The fucking clock moved ungodly slow as I stared at my phone in my lap, waiting for it to light up. Waiting for Kelsey’s message. If Dean didn’t respond to her, didn’t go to her, we’d have to try something else. Maybe get Kelsey to go to the rec and watch them play. Something, anything. To say we were grasping at straws wouldn’t do enough to explain how I felt.
This was for Kelsey. This was for Mel, for everything I did to her, none of which she deserved. This was for Dean, getting payback when he deserved a whole world of hurt. A broken nose and a bruised kidney were nothing compared to what I wanted to do to him, but to play dirty, we’d need the dirt, and these cameras were the only way I could think of to get that dirt, since Dean and I weren’t friends.
And then, like magic, my phone screen lit up, and Kelsey’s name appeared, along with the words: He’s here. My heart started to race, and I grew excited. Was it wrong to be thrilled about what I had to do? After all, I’d been dreaming of this day for so long now—taking Dean down—that it almost felt surreal.
Who knew all I needed to actually commence the plan was a partner in crime? Kelsey really was perfect for me. I just hoped she was able to speak to Dean with a level head, no punching of the kidney or dick variety. She liked to do both, apparently. That girl…
Oh, that girl drove me crazy, but now wasn’t the time to think about that.
I set the volume of my phone to vibrate, so I’d feel it go off when I was in his room, if Kelsey and Dean’s talk didn’t end up lasting long. I got off my bed and headed to the corner of my room, where I kept my gym bag. It was also out of the camera’s sight, which was why I kept my own shiny new toys safely tucked away in the gym bag I never used anymore. I grabbed the strap and slung it across my shoulders, heading right out of the room.
I headed to the second floor, where Dean’s room was. I had no idea if he had any other cameras in his room; I assumed he had some in the other guys’ rooms, but even that was a guess. Maybe he only put a camera in mine because he knew my hazing involved Mel. Maybe he just wanted to watch his ex-girlfriend break. The sick fuck.
My feet took me to his room, and I stepped inside with the bag snug over my shoulder, closing the door behind me quietly. I scanned the room, trying to find places that would be perfect to hide my own cameras while attempting to see if he had any of his own hidden.
I couldn’t find any, but it wasn’t like I tore his room apart from top to bottom. Didn’t have time to. Had to be in and out as quickly as I could, which meant if there was a camera in here, I’d deal with it when I’d deal with it.
I really hoped there wasn’t, though. That would totally kill this plan and force us to think of something else.
Moving toward his bed, his sheets rumpled and dirty—I doubted the bastard had washed his sheets at all this semester so far, which was kind of nasty, considering all the bodies that had to have sweated under them—I set my bag down and unzipped the side compartment, pulling out my new, tiny black cameras.
They had switches on the bottom, where you could turn them on. I’d had them in waiting for so long, it felt almost surreal. My mom had asked why I needed so much money for a class project, but I told her some lie about needing to pay for some equipment that I had to rent out from the school. It was a lie my mom believed, because she never asked twice about it.
It wasn’t like I came from heapings of money, but we did fine. We weren’t as poor off as Kelsey’s family apparently was—the family that she tried desperately never talking about, even when I asked. I did try to talk to her about her parents, but she shut down anytime they were mentioned. She was clearly in denial of their divorce, which, if it came as news out of the blue, I couldn’t blame her. She’d thought her family was a happy one that would stay together forever, and now she had to readjust her view. Something like that was never easy.
I looked for shadows in his room, little nooks that I could squeeze the cameras in. Multiple angles, multiple cameras. In the end, if he found them, he’d never know it was me, because the cameras were hooked up to my app. He wouldn’t be able to see what they’d recorded.
Dean’s room was even messier than mine. Papers tossed about, clothes everywhere. It kind of reeked of sweat, too. Nasty.
I ended up choosing the bookcase in the corner, noting the dust on the shelves, figuring he hardly ever used it. I tucked the first camera between two textbooks after switching it on, and then I spotted a few other good places around the room. On the floor, just by the bedpost. On his nightstand, underneath the lamp, hidden in the shadows.
All in all, I thought I picked some pretty good places. It wasn’t like I did this on a daily basis, but it would do. I had nearly every angle of the room covered, including a camera that overlooked where his laptop was.
That thing was password encoded. Most laptops were. And knowing Dean, I doubted it was something simple like Mel’s phone was. No, the shit he had, the password had to be more complicated than that.
