How much did she hear? I want to bury my face in my pillows and cry. Or scream. How did he find Black? My mind is thinking in fragmented pieces. Nothing is stringing together. A high pitched shriek echoes from the quad below. I press my fingers to my temples and ask, “Did she stab him?” I hope not. That’ll totally mess up everything she’s been trying to fix.

Amber moves to the window and looks out. “No, Mel has him pinned to the ground, face-first, and is making him eat dirt.” She laughs lightly. “You should come see.” I walk over and look at the spectacle below. Mel has his face to the ground and is force-feeding him the lawn. The crowd watching is getting bigger, but Mel knows not to stay long enough for a teacher to walk over. She pushes up fast, kicks him in the side, and hurls a clump of grass at his head. Amber doesn’t look at me. Instead she stares out the window at her boyfriend. “I didn’t know he was like that, with you. I mean, I knew he slept around, but—”

“We didn’t have sex,” I blurt out. “I thought he was someone else or I wouldn’t have sent him those messages. They were for this other guy.” I take a deep breath and push my hair out of my face.

Amber doesn’t lift her eyes from the window sill. “I’m sorry. I was the one who put the video online. I won’t post any of the others.” I nod, and don’t look at her. For some reason, I’m not mad. I’m not really sure why. “So, it was a wrong number?” She sounds hopeful, like after what she just saw could be explained away.

“No, he knew it was me, Amber. And he would have broken my arm if you didn’t walk in right then.”

She nods, like she knows. “He has a temper.”

Mel walks into the room and swats the dirt off her hands. There’s a thin sheen of sweat on her face. “Where the fuck is Ferro? I thought you were with him and that’s why I didn’t need to be keeping an eye out for you. I’m gonna rip that boy a new—”

“Mel, stop. He dropped me off so I could grab my things. I told him to leave me.”

“And he listened?” She plants her hands on her hips and gives me a how-dumb-is-he look.

“Who’s Ferro?” Amber asks.

Mel lies, “Her cousin, Miss Nosey. And why did that piece of white trash have this?” Mel holds up a key. “He said you gave it to him.”

Amber has a worried look in her eyes, but hides it quickly. “I did. It’s my room, I can do what I want.”

“No, you can’t Dumber Than Dirt. Don’t hand out keys or I’ll take your ass and toss it out the window. Do we have an understanding?” Mel looks like she’s ready to grab Amber right this second. When my roommate doesn’t answer, Mel steps toward her.

The smug smile falls off of Amber’s face and her hands dart up, palms out. “Fine! Don’t touch me! I won’t give out any more keys.”

“Who else has a key?” I ask, concerned. Amber’s an idiot, but I didn’t realize part of her calling card included handing out copies of keys to our room.

Amber laughs nervously and shrugs her shoulders. “Your boyfriend.”

Mel’s caramel eyes cut to the side and meet mine before I ask, “Marty?”

Amber laughs, “Not the gay guy. The other one. He came by here looking for you a few times, wanting to celebrate something, but you weren’t around. He gave me the bottle of champagne and left. I told him that you’re working a lot and never around. He was trying to surprise you with a gourmet dinner and wine that cost more than my car,” she shrugs, “so I gave him a key and told him that he could try to catch you late on a Thursday. It’s the only day you’re around anymore.”

“Awh, fuck. Amber, how stupid are you?” Mel sounds pissed.

I just stand there and wonder if Amber is really trying to kill me or if she’s that stupid. “So, you don’t know his name? Or you won’t tell me?”

“I don’t remember. He told me, but I thought you only had one boyfriend! I was trying to help.”

Glancing over at Mel, I ask, “Do you think it’s Henry Thomas?”

She nods. When her gaze flicks back over to Amber, she asks, “Is there somewhere else you can stay?”

“You can’t throw me out of my room!” Amber stands and pokes Mel in the chest.

One of Mel’s dark eyebrows lifts as fairy-like laughter flutters out of her mouth, which sounds totally wrong. She swats at Ambers finger and growls, “It appears that you’re too stupid to be here and since we’re knee-deep in a real life horror movie, complete with psycho stalkers, I thought you might want to opt out before someone kills you.”

Amber blinks her big eyes too many times. “What? That guy was a stalker?”

I nod and rub the heels of my hands over my eyes.

Sean chooses that moment to show up. His knuckles wrap the door and he pushes it open, peering inside. “What’s wrong?”

Mel goes crazy on his ass for leaving me alone, while Amber tries to tell me something that I can’t hear.

Sean finally holds up his hand, and yells, “Enough! Avery, get your things. We’re leaving.”

Mel is standing there like she wants to rip Sean’s head off. “He had her pinned to the floor, Ferro. And where the fuck were you?”

“Too far away,” he finally answers. Looking directly at Mel, he says, “It won’t happen again, and thank you.”

“For what?” Mel spits out.

“For pounding that guy into the ground. If I did it, well, let’s just say it was better that you walked in and not me.”

“Hmm. Meaning Naked Guy would be a smear by now.” Mel nods and rolls her eyes, like Sean is all talk. The blood on his shirt the other night would suggest otherwise. I’ve wondered what that was about and what he did, but I’m very certain that it wasn’t Sean’s blood and that means I don’t want to know. Mel reaches into her jean’s pocket and hands me a piece of plastic.

“What’s this?”

She grins. “Naked Guy’s cell phone. I swiped it from him while I was kicking his ass.”

CHAPTER 9

My eyes go wide as I clutch the phone in my hand. The screen is cracked, but it still works. I turn it on and find my videos. Oh thank god. I flick through and only see some of my pictures, and a few of the videos are missing. Glancing at Amber, I ask, “Where are the rest?”

For once Amber is helpful, and just answers the question. “I deleted them.” She grins like a five year old in a candy store, showing way too many teeth. “What can I say? I’m the jealous type.”

“Who knew,” Mel snorts and shakes her head.

“I know, right?” Amber laughs and plops down on her bed. “He doesn’t have copies anywhere. I asked.”

“He could have lied to you,” Sean says bluntly.

Amber shakes her head. “Not him. He likes to show off, and if he uploaded them to his computer in his dorm, let’s just say that more videos would have shown up this morning. Plus, he tends to keep stuff like that on him at first because he doesn’t like to share. Speaking of which, give me the phone.” She holds out her hand, but no one hands it to her. Amber sighs dramatically. “My videos are on there too. I want to delete them before the asswipe posts them everywhere.” I hand her the phone and let her find her files in silence.

Sean watches her and from the tension in his arms, I can tell that he wants to smash something. My nerves are totally gone and I feel like I’m going to lose it and burst into a ball of snot and tears. Amber tosses me the phone, which I hand to Sean. He pockets the thing and looks down at me. “Come on.” He tilts his head toward the door, like I should automatically follow.

What am I? A dog? Woof. Here I come Sean. Pant. Pant. Fuck it. I fall into step behind him, and walk down the hallway with him and Mel. She’s still pissed. I know how much she wants to bite his head off. Her jaw is locked and she finally comes unhinged in the stairwell.

“I don’t trust you with her.” Mel snaps as she stomps down the metal steps.

“No one asked you to.” Classic Sean response, and like always, I’m caught in the middle.

“Guys, stop it.” I’m so diplomatic. I could have ended the Cuban Missile Crisis in a day. Did you just see that massive about of diplomatic action? Sha’zoom! Yeah. Okay, I suck at stopping fights and I can tell that they’re both brimming with stress and ready to kill anyone that steps into their path, including fuzzy bunnies. God save the bunnies.

They stop on the landing one floor down, ready to duel—verbally or with weapons—it’s hard to say with these two. “You had one job, Ferro, and you left her alone! How fucking stupid are you?” Mel bites her lips as they curl into a sneer.

Sean faces off and steps directly in front of her. “You’re not the only person who cares about her, so stop acting like you are. There was no way to know who was trying to hurt her.”

“It was him, ass hat!” Mel yells and points up the stairs toward my room.

“Seriously, guys, cut it out.” No one listens to me. I could toss my ass over the railing and jump. I wonder if I could grab one of the railings in a Spiderman fashion. I’d probably rip my arms off, which means Peter Parker is cooler than me.

Mel and Sean are in each other’s faces, growling like rabid animals. I hate listening to people fight. It makes my mind wander down slightly insane routes, so I don’t have to endure the yelling. My mom must have dropped me down a flight of stairs when I was a baby.

Awh, what the hell. I throw my leg over the metal railing and they don’t notice until both feet are on the wrong side.

Sean turns and looks at me wide-eyed. “What are you doing?”

Mel glares at me like I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have, because I’m afraid of heights and I don’t really care that it’s a long way down. “Get your scrawny ass back over here right now. I ain’t even playing with you, Avery. So help me God!” She actually stomps her foot. On me it would look ridiculous, but on Mel it looks scary. It probably has to do with the anger in her eyes and the fury on her face. Think Rumplestiltskin right before he fell through the floor. Hissy fit to the max, man.