The Takedown(47)

“What, ow. Why not?”

“Because it’s all bluster and I don’t want it to be one more exhibit that her daughter’s turned into a terrible person. She’d disown me for sure.”

“No, she’d call up Mrs. Amundsen and rip her a new one. When will you stop acting like Mom hates you?”

“When she actually stops hating me.”

It was different for Kyle. This past summer he’d finally cut the shag of black hair that had hung around his face since he was ten. Now that you could see his cheeks, neck, eyes, it was obvious that very soon he’d be devastatingly handsome. (I’d throw my Doc in the e-recycling bin before I told him that.) Kyle had to get extra storage on his Doc to hold all his contacts. His inner circle called themselves the LMs, for Lordly Misfits. Yet when Mom gave Kyle SHT it was lovingly. It was abundantly clear she wasn’t worried he’d turn into a giant a-hole.

Kyle’s face had gone all red. I’d been living under the supposition that we all knew Mom didn’t like me. I decided to change the subject.

“Okay, Kylie. Sure. Whatever you say, buddy.” I felt like Audra trying to convince me that she believed me about the video. “Up for playing Wooded Escape?”

He was about to agree when my Doc emitted a familiar jingle. Audra was FaceAlerting me.

Kyle groaned. “Say hello to Aryan Audra for me. See you in three hours.”

He’d stolen the name from Mac. Audra had once bragged in front of Mac that of all us girls she was the most exotic because both her parents were white—a rarity in NYC nowadays. Mac had tacked Aryan onto the front of her name ever since. It hadn’t taken long for Kyle to follow suit. When Audra had asked if Mac was “for rent,” she’d just been trying to get at me, right? I mean, there was no way he’d ever go for her, right?

“Don’t call her that. And I’ll only be two seconds.” After Kyle left, I swiped my screen to accept. “Gaudy Audy, I need hugs.”

Only I was staring at a closet door. Audra’s Doc was docked. I hated when she did this. Why FaceAlert and then make me stare at her steering wheel or, like, her feet while she got a pedicure? From somewhere on the other side of the screen she called, “Saw the fight. What you need are boxing lessons. Check your mail. I gifted them to you for Christmas. Your right hook needs serious help. It was like watching a kitten fight a lamppost.”

“I’m only good at verbal jousting,” I said, patting my eye.

Sharma piped in. “I’ll tell Jessie if she doesn’t remove vid, I’ll sign her up for the KKK e-letter. Goes right to the top of your G-File, flags your whole page red. And B-T-W Jessie, Ellie Cyr, and Brittany Mulligan all have Brooklyn library cards plus NYPL access.”

It was perfectly normal that Sharma and Audra were hanging out together, but a nasty little voice in my head wondered why I wasn’t there too.

“How’d you find that out so fast?”

“Simple. I messaged them.”

“Thanks, Sharms, you charge my Doc like nobody else. But how did you get Jessie’s contact? Up until this fight an hour ago, I couldn’t find her anywhere. And I still can’t connect to her.”

With the exception of the fight video, Jessie’s CB account had to be hard-core private, which I guess explained why I couldn’t find her at Ailey’s no matter how many of her friends-of-friends’ connects I quickly searched. Her G-File was still almost nonexistent. It was almost like she had her face Pulled and her G-File swept on a daily basis. Because other than her uber-elitist Quip stream, the video of the flash mob at school, and now the fight video, she still equaled almost zero online presence. Which in essence meant that two-thirds of what was online about her was actually about me.

“We overlap on a few games. Her call is @DarkEnchantress. You can message her through that.”

“Awesome. Gracias.”

It was then I realized it wasn’t Audra’s closet door I was staring at. Hers was painted white and always open and bursting with clothes. This door was varnished maple. Had Fawn been lying? Were they all at her house? But why would she lie?

“Are you guys over at Fawn’s?”

“Nope,” Audra said, and left it at that.

“Sharmie,” I said. “What did you think of the Ellie video?”

“What Ellie video?”

In the background, Audra gasped and said, “Oh SHT, I totes forgot to tell her.”

Now I was glad for the docked Doc. Was Audra trying to stop me from figuring this out? As calmly as possible, I explained about the source video coming from Ellie’s account. No sooner had I finished than Sharma said, “Kyle, tell me you downloaded it.”

“Not yet, why?”

Please, no. My stomach was already in revolt. No matter how angry Ellie was, no matter that we just got into a knock-down fight, Ellie had to know that that video was my one way—so far my only way—of proving my innocence. She wouldn’t be so cruel as to delete the video. Ellie Cyr was nice.

“Yep,” Sharma said tightly. “It’s gone.”





“I F’d up, didn’t I?” Audra said after a moment of dead silence.

It wasn’t Audra’s fault. It was mine for not immediately downloading the Woofer video. I’d been so caught up in getting to Ellie that I hadn’t wanted to waste the three seconds it would have taken me. It isn’t Audra’s fault, I repeated to myself. It’s mine.