by Tara Brown
Regardless of the outcome for me, there was also no way I could let Miguel get away with this scary shit.
Even risking my own outing, I knew I needed to bring his dirty deeds to light.
The lies and betrayal and creepiness of the night before made me question my ability to keep the Test Dummy going.
“There they are.” Marcia grinned wide, her eyes full of mischief and I told you so. “How were the sheets? I always find them to be a bit stiff here.” She cackled like an evil witch. In my head I was in high school again and dating France, and she was forcing me to disclose details I wouldn’t normally.
“Anyway.” Monty lifted the menu as Jordan got my chair for me and pushed it in after I sat. “It was a bit disappointing you left so early.”
“You mean disappointing I left you with Stephen.” Jordan chuckled and moved toward his seat.
“What are you wearing?” Monty’s eyes stopped right on the bulge in Jordan’s pants. It was obscene. “Are those her pants? You do know when guys say they’re going to get into a girl’s pants, they don’t mean literally.”
Jordan sighed and sat, covering himself with the cloth napkin before the server could.
“We ruined our clothes last night. I spilled drinks all over them.” I bit my lip and pretended it was sexy. I hadn’t asked him why he didn’t want to wear his same clothes or where they’d gone. But he was adamant in wearing these.
“Wow, someone got a little crazy.” Marcia snickered.
“You have no idea,” Jordan muttered, humiliated in the tight pants and likely by the fact that we’d been caught up in my scandal. It was my first one. In proper society anyway.
Never before had I been the one who made ripples or waves. Even breaking things off with France was expected. Everyone knew he was a piece of shit and just didn’t tell me. So, when I did figure it out and called it quits, everyone sort of shrugged and went on about their day.
But this was something else.
I’d ended up at a hotel with one of the guys every girl dreamed about.
And as much as it bothered me that I was the one in the spotlight, I was grateful that the real reason I was here stayed buried.
As we sat and laughed about Jordan’s tight pants and he blushed and acted the perfect gentleman, neither revealing anything nor bringing me into this any more than he had to, I didn’t mind being his public one-night stand.
“I’m gonna go to the bathroom.” I stood up after we ordered.
“I’ll come with.” Marcia jumped at the chance to get dirt. And I never kept anything from her.
How the hell did I do this without giving her dirt?
She gripped my arm and leaned in as we strolled to the bathroom. “I want details, you scandalous ho. I cannot believe you didn’t tell me where you were going or with who.”
“Whom,” I corrected.
“Whatever. Spill.” She sounded nuts, and when I caught a glimpse of her eyes in the mirror of the bathroom, I could see she was. She gave me a look. “You have left with him two nights in a row. What is going on?”
“What do you remember?” I asked as I leaned against the counter, trying to ignore the bathroom attendant as well as she did.
“All I know is one minute you looked all cute as Sailor Moon with your long blonde wig and black tube dress and red heels. I was dancing, we were having fun. Then I saw Monty and you were there, but you looked normal. And Stephen came up and hugged me, and you were gone. And Stephen started laughing, saying he saw Jordan just sweep you up in his arms and carry you out.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “That’s about right.”
“Why’d you change your look, or did I just imagine that? I felt weird this morning.”
“The wig scratched my eyeball. I took it off, and my eye was running.” I pointed to the reddish one. “So I washed my face, trying to flush my eye. And when I came out of the bathroom, Jordan was there and he wanted to talk, and we started making out.” I conveniently skipped the rest.
“I can’t believe he carried you from the club. That is so hot. Like a caveman carrying you off.” She swooned, and I forced myself to go along with it.
“So hot.”
“How was it?” She cocked an eyebrow, staring into my eyes like a snake charmer.
“He’s strong. I felt safe.”
“Not him carrying you.” She whacked me on the arm. “The other part. In the hotel.”
“Nice.” I tried to lie, but it was awful. My poker face was pathetic.
“Nice?” She narrowed her gaze, ready to pry the truth from me if she had to. “Why can’t you kiss and tell like normal girls?”
“Because I’m not normal. We have this conversation too much.” I sighed, relieved she was possibly going to let this go. Not all the way let it go, but enough that maybe I could avoid it for a little while.
“If that bulge in his pants was a sign of how things went, I’d say more than nice.” She winked at me in the mirror as she fluffed her curls a little.
Apparently not letting it go.
Our phones vibrated and pinged at the same time.
She met my gaze in the mirror again, this time not making cute smooch faces at me. A group message meant business; we’d all made each other swear that only important things and amazing gossip—or sales in my case—were ever allowed to be discussed via group chats.
My heart sank as I lifted my phone up, resting it in my hand with my PopSocket, and I winced. It was from Carmen; Kami was freaking out, and we all needed to come over ASAP.
“Oh, shit.” Marcia gave me a look. “You think they broke up?”
“No.” I shook my head. “This sounds worse.” I said exactly what I would have said. Kami would have been sad over breaking up but not “send everyone to Carmen’s house ASAP” sad. This was something bad all right. And I was going to have to work on my crappy poker face so when Kami told us, or Carmen relayed the message, I was as surprised as the rest of them. I wished for a second I’d been able to tell Marcia about the Test Dummy, but I was glad I hadn’t. Her version of keeping secrets involved her eight closest friends. And this wasn’t the moment I would have wanted to be outed.
“We better go.” She turned and left the bathroom, texting Darren as we hurried to the table.
“We have to go. Something’s up with Kami.” She leaned in and kissed Monty on the cheek. Jordan stood, reaching for my hand in an awkward way. I squeezed his fingers as he stepped closer and towered over me, making me shiver with warmth. He lowered his face, brushing his lips against my cheek.
“Sorry,” I whispered. “It sounds bad.”
“No need to apologize.” He sighed. “Can I text you later?” he asked softly, maybe so Monty and Marcia wouldn’t hear.
“Yeah.” I glanced back at Monty. “Text him my number, please.”
“Sure.” Monty gave us a conspiratorial grin.
“We gotta go.” Marcia grabbed my hand and dragged me from the restaurant and from Jordan.
I couldn’t think about leaving him right now. Especially considering where I was going.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
HOW CAN THIS GET WORSE?
Lacey
Carmen paced as we sat in the snooker room, me, Marcia, and Jo.
Kami wasn’t here. She was at home, not wanting to see anyone.
“Last night Miguel had a show in Brooklyn,” she started to explain.
“Yeah, we were there.” Marcia just outed us both. I’d almost hoped she would have forgotten where we’d been. She leaned forward. “Is he okay?”
“No.” Carmen lifted an eyebrow.
“I guess, when we were at the spa, Kami saw some sign about a man-testing service, kinda like that app we were talking about. Only this service tests your man by hitting on him. If he takes the bait, they film it and send you a copy of the video.”
We all wrinkled our noses. I wrinkled mine extra hard.
“Well, Kami emailed them, concerned because of the rumors she’d heard about M
iguel cheating, and she thought they could help her confirm that he wouldn’t.” Carmen sighed, sounding grave.
I clicked the sound off for my phone as we sat there, in case Kami was emailing the Test Dummy back.
Carmen continued to pace. “So last night, he gets tested by the Test Dummy. And they sent this.” She grabbed her iPad and tapped the screen, holding it so we could all see.
The video of my weird cartoon voice that only showed up on the recording, thank God, played.
We all gasped at the same part.
“Oh, fuck, did he just—”
“Yeah.” Jo gave Marcia a look. “That was G, wasn’t it? He was planning to date-rape that girl. Or he did. Oh my God, did he rape the test girl?”
I kept my hands tucked into balls, hiding the same black nail polish that the girl sported in the video.
“Oh my God.” Marcia’s eyes were wide, like she’d seen a murder, when the camera swung to the three guys. “He’s a rapist? A gang rapist? He asked her to go to the hotel with his goon squad, and then they were going to rape her?” Marcia asked in a whisper. “I can’t even with this.”
“Yeah. So then I was telling my brother about this, and he said he’d heard whisperings that Miguel or someone in his crowd was a sick fuck who made movies of limp, helpless girls and loaded them onto sites.”
The blood drained from my face; I felt it slithering inside of me.
“They bragged about it.” Carmen sat on the ottoman across from the massive sectional we were on. “Kami is totally destroyed. She won’t see or talk to anyone.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered too.
“She went to her dad right away, and he called Miguel’s father, threatening him. And now the whole night is becoming a thing. The goon squad and the DJ job are done. Kami is a hot mess.”
“What can we do?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Carmen said with a frown. “We just need to be there for her. Be her friends and distract her. She’s at her house, so maybe we should invade with movies and snacks and have a massive sleepover and not let her tell us no.”
“Okay,” Jo agreed.
“How did we not hear about this Test Dummy until now?” Marcia sounded skeptical. Of course, she would have known if it were a thing.
“It’s hard-core underground. Everything is done on the DL, and the website is untraceable. It’s routed through other countries. Or something. Anyway, lucky Kami messaged them and got him tested. God knows how far their relationship could have gone or who else he could have hurt.”
“No kidding,” I said, grateful I’d done it but terrified of being caught.
“Now I kinda want to try it. See if Monty’s as good as he seems.”
“Please.” I rolled my eyes at Marcia. “You don’t need that. He loves you. He’s devoted.” Not to mention he would know me straight out of the gates. I would never test Monty. Ever. Testing Jordan had been stressful enough. “And he would never drug a girl.”
“So sleepover, then?” Jo asked, glancing at her watch. “I’ll need to run home and grab a bag and talk to the parental units. Make sure they can afford to lose me from Sunday dinner.” She rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, me too,” Marcia agreed.
“Yeah. And I have to pack a bag for work. I’ll have to leave first thing in the morning.” I desperately didn’t want to go along, but how could I wiggle out of it?
“Oh, dude.” Marcia winced. “Tomorrow is your major presentation, isn’t it? Your first time being one of the hotshots at work?”
“It is.” I acted like it was nothing, but all their faces changed.
“Maybe Kami won’t notice if you aren’t there. I mean, with the rest of us, she’ll be overloved as it is,” Marcia offered.
“You think? I mean, this is her time of need.” I didn’t want to sound too eager.
“Yeah. You have real-world problems, unlike us.” Jo laughed and nudged me. “We can’t mess up your first presentation as an adult. Kami shoulda dumped his ass a long time ago.”
Carmen nodded. “I think she’ll be fine. She knows you love and support her. And we’ll tell her extra times for you.”
“Please do. Tell her I’m sorry. She deserves so much better than DJ Dipshit. And he deserves to go to jail. Jesus.” I kept my voice low so it wouldn’t match the video they’d just watched.
“Well, his dad will bury the video and make sure no one sees it. I’m surprised my copy hasn’t been deleted. His dad’s going for the Senate.”
“What about the Test Dummy?” Marcia asked.
“I don’t know. The way it works is that if you want the video uploaded, it will be. If not, it’s deleted, and they move on. They let the buyer choose. Kami will want to kill it, no doubt. Her dad will make her so as not to cause an uproar.”
“That’s bullshit!” Marcia pointed at Carmen. “You know it. This needs to go to the police. It’s lucky that girl was working for the Test Dummy and wasn’t some random. And we don’t even know if she made it home safe. Maybe he did rape her. Him and his gross friends. This is insane to bury. There are probably dozens of victims and I bet tons of proof. If they take his computer, they’d probably find all kinds of shit.” She literally said everything I wanted to.
“Well, that’s not how it works here, is it? Guys get off, and parents cover up for them. Just like it’s always been.” Carmen sighed. “If it were up to me, I’d do it. I’d blast this everywhere and humiliate him. I’d send it to TMZ or something like that.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Me too.” And that made my decision to do just that easy.
There was no way this guy deserved the second chance his parents were buying him. He deserved to fry like the disgusting pervert he was.
And unlike Carmen or any of the others, my decision wasn’t influenced by my parents’ wishes.
I got to choose for myself.
Chapter Thirty
FELT MOVEMENT
Jordan
Hiding in my parents’ basement, avoiding my dad as long as possible, Stephen, Monty, and I hung out like we were in high school again.
“Tell me again in slow motion. I think I’m missing something.” Stephen tilted his whiskey glass slightly, knocking the ice to the side. “Try miming it while you talk. I like visuals better than words.”
“You’re an idiot. She said she’d give me a second chance to prove I’m not a completely shallow asshole who thinks of her as a one-night stand. How is this hard to comprehend?”
“The part I’m struggling with is, was this before or after you had a one-night stand with her?”
“Right.” Monty pointed. “And the skinny jeans. I’m lost on the skinny jeans.”
“Seriously.” Stephen laughed, nodding in delight at Monty. “He reminds me of one of those new boy bands. The, uhhhhh . . .” He moved his hand like he was waving through traffic. “The Korean kids. The, uhhhhh—K-pop stars!” He got it at last. Only the reference was lost on me.
“What?”
“There are these Korean bands who sing and dance like the Backstreet Boys, only they’re sort of attractive in a way that makes you question your sexuality—”
“I’m your brother!” I shouted. “Stop! Your sexuality is legitimately off-limits. You’re honestly offensive.”
Monty was keeling over laughing as Stephen continued. “Not like how you’re making me question my sexuality now. I might have, like, felt movement when I saw your ass in those pants!”
“No. Shut it down,” I demanded.
“Oh, come on, like you’ve never met a guy who made you question whether or not you’d—”
“I don’t want to have this conversation with you. At all. Question away, but details, whether about guys or girls, are never welcome. They weren’t when you had that threesome with Mindi and Robert, and they weren’t when you slept with our aunt—”
“She’s married to our uncle. She’s not related.” He laughed harder, as did Monty, who was turning red from lack of oxygen.
&nb
sp; “You’re a pervert. Everyone knows it.”
“Reformed pervert.” He wiped his eyes and chuckled softly as Monty wheezed and nearly took a knee.
“Whatever you need to tell yourself.” I sat back, covering my groin with my sweater as best as I could. “Jesus. Everyone in Manhattan thinks I’m a pervert because I’m your brother. It’s high school all over again, where I enter the class and they immediately assume I’m the pervy class clown.”
“Look, did you bang her? That’s all we want to know.”
“No!” I shouted, finally losing it.
“I knew it!” Stephen slapped his hand down on his leg. “I knew you didn’t. You filthy little liar. You don’t look nearly happy enough to have banged her.”
“I never lied.”
“Well.” Monty cringed. “You did let us think it.”
“She asked me not to tell anyone. She was so sloppy.” I regretted those words.
“What?” Monty pulled back. “What do you mean?”
“She drank too much.” I didn’t know why she’d wanted to keep the truth from her friends, but she’d asked me to, so I did. “Totally wasted. We went outside to talk, and she passed out. I got her in the car and took her to the hotel so she could sleep it off. I called Fitz to give her an IV so she wouldn’t be hungover.”
Monty scowled. “Jesus. I’ve never seen Lacey drink to the point of needing an IV.”
“Yeah. I don’t know her well enough to say what happened. God knows what they were getting into before we got there.” I acted like it was no big deal.
“Marcia was pretty sober when we arrived, and she said they didn’t really drink much. They had a couple. That’s weird. Have you texted her again?” Monty asked.
“Not yet. I was trying to play it cool.”
“Oh my God, you’re such a dipshit.” Stephen got up and grabbed my phone. “You text right away. She owes you. You saved her from a terrible hangover and got her to a safe place.”
“She’s not like that.” Monty jumped up and snatched my phone and tossed it back to me.
“No. She’s not.” I caught it, locking the screen.
