I winced.
"I'll give you one guess who," Dare added.
But I already knew who was responsible. It was well known that Whitney ran the DHS site behind the scenes. She was the head student moderator. Why the school admins thought it would be a good idea to give her that kind of power, I'd never understand. The video was filmed at an angle, as if the person holding the camera had come out of the girl's locker room and leaned around the corner to record. The only question was had Ingrid decided to do it on her own—or had someone asked her to? Zooming in on Whitney's face in the background, I could see her smirk toward the camera as if she'd known exactly where it would be.
"Ugh." I threw up my hands as the video ended then started replaying again. "Please make it stop."
Dare took the phone away.
"Gah, this is so humiliating." I groaned. "Whitney and Ingrid suck, but I can't believe they would do this to me."
"Really?" Dare asked. "Because I can."
Okay, he had a point. They didn't like me, took pleasure in my discomfort, but—
"But why hang onto it?" I said. "Why not just release the video our first week back? What made them do it now?"
Even as I asked the question, I realized the answer was standing not three feet away. Estelle had said Whitney stormed off after Dare kissed me—and that she'd had a crush on him since ninth grade.
"Good grief," I muttered.
"The video went up ten minutes into class. I got a notification," Dare said and shoved his hands into his pockets. "That's one of the reasons I pulled you in here. To save you from the walk of shame."
"Thank you, I—"
"But I gotta say, flower, I'm not too happy that you lied to me."
I looked up at him, momentarily distracted. "What do you mean?"
"Tyson."
"What about him?" I asked.
"Thought you said it wasn't to make some guy jealous," he said, and when I looked closer, I could tell Dare was pissed by the way his jaw clenched. "I wouldn't have agreed to be your fake boyfriend if I knew this was about my best friend."
"Wait a minute," I said, "I don't have feelings for Ty."
Dare gave me a look. "The evidence suggests otherwise."
I huffed. "Well, I don't like him anymore, okay? I really thought I did—which was why I said all that to him—but now I only see him as a friend. This isn't about making him jealous."
"I don't like being lied to."
"It's not a lie," I said. "My need for a fake boyfriend has absolutely nothing to do with anyone but my father and his misguided attempts to make me less pathetic. Which is obviously impossible. I'm a total lost cause."
"Hey," Dare said, his voice softer now. "You're not pathetic, Vi."
I was this close to crying. "Can you stop being mad at me for a second, and just focus on the train wreck that is my life right now?"
"Okay," Dare said. "What can I do?"
"Do you have some Polyjuice potion or a skin suit because I'd really like to be someone else right now," I said.
It sounded like he was fighting back a laugh as he said, "No Clarice, I don't have a skin suit. No Polyjuice either, sorry. If you give me a second, though, I'm sure I could find an invisibility cloak somewhere."
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. "Did you just make a Harry Potter joke?" I asked.
Dare smiled. "Never heard of the guy."
Oh yes, he had, I thought.
"Being invisible sounds pretty good," I said, frowning down at myself. Whingrid couldn't have planned this better if they'd tried. "I can't believe I'm wearing the same shirt."
Dare's brow furrowed in question.
"The one from the video." I sighed, straightening from my slouch, gesturing to my top so he could see. "It's my favorite, was supposed to be good luck. So much for that, huh?"
Dare eyed my face and then my "Must Love Dogs" t-shirt.
"I have an idea," he said.
"You already spared me from the initial embarrassment," I said and gave him a small smile. "Thanks for that by the way. But now, I have to walk out there and face the music."
"No really," he said. "I can help."
"How?"
"Like this."
Before I could blink, Dare had reached down, pulled his shirt up and over his head. He stood before me now completely shirtless, his chest and abs on display. My first thought? Thank you, soccer.
"What are you doing?" I gasped.
"Getting naked," he said.
"What?!?"
"Jeez, relax. I was kidding, flower." He laughed, the movement making the muscles in his stomach contract, and I could do nothing but stare. "You should've seen your face."
My eyes flashed back to his. "Did I look stunned and appalled? Because that's what I felt when you ripped your clothes off in front of me like that."
He tsked. "Funny. The only thing I saw was appreciation."
Ugh. Any "appreciation" I had quickly flew right out the window with that comment.
"Again, I repeat, what the heck are you doing?" I said.
"I may not have a cloak of invisibility," Dare said and held up his shirt, "but I have this. You can wear it if you want."
"That's actually kind of sweet," I said, feeling a flutter in my stomach at the kind gesture. "But my face and voice are clear as day on that video, Dare. It's not like people won't recognize me. The shirt just adds insult to injury."
"Still," he said. "You should take it. This might help with the gossip, make it end faster."
I eyed the proffered shirt again. "And you'll just what? Walk around half-naked all day?"
Dare gave me a grin. "I could. That would definitely take some
