Ford looks at me, his eyes raking over my face. He runs his hand along my cheek and up to my forehead. “You’re sure?”
“Yes. I’m going to own this. I’m not sorry about what we were doing. Yes, we were going to have sex, but we didn’t. Even if we had, I still wouldn’t be sorry. I love you, Ford. The person who snuck outside in the dark, taking pictures of us, is a perverted creeper. I’m done being ashamed. The person who posted those pictures should be ashamed.”
“You’re right. We’ve been going about this all wrong.”
The porch lights flick on, and we look up at the porch. Both my parents are standing just inside the door, waiting for me. “Here goes nothing.” I undo my seatbelt and get out of the car.
Ford shuts the door for me and takes my hand. “We’re in this together.” And we walk into the house side by side.
38. Play-by-Play
Hannah and I walk in and sit down on the sofa together.
“How was your meeting with Mr. Forrest?” Hannah asks her dad.
Mr. Clark sits in his wingback chair, and Mrs. Clark perches on the arm. “It was good. He’d heard about the website, but he hadn’t seen it. And he didn’t know the extent of the pictures on the site. He agreed it needs to come down.”
“That’s good,” Hannah says.
“What can he do to help get the site taken down?” I ask.
“The site says it requires a school email to sign up, but that’s not true. I used a Gmail account to sign up, and it worked fine. My guess is that whoever’s behind the site did that so he could see who was making accounts. Asking for school emails to set up an account is against school policy. Student email is strictly for school use. The only problem is we still have to find out who’s behind the website.”
“It sounds like when we do, this person is going to be in some serious trouble.” Hannah huffs, squeezing my hand.
“Yes, a lot of trouble.” Mr. Clark rubs a hand behind his neck. He looks tired.
“I’m sorry about the new pictures of me and Hannah on the website. Nothing happened.” I blurt. I’ve never been one for tiptoeing around a subject. It’s better to get it out in the open and discuss it. And the waiting and wondering if he was going to bring it up was driving me crazy.
Mr. Clark looks at Hannah. “You promised me.”
“Yes, I did. Ford’s house has security cameras and sensors. We didn’t think someone would wade through the lake to get pictures of us. We thought we were safe inside his house. And nothing happened. Ford’s mom was there about half the time. We opened a package he got, and then mom called to tell us about dinner, and we came here. I’m sorry. I thought I was being careful.”
“I think until the website is taken down, you and Ford shouldn’t be alone.” Mrs. Clark says.
“Okay, that’s probably a good idea.” I don’t really think it’s a good idea, but ninety percent of the time we’re with our friends. The other ten we’re usually here or at my house. It’s not ideal, but we need to placate our parents until this whole mess is over.
“Are you serious?” Hannah hisses at me.
I cover my hand over my mouth so only she can hear me. “It will be okay. I promise.” I squeeze her hand again. “Trust me.”
Hannah’s not happy about this, but she gives me a tight smile and nods. She turns back to her parents. “I’m still going to ride with Ford to school in the mornings, and we’re going to homecoming.”
Beth glances at me with a smile. “You asked her?”
I smile and nod. “I took your advice. Cameron’s mom, Mrs. Winters, has a video of it if you want to see it.”
“Ford gave me a shirt. I’ll show it to you,” Hannah smiles.
“Those are both reasonable requests. I know it’s hard with football and cheerleading, but try to keep a low profile until we get this taken care of,” her dad states.
“We will,” Hannah and I say together.
When I get home from Hannah’s, my mom is waiting for me. I finally texted her back and told her I was studying at the Clark’s and would be home around ten. “Hi, how was school?” she asks, patting the sofa cushion next to her.
“It was good. Things finally feel routine, which is nice,” I say, sitting next to her and kissing her cheek. “How are you today?”
“I’m good. I drove into Spokane and had lunch with Libby.”
