Текст книги "Secrets and Lies"

Автор книги: Kody Keplinger

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Текущая страница: 5 (всего у книги 6 страниц)

Chapter Three

I didn’t get a good laugh out of the video Justine sent me. I didn’t think it was funny at all.

She’d sent me a link to a YouTube video, obviously taken on someone’s phone in the girls’ locker room at our school. The camera was at a weird angle, like it was on top of something, looking down, but that didn’t matter. It was in the perfect position to spy on anyone looking in the full-length mirror.

In this case, Elsie James.

At the start of the video, she appeared in nothing but her bra and panties, her hair wet, fresh from a shower. Then she started posing—just like she had the day I walked in on her. These over-the-top, sexy poses. The camera caught them all. And to make it more humiliating, the whole thing had been set to this horrible dirty hip-hop song.

It made Elsie look like an idiot. An almost-naked idiot. And it was on the Internet for anyone to see.

“How could you do that?” I asked Justine on the phone about ten minutes after I watched the video.

“What?” she asked. “It’s funny. It’ll teach her a lesson about being so narcissistic. Thanks for the tip, by the way. You’re the one who gave me the idea to have Wendy hide my phone in the locker room after your practice.”

It felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. I felt sick.

“You have to take it down,” I told her.

“What?” She was laughing. “Are you kidding?”

“People can see this,” I said. “Anyone can.”

“Yeah, and they already have. I e-mailed it to everyone in my list of contacts, and I’m sure it’s being forwarded all over school as we speak.”

“Justine, this is… This is really mean.”

“I’m just trying to teach her a lesson,” she said.

“Couldn’t you have just talked to her?” I asked. “Told her she was being a snob or something? I really don’t like this, Justine.”

She sighed. “Wow. I thought you were cooler than this, Bailey.”

“W-what?”

“I’ve been hanging out with you this week because you seemed cool,” she said. “But maybe I was wrong.”

“I just—”

“Whatever,” she interrupted. “Look, you can feel sorry for that bitch if you want. But you can’t say anything. No one will want to talk to you, because you’ll be a narc. Not even Elsie James, since you’re the whole reason I knew about her locker room peep show.”

I wanted to cry.

“Besides, no one will ever suspect me.” Her voice was chipper again. “Would you believe I’ve never even had detention? Not once.” She laughed. “Flawless record.”

“Justine…”

“You can’t tell,” she repeated. “Gotta go. My mom’s calling for me. See you at school.”

Click.

***

By Monday morning, everyone had watched the video. And Elsie was nowhere to be found.

“She’s probably too embarrassed to show her face,” I heard one girl saying in the hallway before geometry.

“I bet she moves,” her friend said. “I would die. Seriously. I’d die.”

“Hey.”

I turned and saw Brody walking up behind me. I felt myself blushing as I pushed my hair behind my ears. “Hi, Brody.”

“Heading to geometry?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Can I walk with you?”

“Of course—I mean, if you want to.”

He smiled and fell into place beside me as we headed down the hallway.

“So,” he said. “Elsie James, huh?”

“Yeah it’s… It’s crazy. That video.”

“It’s horrible,” he said. “It takes a sick person to do something like that.”

I glanced at him, sort of turned off that he’d be so harsh toward Elsie. “Really? I mean, sure, it’s weird, but people do weird things when they think they’re alone—”

“No, not Elsie.” We turned the corner into the classroom, and he followed me to my desk. “The person who posted the video. It’s just cruel. Who would do something like that?”

“I-I don’t know,” I stammered.

“You don’t?”

“No. Of course not. Why would I?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. My sister seemed to know who did it and since—never mind. I don’t even know what I’m saying.” He sighed. “I just feel bad for Elsie. I don’t know her very well or anything, but she must be really humiliated.”

“Yeah,” I murmured. “I’m sure she is.”

“Take your seats. Take your seats,” Mr. Daud said. “We’ve got a lot of work to get done this week before your test on Wednesday, so let’s get started. Please.”

“See you later, Bailey,” Brody said.

“’Bye,” I murmured.

I watched him walk across the room and settle into his desk. And I sort of kept watching after that. Brody was the first person I’d heard condemn whoever posted the video—and that made me like him even more. What would happen if he found out it was his sister? If he found out I’d been part of it? Because I had, whether I meant to or not.

My heart sank even deeper into my stomach.

“Psst.”

I turned around, and the girl behind me handed me a folded piece of paper. I took it quickly and tried to be discreet about unfolding and reading it so that Mr. Daud wouldn’t confiscate it.

I already knew it was from Justine. DON’T TELL. YOU’LL GET THE SAME AS ELSIE. SEE YOU AT LUNCH! YOUR JEANS ARE SUPER CUTE, BY THE WAY. XOXO, JUSTINE.

I folded the note back up and slipped it into my purse. I tried to stay focused on what Mr. Daud was saying about obtuse triangles. I was worried that if I didn’t, if I let myself think about everything else, I’d end up throwing up. Or crying. They would be equally embarrassing.

I hated what Justine had done. I hated what was happening to Elsie. But in the few days I’d been friends with Justine, I’d gotten everything I wanted. Brody Frasier was talking to me. Some of the most popular people in the school knew my name. I ate at the best table in the cafeteria. I was finally making close friends. I didn’t want to give that up for Elsie—someone I barely knew.

And Justine was right. No one would believe me if I told on her. They’d think I was lying, and I’d lose everything for nothing. So it was better to just keep my mouth shut.

But I couldn’t help feeling guilty. Really guilty.

And I only felt worse when I saw Elsie and her parents walking into the school just before art class, last period. I was drinking from the water fountain near the front entrance when they passed me. Elsie had her head down, but I could tell her eyes were red. Like she’d been crying. A lot.

“Rumor has it her parents want to press charges,” Wendy whispered once they were out of earshot. We were in the same class and had decided to walk there together.

“What kind of charges?” I asked.

Wendy took a sip from the fountain and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Child pornography, maybe. That’s what Ryan heard.”

“Really? But she wasn’t naked.”

Wendy shrugged. “I don’t know what the rules on that stuff are. But her parents are pissed. If anyone ever found out it was Justine, she’d be in serious trouble. And me, too, since I’m the one who set her phone to record. But it was her phone and she uploaded it… There’s a chance she’d be expelled.”

“W-what do you think the chances are of her getting caught?”

“Not likely.” We started walking toward our class. “She set up a fake e-mail for the YouTube account and sent the links through it before shutting down the e-mail—she’s really freaking smart. That’s why no one ever found out what she did to Gretchen.”

“Who’s Gretchen?” I asked.

“Oh, right. You didn’t go to middle school with us.” She lowered her voice. “She was this girl in Justine’s class two years ago. This girl was obsessed with Justine and her friends. Total stalker. Justine got sick of it, so she pretended to be friends with the girl and managed to get hold of her diary. Then she totally started a blog—posting all the embarrassing entries. I read the blog. It was awful. So hilarious. The girl totally moved away after that.”

“Wow,” I murmured.

“Yeah, but, like, good riddance. She was a creepy stalker. Anyway, I’m just hoping this gets Elsie to quit the cheerleading squad. I figure moving away is a little too much to hope for,” Wendy said. “I’m sick of her bossing us around and acting like she’s so great. Maybe this will teach her to get over herself.”

“Maybe,” I mumbled.

But on my way out to the bus that afternoon, I saw Principal Roth walking Elsie and her parents out of the building. And Elsie didn’t look like a girl who needed to get over herself. She looked like a girl who needed to be put back together.

Chapter Four

Principal Roth made an announcement the next day, asking for anyone with information to come forward.

“Our school has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to bullying,” he said over the intercom. It was first period, and I could feel Justine looking at me from across the room in geometry class. “This is bullying of the worst kind. The persons who filmed and posted this video will face serious consequences.”

But I kept my mouth shut all week.

I was glad when the weekend came. Because it meant I had a couple days away from all of it. But also because on Saturday, my brother and stepsister started their spring breaks and got to come home from college for a week. The only problem was that if anyone could tell I was keeping a secret, it was my brother.

“What’s up with you?” Nathan asked while we were hanging out in his room, watching The Dark Knight on his laptop.

“Nothing. What are you talking about?”

He shrugged. “I can tell something’s bothering you. You didn’t even try to make Whitley or me watch Bring It On with you again. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I don’t always want to watch Bring It On.”

“Since when?”

“Since… can we just watch The Dark Knight, please? I don’t want to talk about it.”

“So something is bothering you.”

“No.”

“Well, you’re definitely hiding something,” he said.

“No, I’m not.”

“Is it a boyfriend?” he asked. “Is that what you don’t want to tell me?”

“Nathan,” I groaned.

“Jesus, leave her alone.” Whitley, my stepsister, passed the open bedroom door, carrying a basket of clean laundry. “I know you’re her older brother, but you’re being even more annoying than usual.”

“I haven’t seen her since Christmas,” he said. “I’ve got three months’ worth of annoying saved up just for her.”

“Whatever,” she said, dropping the basket in her room, just across the hall.

“How are you already doing laundry?” I asked her. “You just got here.”

“She’s been putting it off for weeks,” Nathan said. “She’s had this massive pile of dirty clothes in her room. They barely fit in her suitcase.”

“Ew,” I said.

“What? It costs money to do laundry at school,” she argued. “Screw that.” She walked into Nathan’s room and sat on his bed next to me. Nathan swiveled his desk chair around to face us. “And it’s not like I wore the dirty clothes. I’m not a freak.”

“That’s debatable,” Nathan said.

Whitley stuck her tongue out at him.

He laughed. “I love you. And your maturity.”

“Among other things,” she said.

They smiled at each other.

Their flirting was gross, I guess, if you didn’t know the story. Last summer, just before my mom married my stepdad, Whitley and Nathan had started dating. It had been a little dramatic at first—Whitley’s dad, Greg, was so not cool with it—but eventually things had calmed down. Sometimes it was kind of weird, but they were happy with each other. And I guess that’s what mattered.

“Man, I wish I were on spring break, too,” I said. “I hate that I’ll be at school all week while you’re here.”

“We’ll see each other in the afternoons,” Nathan said.

“Yeah, but… I don’t know. That’s not enough. And what about you guys? Mom’s at work all day. I’m at school. Greg is at the station. You guys are here alone. What do you even do?” I paused, then squeaked. “Ew! Don’t answer that. Ew, ew.”

“Oh my God, shut up, you little perv!” Whitley said, laughing as she shoved me off the bed. Nathan, on the other hand, just looked mildly horrified.

“Nate!” Greg called from downstairs. “Can you come down here a second?”

“Sure!” Nathan yelled. He stood up. “I’ll be right back,” he told us. “And when I get here, we are watching this movie. I’m getting tired of waiting.”

“Okay, Nerdthan,” Whitley said.

“You’re so clever.” He rolled his eyes.

Once he was out the door and we could hear his footsteps on the stairs, Whitley turned to face me. “Okay. So now that he’s gone, tell me what’s up.”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Enough with the bullshit. We both know that he’s right and you’re acting weird. So what’s the deal? Secret boyfriend? Secret girlfriend? Come on. Spill it.”

“It’s nothing like that,” I said, looking down at my lap. “It’s… it’s worse.”

“Oh… Oh, Christ, are you—you’re not pregnant, right?”

“What?” I almost screamed. “No! Oh my God.”

“Thank God,” Whitley said. “I almost had a heart attack.”

“I don’t—I don’t even have a boyfriend,” I stammered. “I’ve never… I haven’t had… you know.”

“Yes, I know. Good. Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, well, if it’s not that, then what is it? Stop beating around the bush here. I don’t have the patience for it.”

I sighed, knowing she wasn’t going to let it go. I stood up and walked over to Nathan’s computer, clicking away from The Dark Night’s main menu and logging onto the Internet. “Come here,” I told Whitley.

She stood up and came over behind me. She didn’t say anything, though. She waited while I loaded YouTube and found the channel Justine had set up. There were more than five thousand views, which meant people outside of our school—which only had four hundred students—had seen it, too. I clicked play, but I closed my eyes while she watched. I didn’t want to see it again. Not after seeing Elsie’s face on Monday.

“Who is this?” Whitley asked after a few seconds.

“A girl from my school. She’s on the cheerleading squad with me.”

“Ugh. What is with this goddamn town and weird Internet harassment?” she asked. “This is disgusting.”

It felt like something sharp had stabbed me in the gut. I’d forgotten until just then that Whitley had dealt with this kind of thing when she first came to Hamilton. People were posting pictures of her at parties on this really mean, hateful Facebook page. That was actually how everyone ended up finding out about her and Nathan.

That Facebook page had made things in Hamilton horrible for Whitley. And none of the pictures were even of her in her underwear.

Suddenly, everything that was happening to Elsie became even more real. Even more my fault for accidentally giving Justine the idea. For keeping my mouth shut because I was too scared of being humiliated myself.

“Why exactly are you showing me this?” Whitley asked.

“Because that’s my secret,” I told her. “I know who posted this video.”

“So?”

“So I feel terrible!” I said. I logged off the Internet and got up from Nathan’s chair. “I feel guilty.”

“Why? You didn’t post the video…. Right?”

“No.” I sat down on the bed beside her. “But my friend did…. Well, I thought she was my friend. It’s this girl named Justine. She doesn’t like Elsie, says Elsie’s not worth knowing because she’s an arrogant social climber. She did this to embarrass her—to take her down a notch, I guess.”

“Ew,” Whitley said. “Sounds like Justine’s the one not worth knowing.”

“She’s the most popular girl in the freshman class,” I said. “If she likes you, everyone wants to be your friend.”

Whitley sighed and ran a hand through her long brown hair. “I do not miss high school,” she said. “I’m guessing that’s why you haven’t told anyone she did it?”

“Yeah. Well, that and she said she’d make my life as miserable as Elsie’s if I did.” I bit my lip. “I don’t want to be a tattletale.”

“Okay, Bailey, no one over the age of eight is a tattletale.”

“Fine. A rat. A narc. Whatever. I don’t want to be that girl, Whitley. But knowing she did it—and knowing how upset Elsie is—is killing me.”

“Do other people know she did it?” Whitley asked.

“A couple. Just a few of Justine’s friends.”

“Why does she have to know you’re the one who turned her in?” Whitley asked. “You’d tell the principal, right? Don’t they have to keep that confidential or something?”

“I guess…. But why would anyone believe me? This girl has a spotless record. She’s the freshman class president. She has As in every class. Everyone likes her. They’ll think I’m making it up.”

Whitley sat there for a second, thinking. “Hmm.”

“I don’t know why I’m even telling you this,” I said. “There’s nothing I can do about it. I’ll just have to live the rest of my life feeling like a terrible person.”

“Oh, stop whining,” Whitley said. “I have an idea. What if Justine turned herself in?”

“She never would—”

“What if she had to?”

I stared at her. “What do you mean?”

Just then, Nathan walked back into the room. “Okay. You two ready for the movie?” He stopped when he saw our faces. “Why so serious?” he asked in his best Joker impression.

“No movie,” Whitley told him.

“What? Why not?”

She looked at me, then back at him, an evil grin spreading across her face. “Your sister needs your help,” she said. “And I think your geek skills may finally come in handy.”

***

“I don’t know if I can do this,” I said as Whitley handed me my cell phone. “I can’t do this. I can’t—I can’t—”

“It’s ringing,” Whitley said, sitting crisscrossed on my bedroom floor. “And recording.”

“I can’t—”

“Yes, you can. Now shut up, stop whining, and do it.”

Nathan was a little kinder. He put a hand on my shoulder and said, “You’ll feel better when it’s over.”

I pressed the phone to my ear.

Two rings.

“Hello?”

“H-hey, Justine.”

“Hey, Bailey.” She sounded like she was in a good mood. I wasn’t sure if that would make things better or worse. “What’s up?”

“N-not much.” I couldn’t stop stuttering. “I just, uh…”

Whitley glared at me. After a pause she mouthed, Come on.

I cleared my throat. “You need to tell Principal Roth what you did.”

“What did I do?”

“You know,” I said. “The video… of Elsie. You need to tell him you posted it.”

She burst out laughing. “What? Are you kidding me? Why would I tell him? What the hell are you thinking?”

I swallowed. “If… if you don’t tell him, I will.”

She stopped laughing. “You have lost your mind. Go ahead and tell him. He’ll never believe you. You don’t have any proof. And if he so much as asks me about it, I’ll turn it around. I’ll tell him you did it. And that’s the least of what I’ll do to you. People might like you now, Bailey, but they won’t if you mess with me. You’ll be a narc. No one will want to hang out with you.”

I could feel my bottom lip shaking. It was disgusting, but as horrible as she was, I had to fight the urge to apologize. To beg for forgiveness. I didn’t like Justine anymore, but I wanted her to like me.

Nathan squeezed my shoulder.

“What if I did have proof?”

“What?” Justine asked.

“I have proof.”

“That’s impossible,” she said. “The YouTube account is connected to an e-mail with a fake name. So are the links I sent. You can’t trace it back to me.”

I glanced at Nathan. He nodded and held his hand out. I gave him the phone.

“Hi. Justine? This is Bailey’s brother, Nathan. How much do you know about computers?” He paused. “Oh, okay. Well, that’s a bummer, because I know quite a bit. Has anyone ever explained IP addresses to you? Because the thing is, the YouTube account may be connected to a fake e-mail, but it’s also connected to a real IP address, which belongs to your computer. You following? So, turns out, I can track down your IP address through this account and prove that the video was uploaded from your computer…. Uh-huh. Well, I just thought you might like to know. Here’s Bailey.”

He handed the phone back to me. I must have had a look of terror on my face because Whitley stood up and walked over to the bed to put an arm around my shoulders. I took a deep breath.

“Justine?”

“You got your geeky brother involved?” she snapped. “How old are you? Seven? I can’t believe I was actually friends with such a baby.”

“I can’t believe I was friends with you, either,” I murmured. “So are you going to tell Principal Roth or do I have to?”

There was a long pause. “I could tell them Brody did it, you know,” she said. “He has access to my computer. I could blame it on him. You wouldn’t like that, though, would you? Since you like him so much. Might as well kiss that good-bye either way. He’ll never like you. Not if you rat on his little sister.”

“His little sister who’d be willing to throw him under the bus?” I asked. I’d been shaking before, but I was feeling different now. Angrier. “You’re worse than I thought you were. Your record might be clean, but you’ve done this before. I know about Gretchen. By the way, that IP address thing works on blogs as well.”

“Go, Bailey,” Nathan mouthed, doing a little fist pump.

I kept going. “And you couldn’t blame it on him anyway. He was at a game that night. People saw him there. He left school before the video was recorded. That wouldn’t be hard to prove.”

Justine didn’t say anything.

“Tell the principal,” I said. “You’ll get in less trouble if you turn yourself in. You’ll seem like a better person if you do than if I tell them the truth.”

“He’ll expel me.” Her voice cracked, and for a second I wondered if she was crying. “I’ll be kicked off student council. I’ll lose everything I’ve worked for.”

I was starting to feel sorry for her. Starting to regret this. Starting to think maybe I was wrong. But then I remembered that broken look on Elsie’s face on Monday. She hadn’t even been to school since then. If anyone deserved sympathy, it was her.

“You win,” Justine said. “I’ll turn myself in. But people are still going to hate you, Bailey. I’m going to tell everyone you made me do this.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “Maybe those people are the ones who—as you put it—aren’t worth knowing.”

She made a small grunting noise before hanging up.

I put my cell phone down and let out a breath. “She’s telling the principal tomorrow.”

“Good,” Nathan said. “And if she doesn’t, you have that whole conversation recorded on your phone.”

“Could you really do that?” I asked him. “All that stuff about the IP address?”

He shrugged. “I actually don’t know. It’s possible on some sites, but I’ve never tried on YouTube. But I figured she wouldn’t know, either.”

“Do you feel better?” Whitley asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “I do… mostly.”

“Now what’s wrong? Upset you’re not going to be Miss Popularity anymore?”

I shook my head. “No…. Well, a little. But that’s okay. No, it’s just… Justine’s brother is this really cool, cute guy, and I think he was starting to like me. I don’t think he will after Justine tells him about that phone call.”

“You’re too young to date anyway.”

“Nathan,” Whitley said, rolling her eyes.

“She is.”

“Ignore him,” Whitley said. “He’s just jealous no one wanted to date him in ninth grade.”

“Hey, you know that’s not true,” he argued. “I was on the basketball team. All sorts of girls wanted to date me. But I knew I was too young to date—and I was busy with school and sports.”

“You mean you were busy playing with Star Wars action figures,” Whitley said.

I grinned a little. “He totally was.”

“I didn’t play with them,” Nathan said. “They were collectibles. I collected them.”

“Okay, Nathan,” Whitley said. “I love you, but collecting action figures isn’t any less geeky than playing with them. In fact, it might be a little worse. But that’s okay.” She stood up and walked around to where he sat on my other side. “Because today your nerdy side was pretty useful. And kind of sexy.”

“Really?” He smirked at her. “Want to go to my room and listen to me read from my computer sciences textbook?”

“Mm. Maybe.”

“Ew!” I said, slinging a pillow at them. “Get out.”

“Gladly,” Nathan said, standing up and grabbing Whitley’s hand. “Good night, Bailey.”

“Good night,” I said.

Whitley stopped at the door and turned around. “And seriously. If the guy stops liking you, he sucks.”

“Thanks.”

It was easy to hear. But it wasn’t easy to believe. The truth was, Brody Frasier was amazing. And tonight, I’d lost any shot I may have had with him.