The idea bounced around her mind for days. Was there another contest? Why did Alex keep texting her like they were friends all of a sudden? She hadn’t texted him back, but he kept at it. Something had to be going on. She decided to take action and see what she could find out. Maybe having a few glasses of wine beforehand wasn’t the best idea, but it was the weekend now, and she needed to unwind. She was feeling good when she reached for her phone and texted Dustin.

“Is there another contest going on?”

It took a few minutes for him to respond. “I think the Grammys are in a few months.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. Alex and Hayden have both approached me.”

“I don’t know anything about that. I told you, I’m not doing that sort of thing anymore.”

“Ha. Right. You’ll never change.”

“If you really thought that way,” he said, “then what was the point of doing what you did? You wanted to teach me a lesson, yet you also believe I’m not capable of learning it. Makes no sense.”

“I wanted to get my point across, yes. I was hoping it would teach you something, but I know that’s too much to hope for.”

“I mean this in the nicest possible way…”

She waited, watching the little dots that showed he was typing.

“You are one hypocritical, judgmental woman.”

“How is that possibly nice?” She glared at her phone, the heat rising in her chest. Who did he think he was?

“Isn’t it better to be honest? I don’t mean it as an insult when I say, I think you’ve been really hurt and it’s distorted your view of men. This is why feminists get tagged as manhaters. There’s nothing we can ever do right for you. You think I’m a jerk and did bad things, so in response, you did a horrible thing to me. And by the way, I know that had me or one of the guys pulled some shit like that, we’d land our asses in jail and all over social media. There’s no way we’d get away with violating someone like that. But it’s okay for you? Where’s the logic in that? Where’s your basic human compassion? I don’t understand how you could think that was okay. Two wrongs make a right to you?”

She started typing rapidly before he was even finished, but another text came through before she could finish.

“Then, when I see what I did wrong, that I hurt people, when I feel how awful it feels to be mistreated and violated like that and it actually affects me, then you go on about how I’ll never change. You can’t have it both ways, Brooklyn. You can’t call me out for mistreating women, then mistreat me. You can’t claim to be teaching me a lesson, then say I’ll never change. What you did really, really hurt. I felt ashamed and embarrassed. I was physically sick for days. It’s affected my career in more ways than one. I wish I’d never talked to any of the Polar Princesses for several reasons, but most of all because now I feel like a completely worthless human being, and I’ve never felt so messed up in my life. So, if that’s what you were going for, congrats. Did you want to ruin my life? Because you’re doing a great job. And don’t worry. Even though I could press charges and you’d likely land in jail or at least be hit with a fine and be fired from the team, I won’t do that. I won’t stoop to your level. And to be honest, I don’t want to deal with the victim shaming that would come from a man admitting that a woman drugged him and violated him. I think that’s something that women deal with all the time, right? I get it. It’s horrible, and I want nothing more to do with you or any of your cheerleaders. Please stop texting me.”

Brooklyn stared at her phone for a long time, reading and rereading the texts. She hated to admit it, but he was right. If the situation was reversed, it would be a media frenzy. The man would be vilified for doing what she did to him. And she might get a good lawyer that could get her off, but she would face criminal charges for drugging him, and perhaps also for harassment or some sort of defamation of character claim. She knew plenty about victim shaming. What woman hadn’t heard countless stories of it or read about horrible situations online where the woman was put at fault for being assaulted?

She sat down and finished off her wine. For the first time, she felt bad about what she’d done to him, and she felt a little scared. He said he wasn’t going to press charges, but what if he changed his mind? She might be fired as head cheerleader. She might end up ruining her own career and messing up her dreams as a result. This whole thing was getting out of hand, and it needed to stop.

She thought about what she would say to Dustin, but before she could get out a text, she fell asleep on the couch.