Page 74 of Talk to Me

I glanced at him. “Okay.”

Together, we rode the last thirty minutes with Christmas songs playing softly in the background. I tried to think of something witty or funny to say to take Theo’s mind off of his phone, which was constantly buzzing as it laid on his thigh. Suggesting he turn it or the notifications off crossed my mind, but I was worried that it would upset him. So, I stayed quiet as he had suggested, and continued the drive back to campus.

When we pulled into the lot, students were milling about, getting back from their own excursions over the holidays. Theo and I got out of the car and wordlessly made our way to the trunk. I popped it so we could get our bags, then closed it once we had them slung over our shoulders. Theo wouldn’t look at me, instead stared down at his feet like a kicked puppy. I wanted to wrap an arm around his shoulders and lead him back to the dorms, giving him a pep talk the entire way. However, as I raised my arm, a voice rang out across the lot.

“DICK!” a guy shouted from somewhere a few cars over.

Everyone in the lot seemed to turn their heads at the same time to see what was going on. My head whipped around to find the source of the voice. Finding no obvious perpetrator, I turned my head back to look at Theo. But he was gone. As I turned, looking around the lot, I found him dashing off, his backpack bouncing against his shoulder, as he made his way towards the dorms.

I laid back against the car and groaned.

I’d never hated my fellow Midway students more than in that moment.

Finding Collin working at his desk in our room once I’d made my way to the dorms from the parking lot did not improve my mood. As I walked in, he merely shot a glance over his shoulder, sneered at me, then went back to whatever he was working on. Not so much as a “hello” crossed his lips as I shuffled in and set my bag next to my bed. It crossed my mind that Collin felt the onus was on me to say something, to break the seal on the discussion we needed to have, but I was feeling less than amenable after what had happened with Theo in the parking lot.

Instead of greeting Collin and suggesting we talk about the tension from the last few months, I went about unpacking. I put away the clothes Mom had washed for me before we’d left my parents’ house, threw the clothes that weren’t clean in the hamper, and put away my toiletries for later use. Then I flung myself on the bed. I laid there for several minutes, the silence of the room slowly pressing against me until it felt like a weight was on my chest.

All I could concentrate on was the swirling thoughts about Theo and Peepers and the sound of Collin’s fingers clicking away on his laptop. Before I could go completely insane, I snatched my earbuds off of my bedside table, stuffed them in my ears and pulled my phone out of my pocket. I’d had my phone on airplane mode for the car trip, so as to not get distracted by any notifications while driving. Playing the Christmas music saved on my phone didn’t require service anyway, so it was simply safer to use airplane mode while driving.

When I flipped the toggle to give my phone access to the network and the internet once again, my eyes bulged. Notifications began pouring in so quickly that the banners became one, stacking on each other until it was a flurry of banners and the dinging in my ears was incessant. Staring at the pile of hundreds of notification banners at the bottom of the screen, all indicating they were from Peepers, I felt my stomach sink.

“Shit,” I mumbled to myself.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Collin whip his head to the side to look at me. Whether I imagined it or not, I wasn’t sure, but I thought I saw him grin before going back to his laptop.

Shaking my head, I tentatively tapped my thumb on the pile of banners to separate them.

Ohmygod I’m so sorry! I hope that…

He should be ashamed of himself for…

If you need someone to talk to I’m…

He’s trash frfr

Screw that guy!

He didn’t deserve you anyway, and…

Frowning at the comment notifications, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on with my Peepers account. Obviously, everyone who had seen Ben Carter’s video, and been told by him that somehow, even though Theo and I weren’t dating, that he had cheated on me, were incensed. The torches and pitchforks were out and the Peepers community was calling for blood for what he had apparently done to me.

It struck me as odd that people on Peepers felt that it would be helpful to tag a jilted party in a video reminding them of the betrayal. Not that I was actually a jilted lover, but it was still odd that the people who thought I was felt they would somehow be helping by rubbing salt in the wounds. Secondly, I wondered why so many people were quick to believe Ben’s video when Theo and I had never once indicated we were dating. Other than our one Halloween video, we had never appeared on Peepers together. Theo only ever vaguely referred to me as his “friend” in any video where I was mentioned in passing.

The Peepers community had simply taken the word of a stranger on the internet that they worshipped for…whatever reason. The entire thing was embarrassing and frustrating, but it was equally perplexing.

Tapping furiously at the screen, I pulled up Ben Carter’s account. I didn’t have to search for the video Theo had been playing in the car because it was Ben’s first video in his list, and he’d pinned it to the top. Of course, since it had already gotten over a million views and two-hundred-thousand likes, he was going to milk it for all it was worth. I angrily tapped my thumb on the video preview.

“Well, well, well,” I heard Ben say for the second time in less than thirty minutes. “It looks like history just keeps repeating itself. Some people can’t just ruin one person’s life—they have to ruin the life of every guy they’re dating. One of my followers sent me this.”