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Donovan came back, thankfully without Casey. Again, the less people the better until we figured this out.
“Hey, Carter.”
“Hey, Becker, what’s up?”
“Can you explain to Addison about the picture on her phone?”
Addison looked perplexed. “What are you talking about Jack? Are you talking about Ava’s picture? I was sent a copy, but I accidentally deleted it somehow.”
Donovan shook his head. “No, Addison, that picture originated on your phone and the majority of texts that went out also originated from your phone.”
Addison looked dumbstruck. “What? How is that possible?” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and scanned through her pictures.
“You’re not going to find it, I deleted them,” Donovan informed her, but pulled out his own phone.
“Here, this is the text I got from you with the pic,” he said holding up the text for her to see. I took a quick look at the text to make sure he deleted the pic of Ava he was sent, as well.
Addison shook her head. “I…I don’t understand. I-I didn’t take that picture.”
“You just told me you were responsible for everything,” I reminded her.
She gulped and looked dejected. “I just wanted you to think I had been the one looking out for you, like you said. I care about you so much, but I didn’t know you wanted a girl to do this kind of thing to prove it,” she said, gesturing to Donovan’s phone, and presumably the text sent with Ava’s picture. “I would have, if I’d known.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t want that. I just made that up to get you to confess, which you did. Falsely. That doesn’t do me any fucking good.”
Addison was finally starting to catch on. “Wait, you don’t really like that someone did this, do you? You’re not really broken up with Ava, are you? God, you’re such an asshole, Jack!” Addison spat.
“Look, Addison, you should be grateful. You were looking like a fucking psycho until five minutes ago. Answer the question, why is this picture on your phone if you didn’t sneak into Ava’s gym class and take it?”
“Sneak into Ava’s gym class? Is that what you thought?”
“Of course! It’s a picture of her taken on your phone during her gym class, a class which you aren’t in. What other conclusion could there be?”
A look of sudden comprehension crossed Addison’s face. “Wait…”
“What are you remembering?” I snapped.
“Uh…Casey and I accidentally switched our phones. We have the same phone case, but I couldn’t get a hold of her because she was in…gym class.”
“Casey?” I repeated in shock. “That doesn’t make any sense.” I shot off a quick text to Ava asking her to come to the living room. Hopefully, she could figure out where the living room was—this house was massive.
Five minutes later, Ava walked into the room tentatively, probably not sure how to play our relationship in front of Addison.
“Hey,” she said walking toward our group.
I pulled her to my side, putting my arm around her shoulder and she sank into me, clearly relieved that our pretend break up was over. I kissed the crown of her head. “Hey.”
“What’s going on? What did you find out?” she asked, darting looks at Addison, as if she might spring on us at any moment. For her part, Addison just stood there confused, while periodically shooting venomous looks at Ava.
“It’s not her,” I said gesturing towards Addison. “We think it might be Casey,” I said, even though the words felt strange coming out of my mouth.
“Casey? No way,” Ava asserted.
I gave Ava a run-down of what we learned from Addison. “Is Casey in your gym class?”
I could see Ava simultaneously rejecting and accepting the idea of Casey being involved in this as she sifted through information in her head. “Yes, Casey is in my class, but she is always very friendly with me.” Ava was shaking her head, as if shaking the away the possibility of Casey’s guilt. “What would be her motive?”
“I don’t–”
