This will not happen again.
Later, peeps :)
—P
Chapter Six
West
“Never thought we’d be doingthisshit again.”
It’s like Ricky’s grumbled words are pulled straight out of my head as we stand outside an apartment door. A door belonging to a girl who made our lives hell for so many years. And now, we’re taking the first steps to find out if she’s at it again, or if we have a muchbiggerproblem on our hands.
As Ricky knocks, I take a deep breath.
Despite the date with Blue going smoothly, I hardly slept last night knowing Ricky and I would be standing here this evening, possibly getting our questions answered. For so many reasons I’m hoping Shawna’s involved. That would make for a fast and easy cleanup, and God knows we need fast and easy right now. I’ve already got enough shit on my plate without this going from bad to worse.
Footsteps on the other side of the door have me holding my breath. There’s a long pause when we hear Shawna walk up. My guess is she’s staring at us through the peephole, maybe wondering if she should make a run for it.
“If you’re thinking about leaving through the window, my boys are already waiting at the bottom of the fire escape,” Ricky says flatly, rolling his eyes with the words. He’s unnaturally comfortable right now, and I can only guess how many times he’s done things like this.
Eventually, Shawna’s locks click and the door eases open. It’s been years since we’ve seen her, and the moment her eyes land on mine, it all rushes back. How she deceived us, even managed to work her way into our circle through my brother Dane.
My jaw tenses, and I shake off the anger. We don’t need her scared of us. We need her talking.
“May we come in?” Ricky asks, but I think we all know we’re entering this apartment one way or another.
When Shawna reluctantly steps aside, it’s clear she understands this.
“Can’t say I’m surprised you’re here,” she says, closing the door behind us.
“Yeah, then I guess that means we don’t have to explain the purpose of our visit.”
Shawna swallows when Ricky finishes speaking, then gestures toward her couch for us to take a seat. She drops down into an armchair, and it isn’t lost on me that she’s having trouble holding eye contact. What’s hard to determine is whether the guilt I see in her expression is guilt from what she’s done in thepast, or guilt from the bullshit she’s donerecently.
Like, resurrecting Pandora.
“Talk,” Ricky commands, and that single word has Shawna flinching.
“I’m not sure what you want me to say.”
“You can start by telling us whether it’s you or not, posting all this shit, being an evenbiggerpain in our asses than you were back in the day.”
Before he even finishes, she’s already shaking her head, denying it all.
“It’s not. Iwouldn’t,” she adds. “When I showed up at West and Blue’s wedding that was the last of it. I was… still angry, still dealing with some shit, and it was misguided, and I’m sorry, but… this isn’t me.”
I study her, and when Ricky doesn’t rush to speak, I’m guessing he’s doing the same. This girl’s been a master manipulator for years, which is why it’s hard to tell if a single word she’s just spoken is true.
“Why the hell should we believe you? After all the shit you’ve pulled?” Ricky asks. He’s clearly struggling to keep his voice low, but we don’t need her shutting down on us right now.
“I can prove it.”
My brow tenses, wondering what proof she could possibly have, but as she rises to her feet and retrieves her computer, she’s clearly just as anxious to share that info as we are to see it.
She drops back down into her seat, clicks around for a few seconds, then places her laptop on the coffee table facing Ricky and me. She slips off the cushion to sit on the floor where she points and clicks, opening her screen to a folder in her email calledEvidence.
“There were signs, but they were smart to break into the site in the middle of the night while I was asleep. That meant I missed all the notifications and couldn’t do anything to stopthem. These are all the emails from failed login attempts,” she says. “Honestly, my first thought was that one of you had paid someone to destroy the site. You know, doing damage control once you guys found out you were moving back. I… didn’t blame you. I only knew you guys weren’t involved when posts started going live, and I saw the things she was saying.”
