The Lies We Share ✔

Chapter 25

Later that night, Todd checked his messages; Laura knew this because she had inexplicably looked over his shoulder when he did this. With one damning word his life was set in motion, Faggot.

He closed out of his Message app, his eyes closed, "pain" was not the word to describe what he felt at that moment, it was exhaustion. Unbeknownst to them a message had circulated social media tagged with Todd's full name, it claimed that he was gay. It was of course Ryan who sent this out, although the account remained anonymous. The message was quickly gaining traction, as the reposts came crashing in. The secret that Todd had tried to hide for so long was out again, on display for the world to read. Laura understood it was her fault. Even though she was protecting Todd with the admission.

Marie and her mom asked what was wrong, and all Todd could do was show them his phone. He kept getting notifications of messages from his "friends" calling him all sorts of names. Laura's mom called the school then. It was then we knew the power of words on social media, it was enough to tear Todd right down. All Todd said was, "I really hope that my parents don't find out about this."

Laura tore herself away from her computer, she was in the middle of reporting the message while simultaneously trying to find a number to call to have the message taken down, Marie was doing the same. Laura hugged him, he slumped down into the embrace, his cold body against hers. She felt tears on her arm, but she quickly realized they weren't his, they were hers.

"Please, you don't need to be ashamed Todd, you can stay here. Your parents will not find out I promise, we will take down the post," Laura assured him. Todd had already deleted his Facebook his parents didn't even have him on that anyway. Right now, it was just his popular friends harassing him, but soon it would get much more direct. Todd knew exactly what this led to, he'd only recently been out of the same fire he was in now.

Laura's mom told her she would call the school again in the morning, as it was after school hours no one could help them. Already it was past nine-thirty at night, she both told Marie and Todd they could stay over if their parents let them. Laura's dad had returned from work only to find the bizarre team all huddled together by the table, mumbling something he crept away to his office to file paperwork. Always the busy parent, it was hard to believe he was home every weekend. Roger later called his wife into the office after noticing the tense atmosphere in the kitchen. They had a very long conversation in the office, Laura assumed it had to be about them.

Later Laura called Ryan; the bridges were already burned to ash. She heard no response, so she left a message.

"Hello, please take down your post, we know it was you. You do realize it can be traced back to you and you just have more evidence against you." This time Laura would save face for Todd, not to prove a point in a trial, they had screenshotted the post and profile anyway. But luckily Ryan's account and the post was taken down shortly after, she didn't know if it was the right thing deactivating the account, but from her standpoint damage control was the only logical response at that point.

But Todd was much happier after the post was deleted regardless. That night they didn't sleep.

Both Todd and Marie stayed over and spent in Laura's bedroom, all of them crammed together on the floor talking. They couldn't sleep until they had recorded all of the evidence until all the paperwork was filled out, and until they figured out the whole story. Because if they could even get a little closer to stopping Ryan, they would spend as long as it would take.

When the sun came up the next morning all of them went their separate ways, off to school, dead tired, or in Todd's case back home to sleep it off, his excuse that day would be due to the intense pain and migraine, which to be fair he did have, but Laura knew the real reason he was hiding from school. Each of them felt a weight on their shoulders, there was not just one bully anymore, there was a whole school of them.