Forgiven // l.h. // Book 2 in Bully Series

2. Camp

"Hemmings." For some reason, I felt as if I'd been punched in the gut. My gaze darted between the two for a moment before I gave a curt nod.

"Ah." It was all I seemed to be able to get out at the moment, so I turned towards my desk and shuffled around a few papers around there. After finding the one I needed, I swiveled back around to face him, handing him a clipboard, the paper, and a pen. "You'll need to fill this out. Feel free to do so at one of the chairs in the lobby there. I'll take Zoe to the room." I instructed. He nodded.

"Alright, Zoe. You follow miss Daeyna here, alright? I'll be back later to pick you up." He said after crouching down to the young girl's level. I cringed slightly when I heard him say my name. It felt foreign to me to hear the name on his lips. He'd said it so often in the past, and never once had I really thought about how it had always had a familiar tone to it—one that oozed friendship and love. That tone was long gone, lost in the whirlwind of time, fame, and separated paths.

And it hurt.

I would never admit that to him, or anyone else, for that matter. But yeah, knowing that the two of us no longer knew each other—like really knew each other—was painful. Not only because I used to care so much about him it was ridiculous, but because I felt as if I'd lost a piece of me. I had never felt like this about our break up since I'd left for school and he wasn't there to see me one last time at the airport.

But, despite the feelings and emotions raging around in my head, I put on my best smile and held out a hand to the little girl. She took it, looking up at me timidly. I gave one last glance at him before leading her down the hallway.

Zoe picked the yellow group, and I couldn't help but smile a bit at that. Yellow was my favorite color. I spent a few moments watching her counselor, a dark-haired woman by the name of Hillary, make her a nametag, before turning to face Katie as she finished her presentation. Everyone began clapping, including me. I took her place at the front of the group.

"Alright, everybody! Hands up!" I said cheerfully. A loud chant of 'paws up' echoed back at me, and the room went silent. "The schedule here says 'animal time'. Now, what could that mean?" I lifted an eyebrow as a small red-haired girl in the front row shot her hand straight into the air. I squinted slightly at her nametag, the string of which told me she was in the blue group. "Yes, Amelia?"

"We get to see animals?" I didn't care how many times I heard it, but small children with Australian accents never failed to melt my heart a little. I smiled at her.

"You're absolutely right, Amelia. Five points for the blue team. Go back to your tables, and your counselors will tell you what to do, alright?" I addressed the entire group. The room erupted into excited chatter as the campers and their respective counsellors all got up and walked over to their tables. I watched the counselors direct their campers in various directions; two groups went outside to wait for the dog I'd preassigned to their group while the other two stayed inside. The yellow group was sat in a circle, and I watched them while Hillary went to go get them a rabbit. The green group headed off towards the cattery.

I followed them once Hillary got back with the black and white rabbit named Alice, though instead of going to the cattery, I went to my office. He was sitting in my chair when I got back, the framed picture from the Halloween we'd shared in his hands. I frowned and took it away from him.

"I'd really appreciate you not sitting on my chair, thanks." I scolded, watching as he stuttered out an apology and stood up, exiting the cubicle so I could enter. I immediately felt bad for being a little bitchy, but that passed quickly as I glanced at the photo, setting it back in its spot.

I remembered that day so vividly. I remembered being so excited to walk down the stairs in my stupid oversized cat onesie, knowing he'd had a very different idea of what I was going to look like. I remembered Molly photobombing our photo, and the time Ashton had faceplanted, sending the candy-filled pillowcase in his hand flying. I also remembered watching Mean Girls, but not really watching it. And, of course, I remembered everything that happened after we stopped paying attention to the movie.