I didn’t say anything right away; I was waiting for the grin to break out on her face and her to tell me she was joking. But that didn’t happen; she just continued to push the pasta around on her plate. “Wait—what? You got a random anonymous letter from someone who wanted you to write a paper?”
“Yes. And I’m going to do it. There was an email address to send it to. They gave me a week.”
“Why would you do that? I would’ve told them to go fuck themselves. Just because you get some random letter in the mail from someone who—”
“The letter wasn’t so random. They sent it because they knew what was going on between us. And they said that the only way to ensure it didn’t get out was if I wrote the paper.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
She shook her head. “I wish I was.”
I didn’t say anything for a second, letting what she’d just said fully sink in. So someone did know about this, after all. And they were now trying to blackmail Tessa by having her write their papers?
“Fuck that,” I said. “No fucking way you’re going to write that paper. Just because someone’s threatening you. No way.”
“I knew you were going to say that. Which is why I didn’t want to tell you about this, but Lindsey told me I should.”
“Lindsey.” I nodded. “So you’ve told Lindsey what’s been going on.”
“Of course I did! She’s my best friend. But she’s the only one that I’ve said anything to.” Tessa frowned. “Don’t try to blame this on me! Who have you told?”
“No one,” I said. “Well, okay. I told my friend. And my brother. But I know for an absolute fucking fact that neither of them said anything.”
“I don’t know then,” Tessa said. “I don’t know who might have found out—maybe someone saw us together.”
“I don’t see why anyone would give a shit about that. People should mind their own business.”
“I know, but that’s the only thing I can think of. And I’m going to write the paper because there’s no way I can let word of this get out, okay? I just can’t. I don’t think that you want to let it get out, either.”
“But you were planning on not telling me?”
“I was considering it.”
“I’m glad you did. Tell me if you get any more of these letters, though. Write them this one paper if you feel you must, but don’t write any more papers. You’re just playing into their hand.”
Her eyes widened. “I sure as hell am going to write another paper if that’s what they want.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. Because if word gets out about this, we could both be kicked out of the school. If I get expelled, I’m even more screwed than I was before. And you don’t want people to find out about us, do you?”
“I mean, it’s not my first choice, but fuck that, Tessa, that’s total bullshit if someone is essentially trying to blackmail you. No fucking way.”
“But there’s nothing you can do about it!” she said, and I could hear the anxiety in her voice. She took a deep breath. “What are you going to do about it?” she asked, her voice a little calmer.
What was I going to do about it? Well, fuck. I didn’t know. But this wasn’t one of those situations where you could just go along with what they wanted. That would be letting them win. Hell no.
“We’re going to figure something out,” I said. “I’m not exactly sure what.”
“That’s because I’ve just got to write the paper. And I mean, I guess so far as things go, it’s not the worst thing in the world. I can do it. It’s not like I haven’t written papers before.”
“Okay,” I said, “and then what?”
“I don’t know. Maybe that’ll be it? Maybe they just need this paper, and once they have it, they’ll stop.”
“And are you saying that we should we stop doing this? Pretend the whole thing never even happened?”
“I thought about that, too,” she said. “And there is a part of me that thinks we should just stop. I knew it was wrong to begin with, and I chose to go ahead and do it anyway. And now someone’s found out, which is the last thing we wanted to have happen.” She paused and looked down at her hands.