of tears breaks me.

And I let it.

"It's me," I gasp, tears now free falling.

"I- I have this website that I use, to make money.

I strip, tease them, give them what they ask for and I get paid."

My head droops in shame; hearing it out loud, from my own lips makes my heart burn within me.

His eyes never move from me, I don't even believe they blinked.
They restrain me from speaking any false words, they hold me captive.

"One of my friends, they told me that there's this girl on campus.

She takes them to this hotel nearby, she has sex for money, and then she just leaves.

Although, they don't know her name, they described her as having curly brown hair, a bit short, fair skin, and a faint scar on her forehead."

An unearthly sob escapes my lips, so raw that I rush to stop it but it slips past anyway.

I am in desperate need of air, my eyes burn and I still have yet to look Callum directly in the eyes.

Micah is the one to speak next.

"Listen, emotions are high right now. We should take this back to our rooms where we could discuss this-"

"Did you know?" He interrupts, looking at Micah now, pointing accusingly with his eyes.

Micah doesn't speak, but lets his eyes drop to the ground, fists clenched.

Callum looks to me again, and then a smirk forms on his face.
It grows into a smile, and then full blown laughter.

But nothing about it is joyous, nothing about it is warm.

It's venomous and broken.

I try to make a step towards him, to reach out with a shaky hand and touch him but he jerks back, as if the plague was an epidemic and I'd just caught it.

"DON'T touch me," he barks.

If I was hurt before, then I must be wounded now.
The harshness of his tone, the skeptical look on his face, the disdain and disgust in his eyes.

Were all aimed towards me.

My knees tremble and buckle under the weight of everything that's just happened and I let them.

But before my knees could meet the rough pavement, arms catch me right away.

Micah's eyes meet mine.
He grimaces as the agony brewing within me reaches him.

Another sob escapes my lips.

"Callum please," I start.

My voice was hoarse and rugged, sounding as if I'd gone without water for several days.

He chuckles bitterly.

"Please what? Please let you lie to me again? Please let you have me looking so STUPID! Hmm!?

Please let you in my heart, let me give myself to you, let me," he stops.

The amount of pain coursing through him clogs his throat that he could not continue.
I had hurt him, I had lied to him, and now I was reaping the aftermath of it.

I cling onto Micah for dear life, unable to use my own two legs to stand on.
I would have never known a day as beautiful as this one could hold so many tears, so much heartbreak, so much sadness.

The saddest kind of sad is when your tears can't even drop and you feel nothing.
It feels like the world has just ended.
You don't cry. You don't hear. You don't see. You stay.

For a second the heart dies.

And in this moment my heart did, because without any more words, without a small gesture that let me know he still loved me, he turns and walks away.

And out of my life.