My eyes lift to hers as she ties her hair up in a ponytail. She picks up a fallen leaf from the branch above us, examines both sides before scrunching it up in her hand. "We're moving."

"Where?" I hope she doesn't mean far because Claudia's my best friend—my only friend.

"New Jersey."

My heart drops.

I do a quick calculation in my head of how far that is in driving distance. Eight hours, give or take. "You can't drive eight hours to school and back."

She smiles sadly. "We leave this weekend, Lucy. I'm sorry. I've known for a month. I should have told you, but you had so much going on with your mom, and your family, I didn't know how to break it to you."

Tears instantly well in my eyes. I pick up my sandwich, just for something else to do, but the sight of it makes my stomach churn.

"It's okay," I tell her. "I'm fine." What's one more lie, right? "I have to use the bathroom. I'll see you after class."

"Oh," she says surprised. "Okay."

I stand quickly. Too quickly. My head spins and I feel faint.

And then I do.

Faint, that is.

-CAMERON-

I see her wobble on her feet before she slowly tumbles to the ground. Her knees give out first, then the rest of her. It feels like I should've gotten to her earlier, but seconds of panic took place before my mind kicked into gear. And the rest is a blur.

Her friend's standing over us while I rest her head on my lap.

"What happened?" Logan asks her friend.

"I don't know." She's as panicked as I am, if not worse.

"Is she dehydrated?" Logan picks up what looks like an uneaten sandwich. "Is this hers? Has she eaten?" I don't know why it annoys me that Logan is asking all the right questions and all I can do is stare down at her.

She's breathing, so I guess that's something.

He drops down on his knees on the other side of her and pours water from his bottle into his hand, then he runs it across her forehead and into her hairline.

"Is she alright, mate?" Jake asks. He's new in town and has a weird accent but Logan seems to think he's cool so we keep him around.

Logan does the water thing again, and this time her eyes slowly flutter open.

And I release the breath I was holding.

"It's okay," Logan says to her. "You just passed out." He's in her face now, and I want to punch him for being the first thing she sees when she comes to. I was here first; I was the one watching her when she fell. It should have been me.

She sits up quickly and holds a hand to her head, her eyes slowly moving to everyone around her.

The bell rings but no one makes a move to leave.

"I'm fine," she says quietly.

"I've got a test," her friend says with a grimace. "Are you sure you're okay?"

She nods, but looks down at the ground.

Everyone leaves.

Everyone but me.

"You should get to class," she says.

And then she walks away.

***

I wait near her locker after school. I know where her locker is because the day after her brothers told me who she was, I started to notice her a lot more. I admit that day wasn't the first time I'd noticed her. I'd seen her around school but we ran in different circles, had different interests. I always thought she was cute, a little thin, but still cute.

She shows up right after the bell, rushes to get her shit, and then hastily leaves.

And then I do something that turns my creep factor full notch; I follow her. I don't follow her because I'm stalking her. I follow her because I want to make sure she gets home safe.

You know something that's really hard to do? Ride your bike and creepily follow someone that's walking. I give it to her, she walks fast, but it's hard to pedal slowly behind someone and not get attention.

She ends up at the elementary school and picks up her brothers. They wait at a bus stop for a few minutes before the bus arrives and they all hop on. I watch them leave. And then I pedal like crazy, taking a shortcut through the woods toward her house.

By the time I get to her driveway, my legs are burning.

And then it dawns on me that I'm standing in the middle of their driveway, which is at least two acres away from anyone else's... and I have absolutely no reason to be here.

Lincoln sees me first. "Hey Cam!" he yells casually.

I panic.

"We know that it's a bye this week... if that's why you're here."

Saved.

"Yeah... that's why I'm here."

He smiles huge before waving. "Bye Cam!"

They all head down her driveway. She sees me, but doesn't even bother to fake a smile. That doesn't bother me, what bothers me is that she has absolutely no hint of recognition in her eyes. I've been to her house. I was at her mom's funeral. I held her when she'd passed out no more than four hours ago and she doesn't even recognize me. I bet she's thinking about Logan. That asshole. I should've punched him like I wanted to. "Wait!"

She flinches. Why does she flinch?

"Get in the house," she orders the boys.

She watches them all get in before turning to me. "What's your name again?"

I swear to God I want to punch Logan and I don't even know why, but I feel like he's the reason she doesn't remember me. I try to keep my voice level, even though on the inside I want to shake her for not remembering me. "Cameron."