Page 32 of The Secrets of a Sin

“Looking hot, Char.” Chris, an extremely muscular senior, announced from beside me with fiery eyes that exuded hunger. My feet slowed, and my brows dropped a tad as I studied his buddies' blatant cackles beside him.

“Uh, thanks.” I push a strand of my dark hair behind my ear, watching as the blonde next to Chris nudges him in the arm.

“We're here if you need us. For anything.” Chris grins, displaying his boyish dimples as his gaze drops down the length of me. “And I do mean everything, Char.” I swear I catch the pink of his tongue sliding against the bottom of his teeth, but it quickly becomes forgotten as his strange words sink in.

Okay?

I nod awkwardly, not really knowing how to respond to him and feeling slightly flushed from their intense stares. As I’m about to walk away, Chris responds again, and this time his tone drops a whole octave.

“The both of us will take good care of you.”

My body freezes almost immediately, causing my blood to go ice-cold and my heart to halt its steady beating. Cruel laughter rings out all around me, but my head and eyes don’t seem to process much of what’s going on. Everything is at a standstill while my whole life flashes before my eyes.

What the fuck do they know?

My head quickly whirls in their direction, and my eyes instantly land on the cell phone that Chris is holding, and the sound of my moaning blares through the tiny speaker.

“You have the prettiest tits I think I’ve ever seen, McKinney.” The blond moans, his eyes glued to the screen like a toddler watching cartoons. All three can’t seem to tear their eyes off the screen, and I feel my heart crumble piece by piece onto the school’s floor. My throat feels clogged with harsh words and violent screams, but the only thing that appears is tears.

They recorded us.

They recorded me.

From all around me, I can hear the sounds of my Friday night being played on the phones of every student at LakeWood Prep. From my blissful groans to the sound of skin slapping, my body feels violated. My heart feels demoralized. But worst of all, my reputation is fucking ruined.

“Charlotte Mckinney. Please report to Principal Howard’s office at once.” The voice on the intercom announces. “Again, Charlotte Mckinney. Please report to Principal Howard’s office at once.”

In that moment, all eyes swarm over to me, and I feel a sliver of my soul slowly die from their subjective gazes. They were staring at me like I was no longer the girl who had it all. Their envious glares were now filled with a mixture of amusement and revolt as they all watched me come unhinged on their phones. My feet speedily carried me down the halls, passing the thunderous howling of classmates I once called friends. But now, I knew I could never show my face at this school again. How was I ever going to recover from this?

Easy. I wasn’t.

Our name would be tainted forever, and I was the cause of it. On Friday night, Charlotte Mckinney was reborn, but today, she died.

* * *

“This is very serious shit, Charlotte.” Principal Howard said with a slight scowl across his mouth. “Not only has this film been published online for the whole world to see but, whoever filmed this, could be facing criminal charges.” His tone went from mild to hot in a matter of seconds. Sitting across from him, all I felt was numb. My head was elsewhere, like wondering where I could find Kai and Carter, and personally mutilate their pricks so they could no longer exploit girls. I was unfeeling. My body felt dead as I sat stoically in the chair, but my blood scorched with a vengeance. I should’ve known that it was all too good to be true anyway. It was beyond idiotic of me to believe that Friday night would be our dirty little secret and would be swept under the rug and forgotten. Nothing that mind-blowing and carnal was ever meant to be buried. And they made sure they had a way to remember our night forever.

“Who are the men in the video, Charlotte?” He asked, noticing my attention slowly drifting away from him. What is he going to possibly think when I say I have no clue, that I only have their first names? Will he think I’m slut like the rest of the student body? I shouldn’t give a shit what he or anyone thinks anyway, but the idea of being ‘that girl’ doesn’t sit right with me.

“Two friends from a party.” I lie, peering down at my trembling feet that bounce swiftly against the ugly brown carpet. Lying was nothing to me, especially since my entire existence seemed to be built around secrets. No one truly knew the real Charlotte. Only the fake facade I was required to be around the public. On the outside, I was prim and proper. My chocolate locks were always curled to perfection, and my clothes were modest and presentable. But, on the inside, I felt wild. Untamed and feral. I demanded to be unleashed and proclaim who I truly was. I wanted to paint my skin red with the hands of men who’d breathe life back into me. Day and night, I wanted them at my disposal, using me just like I’d be using them.

“Did you know you were being recorded?” He interrupts my thoughts with flushed cheeks and a hand that brushes across his sweaty forehead like he was uncomfortable asking. I wanted to lie again. I wanted to say yes, that I knew the whole time I was getting fucked that there was a camera in the room, and yes, I enjoyed it. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs that

My eyes shift towards the door as the sounds of heavy stomping and arguing approach Principal Howard’s office. The loud shrill of my mother’s voice followed by my father’s grunting make me grip the armrests with force. A violent storm is coming, and it is coming for me. The door flies open with a hard smack on the wall, and my mother’s frantic eyes seek mine out. The second her wolfish eyes collide with mine, I see the outrage and unadulterated resentment in her broad stare. Revulsion and disbelief are emitting from every pore and surface on both their faultless bodies. They are watching me from the door like I am someone other than their daughter.

A stranger. And perhaps I am. So, with the small amount of dignity that I have left, I lift my chin high, letting them know their pride means nothing to me.

“You foolish girl!” My mother shouts as she rushes towards me with intent. I brace for impact, squeezing my eyes shut and tensing up my frame. I hear her hand fly through the air before I feel the crack of her palm wallop the side of my face. Pain radiates across my cheek as my father swoops in, and swiftly pulls her away from me along with Principal Howard. Rubbing the soon-to-be welt with the tips of my fingers, I stare at my mother with staggered eyes. Her usually cool composure is now heaving in the arms of my dad. Her habitual elegant bob is a mess of frizzy curls while her clothes are wrinkled and disorderly. She looks rabid. Terrifying even, and the origin of the problem is me.

“What. Did. You. Do?” She enunciates each word with venom, and a shaky finger pointed in my direction. My eyes drift to my father, who appears disappointed more than anything as he holds my mother back with a stern grip. He looks terrible too, but it was his dreary eyes that wedged a knife straight through my cold heart. “Well?!” She howled again, clearly impatient and annoyed by my refusal to answer.

“Mrs. McKinney, this conversation will only happen when you're both calm and equipped to listen to what Charlotte has to say. I can’t have you smacking your daughter in my school and causing a scene. So please restrain yourself.” Principal Howards speaks with caution because anyone with two eyes can tell my mother is in a fragile state right now.

“What could she possibly say to make what we saw acceptable?” She focuses on Principal Howard with an eerily calm voice but eyes that could still burn right through you.

“I think what Principal Howard is saying is, we don’t know the whole story, Elaine.” My dad tries to stick up for me despite the shame and disappointment I’ve caused both of them. Growing up, if I ever got in trouble or misbehaved, he was always the one to defend me. If I ever received an F on a paper, his excuse was ‘F is for Fantastic’ or, if my mom and I were arguing, he’d always somehow manage to calm the both of us down to the point we forgot what our fight was about. But that was him, the glue of the family. And as I watched him with remorseful eyes, I could tell the glue was slowly fading. That this stupid video may have been too much to forgive, even for him.

“You do realize that you ruined your father’s whole career and reputation? All his hard work and dedication… Right down the fucking toilet because of you.” She spat, ignoring my father’s silent pleas for her to relax. “We never asked much of you, Charlotte. Stay clean and presentable but you couldn’t even keep your damn legs closed!”

---