“Not here.”
That’s a sure-fire way to get me from one to one hundred. I puff my chest and scan the class. If she can’t talk to me because they’re here, maybe I should get rid of them.
“Don’t start anything,” Sable whispers. “No one in this class did anything.”
“So who?”
I don’t care what she says. I will send them all packing, professor included, if she gives me a simple nod. But Sable doesn’t give me anything. Instead, she sighs, annoyed at my overprotection.
“Someone stopped me in the hall to show me the video,” she finally bites out.
“The video?” I ask, not sure if we are talking about the same thing.
Her mouth thins into a line before she spells it out for me. “The video you all wanted to hide from me so badly.”
Pure panic bursts in my chest, but I grab her by the hand and pull her into the hall, knowing we can’t talk here. That damn video forever plays in the back of my mind, Soren wearing myface and fucking someone who isn’t Sable. It hurts me more than I can put into words because that day I lost her and my brother, but only one of them came back to me.
“Do you hate me?” I ask, my voice cracking as I close the door behind us.
Her blond ponytail whips as she faces me so damn quick, eyes burning. “Why? What did you do?”
I shake my head, hating that I have to explain this to her. “He looks so much like me. There’s no way you can see that and not feel repulsed. I do.”
“Oh, I felt very repulsed.” She nods.
Her words make me flinch. Fuck, how much does it cost to swap faces like that awesome movie from the ’90s? Yeah, it wasn’t real when the movie premiered, but I’m sure the technology has evolved since then.
“What can I do to make this better?” I rush to ask. Besides the whole face swapping that I’m going to look into soon.
“I smashed her phone, and that felt really good.” She smiles a little.
I chuckle, happy she did something in response. “Who showed you the video?”
“Some girl. She never told me her name.” She bites the side of her cheek in thought. “I wish we could do something to erase that video forever. That can’t be helping.”
“I thought about a million ways to never have to deal with that thing again, but there’s no use. People downloaded, and some even recorded their screen. It’s out now.”
She deflates with the news, eyes sad, and I want to kill my brother all over again. How fucking irresponsible to make everyone so miserable. His best friends and the girl we love. And what hurts the most is that I was sure he loved her too. I’ve seen his eyes so many times.
I clear my throat. “I’m sorry I insisted that Soren be a part of everything.” I don’t even have words to explain this pain, being the one who pushed so hard for our own destruction. At the time, it felt like my brother was just fighting fate, but now I think that was me.
“What are you talking about?”
“I feel very responsible for everything, Sable.”
To my surprise, she laughs. “Of course, you do. You all feel responsible in one way or another. Tell me, how areyouresponsible for anything that happened to me?”
Her tone is mocking, but I know what part I played. “I pushed you and Soren together. And now you have to look at me and seehim.” I shake myself in anguish. “I’m looking into face swapping, if that helps.”
She laughs. “What?”
“I’m not sure yet. But all I’m saying is that I love you, and I thought he did too. I’m sorry.”
Sable faces me with the most beautiful smile playing on her lips. I’m a goner when it comes to this girl; that much is painfully obvious. She turns her back to the bench, watching me full of mirth, but I don’t really get the joke.
“That’s what you have to tell me? That you love me, and that you’re looking into face swapping?” she asks.
“I’m not promising anything yet. I just don’t have the details,” I say.
