I had dinner, and instead of sharing my feelings, I glared at Laney and shoved my food in so fast I threw it up as soon as I got upstairs.I'd almost ruined everything. If Mom and Dad knew how I felt, they'd kill me. I had to fix things with Laney before everything went to shit. But how?
As I paced my room, I formulated a plan. I'd simply go inand talk to her. Apologize for getting angry and then take it from there. Her response would help me decide my next steps to smooth everything over.
Mom and Dad didn't have to know a thing.
I reached for my door handle and paused. Could I have a calm conversation right now? I was too pissed about her confession I couldn't concentrate on anything else. Every time I looked at her, all I saw was Marco Brandis, kissing and touching her. He was a grown man who worked at the mall and still lived with his parents, talking to a fifteen-year-old!I couldn't let that happen.
My anger returned, and I paced some more, trying to calm myself. Laney was mine. Not any of those stupid boys who gave her candygrams, not Marco fucking Brandis, mine.I knew it was absurd and disgusting to feel this way. Her dating people was normal. Me dating people was normal. But I didn't like it.
Eventually, I felt calm enough to go talk to her, but when I stepped out of my room, I found her door wide open, and she was gone. I heard the shower turn on.Laney took long showers. I had plenty of time to snoop. I walked inside her all-pink room and decided it was probably better for me to look around rather than confront her directly.
I went to her bed, where the pile of cards and candy lay scattered. I sat at the edge and picked one up.It was one of the school’s candygrams. A simple heart with a green, cartoon worm on it, holding a heart. Boring, unoriginal, and she had three of the same one.
Delaney,
You're the prettiest bookworm I've ever met. Will you go out with me?
-Nolan
So cheesy. I rolled my eyes and picked up another one. It read similarly. A compliment, followed by the request.As Ikept reading through the stack, I wondered if she'd say yes to any of these boys.What would she have done if I had asked?
I tossed the last candygram note aside and then picked up the large, store-bought card. I opened it and disregarded the cringy poem in favor of the handwritten note on the blank side.
Delaney,
I've never felt this way about a girl before. You're so much more mature than all the other girls I've talked to. It's a connection that no one else has. I can't wait for Friday. To see you face-to-face since Christmas. It'll be our first… everything….
X
My hands shook when I finished the note. Christmas? This had been going on for two months? I tried to think of where she could have seen him and it hit me. I had taken her to the mall to buy presents. I had unknowingly brought her right to him!
The coward didn't even have the balls to sign it. He knew exactly what he was doing and how disgusting it was.I tossed the card down and looked for the last one.
Mine.
When I didn't see it, I began shifting her blankets and then looking under her pillows, but it was nowhere to be found.My blood ran cold. What did she do with it? Did she know it was me who sent it? Was she going to tell Mom and Dad?Or had she just tossed it in the trash in favor of Marco’s?
As I was frantically searching for the card to take it back and burn it, I found her cell phone on her dresser.I picked it up and found it locked. Scoffing, I typed in the codeshe'd been using for years. 5980. Mom's birthday. Sure enough, it opened and I went to her messages.
There was nothing. She was immature, but she wasn't stupid. I started looking at her apps, trying to find where she'd been talking to Marco, and when I accidentally clicked on her Calculator app, it asked me to put up a code. That was odd.
I typed in 5980 and it didn't work; it wanted five numbers. I thought about it and then typed in another code. 61346, her grandpa's birthday. Mom was planning his 75th birthday party and the date had been plastered on our fridge for months.
As it went through, I snickered. I knew Laney more than she knew herself.
The code unlocked page after page of messages with the perv. Looking at the dates each text was sent, I'd been right. They met when I took her shopping. How fucking ironic. I was doing something nice for her, trying to show her that I could be someone she could rely on, and she fell into the arms of someone else. A pedophile.
I heard the shower turn off and I realized I'd been in her room far too long. Panicking, I began pushing buttons and managed to download the entire thread. With a quick click, I sent it to my phone and tossed the device back on her shelf. I scurried back to my room just as I heard the bathroom door open and her soft pats on the floor as she returned to her bedroom, most likely wrapped in a pink towel, to start her nightly routine of creams and lotions.
Taking my phone out, I plopped down on my bed and began scrolling through Laney and Marco's conversation.This was evidence of a crime. It was so painfully obvious that Marco was much older than the girl he was talking to. She was asking him what dress to wear to the father- daughter dance in the spring, while he was complaining that he had to pay his own health insurance because his parents couldn't cover him anymore.
For weeks, this guy had been telling her everything she wanted to hear. How pretty she was, how mature she was. I wasn't going to let Laney just be another conquest for him.I got to the bottom of the file, reading every single message, growing angrier and angrier with each one. By the time I was done, I saw red.
I went to my inbox and typed a shitty message to him, but then backtracked and decided to try something different.
Me: Hey Marco, you gave me your number at the mall the other day.
Marco: Hey baby, I remember you. You were the cute one. What's up?
