“About what? The drugs or the other stuff I wassaying?”
“The other stuff.” She paused to clear her throat. “You keep saying it wasn’t you behind the assembly shit, but it had to be. Only three people at this school knew about that video. Adam, Trina, andyou.”
“I know. And obviously they wouldn’t hurt you, so it falls to me, and I look guilty asfuck.”
She sat up again. Her eyes were slightly red and glistening with tears now. “I told you about it on Sunday,” she said, voice cracking slightly. She scrubbed a hand across her face and went on. “Then just two days later—no, not even that. It was a day and a half later, really—that video shows up on a giant screen in front ofeveryone.What the fuck was I supposed tothink?”
I got up and strode over to the bed. “I get it,” I said, taking a seat beside her. “I know how bad it looked, and I don’t blame you for thinking it was me. Not one bit. If I were you, I’d think the samething.”
She didn’t respond. She stared straight ahead at the wall, eyesglassy.
“Laney,” I said softly, touching her arm to get her attention again. “If I actually wanted to hurt you, I could do much worse than that assembly shit. Can’t you seethat?”
“What do you mean?” she asked. “What’s worse than publicly releasing a video of my assault and calling it a fucking sextape?”
I took a deep breath. What I had to say next had a high chance of going down like a leadballoon.
“If I really wanted to hurt you, I could’ve called the cops, told them what you and your mom did, and had you both sent to prison. Right? But I didn’t. I would never,everfucking dothat.”
“How do I know you aren’t going to do that next?” she said. “The assembly thing could’ve just been the first part of your plan to wreck mylife.”
“Give me one good reason why I’d want to wreck your life,” I replied. “After what I did to you these last few weeks, I would’ve thoughtyou’dbe the one trying to wreckmylife.”
She swallowed hard. “I was talking about it to Adam and Trina, and they thought that maybe….” She trailed off, voice cracking again. “Maybe you didn’t believe me. AboutLindsay.”
My brows shot up. “Oh, fuck… that’s really what youthought?”
She noddedsilently.
“Laney, you can’t be serious. Of course I believed you! I know you didn’t hurt Lindsay.” I put one hand on her cheek and spun her around to look at me. “Please,” I said, lowering my voice to a soft murmur. “Trust me the way I trust you. Believeme.”
“I… I don’t know if I can,” she said, refusing to meet my gaze. “Every time I start to trust you, it blows up in myface.”
“I know. That’s my fault,” I said with a sigh, rubbing slow circles on her back with my free hand. “But I’m gonna do everything I can to find out who really did that shit to you onTuesday.”
She wiped under her eyes and sniffed. “If it wasn’t you, who was it?” she asked. “I know there’s no way it was Adam or Trina. Sowho?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I’ve been thinking about it a lot. It could’ve been anyone atRFA.”
“How?” she asked. “Did you tell someone else about the video? Because Adam and Trina sure as helldidn’t!”
“There are other ways they could’ve found out aboutit.”
“Whatways?”
“Like what I was saying earlier, for instance. Maybe when you were still on the blacklist, someone wanted to impress me by doing something really fucked up to you. So they decided to do a deep-dive on your background. You know most of the kids at this school could do that, right? Not by themselves, but they could hire someone whoiscapable.”
“Like the investigatoryouuse for stuff?” she asked, raising abrow.
“Yeah. Like him.” I let out a short sigh. “Almost anyone at this school could contact someone like that and use them to dig into your life. They can afford it,right?”
“Iguess.”
“They could’ve found out about the court case you went through and discovered that there was a video used as evidence against the guy. Then they could’ve decided to set it up at school to humiliateyou.”
She nodded slowly. “Yeah. You’re right,” she murmured, looking at the floor. “I didn’t even think of it likethat.”
“Still my fault, though, right?” I said, mentally kicking the shit out of myself. “If I didn’t put you on that blacklist, it wouldn’t havehappened.”