“By then he had a bad rep at school, and I guess he decided to leave before they kicked him out. My friends did beat the shit out of him, though.” Her look was defiant as she told me this, almost as if she were daring me to challenge her. “He was an outcast then, and it seems like he’s still an outcast now.”
I needed to tell Kam and my brother. I needed to let the school know. Julian was the one who had pushed everyone away from Kam. That was his MO. He was the one who had uploaded the video. How had he gotten it, though? Maybe he and Danny were in cahoots? Who knows.
“Thanks, Amelia. What you’ve just told me…” I was toofurious to finish the sentence. I was far from home, and all I wanted was to disappear right then, to be near Kam so I could protect her and beat that bastard to a pulp if he even tried to get close to her.
“He takes advantage of your misfortunes. That’s how he gets to you. He’s a typical psychopath,” she concluded.
“Do you think,” I asked, “that he could be violent, apart from blackmail and manipulation?”
Amelia looked me square in the eye. “I think Jules is capable of anything if he thinks it will get him what he wants. He’s obsessed with popularity and with this idea that the way girls are raised makes them stupid and superficial. He used to say that a lot, that I was better than those stupid bitches at school and I needed to act like it…”
I stood. I needed to go. Now. Amelia grabbed my hand and stopped me.
“If you tell Jules what I told you, he’ll come for me.” Her eyes filled with tears. “He will. He swore it. And he still has the video. Please, help your friend, but leave me out of this. I’m begging you.”
“Don’t worry,” I said, hoping to calm her down. “I promise I won’t bother you again.”
Amelia didn’t seem convinced, but I didn’t stay long enough to tell her what I thought: that she could put him out of her mind because I wouldn’t stop until he was behind bars.
I went straight back to the hotel, grabbed my things, and caught a cab. Once I was at the airport, I texted my brother:
Make sure Kam stays away from Julian. He’s dangerous. I’ll tell you more later. For now, just keep him away from her.
The plane took off on time, but it seemed like the longest hour and a half of my life. When we landed, I looked at my phone to see if Taylor had answered and, sure enough, there were two messages from my brother.
What are you talking about?
Where are you?
Once I got back to my bike in the parking lot, I sent him another message:
I’m on my way home. Don’t go to bed.
It took me a while to get there—the airport was a ways from town—and by the time I made it, all the lights were off at my place and at Kam’s. I wasn’t surprised since it was pretty late, but when I walked upstairs and saw the light under my brother’s door, I knew he’d done as I’d asked. I knocked before opening. When he told me to come in, I saw he wasn’t alone. Kam was there, wearing one of my brother’s shirts. My brother was sitting in his swivel chair, and he spun around to look at me. I wanted to hug Kam and tell her everything would be OK, but I stopped myself as my brother asked, “What’s up, Thiago? What’s the deal with Julian?”
I shut the door behind me. “First off, his name isn’t Julian, it’s Jules.” I told them everything I’d found out, the entire story from the beginning, starting with when I saw him in the cell and how it reminded me of meeting him before, and finishing with my quick trip to New York to hear Amelia Warner’s story. They listened closely, struggling to believe it. Kam was white as a sheet when I was done.
“I’m gonna kill him,” Taylor said, getting to his feet. I held him back.
“We need to think about how to deal with the situation now. We still don’t have any proof.”
“Taylor, let me see the video,” Kam said, interrupting us.
“What?”
“You’ve got it, right? You told me that someone sent it to you in a text, right? Not via Instagram,” she said.
“OK, but why?”
“Taylor, just show it to me.”
Tay scrolled around in his phone, then passed it to Kam, whotook it in her trembling hands. I didn’t understand what was happening. What she was looking for, what she thought she’d find in it.
“Jesus,” Kam said, covering her mouth.
“What?” I asked.
“It wasn’t Danny,” she said. “Danny’s not the one who recorded me. It was Julian,” she said, dropping the phone suddenly, as if it were burning her hands.
