"Did you find him?" Ruby asked with worry laced in her words, when the guys stomped into our house. Auntie Dorothy had been busy in an important meeting across the city when Ruby called her, but was now on her way home. In the meantime, Ruby and Frida made sure I wasn't alone, and somehow helped me stay calm and keep my pending panic attack at bay. Right now I was everything else but that, and I was definitely not alone. In fact, the house actually felt crowded with the four angry men in here as well.
"He's a motherfucking coward!"
"What did you do to him?" Frida snapped, trying to cut through all the testosterone and adrenaline that filled the living room.
"Nothing! The fucking shithead left town," Tim said, and André added quite a few colorful profanities.
"He's probably at their beach house in Point Loma," Rowan suggested, and got Tim's immediate attention.
"And where's that? I swear to God, I'm gonna..."
"San Diego," Rowan said at the same time as Frida yelled out.
"You are not doing anything to him! He's not worth it. It's enough that Benjamin is in trouble because of this. We don't need your asses in jail too, just because you decided to give him a second concussion."
"Concussion? We would do way more than that," Tim growled. Only Benjamin was silent, and Rowan patted his back to cheer him up. It didn't work very well. His eyes were so filled with smothering, conflicting emotions that I lost my breath when he finally looked at me. Then he turned away, and didn't look back.
"See? This is exactly what he wants. Setting y'all up against each other. He's been nothing but trouble ever since you started hanging out with him, Tim."
"Me? It was Yak who introduced him to our group, and I still don't understand why, because they've barely spoken since then. We're not even in the same school."
"Does it really matter?" Ruby cut in. "What's done is done, and neither of the barbaric ideas you guys have are helping."
"She's right," Frida said. "Think with your brains for once."
"We are!"
"No, you're not. Real men are too smart to walk around beating people's faces into the unrecognizable, every time they get mad."
Rowan was thinking hard, before it looked like he got an idea.
"Did you guys see the video?"
There was some nodding and humming, but Rory gasped in shock at how rude the question was.
"Ro! Mia's sitting right here!"
"I know!"
He cast me an apologetic glance, before he continued.
"What I meant was; could any of you see Ryan's face in it?"
"Why's that important? Everybody can see what's going on anyway," Frida huffed and came over to stroke my back.
"I don't think we could see their faces at all," André said.
"Not even Mia's?"
He shook his head and I instantly felt a glimpse of hope.
"But her braids are easy to recognize, though."
Fuck.
"But she can change her hair style. That way only people who knows her will..."
"It's too late, Tim. The whole school knows already," Rowan said and threw him a sour look. "But if we can see that it's Ryan... I mean, he literally recorded his own crime."
Tim bit his fist.
"Burn, motherfucker! The joke's on him!"
Rowan turned back to me with eyes filled with sympathy.
"I'm sorry, Mia, but is it okay if we take a look at it to find out if we can link it to Ryan?"
God, how I hated the idea of them seeing me naked! I didn't even know exactly how much of my body was visible on that tape, or worse; if it looked like I liked it or not. Just the thought of that last part made me want to vomit. But if there was even the slightest chance of making Ryan pay for what he did...
"I don't know... I think we should leave it to the police, Ro," Frida said, then frowned a bit when I inhaled and cleared my voice.
"Okay," I said, with a voice so thin that it barely carried out.
"Mia, you don't have to do this."
"They know Ryan better than the police. They know what to look for. Besides, they've already seen it anyway. Right, guys?"
I couldn't help the bitterness that flashed through me when I stated the facts. And the silence that followed did nothing but confirm my suspicions.
"So, go ahead. Whatever it takes to take him down. Do it."
I got up and left the room, uninterested in what they would find out. I couldn't possibly be more humiliated than I already was anyway. But my attention was drawn back soon after, when I heard a lot of commotion and Benjamin yelling at his friends.
"Stop watching her, asshole! Put it down! Do you hear me? Put your fucking phone down, or I'll fucking break it, Tim!"
"Okay! Okay! See? And now I reported it, like I've done to every shared copy I've come across. I promise I'll never watch it again."
"You get why we're doing it though, right?"
Rowan spoke with his usual calming and almost unnaturally deep voice.
"We're trying to..."
"I know that! And now you saw, and what did you find out?"
The sound of the main door opening and closing interrupted them, followed by auntie Dorothy's voice.
"Where is she?"
"In her room."
"Okay, thanks. You guys can leave now," she said plainly, and the authority in her voice was clear as a day. Ruby and Frida shouted their goodbyes in my direction, and disappeared into Rowan's car together with the others, before they took off. All, except for Benjamin. And for several minutes I could hear him having a quiet conversation with my aunt, until he said goodbye and left as well. Then the house was painfully silent, until auntie Dorothy knocked on my door.
"I think it's time you tell me the whole story, Mia. What happened that night? And be completely honest this time. No hidden details. I already know it wasn't just alcohol poisoning. Are you doing drugs? And what's this I hear about a video?"
My shoulders slumped forward and I felt like the smallest and most pathetic person on earth. And in between sobbing, snot and tears, I told her everything that happened that fatal night.
The night that ruined my life for the second time.
<><><>
"Michael. What did I tell you about walking in with shoes on? The floor is brand new."
"Sorry, mother. I forgot."
I earned a squint of disapproval before I gave her a hug and made her lighten up again.
"How are you, dear?" she cooed, and squeezed my shoulders a little extra before she let go. I loved when she did that.
"I'm good. No, actually I'm great."
She held me at arm's length so she could study me closer, and it didn't even take two seconds before the glint in her eyes changed into a mischievous one.
"Who is she?" she asked, and I instantly giggled, blushed and looked away.
"What makes you so sure it's a girl?"
Mother took a deep breath and let it out with a loud, long-drawn huff.
"Because I know you. Now, come on. What's her name?"
Dammit.
"Okay, I'm getting some of that rudely expensive juice of yours, while you sit your rear down somewhere in the living room and sharpen up your vocabulary. Because I want to know everything."
"But mother..." I groaned, but she was already heading towards the kitchen.
"That juice is expensive because it's organic and has a wholesome vita..."
The door slammed shut mid-sentence, so I only mumbled the rest. The juice wasn't the point anyway. Mia was. I just wasn't sure if I was ready to talk about her yet, since things still were so fragile. But mother didn't exactly give me a choice when she knowingly gave me the biggest glass she had, with my favorite orange juice from Eastern Brazil.
Oh, boy. I was in for the long version, wasn't I?
"Name, age and where?" she demanded more than asked, and I chuckled at the excitement that was dancing in her eyes. Still, and just to make myself appear more reluctant than I was, I took a long swig of orange juice and almost managed to empty half of it before my lungs shrieked for air.
"Don't you dare try to sneak off without telling, boy, or Imma fill up that damn glass once more."
"Okay!" I laughed. "Her name is Mia Fisher and she's twenty-four. She's from Idaho, but studies at a university in Sacramento, where she lives with her aunt. She's a little darker than you, and she has the most wonderful..."
I got interrupted by my phone, and the name 'Dickhead' lit up the screen. I ignored it.
"Where was I?"
"She's black and has..."
"Oh, yes. She has the most wonderful sense of humor and..."
The phone went off again and I ignored it again, only for him to call a third time.
"Aren't you going to answer?" mother asked with a frown, and I was about to shake my head. Then I stopped myself. Dickhead never called me. It was always me calling him, and Mia hadn't replied any of my messages other than this morning, and she didn't call like she promised.
"Excuse me," I said, and left the room. And as soon as I heard Dickhead's voice, I knew something was wrong.
"Don't hang up," was the first thing he said.
"What do you want? Is Mia okay?"
I could hear him sigh and he seemed upset for some reason.
"No, she's not. I think... Look, man. We need help."
"I'm listening," I said and felt quite a bit apprehensive.
"I'm not sure what you can do, but I don't know how to deal with this."
"Deal with what?"
He scoffed, but he didn't seem annoyed at me.
"God, it's so fucked up," he mumbled, but when I was about to ask again, he said something that made me livid in a matter of seconds.
"He recorded it, and it's all over the internet."
"What?!"
"He recorded it, and..."
"I heard you! But what the hell?"
I don't know, but I think I heard him choke up, and normally I would tease the fuck out of him for being such a crybaby all the time. But right now, all I could think of was Mia. And before I knew it, I was rushing out through the door, barely making mother aware that I left, and headed to the airport.
"I'm on my way."