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“Everything’s okay. I love you,” I murmur against his lips before pulling away.
He seems confused but doesn’t stop me. “I love you too,” he says possessively as I walk away.
“Gag, you guys are so gross,” Kaitlyn tells me as I get in her car. Her arm’s finally out of the sling, and she fixes her lip gloss in the mirror. I hate to admit it, but it’s really nice inside this car; the leather feels smooth and expensive.
As I close the door, I try to ignore all the eyes following me. The confused ones from Mason and Julian, the accusing ones from Annalisa, and the intense ones from Aiden. But this is bigger than they know, and they don’t need all of us to go to a bar and ask some questions. I’m doing this for Kaitlyn, I’m doing this for Annalisa, and I’m doing this for myself. I can’t sit aside and be okay with a man thinking he can control a girl. Not now, and not ever.
Everything will make sense to them in less than twenty-four hours. I know it looks bad and confusing right now, but once I can explain everything, they’ll understand.
After we fine-tune our plan, Kaitlyn drops me off at home to get my car, and I follow her to Ryan’s house. For the first part of the plan, Kaitlyn is going to show up at his house, where she assured me he’d be home alone. She’s going to gather all her “old Kaitlyn energy” aka demanding scary bitch energy, and accuse him of forgetting some anniversary and demand that he take her out.
I park my car down the street and turn it off, ducking down in my seat so that I’m not visible. Ryan’s neighborhood isn’t bad. It’s nothing like Kaitlyn’s with the circular driveway and punch-code gate to get in, but it’s not sketchy like Luke’s apartment.
Kaitlyn pulls into his driveway, gets out of her car, and bangs her hand against the door. A few moments later, Ryan answers. His hair’s messy and he’s wearing jeans with a Commack Silver High hoodie. They talk for a bit at the front door, then Kaitlyn gets visibly offended. She’s very expressive with her hands, her arms flailing out every which way. I can just imagine what she’s saying.
What? You’re telling me you didn’t plan anything for today? How dare you forget that today is the two month anniversary of the first time you held my hand?! or some other absurd thing.
Every time he tries to speak, she nags over him. Eventually, Ryan pinches the bridge of his nose in exhaustion and Kaitlyn perks up, then he disappears into the house.
I guess he gave in. Fine, Kaitlyn. Whatever. Happy three month anniversary of the first time I looked at you for longer than ten seconds. Let’s go.
I laugh at my own improv and duck down farther when Ryan emerges from the house with a jacket and his car keys.
Kaitlyn stops him and says something. She’s telling him she needs to use the bathroom but wants her seat warmer already going when she comes back. They argue for a couple of seconds out on the driveway, then Ryan, apparently too tired from their first argument, rolls his eyes, thrusts his house keys at her, and turns to walk to his car.
Kaitlyn practically prances up his steps and unlocks his front door, disappearing into the house. Not even two seconds later, Ryan starts honking.
I was a bit worried at this part of the plan, since it relies so heavily on Kaitlyn antagonizing the boy who already isn’t afraid of harming her, but she promised me that he wouldn’t hurt her today. She said he has to be in a “certain mood,” whatever that means. I guess she’d know and tone it down, but she seems right so far since he hasn’t lashed out. Still, this isn’t my favorite position to put her in.
Ryan gets out of the car and is about to walk back to the house when Kaitlyn emerges, closing the door behind her but conveniently “forgetting” to lock it.
They get into the car and I scooch lower in my seat as they drive off, even though they drive in the opposite direction.
My phone vibrates; it’s a text from Kaitlyn.
Left his laptop out on his bed. Second room on the left. The password book is somewhere in his closet but I didn’t have enough time to find it
Why he doesn’t just use the same three passwords like every other person, I’ll never know, but in this case his paranoia works in our favor.
On it. Heading in nowI text back, getting out of my car and casually walking down the street to Ryan’s house.
As much as I hate drama and stuff, I think I secretly love this secret agent covert stuff. As stressful as it is, it gets the adrenaline going. It’s fun screwing Ryan over, and even weirder, being on the same team as Kaitlyn. I have to give credit where credit’s due—Kaitlyn was one hell of an actress. I’m almost scared of the power we’d have if we ever decided to be friends and team up for more schemes like this, but I know that’ll never happen.
I walk right up Ryan’s front steps and into his house, closing the door behind me. He lives with his mom, who isn’t home, obviously. The house is small and slightly messy, but not dirty.
Without wasting time, I follow Kaitlyn’s directions and head into Ryan’s room. It’s a simple room, with a bed in the corner, a bathroom off to the side, and another door to the closet. His bedsheets are a tangled mess at the bottom of his bed, and there are piles of clothes on the floor. He even has a couple of posters of naked girls up on his wall, which, I mean, gross.
His laptop is on his bed, and I head over to the closet for the password book. His closet isn’t a walk-in, which I guess makes my life a bit easier, but it’s not organized either.
A quick scan doesn’t reveal any kind of book or notebook anywhere, so I roll up my sleeves and sort through the clutter on the floor. Should I be wearing gloves for this? Who knows what’s in here? I pinch a pair of his underwear between two fingers and practically gag as I move it to the other end of the closet. Maybe I should’ve worn gloves.
There are a couple of textbooks but no notebook. There’s a shelf at the top of his closet, so I say a silent prayer that my hand doesn’t land on anything gross and blindly feel around for it.
My hand touches a couple of things that don’t feel like notebooks, and I don’t ever want to know what they are, before finally landing on a notebook. I pull it out and shake my hand out as if that will somehow help stop the spread of germs.
As I skim through the book, there are passwords written in his sloppy writing, but none of them are labeled, so I head over to the laptop and try a bunch of them. The laptop finally opens with “ilovehotchicks,” which is real mature of him, and I start searching his photo albums.
This part of the plan I’m not too keen on either. I’m literally supposed to actively look for pictures of Kaitlyn naked. I almost throw up in my mouth just thinking of it. But, hey, she needed to distract him so we had no other choice. She’s not too happy about it, either, but I’m just trying to get in, delete the pictures, and get out, not analyze each one.
The folders are organized by month, so I start from a couple months before I know they started dating just in case, and quickly click through each picture. He doesn’t have a lot of pictures, which is good since it makes clicking through them and deleting any naked ones easier.
Kaitlyn said her face isn’t in all of them, so I just go through and delete anything that looks like a naked girl. I don’t even know if they’re all Kaitlyn, to be honest, but if it’s naked, it’s deleted.
I finish and double-check the folders in case I missed any, then make sure to empty his recycle bin just in case. Hopefully I got everything, but I mean, that’s the best I can do. He might not even notice that they’re missing. The way the folders are set up makes it look like it’s just an automatic backup from when he plugs his phone in.
I close his laptop and put it back where I found it, and do the same with the notebook. I eye the bathroom door, and just can’t resist going to wash my hands. I feel like laughing and jumping up and down clapping. We’re really going to get away with this. It can’t really be this easy, can it?
A pounding on Ryan’s front door answers my thoughts, making me freeze as I exit his room. No one knows I’m in here, right? Did a neighbor see me walk in? Is Ryan back? The pounding continues.
“Ryan?” It’s a girl’s voice, one I’ve never heard before.
Is his mom home? No, his mom wouldn’t be knocking on the front door. I eye the doorknob helplessly as it jiggles. Oh no. Did I lock the door when I came in?
The door swings open and a girl around my age waltzes in. I’m frozen, staring at the door like a deer in headlights.
“Ryan? You were supposed to pick me up an hour ag—oh.” She pauses when she sees me, tilting her head to the side. “Who are you and why are you in Ryan’s house?”
Why would a random girl be standing in Ryan’s house?
She’s looking at me, waiting for me to answer her question.
“I’m, uh . . . Kaitlyn.” I mean, we practically have the same hair, might as well use it. My spine straightens and I try to emulate Kaitlyn’s attitude as best I can. “I’m his girlfriend. Who are you?”
She stares at me in disbelief. “I’m Cece. I’m Ryan’s girlfriend.”
Ryan’s girlfriend?!
That was the last thing I was expecting her to say. Clearly Ryan’s got a type, because she’s giving me all the Kaitlyn vibes right now.
Shit.How do I get out of this now? Think, Amelia!
I fake outrage. “Ryan has another girlfriend?! That two-timing asshole! I’m going to go find him right now!”
I dodge her as I storm out and speed walk as quickly as I can to my car. I can feel her staring holes into my back all the way down the street. I hop in my car and book it out of there as quickly as I can.
Ryan has another girlfriend? I wonder if Kaitlyn knows. Did Cece just derail our whole plan? She’s definitely going to call him and tell him about a girl named Kaitlyn standing in his house claiming to be his girlfriend, which will screw us up because he’s currently with his girlfriend Kaitlyn. Ryan can’t be stupid enough to answer his girlfriend’s phone call while he’s with his other girlfriend, right? But that’s probably why she came over, since he’s not answering her calls.
I shoot Kaitlyn a text and tell her I got everything from his computer and that I’m on my way to the next location, to which she replies k
I don’t want to tell her about Cece in case she goes crazy and derails our whole plan. She’s already planning on leaving him, so she can go crazy on him after we get the pictures off his phone.
The next part of the plan is getting his cell phone and deleting the pictures from there. He and Kaitlyn went to dinner, and now they’re going to Sweetie’s for dessert. I park in the arcade lot across the street and sit and watch for Ryan’s car.
I put on a baseball cap and oversized sunglasses, even though the sun is setting, and shrug on a puffy jacket. Ryan hasn’t seen me with my new hair, so I’m hoping that he won’t recognize me with just a quick glance.
As I wait, I check my phone for messages from Aiden, who wants to know if everything’s okay. I assure him everything’s fine, then see Ryan’s car pull into Sweetie’s parking lot.
Putting away my phone, I let the adrenaline fuel me as I hop out of my car and quickly jog across the street. Ryan and Kaitlyn are in line inside, waiting to place their order, and Kaitlyn catches my eye. She gives me a quick nod, then turns to Ryan, who’s looking at the menu on the board behind the counter. I spy an empty plastic ice-cream cup sitting on a table and pick it up.
“Ow! Ryan!” Kaitlyn shrieks. “Why would you shove me like that?! That hurt!”
I can’t see his face, but I’m sure he’s confused. “What are you talking about? I didn—”
“How would you like it if I shoved you?”
I’m standing directly behind him when she shoves him. We bump into each other and I pretend to fumble around a bit, before straightening up and grunting a quick “Watch it,” over my shoulder as I walk to the front door. I throw the empty ice-cream cup in the garbage placed beside the door to make it look like I was on my way out anyway.
I don’t know what happens next, but I’m hoping Kaitlyn is arguing with Ryan to distract him from the fact that I lifted his phone out of his back pocket during our “fumble.”
My heart beats loudly in my ears as I move over to a quiet side of the parking lot and unlock his phone. His passcode really is just 000000, which, considering he has two girlfriends and is trying to hide them from one another, isn’t very smart. Since I don’t have much time, I open his photos and click Select All, then hit Delete. I click on his Recently Deleted folder and do the same thing.
This is almost too easy, I feel like he’s going to jump out and catch me in the act, but a quick glance around tells me I’ve still got time. Though the parking lot is filled with cars, no one else is there except a few teenagers, huddling beside a car on the other side of the lot from me.
A notification pops up: Are you sure you want to delete all photos? These cannot be recovered.
Perfect, exactly what I want. And if he has anything important, he can back it up from his computer.
Confident I’m not going to get caught, I hit Yes, and breathe out a sigh of relief when the pictures disappear.
I look into the window where Kaitlyn is looking out for me to give her a signal, and send her a thumbs-up, waving Ryan’s now pictureless phone in the air.
She smiles, the maliciousness and hostility that’s been lacking from her eyes lately flooding back into them tenfold. It’s like she grows triple her size and manages to loom over Ryan even though he’s taller than her—the confidence in her shoulders and her posture that of a woman on a mission, of a person freed from the chains holding them back, and who’s savoring their vengeance. It’s a transformation as she turns from the tired, shadow version of herself into Kaitlyn fucking Anderson.
She says something to him, and everyone in Sweetie’s attention is now on the two of them. She’s shouting now, and even though I’m outside, I can tell she’s cursing his name up and down. She marches outside to me and Ryan follows.
“You can’t leave me, you stupid bitch!” He slams the door open after her. “Did you forget? I have all your pictures! I’ll send them out, you know I will. Get a billboard and everything.”
“Are you sure you have them?” I casually ask and hold up his phone so he notices me for the first time.
He pats his pockets, no doubt looking for the phone in my hands, and then takes a step closer to me, but I match his step with a backward one of my own.
“You’re disgusting,” I tell him. “If I somehow missed any pictures and you send them to anyone, I’ll have you arrested for distributing child pornography. That’s right, it’s a thing. Kaitlyn’s seventeen and will always be seventeen in those pictures. If you do anything other than delete them, you will be charged.”
He doesn’t need to know that there’s a chance Kaitlyn would be charged, too, but I’m sure I got them all anyway. He stares at me with disbelief as I toss him his phone and he catches it.
“Oh, by the way, your other girlfriend, Cece, knows about Kaitlyn,” I add.
Kaitlyn gasps. “I knew you were cheating on me!” She faces me. “I accused him of it in the car the other day and that fight is why he kicked me out!”
“I kicked you out because you’re a stupid bitch!” Ryan explodes, then turns to me. “And of course Parker’s bitch is involved in this. Does he not teach you how to behave?”
The people from inside are now all outside, watching the fight unfold, mumbling to themselves. Some parents cover their children’s ears and steer them away.
Before I can say anything, Kaitlyn beats me to it. Apparently, she’s been saving all the aggression I knew she was capable of for when he couldn’t blackmail her anymore.
“I’m a stupid bitch? You’re the asshole who’s probably going to have to repeat senior year! But good luck doing that when they expel you for domestic assault! That’s right, everyone! Ryan did all this to me and I’m not embarrassed to say it if it means fucking him over.” She gets into his space, not scared in the slightest. “You come near me again and I’ll shove your dick so far down your throat you’ll taste it until the day you die. Now stay the hell away from me.”
She marches off, then turns to look at me. “Are you going to drive me to my car or what?!”
I ignore the hostility directed at me, and instead lean toward Ryan. “If you come near me or Aiden or my friends again, I will destroy you.”
Before he can say anything, I turn away from him and follow Kaitlyn to my car.
As I drive away, she laughs. It’s not a maniacal or malicious laugh either like I’m used to. It’s a laugh I’ve never heard from her before. A laugh of genuine relief and excitement.
“I feel so good right now! I can’t wait until I file a police report and charge him for assaulting me. Do you think he’ll cry? I think he’ll cry.”
I toss my hat and sunglasses into the backseat, the adrenaline from what we just pulled not wearing off. The energy between us makes me feel alive, excited for what’s to come. “That was awesome. You were great!”
“Well, duh. I’m great at everything.” She laughs, then pauses for a second. “This still doesn’t mean we’re friends. We’re not. I literally never want to see your face again after today.”
I’m so hopped up on adrenaline her harsh words can’t even ruin my mood. Besides, her tone wasn’t that of malevolence, one that she’s used on me countless times before. While still firm and unwavering, it lacked that special punch that Kaitlyn packs into all her insults.
“After you clear Anna’s name and get her to come back to King, I’m fine with never seeing you again too.”
There are some people in life who will just never like you, and that’s okay. You can’t be everyone’s best friend, and Kaitlyn and I will never be friends. But I’m okay knowing that Kaitlyn is out there, disliking me but not my complete enemy anymore.
