EMILY***“It’s Tiffany, isn’t it?” Harry asked as I paced around his room.I was so anxious I was afraid that I would bite my whole nail off. He had caught me. He had caught on already and if he had Gabriel wasn’t too far behind. He wasn’t like me. He didn’t linger in his emotions for too long. He would snap out of it and he would start to think about things and he would realize that it was Tiffany as well.It didn’t matter that he didn’t know who she was, as long as he could discover that the article was written by the person behind the texts. That already put me in so much trouble. He knew I knew who the person was and that I had used them to send my own threatening texts to him.I could already picture him coming up with the scenario I'd come up with in the shower. It was just a matter of time before I was caught. What was I supposed to say? What would I do? How would it affect the reconciliation that we had come to? Would we go back to being sworn enemies? I was screwed.“Yes, it
GABRIEL***“It has to be them, I know it,” I said, pacing around my room.I was excited. Now that I had gotten over all the emotions that had come with being exposed, it had come easily to me. Of course, it was them. This had to be what they had threatened to expose me for. They were the only ones with a motive.I just needed to find out who they were and hopefully get to have a conversation with them. Maybe reaching some sort of agreement would make them delete the post or write a new one saying I had apologized. I had texted Harry immediately after I had found that out and then I had called Emily.She knew who the person was. Hadn’t she worked together with them before we agreed to stop the whole thing? She just needed to tell me who she was and I would be well on my way to rebuilding what I had broken myself. I was feeling hopeful. I hoped she would listen and at least agree to make another post if she didn’t agree to take down the other one.I was realizing that I was going to ha
EMILY***“Thanks for buying time,” I said to Harry as we walked together to our rooms.“I just hope it will be enough for us to find a way to stop Tiffany before she makes another post,” he said, “and you’re welcome.”I had managed to successfully lie to Gabriel about knowing who the person behind the texts was and Harry had helped by playing along, by being quiet. It had hurt me to see him look so defeated because he had really hoped that he was onto something, but I comforted myself by telling myself that this was for his good.“I’ll go to her and buy some time on her side as well as you find out about the school rules,” I said when we got to the door of my room.“That’s a great idea,” Harry said, “let me go and find out right now. I will let you know what I find out,” he added as he walked away.I watched him walk away before I got into my room. Nila was not in. I looked over at my table and there was a pile of books waiting for me to open them, but I knew I wouldn't be able to fo
GABRIEL***It was too bad that Emily hadn’t interacted directly with the person who was sending those texts out to us. I had been discouraged, but I wouldn't let that stop me. Harry wouldn’t let that stop me. He had been such an encouragement this whole time and I wasn't going to let him down by giving up easily.We would get to the bottom of things and everything would be okay just like he said it would. I didn’t believe it for myself, but I did for his sake. He was convinced that things would work out and I hoped they would. I couldn’t help but think about the timing of what had happened. It had happened just after I had talked to Emily, after our kiss.It was just after I had told her that I didn't want to play games any more after she had agreed. Could that be what caused the whole thing to go up in flames? Could the person have misunderstood her reason for stopping as Emily betrayed her? Was that why they did it? Out of anger? Was it a warning to Emily in a way that she was next
Bakersville High School“Did you hear?” someone asked another.Emily, who was almost leaving the bathroom stall, stopped in her tracks. Was she finally going to catch the person who had told the whole school that she was dating Gabriel?It had been a week since the rumor started, a week since she and Gabriel had had the argument. She had tried every single way to find out who had spread that rumor but she had come up short. None of her sources were proving useful. She and Gabriel hadn’t talked in that time. He hadn’t even come to her house to sleep. A part of her was worried for him. Had she been staying at home with his parents arguing, just because he couldn’t admit that he was the one who had told someone about them dating? Had he been safe at that time?Had he found somewhere else to sleep? She was angry at him but she was also worried about his well-being. Theirs was a complicated relationship, where they cared for each other but they also couldn’t stand each other. Or maybe she
EMILY***“I wanted to let you have a read through the article before I posted it,” Tiffany said as she walked after me into her room.“Isn’t it one of the ones you already showed me?” I asked, suddenly feeling sick.I didn’t know if I could read through those stories again. They made me feel guilty, they made me feel bad and they made me feel confused. I was a victim, just like them, the biggest one in fact, yet it was so hard for me to be on their side. I was experiencing so many conflicting feelings. I was torn. “It is, but I wanted you to read it, see if it was okay, see if it would cause enough damage,” she said as she led me to her desk her laptop was open.I sat on her desk chair and read through it. I only read through a few lines before I turned to look at her.“Is all of this true?” I asked, my heart thumping in my chest.“Not really. The person gave me their story and gave me the liberty to change it up a little so that it had the desired effect,” she said, smiling.“So, y
GABRIEL***“I texted the person,” Emily said, “and I think I know how we can get them.”I felt my heart thump in my chest. I had so many questions. Had she reached out to them because of me? Had she risked being exposed as a result? I was worried for her. She didn’t have to do what she had done just for me.This was clearly a dangerous person who could not be treated lightly or jokingly. If anything happened to Emily because of me I wouldn’t be able to handle it. It made me wonder why I hadn’t thought of it first.“But first, I need you to confirm the details of what they said,” Emily said as she turned to face me, “is everything they said true?”Everyone in the room turned to face me. We were in my room with Harry and Harper. She wanted to come to the next meeting we had to see if she could help in some way. I was afraid that things would become awkward but so far they had not. I hoped they stayed that way until we got to the bottom of things.“I don’t even remember the person,” I s
EMILY***“Tiffany and I used to date,” Harry said, “and everything was going well for the first few months of our relationship. I won’t lie and say that it hadn't been great when it had, at the beginning. She was incredibly kind, smart, and funny. I had just become the student body president and everything was perfect. I felt like I was on top of the world and like I was unstoppable. With her by my side, I felt like there was nothing I couldn’t do, nothing I couldn’t achieve. But it didn’t last long. Things started happening to us.”“Things like what?” I asked.“Rumors started going around about me. There was a new story every day, about an incident, about how I had treated the workers at the school cafe, about interactions that I had had with fellow students. They all painted me in a bad light. According to the rumors I was rude and inconsiderate. I was selfish and uptight and I had no respect for people. I reasoned at first that they were just mindless rumors that were being spread