Page 61 of Free Fall

“One night, he asked me for a picture.” I clear my throat. “A tittie, pic, I guess.”

Reid growls, making me so nervous to say my next words.

“I sent it to him,” I say, looking at my lap now. “I was so lost and sad, but none of that matters. It’s just an excuse. I sent it to him even though I thought it was pretty tame.”

“And what? He’s threatening to show everyone now?” Lex asks. “What’s his name? Where does he live?”

I wave him away. I don’t think Ezra would do anything like that even though he’s been acting strange lately.

“I’ll kick his ass,” Reid fumes.

At that, I turn my phone’s screen back on and turn it around. Reid immediately grabs it as the other two look away. He studies it like it’s tape from a previous game. “This is on my bed,” he says.

I nod.

“That night at the party?”

I look away, and I’m sure my silence says everything my lips can’t right now. It’s even worse that I’m all over Reid’s bed in this. Sasha might not have realized where the picture was taken, but I remembered. I knew it would hurt Reid all that much more to know that.

He plays around on my screen, and I’m sure he’s looking back through my messages with Ezra. His gaze zeroes in on the screen when he reads something, then he looks up at me. “Who hacked you? What’s going on?”

“What?” Lex asks, finally looking back over at his friend.

“She tells this guy she got hacked.” This makes Cade snap to attention too.

“Sasha,” I say, my voice like steel. “She came to see me while you guys were at practice. She hacked into my account. She got that picture, and now she’s threatening to show you if I don’t break up with you.”

His head reels back, but he shrugs his shoulders. “Tough shit. You already showed me.”

“She said if we stay together, she’ll show the whole school.”

“Fucking bitch,” Lex roars. He turns toward Reid and shoves him. Reid’s eyes blaze and they clash again. I inhale sharply on the car and jump down. I had no idea that would happen, but Cade is five steps ahead of me.

He throws himself into the middle of the two of them. “Calm down. Fuck! What the hell are you two doing?”

Lex lumbers there, his breaths coming quick before he looks up to meet my eyes and then spins on his heel and leaves. My heart reaches out to him. I don’t have feelings for him like I do Reid, but I like Lex. I’ve always liked Lex and seeing him walk away right now, makes my insides twist.

Cade pushes Reid toward me. “Deal with your girl. I’ll go to Lex.”

Reid stumbles toward me. His arms move around me and suddenly my back is against the car, and I’m fully in his embrace. His taut muscles, swollen from practice, move around me. “I’m sorry,” I tell him. “I didn’t have any idea this would happen. I regretted sending it pretty much immediately afterward.”

He caresses my back. “The picture is barely anything. You can’t see your face, though I recognize the freckle.” His throat works as his fingers brush against the freckle that’s on the side of my breast. “I just want to throttle that guy because he probably jerked off to that picture.”

I shake my head. “I don’t think so. He barely wrote me after that.”

“Don’t sound so sad.”

“I’m not,” I say firmly.

He holds me again as if he’s saying he’s sorry for the comment. His hands are like steel bands around me, and I wish they would stay there forever.

“I don’t want the whole school to see my picture. Sasha said she took screenshots of everything, so she could prove it was me even though you can’t see my face in it.”

He backs away, leaving a dark hole where he was. “I knew she was cold, but I didn’t think she’d ever do this. It’s on a whole other level of fucked up. That’s not just pouring gravy on you or calling you names, this is your privacy we’re talking about. Intimacy, even.”

I bite my lip. “I’m so sorry, Reid.”

He looks at me with his angular features that look that much more intimidating right now. “I’m not fucking happy about it, but it’s not your fault.”

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