I reach over from my place on the floor and twist the knob.
They barge in like they’re a herd of cattle. Maya takes one look at me, crumpled on the floor, and drops her bag, uncaring that her precious camera drops to the floor inside of it. “What did he do?”
I open my mouth, but I can’t form words. Instead, tears just pour from my eyes, and the salty liquid trails onto my lips.
Christin lets loose a string of vicious curses. “I’m going to break every hockey stick he has.”
Emery sits down next to me, wrapping me in her arms even as she grimly says, “Only if I get to help after I find out what is really going on.”
I don’t say a word. I take a few minutes to find a text where someone has sent me a screenshot of the photo before holding out my phone to show them the picture Brennan never truly let me see. Christin crouches down to get a better look. She lets out a gasp, her hand slapping against her mouth. “There’s no way you did something like this.”
My tears clog my throat. “At least someone believes me.”
Maya crouches down. “You mean Bren didn’t?”
I whip my head back and forth. There’s a collective hiss from my friends. “I mean, I know I didn’t do it.”
Even as the words come out of my mouth, Christin’s lifting the phone from my hand. “You’re right.”
A full-body sigh causes me to relax into Emery. “It means so much that you believe me…”
She cuts me off with a slice of her hand. “I’d have believed you regardless if you’d shown me the photo or not. That’s not who you are.”
Tears well up in my inflamed eyes. Christin goes on, “But this is something else.”
“What?” Maya asks.
“That’s her body, but not a picture she took.”
“What?” we all shout, leaning forward—me closer than the others as my eyes are so swollen, I need to get closer to see what Christin’s trying to point out.
“Look. The lighting is off. Notice the mirror? Get a load of the custom tiles. Also, look at what she’s wearing. When did she last have that on?” Christin urges us to think.
It strikes me suddenly. “The Delta Phi house Halloween bash.”
Maya reels back. “Holy shit. When someone spilled Jungle Juice all over your toga.”
My stomach flips as I recall the girls leading me into the bathroom, trying to fix the damage before they stripped me out of my toga entirely and redressed me in the lower half of Maya’s longer outfit. A cold, sick feeling spreads under my skin.
Someone had a hidden camera behind that mirror.
Someone at Delta Phi took that photo and uploaded it online. Without my knowledge or consent.
Collectively, we go silent except for our breaths as we think of the ramifications. Finally, Emery asks, “Okay, who has a grudge against you from Delta Phi?”
Chills race along my skin as I think of the one person who would do that to me, someone who had been wanting to break me and Bren up since they first found out we were together.
“Brielle Winters.”
“Delta Phi’s recruiting chair?” Christin confirms.
“Every time we’d been to the sorority’s house, she had always been too handsy with my guy—well, he who was my guy.”
All of my girls react in varying forms of disgust at my response. Maya studies the image and declares, “I want to havethe image studied by my department head. I’m certain he can confirm the photo was taken without consent.”
Emery nods. “And I want to go to the dean. This is against the student body rules.”
“Not to mention campus security. This bitch is not getting away with this,” Christin adds. “Then, we’ll go to Bren and…”
