Page 59 of Dissolving Prejudice

I shook my head. “Nah, the mattress is too soft.” And whenever I closed my eyes, Camilo paid me a visit in my dreams. Worried I’d scream his name in my sleep, because recently I couldn’t stop dreaming about him pounding me, I forced myself to stay awake.

“We can ask for a new one,” Jordan said, opening the door to the dining hall for me.

“No need.”

“Do you know what you wanna do today?”

My God, did he have a lot of questions today. Not in the mood to talk, I rubbed my eyes and then looked around the fancy dining hall. Maybe if I stuffed his mouth with food, he’d finally shut up. I knew I was mean, but I couldn’t help it. I got out of bed cranky as fuck this morning, and I blamed it on my lack of sleep.

We went over to the buffet, where Jordan finally let go of me to grab a plate. Thank fuck. After we both grabbed our breakfast, it was time to pick a place to sit. I looked around when Jordan cocked his head in the direction of the porch. “We can sit over there—”

“Hey, guys,” someone said, and we both turned to see Andrei walking toward us with a plate full of pancakes in his hands.

“They had pancakes?” Jordan asked, his brows raised in surprise. He almost drooled over Andrei’s plate, and it was kinda adorable.

“Yeah, it was right by the French toast.” Andrei smiled.

“Fuck, they had French toast, too?”

While Jordan looked back at the buffet, I side-eyed his plate. He already had tons of food; where did he plan on shoving more?

“Any chance you guys wanna join us for breakfast?” Andrei offered, getting both of our attention back. “We’re right over there.” He tilted his head in the direction of their table, and I turned to see the rest of their group. Well, all except for one.

“Are you sure? We don’t want to bother you,” Jordan tried to dodge the offer while I narrowed my eyes at their table, trying to think why Camilo was missing.

“What are you talking about? We’d love it if you’d join us. We’ve hardly seen each other since the flight.”

“Sure, let’s eat with them,” I said before Jordan could reject Andrei’s offer.

I wanted to know where Camilo had disappeared to.

A minute later, we were greeted by warm smiles at their table. Well, sort of, because Levi didn’t bother to look up from his book while Miles was half busy typing something on his phone. So basically, Jessie was the only one to smile at us.

Ever since Miles started his and Elliot’s social accounts, he’d been practically glued to his phone. Seeing him made me grateful that I’d stopped giving a shit about that crap. I used to love posting things online and making people think my life was perfect as part of the illusion I sold myself, but not anymore. Although, the main reason I avoided all social platforms was the hate comments. Every day, I received hundreds of comments and messages telling me what a liar I was and that I deserved to rot in prison for my lies. That was the internet for you—trolls believing they knew shit about life. Since my father never stood on trial, my testimony was the only evidence for his crimes. You’d be surprised by how fast society moved from embracing you as a victim to pointing a blaming finger your way. The first time a complete stranger screamed their opinion of me in my face, I was shocked. Now? Not so much.

Realizing Miles was speaking to me, I shook my head. “Sorry, what was that?” I asked since I didn’t catch anything from what he’d just said.

Miles sighed like the diva he was before he placed down his phone and focused his blue eyes on me. “I was saying that it’s about time we acknowledge the elephant in the room.”

My brows pulled into a frown because what was he talking about?

“And that would be…”

“Us,” he completed my words while pointing between us. “I’m talking about us, Shay-Lee. I’m finally ready to forgive you.”

My frown only deepened because—“I thought you already had?” I said when he gasped.

“Why, of course not. At least, not entirely.”

“Okay?” I dragged out the word until he pinned me with a harsh look.

“Are you saying you don’t care for our old friendship?”

Unsure if he was simply messing with me, I quickly darted my eyes to Andrei, who was busy stuffing his mouth with eggs and bacon, before going back to Miles. “Of course I do,” I said, then leaned a bit closer to him. “Are you taking your meds, Miley—ouch!” I whined after he flicked my forehead.

“Of course I am!” he hissed before coughing. “Anyway, I was thinking about a day in the spa. What do you say?”

It was all very sudden, and still not sure if he was having some mania episode or not, I simply nodded. “Sure.” Besides, a spa day away from Jordan might give me a chance to catch a few hours of sleep.