Unforgiven by Lauren Kate Page A

But something about Cam seemed suddenly, strangely familiar. She looked down and noticed her hands were trembling.
    “You can trust me,” Cam told her.
    “No,” she said softly. “I don’t do trust.”
    Cam leaned closer, tilting his head until the tips of their noses almost touched. “I’ll never hurt you, Lilith.”
    What was happening? Lilith closed her eyes. She felt like she might faint.
    When she opened them, Cam was even closer. His lips came close to hers—
    And then Jean Rah’s voice broke the spell between them. “Hey, dudes.”
    Lilith stepped back, stumbling over her own feet. Her knees were weak, and her heart was racing. She looked at Cam, who wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and exhaled. Jean Rah was oblivious to anything that might have been about to happen.
    He held up his phone. “Band room’s open till one. Just saying.”
    A text chimed on Jean’s phone, and his eyebrows shot up. “You pulled out Chloe King’s weave and I missed it?”
    Lilith laughed, and then something crazy happened: Jean joined in, and Cam did, too, and suddenly the three of them were laughing so hard they were crying, like it was the most natural thing in the world.
    Like they were friends.
    Were they friends? It felt good to laugh, that was all Lilith knew. It felt light, like springtime, the first day you go outside without a coat. She looked at Jean and couldn’t remember why she’d ever hated him.
    And then it was over. They stopped laughing. Everything went back to dreary normality.
    “Lilith,” Cam said, “can I talk to you alone?”
    There was something about the way he asked that made her want to say yes. But
yes
was a dangerous word all of a sudden. Lilith didn’t want to be alone with Cam. Not now. Whatever he’d been trying to do a moment ago had been too much.
    “Hey, Jean?” she said.
    “Yeah?”
    “Let’s go jam.”
    Jean shrugged and followed Lilith out of the cafeteria. “Later, Cam.”

    In the band room, a scrawny, dark-haired freshman in a tie-dyed T-shirt was struggling to set a huge copper timpani drum onto its base. The kid had long hair that nearly covered his eyes, and almond-colored skin. Jean watched the spectacle with interest, scratching his chin. “Yo, Luis. Need a hand?”
    “I’m cool,” the boy wheezed.
    Jean turned to Lilith like she was a calculus problem he didn’t know where to begin solving. “Did you really want to jam, or were you just trying to make Cam jealous?”
    “Why would us playing together make Cam jealous?” Lilith started to say, but she stopped. “I really want to jam.”
    “Cool,” Jean said. “You know, I was at that stupid open mic. Your song was good.”
    Lilith felt herself blush. “It was a real crowd-pleaser,” she said darkly.
    “Screw this school,” Jean said, shrugging. “I was clapping for you.” Then he motioned toward Luis. “The three of us should start a band. There’s still time to sign up for prom—”
    “I’m not going to prom,” Lilith said. She felt confused about a lot of things lately, but that was one truth she knew for certain.
    Jean frowned. “But you have to. You’re awesome.”
    The compliment was so direct Lilith didn’t know how to respond.
    “I mean, whatever,” Jean said. “Skip the
prom
part of prom, bring a date or rock it solo, but at least show up for the battle. I have to go to the whole thing, because my insane girlfriend has been obsessing about this ‘cranberry satin maxidress’ since our first date. See? She’s texting me right now.”
    He held up his phone. The lock screen displayed a photo of Kimi Grace, the sassy half-Korean, half-Mexican girl who sat next to Lilith in poetry. Lilith hadn’t known she was with Jean—but now, she could totally see it.
    In the photo, Kimi was beaming, holding up a piece of paper that read, in bubble letters, E LEVEN D AYS T ILL THE B EST N IGHT OF O UR L IVES.
    “She’s cute,” Lilith offered. “She’s excited.”
    “She’s all