24

I must’ve been a glutton for punishment going to that game. I guess I figured it wouldn’t be that bad, going someplace where everyone’s focus would be on football and only a handful of people knew me. I should’ve stayed home with a warm blanket wrapped around me. Preferably over my head.

I felt eyes following me as soon as Charlie and I started our ascent up the hill from the Templeton parking lot.

“Everyone’s looking at me,” I whispered under my breath.

“They’re looking at me, dumbass,” she whispered back. “It’s like Kendall said. Everybody knows.”

I stopped in my tracks. “God, Char, I’m sorry. Do you want to leave? I never should’ve made you come here.” I turned on my heels. “Let’s go get ice cream and find a mov—”

She yanked my coat and spun me around, linking her arm through mine and propelling me forward. “I’m not chickening out and neither are you. Whatever these jerks think they know about me, it doesn’t even scratch the surface.”

I freed my arm and slung it around her shoulders. “Damn straight. And at least you won’t be going viral for all the wrong reasons, right?”

Charlie waved off the comment. “Marisa, people were taking videos at the promposal, and yes, every girl there had a cell phone. But why would any of them have been pointed at you and not the ridiculous display of winter formal enthusiasm?”

“Because I almost got knocked on my ass by a cute blond, who then literally got knocked on her ass by you. Oh wait,” I said wryly. “I take it back. You might be breaking the internet after all.”

She rolled her eyes. “That all happened while everyone’s attention was on the main event. You’re totally overthinking this.”

I didn’t agree, but I squeezed her arm anyway. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”

She squeezed back. “Have I told you lately that you need a new hobby? This detective gig has been nothing but trouble.”

I laughed a little. “After tonight, my cheater-buster days are over. I’m telling Kendall to take down the—” A brick of worry dropped in my stomach. “Oh God. What if she won’t take down the site now? She probably won’t even take my calls, let alone do me any favors.”

“Simple. If anyone emails you, email them back and say you’re no longer in business. You said you changed the password on the account, right?”

Yes, and thank all things holy that I had. For the first time since the promposal, my insides uncoiled a little. Charlie had a point: even if someone had caught my and Kendall’s fight on video, it was probably an afterthought. And Kendall being unable to access or keep tabs on me through the Busted emails—or worse, reply to them herself with lies and slander—was a huge load off my chest. I inhaled deeply, the first easy breath I’d taken in hours.

Maybe I could even enjoy the last bust of my so-called investigative career tonight, just a little bit.

The thought made me smile. As Charlie got in line for coffee at the Snack Shack, I almost didn’t notice the bare legs covered in blond hair angled toward me until I saw the person attached to them was smiling back at me. Then he waved.

“Damn it!” I said under my breath, averting my eyes from the Californian teleporter who, as evidenced by his shorts, had still not figured out that he was in Pennsylvania in the dead of winter. I hurried past him and attempted a casual lean against a telephone pole until I spotted Charlie heading in my direction.

“How many times can I accidentally make eye contact with that kid back there before he mistakes it as an invitation?” I said, nodding toward surfer boy.

Charlie snorted. “He’s a dude. He already took it that way. All the more reason for you to not leave my side again tonight.”

We made our way up the bleachers, waving at Mindy on the track. “I still can’t believe they suspended you from the squad,” I said.

“I can’t believe your brother asked me to the dance. And to a movie.”

“What?” I stopped midclimb.

“Yep. Somewhere in the world, pigs are shitting rainbows. Come on, you’re holding up traffic.”

We kept moving to a free space in the nosebleeds. I wanted a spot where I could watch the goings-on below inconspicuously. With any luck, Jordan wouldn’t know I was there until it was too late. But the higher we climbed, the more I felt like a sea of heads turned in our wake. There were far too many snickers, knowing looks, and exchanged whispers for my liking. Whether they were directed at Charlie or me—or both—didn’t matter. My skin crawled with the sense that we’d wandered into the belly of the beast.

“I mean, obviously I know about the dance, but when is this movie thing happening?” I asked as soon as we sat down, trying to focus on something other than my discomfort.

Charlie looked at her hands. “Um, he wanted to go tonight.”

“He did? Then what are you doing here?”

She gave a small shrug. “You needed me. Hos before bros. Literally.”

“Is…that how you think of him? Because you know he didn’t ask you to the dance as a ‘bro,’ right?”

She picked at the lid on her coffee cup, avoiding my eyes. “I like hanging out with him, even if I’ve only ever done it with you around. He’s funny, he’s loyal, and he’s definitely not torture to look at.” She nudged me. “Plus, I already know I like his family. I guess I’m willing to see where it goes.” She snuck a glance at me out of the corner of her eye. “Are you cool with that?”

“My brain is, but maybe not so much my stomach?”

We both laughed until Charlie stopped abruptly and smacked my arm. “There’s Jordan.” She tilted her head toward where Jordan stood against the chain-link fence.

“He’s alone.”

I spoke too soon. Even before I’d finished my sentence, his mother and another woman ambled up to his side.

“He’s with his mother,” Charlie growled. She started to stand. “Let me at her. I swear I’m going to impale their asses on that fence, kabob style, and let crows peck out their eyes.”

“Shh!” I yanked her arm and forced her to sit. “Making death threats against a teacher on school property is a great way to make sure you get expelled, Einstein.”

Charlie’s lips pinched together. “Fine. I won’t say it, but I’m thinking it.”

As I watched Jordan schmooze with his mom and her colleague, an idea started to form. He’d told me he’d try to talk to his mother about Charlie’s situation, to defend her. I didn’t trust him to do it after the way our conversation had ended. But…

“Should I go talk to them?”

Charlie’s eyebrows shot up, wordlessly asking if I’d lost my mind. “It’s not spying if he knows you’re here, Einstein.”

“I know, but what if I can convince his mother to drop the accusations against you? She always liked me—at least, I think she did. And he said himself that she feels terrible about it.”

“She might like you, and she might’ve liked me before all this happened, but it’s not going to change the fact that I was the last person to touch her computer before her tests got leaked. We need proof, not character witnesses.”

It didn’t matter. I already knew I was going to do it. My fingers curled around my purse as I gathered my nerve. I stood up.

That’s when one of the guys sitting with the giggles-and-whispers crew stood up too. He lifted his arms above his head and grinned at me. In the split second it took for me to wonder why a complete stranger would be smiling at me, I also realized it wasn’t the kind of smile anyone would want directed at them. It was condescending. Bullying. Like he was ready to attack and proud of it. It was the smile of someone who knew he had the upper hand and wanted everyone else to know it too.

Another second later, the entire campus did know it when he shouted, “Hey, it’s the Busted bitch!”

And just to be sure there was no confusion, he pointed at me with both raised hands.

My heart fell right out of my ass. At least that’s what it felt like. Shouts and catcalls rose around me as all heads turned to witness my horror. Time slowed until every second felt like eternity.

They knew. They all knew.

How did they all know?

“I hear you like leftovers!” one of the girls cackled.

That’s how. Someone’s camera had been trained on me after all.

My gaze floated down the bleachers in a daze until my eyes locked on Jordan’s. For a second, everything when silent. Then the world came roaring back in a deafening blast, and I bolted down the concrete steps and ran.