Page 78 of The Assist
“Hey, don’t I know you?” He points at me and narrows his eyes.
“Me?” I look around. “I don’t think so. I mean . . . we come in occasionally. I’m Blair.” I extend my hand to try to smooth over the awkward exchange.
He takes my hand and nods, recognition in his eyes. “You’re one of the Valley Wild girls.”
“The what?” V and I say at the same time.
“Yeah, your hair is pulled up in the photo, but I can tell it’s you.”
Bile coats my throat as he pulls out his phone, taps the screen a few times, and turns it toward us.
“Oh my God.” V’s voice is distant as I duck and push through the crowd to the bathroom. Everywhere I look, I see it now. The looks I’ve been getting all night aren’t guys checking me out, they’re guys picturing me naked in vivid detail.”
Tears threaten as I close the door behind us and lock it. I pace the dingy, smelly bathroom, wishing I’d made my getaway to the car instead of here. This space does not help the downward spiral of my emotions.
“What the hell is going on?” Gabby asks, looking a bit shell shocked.
“Breathe, sweetie. It’s gonna be okay. Mario is on his way. He’ll get us out of here and take us home where we can figure this out.”
“Figure this out? Ha! Everyone has seen me naked. Like, really naked, V.”
“I know. Fucking David. I’m gonna kill him.”
“David, your ex-boyfriend?” Gabby asks.
I stare up at the textured ceiling, feeling beyond humiliated as Gabby paces the floor and V scopes out the damage while filling Gabby in on the David drama from last semester.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” The way Gabby looks at me makes me feel horrible for not confiding in her.
“I guess I was afraid it’d make you even more hesitant to come to Valley if you knew how shitty people can be here.”
“Are you kidding?” She laughs. “There’s so much drama here I think I’ll fit right in. You had me believing Valley was filled with Ken and Barbie cutouts and I was going to be the weird scar girl. No one even noticed me out there. Which is probably in part because they were picturing my best friend naked.” She scrunches up her face in an apologetic frown.
V sighs and tucks her phone away. “Well, in good news, it isn’t just you naked on this horrible website.”
“That isn’t good news.”
“We’ll get them taken down, honey, I promise.”
“It’s too late. They’ll be saved and shared forever.”
They flank me and link their arms in mine. “What can we do to help?”
It’s a role reversal. I’m usually the one offering sympathy and comfort, or in V’s case, talking her down from cutting off someone’s balls.
“Nothing. I just want to go home and hang with my best girls. I’m not letting David ruin our night. I’ll deal with it tomorrow. Tonight, let’s just forget about it. Well . . . once we get out of here.”
“I think I have an old bottle of Apple Pucker stashed in our closet.”
For some reason, that sends us all into a fit of giggles, and I think maybe it might just be possible to survive this. Just as long as we’re together.
32
Wes
I’m standingnext to Joel’s car, huddling in my hoodie freezing my nuts off while I wait for him to come out of the fieldhouse. Coming to practice was a mistake. Watching the team struggle and not being able to jump in and do it myself is torture.
By the time he appears with Z and Nathan, I could have walked home and back twice. I’ve taken to blowing into my hands to keep them warm.
