She's the Campus Prince

Cameron and the girls were eating lunch in the cafeteria when she looked up from her phone.

"Elijah just texted," she said. "You guys wanna go camping this weekend?" "Camping?" Amelia looked at her with surprise. "You actually feel like going?" "Elijah wants to do a mixer, his dorm and ours. All the guys are single. You in?" Lila's eyes sparkled. "Cam, be honest. Is this Elijah cute?"

Cameron nodded. "Very."

"Then of course we're going! We've got nothing better to do this weekend anyway," Lila said without hesitation.

Sienna bit her lip. "But I've got work."

She'd been working part-time at Cameron's company, three hundred a day. Hard to give that up.

Still, the thought of missing out stung a little. College was s supposed to be the age of sweet, hopeful crushes. Who didn't want a taste of that?

"Can't you just skip one shift?" Lila pleaded.

Sienna hesitated. "That's six hundred..."

She usually earned about twenty-four hundred a month and spent no more than a thousand. She had savings, but...

Amelia turned to Cameron. "Do you want to go?"

"I'm down if you are," Cameron said. "I'll go if you go."

“I'm in,” Lila said, raising her hand.

"I'll go too," Amelia added with a smile. "Who knows? Maybe I'll meet the love of my life out there."

She'd had feelings for Bradley once. But that chapter had closed.

Now it was time to see who else the world had to offer, and to let'one else see her too.

Cameron looked at Sienna. "What about you?"

Sienna took a breath and nodded, "Screw it. I'm coming."

"Alright," Cameron said. "I'll let him know."

When Elijah saw Cameron's reply, he couldn't help the way his lips curled into a smile.

He'd had a hunch she wouldn't turn him down.

And he was right.

He opened a photo of Amelia on his phone and turned it toward his roommates. "We're camping this weekend. This is one of the girls, my high school friend. Gorgeous and single."

"Let me see!" The others rushed over immediately.

Damn," one of the guys, the blond one, sald, staring at the screen. "She's got legs for days and a killar face. Ell, you've been holding out an det var didn't you introduce us earlier?"

Elijah looked at him coolly "Is it too late how?"

"Nope, not at all," the guy grinned.

"There's just one girl? There are four of us," another asked.

"They've got four in their dorm too," Elijah said.

"Eli, you're a legend," one of them laughed, giving him a thumbs-up.

"I'll need a favor, though," Elijah said.noveldrama

"What kind of favor?" one of them asked, slinging an arm around his shoulder.

"I want to confess to the girl I like."

"Wait, don't tell me it's that one in the photo!" the blond guy, Tyler Knox, joked, pretending to be betrayed. "You jerk!"

"It's not her," Elijah said, deadpan. "Her name's Amelia. The one I like is Cameron."

Tyler patted his chest with relief. "Whew. Good."

Elijah didn't bother responding to that.

"So what do you need from us?" Tyler asked, intrigued.

Just like that, the weekend arrived.

Cameron and the girls packed up their tents and snacks and then drove out to meet Elijah's group at the campsite.

The plan was to spend one night first. If things went well, maybe they'd stay a second and head back on Sunday.

While Cameron was driving out toward the countryside, Bradley was already on the road back to Steerfall.

Earlier that afternoon, he'd gotten a call from Beth, asking him to come home. He didn't bother trying to guess the reason.

Whatever it was, it didn't matter. It was bound to happen eventually.

He had made his choice, and no matter what the consequences were, he was ready to face them.