Girl Gone Viral (Modern Love #2)(66)

That sounded even more like Lakshmi was going to put a hit on them. Katrina shifted. “Rhiannon.”

Rhiannon placed her hand on Lakshmi’s shoulder. “No one is going to hurt anyone. This will be a purely online information campaign.”

“Purely online.” Lakshmi’s voice dropped. “Until it’s not.”

Katrina’s eyes widened. “Rhiannon.”

Jia looked up from her nails. The blue of her fingernails matched her hijab and the flowers on her embroidered shirt. “Guys. Wait.” They all hushed.

Jia took a deep breath. “Do you like my eyebrows? I got them threaded at this new place.”

Lakshmi turned to Rhiannon. “Is it necessary for her to be on the call?”

“Yes, Lakshmi, it is, and I can hear you.” Jia’s nostrils flared. They’d only met a few months prior, but there wasn’t much love lost between uber-efficient Lakshmi and dreamy Jia. “I was asking because I want to make sure my eyebrows are camera-ready when I go live shortly. BeccaTheNose wishes she had my following.” Jia straightened, and her voice went up an octave. “You all can’t for serious think this is an okay way to behave. Clearly CuteCafeGirl doesn’t want to be found. Imagine if this was you, if you were, like, a busy professional and someone plastered your face all over the internet without your permission. This is a privacy issue, and it’s also a feminist issue, a humanity issue.” Jia subsided and gave the thumbs-up. “And so on for five minutes. I’ll get my biggest influencer buds on board to spread that message.”

Lakshmi sniffed, mollified. “It’s not bad. I can help with the script, if you like.”

“You’ll make me sound old.”

Lakshmi no longer looked mollified. “I am five years older than you, you little—”

“Jia, thanks,” Katrina interrupted, eager to head off this fight.

“No thanks necessary. I mean every word I’ll say. I’m terrified of going viral for all the wrong reasons.”

“Are there right reasons to go viral?” Katrina murmured. If she could, she’d continue to avoid social media for the rest of her life on the off chance that this was ever repeated.

“Oh, you know, going viral for showing people how to eat a pineapple is a way different situation.” Jia thought for a second. “Though I went viral for, like, an eyeliner hack once, and got death threats within two hours. So I guess, no. There’s no right way to go viral on ye olde internet anymore. Not for some of us, at least.”

Lakshmi produced a pad of paper, getting the meeting back on track. “We can start amplifying and flooding every possible Twitter thread with basically the same message Jia’s going to spread. Use bots for good instead of evil. Turn the narrative so it’s no longer about who you are, but how wrong this is.”

“I don’t want to sic a mob on these three, though.” Ross might have the power to urge the world to dox her by virtue of the current spotlight on him, but she had her money, Jia’s reach, Rhiannon’s ruthlessness, and Lakshmi’s . . .

Well. She had Lakshmi.

Becca, Ross, and Alan were outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered, and outplanned, but they’d never know it until it was too late.

“Define mob,” Lakshmi said.

“I don’t want them run off the internet or hurt.” Katrina twisted her fingers together. “They’re people, too.”

Lakshmi turned her head, but her whisper to Rhiannon was picked up by the computer’s excellent mic. “How is she so nice?”

“It’s not about being nice. I’ve seen them in person, they aren’t some nameless faceless usernames.”

“Look,” Rhiannon said, with her typical matter-of-factness. “Sometimes to disarm people and keep them from hurting you, to keep them from doing the wrong thing, you gotta put pressure on them.”

Lakshmi perked up. “Physical pressure? ’Cause I know a guy—”

Even Jia looked alarmed at that offer. “No!” Katrina yelped.

“Okay.” Lakshmi rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

“Katrina?”

She glanced up at Jas’s raised voice from outside, and Jia let out a singsong Ooooh. “How’s things going with you and Captain Chesticles?”

Katrina stabbed at the volume button on her laptop, her cheeks on fire, though Jas wouldn’t be able to hear the girl. She didn’t want a repeat of the text about his hotness! “I have to go now, good talk, I’ll call you later, bye-bye.”

Jia howled, Rhiannon snorted, and Lakshmi cracked a grin before the screen went dark. Katrina pressed her palms over her cheeks, hoping she hadn’t given herself away. She didn’t want her friends to know about her and Jas yet. One, because it was too new, and two, because . . . well, she was a little worried it wasn’t real. Like this was a simulation, an illusion that would vanish when they returned to Santa Barbara.

Jia and Rhiannon, and to a lesser extent Lakshmi, didn’t need to get emotionally entangled with her and Jas being a thing if it wasn’t going to happen.

“Katrina?” Jas yelled again.

She came to her feet in a rush. “Yes?” she called out, and made it to the door just as he bounded up the porch stairs.

His jeans had lost their city creases, and the sleeves of his flannel shirt were rolled up. His hair was disheveled, and he hadn’t trimmed his beard. He wasn’t her perfectly groomed bodyguard today. “What’s up?” she asked, trying not to think of Jia’s new nickname for him.