I was leery, but we exchanged information and for one night out of the few we had lived in the same house we sat and watched a movie together without arguing.
Three weeks later I came home and threw my book bag down on the kitchen table and went upstairs to get my laptop. I had a ton of homework to finish. Anna made me a hot cup of tea and a snack while I opened my textbooks and began working away. I was just about to email one of my friends about an assignment when an email caught my eye.
The subject line was “I like black panties.” I frowned looking over my shoulder to make sure that Anna couldn’t see my screen before I opened it. Inside was a picture of an older, gross looking man requesting to see a picture of me in a black thong. I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw that it was sent to Gingersnap16. I felt the rage coil through my veins, no doubt Logan had something to do with this. Suddenly Anna walked into the room and I slammed my laptop down, looked up at her and tried to smile innocently, guilt written all over my face.
“Leah, honey, everything okay?”
“Yes. I was uh, just working on a surprise for your birthday.” I smiled up at her.
“Oh, all right, well, I don’t want to ruin that.” She smiled and refilled her mug with hot water and went back into the living room, sat in her rocker and continued reading her book.
As soon as Anna was gone I picked up my cell phone and sent off a text to Logan.
ME: WHAT DID YOU DO?
Almost instantly a reply came in, like he had been waiting all day for my message.
LOGAN: NOTHING WHY
ME: GINGERSNAP16
LOGAN: OH THAT . . . FIGURED YOU WANTED A DATE AT SOME POINT IN YOUR YOUNG LIFE
ME: DELETE IT NOW OR GIVE ME THE PASSWORD TO GET RID OF IT
LOGAN: SORRY I CAN’T DO THAT
ME: WHY NOT
LOGAN: WHAT FUN WOULD THAT BE GINGERSNAP
ME: DELETE IT OR I TELL YOUR MOTHER
LOGAN: GO AHEAD SHE WON’T BELIEVE YOU
I threw my phone on the table and opened my laptop back up only to see five more emails in my inbox from different guys. I clicked on the name Gingersnap16 and waited for the page to load. I almost died when the page populated. The photo was one of me in the bathroom after a shower, standing with a towel wrapped around my body. How he had taken it I had no idea but when I read what was on the page, tears starting to pour down my cheeks. I put my head into my hands and called Anna.
“What is it, dear?”
“Look!” I said pointing at my screen. “Logan did this. He set up a fake profile under my name and now all these gross men are messaging me. I asked him to delete it and he said he won’t.”
Logan came walking through the front door and Anna quickly pulled him into the kitchen. “What on earth do you think you are doing, Logan?”
“Ginger, I mean Leah, needs a boyfriend, so I thought I would help her out,” he said grinning at me, completely giving himself away.
“Get rid of it, Logan, now,” she demanded. “This is unacceptable.”
“Oh, Mom, relax, it was just a joke,” he said laughing.
“A joke? Look at the things these men are saying in their emails. This isn’t funny, Logan, it’s dangerous. Joe will be beside himself.”
Logan grabbed my laptop, turned it toward him, logged into the account and deleted it while Anna watched. “Happy now,” he bit out and then took off to his room.
“I’m sorry, Anna,” I whispered.
“Oh, honey, don’t be silly. It’s not your fault.
After I had calmed down, Anna went back to sit in her chair. I continued with my homework, but I realized that Logan would hate me more after this. I would need to dig deep to forgive him because I was determined to make him like me.