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As I step out, I watch as Ms. Barbara hurries toward me. The fact that sheneveryells puts me on high alert. Her face is flush, and her bugged eyes look like they’re ready to pop right out of their sockets, with only her thick bifocals holding them back. Her saggy cheeks, painted bright pink with too much blush, and thick lavender lipstick, which is stuck to her teeth, combine to make the old woman appear almost comical.
“Oh, Briella, thank goodness you’re here!” Ms. Barbara huffs, taking my arm and leading me into the break room. She waits until the door clicks shut behind me before whirling around to face me. “I’m sure you’ve heard the news by now, but I want you not to worry. The dean is already looking into the matter as we speak. Just keep your head on a swivel and keep a look out for any suspicious activity.”
I frown. “What news?”
Ms. Barbara is an excitable woman by nature. Anything out of the ordinary or that doesn’t fit into her neat schedule causes her to become flustered and anxious. Thus, why she doesn’t like Jonathan who tends to like to do things his own way. But given the rapid breathing, the way her wrinkled hand trembles on my arm, and how spooked she looks, I’d say something is seriously wrong this time.
“You haven’t heard?” She gasps, her free hand coming up to cover her heart. “It’s bad, Briella. I just can’t believe it myself, but the flyers are everywhere and the pictures… Oh dear lord.”
I force myself not to roll my eyes at her dramatics.
“What flyers? What pictures?”
My boss walks over to the long table where we typically have our meetings and eat our meals. She picks up a piece of paper from a stack and turns to hand it to me. I take it from her and look down.
My heart nearly bottoms out in my chest as my breath catches in my throat. There, on the flyer, are the words:
I know about your affair with a minor. If you don’t quit your job and leave, I’ll send these pictures to your boss, the police, and everyone you know. How will you fare then?
Below the words is a picture of a woman pressed up against a tree trunk, naked, with her legs wrapped around the waist of a rail thin young man, his pants down at his ankles. Their faces are scribbled out with permanent marker, but I don’t need to see their faces to know who they are.
Because I’m the one who took the picture. I’m the one who wrote those words.
Holy shit. How is this possible? There’s simply no way someone could have found this by happenstance. Someone stole these from me. They’d hacked into my email, rummaged through my files, and foundthis. No, no, no, this is so bad. So, very, very bad. Who…?
Even as I think it, I already know who’s behind this.
Grant, Jason, and Trip. Somehow, they’d figured out one of my dirty little secrets, and now they’re willing to expose me to the world because I wouldn’t play their game. The blood drains from my face. How far are they willing to go with this? Would they share it with Ms. Barbara? The dean? Worse yet, what about the police? Would they go that far? If they tellanyonethat I did this, I’ll be done for, and if they do it anonymously, they’d get away with it.
The room begins to spin, and my breakfast threatens to come back up. “Th-these are everywhere?”
“All over campus. Posted to every lamppost, door, window, and even car door handles.”
“Why would someone do this?” I ask only because I know that’s the correct thing to say at this moment. Even dazed and terrified, I know that if Iactjust as horrified as everyone else, I won’t draw suspicion to myself.
“No one has any idea but like I said, don’t worry! Security is already working on taking the flyers down and trying to figure out who is behind this. We’ll be checking the cameras to see if anyone had those flyers printed here in the library. I highly doubt that we’ll catch them, but it can’t hurt to look.”
Catch them? No! I don’t want that! The thought that the school could possibly catch Grant and his friends, corner them and demand to know where the hell this is from, makes me even sicker. Bile climbs up my throat as my knees knock together in fear. This can’t be happening. If they’re caught, they’ll tell on me and then I’ll be fired… Charges could be pressed against me. I may even be sent to jail.
Me? In jail? No, no, no! I’ve already avoided it once, I can’t do it again. A whimper slips out before I can stop myself.
“Take deep breaths, everything is going to be ok. The school will catch whoever is behind this and deal with them accordingly,” Ms. Barbara says reassuringly.
With a great amount of difficulty, I take a steadying breath and hand the flyer back to my boss.
“I’ll make sure to keep my eyes and ears peeled. If I hear anything that can help the investigation, I’ll certainly let you know.” The words come out steady and confident, the complete opposite of how I feel.
“Good, I’ll make sure to keep everyone posted on what is being done and what is uncovered,” she rubs my back. The reassuring gesture does nothing to quell the panic rising in my chest.
As I slip out of the break room and head to my post behind the information desk, I make a mental note to wipe my emails clean of any evidence of wrongdoing.
Four
All day, the flyer is all anyone can talk about.
Students carry it with them, laughing or whispering conspiracies to one another, as if they’ll ever figure out who is on the flyer or who took the picture. It makes me sick. Literally. Three times I’ve had to casually leave my desk, head to the bathroom, and vomit.
“Who is shitty enough to blackmail someone?” Jonathan scoffs in disgust, shaking his head as he peers at the flyer in his hands. “Like what kind of low-life trash would ruin someone else’s life?”
