“This is a punishment, that’s all,” Suki says to me. “Quick and simple.”
“If she goes to the police, they can get me on witness tampering, you guys,” I say. I’ve watched Law & Order: SVU.
“If they were making a case against you, they would have brought you in already,” Cate says. “You’re being paranoid, B. She’s not going to the police. Not about you at least.”
She breathes into me. She wants so bad to please.
The hate page has three photos. One of Ali with a huge dick attached to her. Another with Sammi standing behind a blown-up photo of Ali. There are burning bushes in the background. They’re maybe the dumbest photos I’ve ever seen. But Ali will be upset. Anyone would be upset. The worst is the third. Suki found a photo of Ali on my phone and stretched her mouth out with an app. Made her look like the Joker. Posted across it. Liar. Backstabber. Jealous bitch.
“If Ali Greenleaf kills herself,” Donnie says, “we are all in deep shit.”
“That’s not funny, Donnie.”
“Wah-wah.” Donnie being her evil self. “It was just a joke.”
Ali will never speak to me again after this. If she just called me once. Just begged me to end it. If she just threw the goddamned white flag and took me out of the whole story.
“So evil,” I say. “Do it.”
* * *
They want to come up with a grand plan for Friday night.
“Let’s send the SWAT team to her house,” Suki says. “Say she’s suicidal and we can’t get in the door.”
“No, something to really punish her. Something more humiliating,” Cate says.
“Words against words,” Donnie says.
“Isn’t the social media takedown enough?” I say.
I regret saying this immediately.
“It’s sweet to see you so caring, B,” Suki says.
“I’m always caring, bitch.”
She carefully tucks one of her perfectly straight strands of hair behind her ear. Smooths down her sweet little green top.
“It’s like a chess game. We don’t want to be pawns,” Suki says. “Haven’t you said that to me a million times, B? Haven’t you?”
* * *
Friday night. Cate’s driving. We pull up to Donnie’s house once it’s dark. Donnie looks like shit. “Gas attack. Allergies. I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she tells us. But she’s slurry. I can tell it’s Vicodin.
“Someone at the school is going to eventually read that stupid article and shut us down. C-wing is probably my fondest memory of high school,” Cate says, and opens the bottle of vodka she stole from her house. Takes a swig. Her face scrunches up. She passes it on.
“C-wing is my childhood,” Donnie says.
“A secret club. A place we could escape from all the crap that goes on during the day,” I say.
I take a swig of the vodka. The burn comes fast. I pass it on to Suki. Her little sips. Four of them. Then she passes it to Donnie.
Suki opens the window and sticks her head out. Her straight long brown hair blowing through the wind. “This is for you, C-wing!” she screams while throwing up her fingers in a peace sign as we drive.
* * *
We huddle in the wind outside Ali’s house between cars. The street is dark. She lives on one of those streets with bad lighting.
Cate goes first. White spray paint on the street just in front of the car. Ali Greenleaf likes it up the ass. Suki writes in hot pink on the sidewalk. Ali Greenleaf sucks cocks.
Donnie jumps out in front of the car so she’s in the middle of the street. Ali Greenleaf is a fucking liar.
“Get out of the street, Donnie,” I say.
“She’s gonna get caught, B.” Cate’s whole face looks like a squished marshmallow.
“I’m going to inject you with Xanax if you don’t shut up,” I tell Cate.
The spray paint is so loud. The zizzz of it. She’s writing more. Letting it all pour out. Slut. Bitch. Liar. Phony. Stalker. Psycho.
“This was supposed to be a quick thing. One to two minutes. We have to get out of here,” Suki says. She’s starting to make me nervous. If we get caught. If we get caught.
But that rush. That rush when you’re doing something so wrong. There’s a surge of it through my body. I’m breathless from it.
“How does it feel to destroy a friendship, Jensen?” Donnie says.
And I see now. How happy it’s made her. Suddenly, I feel a wave of sadness. How Dev would react to this. He’d be disgusted. He’d be happy that he had broken up with me. Donnie struts back to the car. We hide behind it all together.
“Classic Jensen. Takes a rookie under her wing and then tears her wings off when the girl isn’t looking.”
“You’re fucking evil, Donnie.”
“Jensen’s going to have to send her SAT scores to San Quentin instead of Stanford,” Donnie whispers, smirking.
“We should get out of here,” I say. But Donnie wants to do one more thing.
She stares at the house with this empty look and crawls across the grass like a Navy SEAL.
“Not close to the house, you idiot,” Suki whispers. “She’s got a death wish, B.”
“Donnie, get back here,” I say, seething.
“Just one little thing.”
A light flicks on across the street. Donnie whips her head around. Her face scared now, seeing that light, and she scrambles back to the car. I open the door, wave her in, and lightly shut it behind her. Cate and Suki are already in the front. Ready to go.
“Press on the gas, Cate. Make the car go, Cate.”
“I’m doing it. I’m doing it,” she says, her voice cracking.
The car is, thankfully, all electric. There’s no sound as she drives off.
Once we’re far from the house, once it all sinks in that we’re safe, that we’re not going to get caught, Suki lets it all out. “I feel such a sense of accomplishment!” she yells into the night. It’s that adrenaline rush. It
