“Don’t test me right now. I’m this fucking close to punching you again.”
For the first time, I notice that Shep’s right eye is starting to bruise. I can’t help but get a smidge of satisfaction from that.
“Tell her,” Caleb bites out.
“Fine. It was me, okay? I’m the one who sent the photo.” Shep turns to Caleb. “You fucking happy now?”
He scoffs. “Not even close. Tell hereverything.”
“Why? She knows it was me, what else does she need?”
Caleb gives him a cold smile, and it’s enough to make even me shiver. “Because it’s the most pitiful thing I’ve ever heard and I want to hear you say it again.”
Another grumble out of Shep, a slap to the back of the head from Caleb.
“Quit hitting me!”
“Quit pussyfooting around and get on with it.”
“Fine. Fuck. I snooped around on Zach’s phone when he let me borrow it, found that pic you’d sent him, and sent it my way for, you know, later. I made sure to delete the sent text from Zach’s phone because he didn’t need to know what I was doing.”
My stomach turns at the thought of Shep masturbating to a naked photo of me—hell,anyphoto of me—but I think what repulses me the most is that he’s Zach’s brother and he violated not only me, but him too. What kind of person does that to their family?
“Disgusting,” Caleb mutters.
“Shut the fuck up.” Shep meets my eyes for the first time and I have to take a step back when I see the hatred pouring out of his. “Anyway,youwouldn’t shut your mouth about your little friend Zoe, implying that I screwed her over or some shit. Newsflash, darlin’, she gave it uprealeasy. I got my piece and I was done.”
My hands curl into fists at my sides. Now I’m the one who wants to hit him.
“So, yeah, I screenshotted the picture and forwarded it on to a few friends.”
“And those fuckers forwarded it on to a few of their friends,” Caleb says with a sneer.
My mouth is hanging open. I can’t believe what I’m hearing.
“You were mad because I called you out for screwing my friend over? Is that what I’m gathering from all this?”
“You did it in front of my family, on Thanksgiving. Great table manners there,Delia.”
He spits my name out like a curse.
“That has to be the pettiest shit I’ve ever heard of.”
Shep shrugs and I can feel my pulse kick up, my muscles tense at how nonchalant he is about all of this.What an asshole.
“You sent a naked picture of me to your buddies because you’re a man-whore and I called you out on that? Is your egoreallythat fragile? Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Any clue at all what it could do to my future if anyone found out it was me?”
“No one will. I kept it anonymous. No harm, no foul.”
This time it’s me who steps toward him. “No harm, no foul? Please tell me you’re joking. Numerousstrangerssaw a naked picture of me. I feel violated beyond belief. What’s to stop them from sending it all over campus? Or posting it on the internet? I cannot believe you don’t think this is a big deal.”
“It’s just a pair of tits. You didn’t even have the balls to put your pussy on camera.”
The sound of skin smacking against skin is deafening.
I slap him—hard, so hard that he stumbles backward.
I don’t feel an iota of regret for doing it.