Page 99 of Trick or Treat Nurse at My Feet
TYLER
Standing frozen on the porch, I stare at the spot where Ethan had been just moments ago, the photos still clutched in my hand. The silence around me feels deafening.
"What the hell just happened?" Drew asks, breaking the spell.
My head lifts slowly, disorientation settling over me like waking I'm waking from a nightmare. "I... I don't know. These photos..." spreading them out on the porch railing with shaking hands. "They're fake. They have to be. I never kissed Cher that night."
Gavin examines the photos, his brow furrowed. "They look pretty convincing."
"They're not real," I insist, hearing the desperate edge in my voice. "I was with Ethan for most of that night, and when I wasn't, I was helping Drew break up that fight between the baseball guys, remember?"
Drew nods slowly. "That's true. You were with me."
"Then how do these exist?" James asks, pointing to the photos.
My eyes drift to the edge of our yard where Cher stands watching with a small, satisfied smile playing at her lips. Our eyes meet for a moment, hers triumphant, mine devastated, before she turns away, whispering something to her sorority sisters who glance back with mixed expressions of curiosity and discomfort.
"I don't know," my voice quiet while the urge to puke builds. "But I know I didn't do this."
Gavin gathers up the photos, studying them intently. "Something's not right about these. I'm going to figure out what it is."
"It doesn't matter," I tell him, sinking down onto the porch step. "Ethan won't believe me. You saw his face. He thinks everything was a lie."
"Then we'll prove it wasn't," James says firmly, placing a hand on my shoulder. "We'll find a way."
But I barely hear him, too caught up thinking about Ethan crying, the hurt in his eyes, the finality in his voice.Lose my number. Never contact me again.The words echo in my mind, along with the one thing he said that cut the deepest:You were different. You made me believe you were different.
Because I had been different with him, for him, and now it was all shattered, destroyed by a cruel lie I hadn't even seen coming.
Drew crouches beside me, face set with determination. "This isn't over. Someone set you up, and we'll find out who."
My head bobs in automatic agreement, but nothing pulls my eyes from the empty space where Ethan stood just moments ago. The ghost of our confrontation still playing in my mind.
"Holy shit, guys!" Ian bursts through the front door,phone in hand, eyes wide. "Someone just posted a video of what happened out here. They tagged the fraternity account and everything."
My head snaps up. "What?"
"The whole thing, Ethan confronting you, the photos, all of it. It's already got dozens of comments." Ian turns his phone around, showing a social media post. "It's spreading fast."
"Let me see that," Drew says, taking the phone. His expression darkens as he scrolls. "This is deliberate. Someone planned this whole thing."
"Who would do that?" Gavin asks, but we all know the answer.
Looking back to where Cher had been standing, I see she's gone now. My private heartbreak has just become a public spectacle, and there's nothing I can do to stop it.
"These are definitely manipulated," Gavin says, grabbing the photos from where I've spread them on the porch railing. "James, can you tell if these are photoshopped?"
James nods slowly, taking the stack. "Yeah, I'll look at them. If they're fakes, there will be evidence."
Their voices sound far away, like I'm underwater. All I can hear is Ethan's voice, cracking with pain:You were different. You made me believe you were different.His face, hurt, betrayed, and devastated, is burned into my mind.
"Tyler?" Drew's hand lands on my shoulder. "You okay?"
It's such a ridiculous question that I laugh, the sound harsh to my ears. "Yeah, I'm great. My boyfriend just broke up with me in front of half the campus because he thinks I cheated on him with my ex, who was standing there watching the whole thing. I'm fucking fantastic."
Drew doesn't flinch at my tone. His grip on my shoulder tightens. "We'regoing to fix this."
"How?" my anger is giving way to a hollow ache. "He won't believe me. You saw how angry he was."
