by Tara Brown
We’d aged, and if you looked at her now, judging her by her room, you’d think she was a well-balanced young woman.
But I knew how unstable she was.
Going to Griffin’s house and lying about me dating someone behind his back was a sick and calculated move. He was right. She didn’t want anyone else happy. She didn’t want me to miss out on Fling Club, her chance to control me one last time. Until she figured out how to control me as an adult.
But we were too old for these games.
I was too old to be snooping in a bedroom. I had turned twenty-one a couple of months ago, two weeks before Cait. We were both too old for these antics and yet, here I was, wearing dollar store flip-flops and a four-thousand-dollar dress while sneaking into Cait’s room to sabotage her.
“Uh, Cherry?” Rachel walked toward me holding a small box.
“What?”
“Pretty sure operation Destroy Cait needs to stop.” She lifted her gaze, horrified by whatever was in the box.
“Why?” My heart raced, curious and terrified of what she could have possibly found.
“She has blackmail material on all of you.” She handed me the box and turned to the computer.
I started combing through the dusty old box, finding ancient photos of everyone I knew in compromising positions, including me, from when we were much younger. “Holy shit, this is like Mean Girls, only it’s a burn box. Where’d you find this?”
“The back of the closet behind a bunch of other shit. Old luggage and some shoeboxes she clearly hasn’t opened in ages.”
“What the hell?” I stared at it.
“Dude, we need you. Now!” Rachel spoke into her phone; I hadn’t even realized she’d called anyone. “Cait’s bedroom computer—we need in. You have seconds to get here.”
“Who was that?”
“Ella.”
“Oh. She didn’t answer my texts when I sent her a message about coming.” I didn’t ask why we needed Ella; I was stuck staring. A photo of me losing my virginity, drunk and scared and uncomfortable, was staring back at me. The picture wasn’t the only one of its kind. In fact, every girl I knew had a similar one. Everyone except Cait. “This is disgusting.” I noted the picture had a time stamp. It had come from a video. My skin crawled as I tried to recall the moment.
It was hazy, but I didn’t remember Cait being there, or there being much light.
We were in a bedroom at a party.
I stared at the picture more closely, realizing there was a slot in the wall or wood or something alongside the photo; Cait had been hiding behind the wall or in the closet, filming us.
It had been her idea.
She’d set me up.
I started to feel a little sick, a little disoriented. She’d filmed me having sex? I lost my virginity with some random guy because she wanted a movie of me doing it?
I slumped to my knees, cradling the box.
I knew she was sick and twisted and weird and a complete bitch.
But this was something else.
I’d just thought about how we were so past this.
And here, all along, was proof that I hadn’t even gotten started on my revenge.
But revenge wasn’t even the right word now.
I didn’t want that or vengeance. Now I wanted something else.
I wanted to be away from her, deleted from her life and free from her brand of crazy.
Ella came bursting through the door, wheezing and nodding. “I’m here.”
“She filmed me,” I whispered.
“What?”
I lifted the single picture up, flashing my naked teenage body at my sister.
“What the fuck?” She grabbed the box and started rifling through. “Oh my God, what a sicko. Oh, that’s Andy; I can’t take back seeing that.” She dropped the box and squinted her eyes like there was acid in them.
“The computer. I think those images are from recordings. They have time stamps like they’re screenshots.” Rachel spoke with urgency in her tone.
“Okay.” Ella hurried over, plugging something into the computer and typing like a mad woman. I grabbed the box and held it tightly, not sure what to do or where to go from here.
I watched her typing and cringing, and then she was done, too fast.
“I left myself access to this computer, so I can do what I want remotely. Let’s get out of here before they come home.” Ella pulled the thing from the computer and hurried to me, lifting me up.
“She filmed me, Ella.” I wanted to cry. I wanted to burst into the biggest ball of emotions. But I was sad. I wasn’t angry enough to cry.
I was heartbroken.
“I know.” She dragged me from the house, trying to take the box, but I refused to let it go.
As Rachel took the keys and we drove away with Ella following us, Rachel gave me a look. “You okay?”
“No.” I clung to the burn box and thought of one thing and one thing only. “You have a fire pit at your house?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
After she pulled into her driveway, I jumped out and hurried to the side of the house. Her dad was home, not a fan of the club, the Spring Fling, dances, or formal anything. He was more casual about life than anyone I’d met. But fortunately he wasn’t around to see me in the state I was in.
I rushed to the backyard and dumped the box of pictures into the pit. I stared at it, not even really sure what to do with it now.
Rachel came up behind me a few minutes later and dumped liquid on everything, then tossed a match onto the damp pictures.
They ignited instantly, bursting into blue and yellow flames.
We backed up, watching the images burn.
“It’s like a box of kiddie porn,” Rachel murmured.
“Yeah, it is.”
When every image was gone and all that remained was ash and some coals from the logs that had already been in there, I turned to her. “Please don’t tell any—”
“I wouldn’t. Ever. I’m sorry this happened to you.” She hugged me. My eyes burned with the need to cry, but I wasn’t angry enough. Not yet.
Chapter Thirty-One
CAMERAWOMAN C
Cherry
“What have you found?” I paced behind where Ella was typing away on her computer.
“Cait has videos of everyone we know having sex or in some precarious situation; even if it’s just a flash or a couple of minutes, she ensures she gets a good face shot. It’s apparently a creepy fetish of hers. Not one you’d expect from a girl like her. After we show your friends the videos, I’ll remotely delete them all from the computer and set her back to default. She’s going to think the computer crashed. Then I’ll erase ever being there, but it’s likely that she backed that thing up. I bet there’s a flash drive somewhere. One good thing is it didn’t look like she’d logged on to the computer in weeks.”
“Great. We have to find that USB or hard drive?”
“Yeah.” Ella sighed. “She’s disgusting. I can’t believe you were even friends with her.”
“Me either.” I wanted to defend myself and suggest that maybe we weren’t ever friends to begin with, but the truth was, we were. It was a demented friendship. “I messaged Sarah, Cora, Erica, and Laura and told them to sneak out of the party. I sent Hans with the car to fetch them. He’s bringing them over now.”
“We both know they need to see this.”
“Yeah, they deserve to see their videos.” As I said it, the door opened.
“Some young ladies for you, Miss Cheryl,” Henry interrupted.
“Thanks.” I left my sister and followed our butler downstairs to where my friends stood.
“Hey!” Sarah smiled wide, looking a little too fresh faced. I wished I weren’t about to ruin that as she said, “Are you all right? Cora and I saw you two leave so suddenly. You looked upset.”
“I ran into Griffin in the bathroom,” I growled. “It doesn’t matter now. I have something to show you guys.” I didn’
t pretend to be happy. I didn’t bother pretending anything.
“Everything okay?” Laura asked cautiously.
“Nope.” I turned and walked back up the stairs, expecting them to follow. I wasn’t okay, and they weren’t going to be okay either.
When we got to Ella’s room, I held the door open for them.
“Hey. Maybe just come over one at a time.” Ella spoke softly from behind her desk. “Erica, you first.”
“What’s going on?” Erica gave everyone a look as she walked slowly to my sister’s desk. She stood facing us and the computer, which had its back to us. Her eyes widened, and her cheeks lost all color for a second before it rushed back in. “How—where did you get—”
“Cait’s computer.” Ella spoke softly.
“What the fuck?” Erica burst into tears, covering her face.
“What the hell, Cherry?” Sarah lost all that fresh-faced joy.
“Sarah, you can come look next.”
Erica ran to me, wrapping herself around me.
“There’s one of me too.” I hugged her, wishing my tears would show up. My eyes were burning, and my stomach was twisting into knots. I held my friend as another one learned the terrible secret.
Sarah started to cry, shaking her head. “No one was there. That’s impossible. No one was there!” She covered her face like this was her shame to carry.
“Laura,” Ella whispered, clearly disgusted.
“I don’t wanna see.” Laura shook her head. “I don’t wanna know what this is.”
“Yes, you do,” Erica sputtered, wiping her eyes so the mascara didn’t smudge.
“Fuck.” Laura held herself tightly, clinging to her own hands for strength. When she saw the computer screen, her brow furrowed. “Holy shit. I thought it was something else.”
“She filmed you getting it on?” Sarah gasped.
“Yeah, it’s weird, but it’s not where my mind was going.” She sighed, taking a knee. Clearly she had other things on her conscience. I didn’t even want to know what they were. If this didn’t disturb her, God knew what did.
“I honestly thought you had some sick and twisted murder video or something. Like The Ring. Oh my God.” She was heaving her breath.
“Cora.” I nodded at the computer, still embracing Erica.
“I already know.” Cora didn’t take a single step.
“You knew!” Sarah sounded like she might go off the deep end.
“Cait showed me.” Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes lowered to the floor.
“She blackmailed you already?” Ella arrived at the truth before the rest of us.
“Yeah.” Cora winced, her eyes twitching like she might cry. No. Sob. Like she might lose the hold she desperately had on herself. “She made me do things.” She whispered the next part. “To you guys.” And then it happened. She dropped to her knees, heaving and sobbing, covering her face.
“Oh, God.” Sarah took a step back, scared to be too near Cora.
“Cora?” Laura narrowed her gaze. “What kind of things?”
I defended her. “Give her a minute.”
“It could have been any of you,” Ella reminded us all. “I’ve deleted all the files and remotely set her to default.” Ella closed her laptop and sat back in her chair, looking like maybe she needed a drink and a vacation from this.
It took several minutes before Cora got control of herself. We sat around her, trying to be supportive with our bodies because our words couldn’t be. Not yet.
“She made me take pictures of you when you were drunk.” She glanced at Sarah. “You started making out with that guy Beverly’s dating.”
“Oh, shit.” Sarah grimaced. “Scott? They’re engaged.”
“I know.” Cora continued, “She made me film you eating a sundae off of Corrine’s stomach.” Her eyes darted to Laura.
“She fucking dared me to do it. I had to.”
“She lit the candles and told me to pretend to go to the washroom during it, but I went to the window. From that angle it looked like you and Corrine were alone.”
“So what?” Laura scoffed.
“She thought your parents would be upset you were having sex with a girl.” Cora said it so quietly I barely heard her.
“My parents don’t give a shit about that. They act the act, but my mom’s best friend’s gay. She’s been married for a while, and my mom was maid of honor.” Laura cracked a grin. “My dad agrees with the bullshit out here when people are looking, but he doesn’t think that way. So fuck you, Cait. Guess she doesn’t know everything.”
“Guess not.” Cora didn’t smile. She didn’t sound relieved even. Her eyes darted to Erica. “I have pictures of you stealing. Shoplifting.”
“Oh.” Erica’s cheeks brightened. She lowered her eyebrows, maybe angry with herself a little.
We all knew about her condition. When school got hard or life became too stressful or she had a fight with her mom, she stole. It wasn’t something we judged her for.
We all had things.
Sarah had battled with maintaining weight, bordering on an eating disorder and binge drinking. Cora had cut a few times; her reasons had been her own. They were making more sense now, though. Laura smoked too much weed, clinging to false reality instead of ours.
And I was a doormat.
I said yes.
I hid flaws.
I buried feelings.
I told myself I was weak and pathetic and I needed someone else to lead me. My self-esteem was in the toilet, and Cait was ruining our lives. Or maybe she was living hers by tormenting us.
Cora started to cry again, but this time she spoke through the tears with a shaking voice. “She set you up. She wanted you to see.” She didn’t look at me, but I knew she was talking to me. She’d tried to tell me that in the bathroom at the club, and it didn’t make sense until this moment. “I told her when you got on the train to come to Griffin’s. She went there, knowing you’d come. She didn’t know you had a key. She thought you’d knock and she would answer.”
“She wanted to see my face when I realized?”
Cora nodded her answer with a whisper. “I’m so sorry.”
“I don’t blame you. This could have been me. Honestly, she’s pushed us all so far, look where we are. We’ve been friends for years, and yet not one of us trusts the others. She has us on edge. Alienated. She wants us this way; it’s easier to manipulate us.” I leaned forward, taking her hand in mine. She tried to pull away, and I saw it, a fresh line covered with tattoo makeup, hiding the wound. I grabbed her arm harder, turning it over. “You’re cutting again?”
Her eyes didn’t lift. She didn’t try to defend herself.
I pulled her to me, surrounding her with my arms. “Cora, would you have done anything to any of us on purpose if Cait hadn’t made you do it?”
She sobbed. She didn’t answer.
The other girls leaped at us, crushing us with shaking hands and trembling fingers that dug in too hard, needing too much.
We cried, they cried, and we hugged until I was cramping and struggling to breathe.
“What does she have on you?” Ella asked after we started to calm down. “Cora, what does she have on you?”
“Nothing. Just a sex tape,” she lied. It was painfully obvious.
“Tell them the truth,” Ella said, indicating she knew that there was more.
She shook her head in tiny twitches, begging Ella not to tell.
“What is it?” Sarah’s eyes narrowed. “Tell us. You know all our shit.”
“Do you want me to tell?” Ella asked, not threateningly, but genuinely caring. Cora nodded and Ella spoke. “It was Cait’s dad. Second year of college.”
“What do mean, Cait’s dad?” Sarah cocked an eyebrow.
“Her video is of her and Cait’s dad in the guesthouse.” Ella spelled it out for the slow ones.
“Gross,” Laura blurted.
“Jesus, Cora.” Sarah shuddered.
“Why?” Erica wrinkled
her nose.
“He tried it on me too.” I admitted a truth I’d never told a single soul.
“What?” Sarah gasped. “No!”
Even Ella appeared shocked.
But Cora gave me a look, relieved.
“Yeah. Cornered me, said some skeezy shit, and propositioned me. I managed to escape, but not because I was being strong. I was fast.”
“He goes for the weak ones.” Ella shamed me, but nothing she said was a lie. It never was. Ella didn’t lie.
Cora nodded. “I was drunk.”
I felt sick.
And all our friends stayed silent, traumatized by the revelations of our formative years spent in the company of someone who wanted nothing but to punish and torture us.
“And now comes the fun part of the night.” Ella switched to cheerful again—vindictively cheerful. “Cherry and I have something else to tell you.” Her eyes avoided mine in case I was against bringing them into the fold.
But at this point, I wasn’t against anything that would destroy Cait.
This was going to be the summer we took back our power and got our freedom from the club. Not just me anymore, but all of us. Together.
Chapter Thirty-Two
INTO THE FOLD
Cherry
“I can’t believe you brought them all in,” Andy growled at me the next day, folding his arms and pacing our massive rec room between our bedrooms, tapping a finger on his bicep. “You sure they won’t out us or change teams?”
“Yeah.” Ella didn’t tell him why yet.
Andy gave me and then Ella a look. “You trust those girls?” He stared her down, like he was reading her mind, until she nodded. He placed such trust in my sister that when she said something had value, he believed it and vouched for her.
“Okay then.” He and I wouldn’t ever have the same relationship. “So what’s next?”
“We need to tell you something,” Ella added.
“Or we can just—”
“No.” Ella cut him off. “We need to talk before anyone else comes here or interrupts. This changes everything.”
Even if it made my stomach ache to do it. I told myself that ending Cait’s reign was more important than any of us, even my trust issues. Considering she’d been the one to give them to me, I owed her this.