There was nothing at first.
“Hello?”
Then the breathing started. It was raspy. As if the person on the other line had a two-pack-a-day habit.
“Listen, I don’t know who the hell you are, and quite frankly, I don’t care. I have so much shit going on in my life, I don’t need this. You think it’scoolto try and scare someone like this? Get a life, you loser asshole!”
I jammed my finger against the screen as my chest heaved. My eyes burned with the desire to let tears fall, but I refused. I wouldn’t give this jerk the power.
As I stared at my phone, notifications started going off. Texts. Emails. MyVoyeurapp. Dozens and dozens. My phone would barely finish dinging when another started.
I opened up my texts. All different numbers. All one-word or one-line texts.Whore. Cunt. Die, bitch.They kept coming one after the other. And I had no choice but to watch them.
18
Calder
I mademy way up the street towards Dough Boys Pizza, but my head was on a swivel, preparing for Jackie to jump out at any moment. I still hadn’t been able to shake her words.
My gaze caught on a familiar SUV. Hadley was staring down at her phone, her eyes wide. A trickle of unease slid through me as I picked up my pace, heading for her vehicle.
I made it in seconds, pulling open her driver’s side door. She let out a startled yelp.
“It’s just me. What happened? What’s wrong?”
Her phone kept dinging, one sound right after the other.
“What’s going on with your phone?”
She didn’t say a word, just handed me the device. It was open to her messages app. New texts popped up so quickly, I could barely read the words.
Slut.
Liar.
Trash.
Most of the messages were only a single word. Though some were longer. All of them were vile.
I switched the phone to silent and looked at Hadley, who had gone pale. “When did this start?”
“Just now.”
“I’m going to call Hayes.”
Hadley snatched her phone back from me. “No. I don’t want him to know.”
“Hadley,” I gritted out. “This is serious.”
“It’s just some bug. I’ll get my number changed, and it’ll be fine.”
I stared at her. It wasn’t only that Hadley was pale. It looked as if she’d been crying earlier. Her eyes were red and swollen, cheeks a little puffy. “What’s wrong?”
“You mean besides having a jerk-off harassing me?”
“Yes, besides that.”
“Nothing. It’s just been a long day. I want to get some pizza and go home.”