Page 72 of So Wild

She was crying. Not just a little bit, either—her mouth was open and her nose was running, spit and snot mingling freely. Her eyes were bright red and she looked unhinged. Sam sat up, sending her notepad spilling to the ground. “What happened?”

“It’s…it’s…” Fresh tears burst from Nicole’s eyes like fireworks. “I know I shouldn’t have taken them but I did and now they’re gone and I don’t know what to do.”

Sam stood, and tried to pull her sister into her arms but Nicole backed away. “Don’t, I can’t handle it.”

“Then tell me what’s wrong,” Sam said. “Just tell me and I’ll fix it.”

Her twin gave a deep, quavering sob. “I took some pictures for Greyson with my polaroid camera.”

Fucking hell.“You mean naked pictures?”

“No! I’m just in my underwear and-and in some pictures you can see side-boob but no…”

“Nipples?”

“Yeah.”

Sam breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Okay, that’s something. Why the fuck did you take them? You don’t even wear short-shorts!”

Nicole looked away, her cheeks red as flame. “I don’t know, I just…I just wanted to and Greyson’s birthday is coming up and I wanted to.”

“That’s fine,” Sam said quickly. “You can do whatever you want. So what’s the problem? He’s not showing his mates, is he?”

“No, I haven’t even given them to him, yet.”

“So what’s the—”

“They’re missing!” Nicole’s voice was thin as a toy whistle. “I had them in an envelope on my dresser and last week they just disappeared.”

“Last week?” Sam was aghast. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“I didn’t know what to do. I just kind of blocked it out, told myself I must have put them somewhere else but now…but now.” Her twin crammed her fingers into her mouth and bit down, a panic move Sam recognized from their childhood.

She tugged her sister’s hands away. “Nix, tell me what happened, super-fast. Like a Band-Aid coming off.”

The metaphor seemed to resonate with Nicole, who always tore off Band-Aids as though they’d personally done her wrong. She withdrew her fingers from her mouth. “They’re on the school website. Someone must have scanned them and posted them on the current events page. I saw them when I went on there to check the exam times.”

Sam frowned. Whoever had done this was an idiot. No one went on the school page except teachers and nerds like her sister. If they wanted revenge, why hadn’t they put them up on Facebook or MSN messenger?

Nicole paced toward the window. “I don’t know what to do. I tried to delete the posts but I can’t and if I tell the teachers they’ll know I’m disgusting.”

“Nix!”

“Oh, don’t give me dad’s kumbaya sexual freedom bullshit! I’m the school captain. I can’t have my fucking naked pictures on thefucking internet!”

Sam, recognized Nicole was a woman on the edge and decided not to pursue the topic. “So, you didn’t give Greyson the pictures?”

“No.”

“Then who could have taken them?”

Nicole drew her upper lip into her mouth and released it again. “I…it might be…”

Her gaze flashed to the window and Sam knew exactly who she meant. “Scott?”

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t know for sure, but he stole your underwear and he knows how to climb the tree into the house. Who else would do it?”

“Yeah,” Sam said numbly. “Who else would do it?”

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