by Tia Siren
“What? Tell me,” she said. “What place is that?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I have never been there before.”
“Then how did they get this picture?”
“They didn’t,” I replied, slamming my hand down on the desk. “Someone photoshopped the hell out of this. That picture of me is from a school dinner I went to with the Honor Society. That is not even Ben, and Grant is wearing a tux. This picture is one hundred percent fake.”
“That’s a good thing, right? That means you can explain it away,” she said, bending down and looking closely at the screen. “Okay, yeah. I see it now. Definitely fake. Like that time they photoshopped the Kardashian sister’s arm out of the photo.”
“I think this is a little more serious than a Kardashian’s arm.” I groaned. “Whether it is fake or not, we are all going to have to answer for it. If it were the first picture, it would be no big deal but it’s not. This is the second picture, and it’s the reason we found out about Arthur and Jeffrey in the first place. The president is not going to want any more bad press, and she’s going to go after Ben first, especially since he’s the new dean.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I said, looking up at her. “I guess I should call the guys and see if they know about it yet.”
“It’s been shared like five hundred times,” she said, shaking her head. “These people in your school really need to get a life.”
“Tell me about it,” I said. standing up and walking over to my phone. “And get the hell out of mine.”
I dialed Ben first, knowing he had the most to lose out of this whole situation. It rang several times but went to voice mail. I pulled the phone down and looked at it, wondering if I should try again. Before I could, though, the phone rang, and it was him.
“I’ve seen it,” he said when I answered. “I’ve seen it, and it is so bad. It’s obviously fake as hell. That’s not even me, but I’m named in it. Can you work on getting it taken down?”
“Piper is already doing that,” I said, listening to him freaking out.
“God, how could this have happened again? This is absolutely insane,” he said.
“Were you talking to Grant on the other line?”
“No, I was talking to the president,” he said. “More like sitting there listening as she exploded at me on the phone. I swore it was fake, but she isn’t buying it yet. I have a meeting with her in the morning. I don’t know if this is going to fly again with her. It’s obvious someone is fucking with us, and it could very well be Arthur or Jeffrey this time, especially since they’re out on bail now.”
“Oh god,” I groaned. “Ben, I’m so sorry for all of this.
“This isn’t your fault any more than it is mine or Grant’s,” he said, calming down. “Someone is trying to ruin all three of us. It’s a shoddy photoshop job, and the president will see it with her own eyes. We can prove it was a fake photo. They have that ability in the IT department. We shouldn’t need to go that far, though, it’s obvious how fake it is.”
“What if she’s just tired of the bullshit?”
“She is many things, but the one this she does take seriously is being fair,” Ben said. “If she can’t prove without a shadow of a doubt that it’s real, she won’t be unfair in the outcome. I want you to know that you need to be prepared to be called to her office. She let it go last time because the photo wasn’t incriminating, and we managed to catch Arthur and Jeffrey. She didn’t want to drag you through anything else. This time, though, she’s going to want to hear your side of things, see if she can get the absolute truth out of everyone. The school does not need another dean-related scandal.”
“I really hope this doesn’t ruin your job,” I said nervously.
“Me too,” he said. “Take a deep breath, and give Grant a call.”
“Okay.” I hung up and dialing Grant.
“Holy shit, what the hell is going on at this school?” Grant asked when he answered the phone. “I’m sorry, but this time I’m freaking out a little. I just had that picture sent to my personal email account from an unknown sender. I sent the address to my IT guy, and he’s trying to track it down. I don’t get these people. Wait, you did know about the picture, right?”
“Yes,” I said, holding back a chuckle and then getting serious. “Grant, this is terrible. How many times can we keep dodging this bullet before they hold us down? I’m so close to graduating, Ben just got Dean, and you have an amazing career. We could lose all of it because someone is hard-core fucking with us.”
“Have you talked to Ben?”
“Yeah, I just got off the phone with him,” I said.
“And?”
“And the president wants him in her office first thing in the morning,” I said, getting choked up. “He’s really worried she’s going to interrogate the hell out of all of us. Did you read the post on Facebook? Someone knows I’m pregnant. They told everyone in a status update with the picture. I fucking hate Facebook.”
“Calm down,” Grant said, realizing how worked up I was getting. “Take a deep breath.”
“I’m worried this is the end of us, of our careers, of everything,” I said, starting to cry. “We just got everything back on track, and then this happens, throwing us completely for a loop. It’s not fair. How come I can’t be happy? How come you guys can’t just be happy? Why does everyone want to see us fall like this? I don’t understand what I’ve done to deserve it.”
“You haven’t done anything,” he said. “You are sweet, kind, and you were the one who toppled the sex abuse ring. You had to know that when that happened, you would be someone’s target. I don’t know whose but someone’s.”
“I mean it went through my mind,” I said. “I just thought everyone would be happy we took those bloodsuckers down. I thought I would be left alone and not attacked. I could never do something like this to someone. It’s cruel and can affect them for the rest of their lives.”
“That’s true, but that’s what makes you an amazing person,” he said. “You have a conscience.”
“I need some sleep and a bagel,” I said.
“Hopefully, not in that order.” He chuckled. “Listen, get some sleep, and we’ll talk about all of this in the morning, okay?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Call me when you know something.”
“All right,” he replied. “And Kylie? There will never be an end to the three of us, not even if they put out a thousand photos.”
We hung up, and I walked over to Piper’s outstretched hands, laying my head on her shoulder. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I would never find my happily ever after.
Chapter 35
Grant
There was no way I could sit in my office any longer. Ben was in his meeting, and the waiting was driving me absolutely nuts. Our entire futures hinged on how well Ben handled this meeting and whether the President believed him or not. My nerves were running wild, and I couldn’t concentrate on anything but that. Finally, I shut everything down and headed over to his office to sit down in the chairs out front. I wanted to be there when he got back from his meeting. I wanted to hear what was going to happen before it was told to Kylie so I could be prepared for the aftermath. I knew Kylie had to be as nervous as I was.
Ben was taking a lot longer than I thought he would and had been in the meeting with the president for over three hours. On one hand, that could have been a good thing, her giving him time to point out all the mistakes in this whole thing. On the other hand, she could be giving him discharge papers and explaining the process to him. I needed to get myself in check. I was so used to being the one in control, the calm one. But at that moment, with everything on the line, I was completely freaking out.
I stood up as soon as I heard footsteps, folding my hands together in front of me as Ben rounded the corner. He stopped for a minute, surprised to see me waiting outside of his office, and then picked up the pace, getting to me and putting his hand up. He didn
’t want to talk about it where people could hear us. He unlocked his office and stepped inside, holding the door for me before closing and locking it. He waved to the chair, inviting me to sit down, and then went behind his desk, plopping down and running his hands over his face.
I wanted to give him time to cool down, gather his thoughts, and get himself back to normal. Jumping right in with a million questions was only going to frustrate him, and I was sure he’d just faced a million and one questions from the president. I sat tapping my foot, trying to keep control of my emotions.
“Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I’m trying not to freak out, but I need to know what is going on. You were in that meeting for over three hours. What happened? What did she say? Did she believe you? Are we all fired?”
“Grant,” Ben yelled to get my attention. “You have got to keep yourself together here, man. Take a deep breath and calm down. What happened to you being the calm one? The one who kept his shit together all the time?”
“I don’t know,” I groaned, leaning back in the chair. “This whole thing has finally gotten to me. I feel like I’ve snapped.”
“Well, pull yourself together.” He shook his head.
“The truth of the matter is, it doesn’t look great,” he said. “It’s not the worst it could be, but it’s not the best it could be either. She is very doubtful, very upset, but I think I might have started to convince her of the lies. I showed her all the inaccuracies of the photo, showed her the cutouts, pointed out that the other man in the picture wasn’t even me. She took a magnifying glass to the damn thing. She looked like she was starting to come around by the time I left the meeting.”
“Good,” I said, sighing. “This whole thing is such bullshit. Well, it’s not really. We are actually breaking the rules, but if I’m gonna get caught, it’s not going to be from some hack job of a photoshopped picture.”
“There is one other thing,” he said. “They found out Kylie is pregnant. It was typed on the status with the picture. I told them I had no idea if that was true or not, but they are questioning those rumors. They will probably be calling her down to the president’s office next.”
“All right,” I said, calming down. “I should get back for office hours. Thanks for calming me down, man. I’m sorry I freaked out. I will be ready for Kylie when she comes knocking.”
“Just keep your chin up and your head down,” he said as I walked out of the office and back to mine.
I sat in the office for most of the afternoon, scanning through Facebook for any more copies of that picture. I didn’t find anything else on there, though, and was happy Kylie had switched her profile to private. Later that day, when I opened back up for office hours, there was a knock on the door. I opened the door to find Kylie standing there, looking a bit more than nervous. I invited her in and locked the door behind us. She walked in and plopped down in the chair, leaning her head back against the wall with her eyes closed. She looked exhausted, so I got up and grabbed her a bag of chips and some water.
She smiled as she took them from me, opening the water and taking a sip. This whole thing was bad for her and the baby. I couldn’t believe we were back in the same exact spot again. Only this time, we had way more to lose.
“So, I just left the meeting with the president,” she said. “They pulled me out of bed, which you know me. I wasn’t too thrilled about it. Turns out looking like hell when facing her worked in my favor. She immediately had sympathy for me. I am pretty sure I got her off our backs, at least for a little while. She seemed to believe everything I said, especially since I started crying, like, as soon as I sat down in her chair. These damn hormones are killing me.”
“What did she ask you about?”
“Everything,” she chuckled. “Everything in my life is now privy to the president. Well, everything I wanted her to think about my life at least. Of course, I didn’t tell her the truth. I wouldn’t be sitting here if that was the case.”
“Tell me what happened from the top,” I said, looking over at her.
“She started by pulling out the photo,” she said. “I sat there with her by my side pointing out every place that you could tell it was photoshopped. I told her where that picture of me came from and pulled out the copy of that picture and gave it to her.”
“Nice,” I said with a smile.
“She compared them and shook her head, seeming pretty satisfied with that explanation,” she said. “I even went on to her computer and showed her how Photoshop worked since she had no idea. I photoshopped a picture of her head on top of a ballerina. I have to say, my limited knowledge of Photoshop is better than the clowns who made the picture. She was impressed and cracked some joke about using that to slim herself down in the yearly graduation pictures. Of course, I giggled and offered my services.”
“You are too much,” I said shaking my head. “What happened next?”
“We talked about the first picture,” she said. “I went word for word with the original story that we had, adding in that we had run into Arthur and Jeffrey there. She was really curious why they would be at a hotel in Providence. I think that distracted her from wondering what we were doing there. I explained to her that there hadn’t been any more rumors about the three of us since that picture came out. I told her there was a good reason for that because none of us were connected, and after that happened, we made sure we barely even spoke to each other. Everything was academic after that.”
“Did she believe you?”
“I think she did,” she said, sitting up. “I really think that she did.”
“So that was it? All we had to do was send you to become besties with the president and everything would be cleared up? I need to remember that in the future,” I said, chuckling.
“Hopefully, we won’t need me like that in the future,” she pointed out. “But that wasn’t the last of it. She found out I was pregnant. She asked if the rumors were true, and I felt like lying to her was a bad idea. I’m still going to be here when I’m seven months pregnant, and I think she will notice that. I told her I was pregnant and begged her not to tell anyone until I was ready to come out with it. I told her at that point it was a vicious rumor, and I wanted to be able to get a handle on it.”
“That had to have raised some red flags,” I said, leaning forward.
“It did, but I made up a story fast.” She shook her head. “I told her I’d made a mistake, that I trusted this fraternity guy and thought he actually cared about me. Of course, I broke down in tears thinking about how sad it would be if it were true. I told her that he got me pregnant and told me he didn’t want anything to do with the baby. She sat down next to me and rubbed my back, even telling me about services the college offered to women who were going through similar things. She told me I had a bright future ahead of me even with a baby and gave me this really sweet pep talk. I almost felt bad for lying to her.”
“You had to,” I said, walking around and sitting next to her. “It was for all our best interests. I’m sorry you have to go through this. That you have to be in a place where everything is a lie.”
“It won’t be for that much longer,” she said with a kind smile. “I think she is convinced, and that is the most important thing to me right now. Having her walk me out, hug me, and tell me to come to her with anything I need made me know she no longer suspected the two of you. What she will do with the picture and this crazy person online, I don’t know, but I think we’ll be in the clear from here on out unless we severely screw up in some way. I want all of this to be behind us. I want to move on, graduate, and start out lives together without looking over our shoulders every five seconds. No, I won’t be Ben’s date to any dean’s dinners for a while afterward, but I can come home to you guys every day and know we’re a family.”
“You’re right,” I said, leaning forward and kissing her cheek. “Why don’t you go home, get a nap, and then come over to my house tonight? I’ll cook you some really good food, and we can relax and wa
tch some movies or something.”
“That sounds nice,” she said, looking at me lovingly. “Thank you for always being there for me and for never letting me down. And tell Ben what happened when you see him. It will calm his nerves a little bit. I’m sure he’s on pins and needles waiting to find out something.”
“I will do that.” I helped her up and showed her to the door.
I watched her walk out and down the hall, shaking my head and smiling as I went back in the office. At least we could all breath easily tonight, even if we hadn’t heard from the president. I wasn’t even sure she would call me to her office now. It was hard on Kylie, but I was glad she was there to save the day yet again.
Chapter 36
Kylie
I was really surprised to see Ben at Grant’s house when I showed up for dinner. I hugged him tightly, and he thanked me quietly in my ear. I nodded at him and then looked up at Grant as he carried the food to the dining room table. Ben pulled my chair out for me and scooted me in before taking a seat beside Grant on the other side. Grant had prepared a delicious spaghetti dinner with salads, garlic bread, and his homemade spaghetti sauce. I really loved it when he cooked. It showed me a side of him that I didn’t get to see at school. I also loved when we sat around the table together eating like a family. It was a wonderful thing to have and to look forward to.
“Here is to another narrow escape,” Grant said, lifting his glass. “Thanks to the two of you.”
“Kylie is the one who bagged it.” Ben nodded and smiled at me.
“I couldn’t have done if you hadn’t already taken the heat and set me up with your facts,” I said raising my water to him. “And Grant kept me together in one piece.”
“And Ben kept me together.” He laughed, nodding at Ben.
“What? The great, calm Grant needed calming down himself? I don’t believe it,” I said, laughing.
“We all fall at some point.” He chuckled.