“Who the fuck writes this drivel?” I asked.
“Keep reading, Samaya.”
Samaya Janmohammad was once poised to be a grade-12 darling at the school. Together with Devin Kapadia, she was in the physics club and the math club last year, and some even suspected the pair would be made co-valedictorians. But after an emotional public breakdown after her breakup with Devin Kapadia last spring, Samaya had a rocky start to this year. That all changed when she was seen in the company of a hot new stranger. And her new guy seemed to out-Devin Devin. Claimed to be a top academic student and topDragon Arenaplayer. Plus, a gifted hockey player who volunteers at a family shelter in his free time. He seemed too good to be true. Well, it turns out that we’ve all been had. He is too good to be true. A trustworthy source has confirmed that this new boyfriend of Samaya’s is 100 percent made-up. He’s not an honor student. He doesn’t even playDragon Arena. The source tells us that Samaya has been paying a teenager who lives in a homeless shelter, Daniel Ramos, to pose as her boyfriend. You heard that right—she has been exploiting a homeless guy for her own gain.
All this just to get back at Devin for breaking up with her? Apparently, hell hath no fury like Samaya Janmohammad scorned. Once the golden girl, it seems she has resorted to cruelty to maintain her relevance. Disappointing.
Fuck. I stared at the picture. They were accusing me of hiring Daniel to pose as my boyfriend. And they were outing him for having experienced homelessness. I closed my eyes.
“This is ...” I exhaled. My heart rate was speeding up.
“It’s BS,” Cass said.
I took several deep breaths. “We need to shut this down ...”
“Read the comments, Samaya.”
The top comment, with the most likes, was by Cass.
This post is the real cruelty, even for an account as evil as this one. To claim someone who doesn’t even go to this school is homeless just for the sake of gossip? For entertainment? You have no clue what the nature of these two people’s relationship is. And you have no right to put a person’s private family and social situation on the internet. And his name, too. This isn’t gossip, this is doxing, and it’s wrong. It’s high time someone doxed the horrible, privileged person or people behind Earl’s Whispers. I am disgusted that I go to school with you.
Many comments agreed with Cass. A few disagreed, but several people also called for anyone who knew the identity of Earl’s Whispers to come forward. Several people wrote that they would be blocking the account.
I looked up at Cass. “Thank you, but ... it’s true, though,” I whispered.
Cass gave me a curious look. “I know you were fake dating, but—”
“It’s true,” I repeated. “Daniel ... he and his mother lived in the shelter for a while last year. But how did anyone know that? I only found out on Friday.”
Cass exhaled. “Fuck. Poor Daniel. I didn’t know.”
“Not many people knew. Only people at the shelter, really, but even that ... I’ve worked there for months, and no one said anything. They’re big on privacy there. Ugh—someone in that other car that came to help find Yasmin could have overheard Muniba. Or maybe someone else at the shelter told one of them. Maybe told Aimee.”
Cass cringed. “Yeah. I think Aimee or Jayden definitely have something to do with this.”
“Or Hana,” I said, shoulders slumping. The whole school had seen this. “We need to get this taken down. This isn’t fair to Daniel.” I didn’t leave a comment on the post myself. I knew that would only add fuel to the fire. But I refreshed the post and saw more comments had been added calling for a boycott of Earl’s Whispers.
“They’ll delete the post because of this backlash,” Cass said. “I guarantee it. Whoever this is can dish it, but they can’t take it.”
Probably. I took a screenshot in case they did. I might need this as evidence or something one day.
The quad started filling up then, and I could feel everyone looking at me. A couple of people yelled out support, a few others gawked. I felt so exposed. Humiliated. Just like I did last spring when Earl’s Whispers posted that picture of me reacting to Devin dumping me.
But was this different? Maybe I deserved to be humiliated for what I’d done? There were a lot of truths in this post. Daniel and I were together now, but we’d faked it for weeks. I may not have paid him money, but I was tutoring him in exchange for his deception. And Daniel wasn’t living there now, but he had lived in the shelter at one point.
But whoever was behind this had no right to bring Daniel’s past into it. They could have outed me for faking the relationship without mentioning his family situation.
Cass gave me a look, then took my arm and guided me out of the quad. We hid out behind the school, where no one could stare at me, for the rest of lunch. I emailed MissZhao that I couldn’t come to gamedev after school while Cass messaged the team that the meeting was canceled. I didn’t want to face them all today.
By the time we went back inside for third period, the entire Earl’s Whispers account had been deleted. If nothing else, at least I wouldn’t have to deal with their vendetta against me anymore. But I was afraid the damage to Daniel had already been done.
As I was leaving my last class of the day, Hana cornered me in the hallway. “Samaya, can we talk for a few?”
I didn’t answer. Just glared at her.
She clasped her hands at her chest in a begging motion. “Two minutes. That’s it.”
“Fine. Two minutes.”
