Undone(17)

I tried to keep my face neutral even though my heart was racing and I could feel a blush creeping up my neck. ‘False! And quite frankly I’m offended you even felt the need to ask. Who was this little birdie anyway?’ I tried to go for a slightly less neutral facial expression, because neutral can be extra-suspicious sometimes. Still, my tone was maybe not as indignant as it would have been if the accusation had actually been false. If Kai had accused me of getting off with Stu Hicks a couple of days ago I would probably have decked him.

Kai just looked at me, saying nothing. I matched his silence, knowing full well that I could wait him out. Sure enough, after five seconds or so he said, ‘I couldn’t possibly divulge my sources. And I’m sorry for even mentioning such scurrilous rumours. I mean, I knew it couldn’t possibly be true, and I said as much last night. But you never know, do you? The crackling of the bonfire, the twinkling stars in the sky . . . it could make a girl crave a little romance, couldn’t it?’ He wiggled his eyebrows with such fake lasciviousness that I had to laugh.

‘Are we talking about me or you now, hmmm? Are you trying to tell me you got a bit of hot boy-onboy action last night? Don’t tell me . . . Bugs, right? I’ve always wondered about him. How was it? Rather sweaty and gross, I’d imagine.’

He put his hand up to his forehead and swooned back onto the bed. ‘I do declare that you have uncovered my deepest, darkest secret!’ His Southern Belle accent was one of his best, but I hadn’t heard it for a long time. ‘That Bugs is just so manly. He was like an animal, I tell you!’

‘That reminds me . . . we haven’t decided on Max yet! Which animal do you reckon he is? Think carefully now – this is VERY important.’

Kai laughed and shook his head. ‘You know what, Jem? You think about things waaaaay too much. I love you for it, but you are batshit crazy.’

Fair point, well made.

The rumour mill went into overdrive at school on Monday. Most people were talking about the party, especially the ones who hadn’t been invited. Kai relayed his personal favourites: there had been an orgy in Max’s parents’ bedroom; someone had given hash cakes to the dog; and Stu Hicks had tried to prove how hard he was by running face first into a tree, breaking his nose in the process.

Kai was especially thrilled about the last one, given how he felt about Stu. When we caught sight of him at break time, Kai clapped his hands. ‘Oh my God, it’s true! Look at his face!’ He was laughing so hard I thought he might choke. I tried not to wince at the sight. Stu had a white strip of bandage across the bridge of his nose and there was ugly yellowish/purple bruising under his eyes.

He seemed to be OK though – laughing and joking around as usual. People kept on coming up to him and asking about his nose and you could tell he was loving the attention. At one point he looked over from the bench where he was holding court and his eyes passed right over me like I wasn’t even there. I should have been grateful, but a part of me wanted him to acknowledge what had happened between us. I wanted him to acknowledge me. Kai was right: I was batshit crazy.

It wasn’t until Wednesday night that everything turned insane. I was in my bedroom doing my homework and trying not to think about Stu. My phone rang. It was Kai. At least the caller ID told me it was him; it certainly didn’t sound like Kai. ‘Have you checked your email?’

‘Not recently – why? Have you sent me another one of those cat videos?’ I clicked on my laptop to bring up the Internet.

‘I don’t know what to do. I just . . . Check your emails, OK?’

He disconnected the call. I had no idea what he was on about. But it was Kai . . . how bad could it be?

Really very bad, as it turned out.





chapter ten


I opened up my email account to find three new messages. One was from Kai, sent that morning. A link to a cat video. The second was spam. The third was from a sender I didn’t recognize: Captain Outrage. The email had been sent to Kai, but I’d been copied in.

A video file was attached. I opened it even though I’d never normally open files from someone I don’t know. It wasn’t very good quality – kind of grainy, and whoever had been holding the camera (or phone . . . yes, it was probably a phone) had a very shaky hand. There were two guys in the frame. One of them was sitting on the edge of a bed. The other one was kneeling in front of him, head buried in his crotch. It was pretty bloody obvious what was going on. The face and torso of the guy on the bed had been obscured somehow – like some kind of special effect or something. He hadn’t been blacked out completely, but his face and body were a mass of pixels. Like they do on TV when they’re trying to hide someone’s identity.

The other guy (or rather boy) hadn’t been afforded the same pixellation treatment. I’d have known him anywhere. Even if I hadn’t recognized the so-called ‘lucky’ shirt, the sight of the back of his head was enough, despite the fact that I hadn’t seen him doing that before. But I didn’t think many people would have known it was him . . . not until they finished and he turned towards the camera, wiping his mouth. He didn’t seem to realize he was being filmed.

Just in case there was any doubt left in anyone’s mind, the frame froze on his face and the image stayed up there for a few good seconds. His hair was messed up where the other guy had been clutching his head, and he was smiling. The smile was so typically him that it caused an actual, physical pain in my heart.