He did eat the cookie. When he finished it, she handed him another one.
Jem had barely left Tori and Ivy’s couch since Amanda had called him. He’d slept on it, even. With summer vacation in swing, Tori was teaching improvisational jazz at a week-long kids’ camp, and Ivy liked the company, or so she said.
“Have you tried messaging him again?” she asked when the second cookie was gone.
Jem shook his head. He didn’t think he could handle seeing that belated notification pop up again.Your message could not be delivered.He hadn’t even been able to touch the pajamas. They felt like a scarlet letter. Every time he remembered they existed, he heard Amanda’s voice all over again.He’s hurting right now.
All because of Jem’s stupid pride. Because he’d cared more about the thoughts of people he’d probably never see again than about River’s feelings.
“Okay. Well.” She squished closer on the couch and handed him her tablet. “I know you said it doesn’t matter, but I did some digging.”
He didn’t follow. “Digging?”
Ivy pursed her lips. “About how the rumors started, about River’s TikTok and everything.”
Jesus Christ. “You found out how an internet rumor started?” Fuck, was she angling for a Pulitzer? “Ives—”
“I was up for two hours in the middle of the night with heartburn,” she said dismissively. “What else was I going to do? Anyway. There it is. The Reddit thread that started it all.”
“I knew that place was evil.” Jem glanced down at the tablet, not sure what he was looking for.
“It’s a subreddit about the Flat Tires specifically,” Ivy said, as if she was reading his mind. “And here, this post from just over a week ago, that’s what kicked it off.”
He scanned down the page.I know someone who knows River Wild and I swear he had a clip of River playing this on his phone, but I couldn’t prove it, so I watched the TikTok like fifty times. If you look closely, you can see the scar on the side of his third knuckle.
“Oh fuck.”
So not only had he lied to River and broken his heart, hewasalso the reason this rumor came out.
Jem felt sick.
Ivy caught the tablet before it could fall to the floor. “So it was you? The person who showed this redditor the clip?”
“I mean, I didn’t exactlyshowhim.” Jem ran his hands through his hair. “I was hungover as fuck and Colton askedabout my lockscreen because he’s a big Flat Tires fan, so I let him look through my camera roll—”
Ivy gave him a startled look.
“I don’t keep anything I wouldn’t want a kindergartener to see on there!”
“Right, yeah, sorry.”
Jem swallowed and looked down at his hands. “At least now I know.” Even if it had been an accident, he had only himself to blame. “Fuck, what kind of twelve-year-old even has a Reddit account? I thought that was for Millennials and up.”
“Jem.”
Oh, he didn’t like that tone. He looked up and met Ivy’s eyes anyway.
“You need to tell him it was an accident. Tell him Colton looked through your phone. You can still apologize, but he deserves to know you didn’t hurt him on purpose.”
“How?” He spread his hands. “He’s got me blocked on his phone. He knows I lied about being in California. He has no reason to trust me. What do you want me to do, show up at his doorstep and beg forgiveness?”
“It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”
“He doesn’t want to see me. Amanda made that pretty clear.”
“So that’s it?” she asked, rosy-cheeked and angry. “I’ve literally never seen you as happy as you’ve been the past couple months and you’re just going to give up without a fight?”
“You can’t fight with someone who doesn’t want to see you! What am I supposed to do, get myself arrested?”
