Page 72 of Filter This
‘We will not be revealing the identity of the person in question,’ concluded Blake Jordan.
‘As if that matters,’ Ali wailed. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. ‘How do they know?’
Liv came to a stop once more, looking stricken. ‘You know it’s not me, right? What are they listening to?’
Ali shook her head. At the top of her screen, Instagram notifications were dropping in at a ferocious rate. The comment previews were appearing too fast to read fully but the general gist was clear.
Pathetic.
Dumb cunt.
Fucked up.
Poor guy or was he in on it?
Loser.
Bitch.
Stupid ugly lying bitch.
Kill yourself cos we’ll never forget this.
Liv grabbed her phone. Ali was numb. Her hands were shaking and she couldn’t take a full breath.
‘I’m pulling over.’
‘Don’t, please, we’re nearly there. I have to get to Miles.’
‘Just please delete Insta, Ali. You can’t look at that.’
Without a word of protest, Ali obeyed. She deleted the app from her phone and the violent buzzing quieted. Ali’s ragged breathing was the only sound in the car. She felt like she was drowning, fighting for air, her body flooded with dread. Deleting the app didn’t really matter – wherever she was, they’d find her. The internet was everywhere.
Her phone buzzed and she squeezed her eyes shut. Please don’t be Mini to say I’m too late.
She looked. ‘Kate’s calling.’
‘Don’t answer. Look, we’re nearly there – this traffic is easing. You can’t think about this now. We’ll deal with it after.’
We, thought Ali. She still had Liv, even after everything.
A WhatsApp from Kate dropped in and then a voice recording.
‘Ali, I don’t really know what to say. If this is true, this is completely fucked up. If it’s not, you should know what’s going around. What everyone’s saying. I deserve to know the truth too.’
Ali glanced up – still a few minutes before the turn for Ailesend. What did it matter if she listened now or later? Miles was going to die either way.
‘Kate’s sent a voicenote that’s been going around.’ Ali hit Play.
A girl’s voice, she sounded young:
‘OK so I have something major. I was gonna send it to BU but then the voicenote thing is such craic right now, I figured I’d do it this way! Anyway, here goes – ya know Eamon’s friend Sam? So he’s been seeing this girl from Tinder for the last, I dunno, couple of months and he was bet into her. And Eamon and all the lads were a bit iffy because she’d told Sam that he’d got her preggers even though they’d only done it one time. Anyway, Sam was crazy about her and now it turns out that she made the whole pregnancy up – like, completely – but you wanna know the best bit? She’s a mother-fucking influencer! She’s that new one who’s been coining it with sponcon, the Glossies wild-card girl, Ali Jones! Can you believe it? And this isn’t some high-profile-politician-on-Tinder fake gossip. This is fact. Sam told Eamon, like, two minutes ago. He’s devo obvs—’
The voicenote ended there and Ali tossed the phone to the floor, where it landed by her feet, and leaned her head back on the headrest. A sense of desolation so final it was frightening was spreading through her.
‘Jesus, she sounds so gleeful.’ Liv had finally come to the entrance to Ailesend and was turning right.
‘Well, I guess I would’ve been too – you know, if it wasn’t about me. God, why did I do this?’ She closed her eyes. Ali felt flattened – all the fight had gone out of her.
