“Please don’t tell me there’s another video,” I murmur, gripping her arm as tight as she is mine. “I don’t think I’ll survive one more hit.”
“Just watch your back,” she says, keeping her smile in place as she marches me into the bathroom.
“For what?”
“Out,” she commands, pointing to the door and glaring at the handful of girls already in the bathroom. They grumble and roll their eyes, but they obey. She is the Queen B, after all.
“What the fuck is going on?” I demand.
Gloria starts checking the stalls, so I join to make it go faster, since I know she won’t talk before she knows it’s safe. Finally, she relaxes, her shoulders sinking and her whole face changing from intimidating bitch to concerned friend.
“Don’t you ever look at your phone on the weekend?” she asks.
“I thought we were all too busy with Homecoming to do anything scandalous,” I point out. Sunday, Royal didn’t drop me off until morning, so I slept half the day and then did homework.
She sighs and pulls her phone out of her purse. “Do you haveThe Teaapp?”
“No,” I say, frowning at her. “Why?”
“No wonder you’re always the last to know,” she says, rolling her eyes. “It’s like Twitter and TikTok rolled into one. How do you even know what’s going on without it?”
“Somehow I’ve managed for eighteen years,” I say, rolling my eyes.
She shoves her phone at me, and I stare at the screen for a second. Or fifteen seconds, to be more exact. Then I shake my head. “Is that theOnlyPicsvideo?” I ask. “Or was someone else filming, too?”
Besides Duke’s dick being blurred out, it looks like the same one from Friday. The one Magnolia took and then couldn’t delete because her phone was broken.
Wasn’t it?
“Now it’s the private school scandal video,” Gloria says, pointing to a number in the top corner of the video. “Eighteen million people have watched this.”
I can’t even comprehend a number that big. “What?” I ask, gripping the sink so I don’t keel the fuck over at that number. “How is that possible? Are there even that many people onOnlyPics?”
“Probably not, and they don’t have the capacity to blow things up like this,” Gloria says, watching the video replay. “But there are probably billions onThe Tea, and that’s where it went viral. You can share and repost on here. And then it got picked up by media. Mom said it was onLocal News with Jackielast night.”
“Then I think Duke’s the one who’s famous, not me,” I say. “All I do in that video is fall on my ass.”
“Yeah, well, eighteen million people saw you and Dixie fall on your asses and knock your heads together,” she says, stifling a giggle as she watches it.
“It’s not funny,” I say, snatching the phone.
I can see why it went viral. Despite the shaky footage and the blurs of people stepping in front of the shot, it’s hard to stop watching. I let it loop again. It’s captivating, in the way a train wreck is captivating.
Duke pulling his dick out. Baron shooting to his feet and pointing with such urgency. The dive for the camera. Magnolia dodging him. The guys yanking our chairs back, sending us rolling, and our comical collision. Magnolia’s little shriek before the camera is yanked away. It’s raunchy and funny and exciting, priceless entertainment that they got for free.
Watching it again, I decide it’s definitely Magnolia’s video, not someone else’s. The shirt Colt was wearing on Friday takes over the screen when she steps behind him, and the screen goes black when Baron steps on her phone.
The bell chimes, but Gloria and I both ignore it.
“That little bitch,” I say, handing the phone back to Gloria. “Was she streaming there at the same time? Or did she put this up before we erased it offOnlyPics?”
Gloria shakes her head. “Magnolia didn’t post it.Rumor Has Itput it up. Pretty sure no one outside Willow Heights was following her before that. Now she’s got like ten million followers.”
I look at her blankly. “Who isRumor Has It?”
“Seriously, Harper? My grandmother has more of a social media presence than you.”
“Who put it up?” I demand.