Page 219 of Vile Boys

But I have to do something. I can’t just let that image sit there on his laptop without Lana knowing about it. I mean, Nathan’s my friend, but I don’t stand for literal revenge porn if that’s what this is. She told me once she was seeing all three, but I didn’t expect it to go this far.

Maybe she already knows about him having this picture … maybe they’re into some kinky stuff.

But what if she doesn’t know he has this in his possession?

I have to tell her.

I gather my courage and grab the file, clicking on some stuff in the hopes of bringing up some type of email I can use to send it to her. But all of a sudden, the file is opened up in a multitude of screens, and I’m at a loss of what to do.

“No, no, no,” I mutter as email after email is loaded.

I try to exit, to no avail, so I keep pressing the buttons.

And that’s when it happens. The email disappears … In the outbox.

And when I see the recipients … my heart stops beating.

Oh God.

I jolt up from the chair, staring at the laptop.

What have I done?

Panic washes over me.

The image is still there, sent not to only Lana Rivera herself … but the entire fucking school.

I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. Can’t breathe.

I shut the laptop and run straight for the bathroom, where I lock myself inside a stall as my panic seizes control. Heat rushes over my entire body, my lungs constricted by my own breath stuck between my ribs. But no matter how hard I gulp, I still can’t freaking breathe.

I take a moment to calm my racing heart, then grab some toilet paper and dab my face, cleaning myself up before I exit the stall again and pretend nothing happened.

But the first thing I do is run straight back to my dorm and lock myself inside my room in order to scream into the void.

After a few hours,my phone rings. Brooke’s calling me, and I don’t know whether I should pick up because we rarely talk. But I can’t go AWOL for a week either. It would be too suspicious.

“Hey, Brooke,” I say with a fake chirpy voice when I finally gather the courage to answer.

“Crystal, you gotta help.”

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“A lewd picture of Lana has been shared all over the university. There was a fight between some Phantom Society boys and Lana out in public, and now she’s locked herself up in her room and refuses to talk to me.”

Oh God.

It’s happening.

My stomach almost turns over, but I manage to hold it all down as I sit up straight.

“I thought maybe you could try talking to her?”

I swallow. “Umm …”

“I’m worried about her. Maybe she’ll talk to you instead of me.”

I sigh out loud. “Okay. I can try.”

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