Unfriended (33 page)

As I waited for tech support to arrive, I sat on Judy’s back bumper, thinking. Something John had said was reverberating in my head. It touched on a part of this scheme that had been bothering me, just a little, since this whole thing had started.

Dell had told me once, right after my hacking, that he had crazy password protections in place on his computers. And John, in his infinite stoner wisdom, had been right—people do protect the things that were most important to them.

So how had Isabel been able to gain access to Dell’s computer—and then take something off it, apparently without him even finding out?

It didn’t add up. As Ham had said in our production of
Great Dane: The Musical Tragedy of Hamlet
, something was rotten in the state of Denmark (Kansas).

I pulled out my phone and called Kittson, knowing that the clock was ticking. “What’s wrong?” she answered, not bothering with a greeting. Not that I minded—it was that kind of night.

“Maybe nothing,” I said, keeping my eyes fixed on the entrance to the parking lot, knowing that Dell was due to arrive any minute. “But are you still at home?”

“I was just heading out,” she said. “What do you need?”

“Got your laptop close by?” I asked.

“Of course,” she said, and a moment later, I could hear the clacking of keys. “Why?”

“Ready to prove to Dell that you can do what he can’t?” I asked. “It’s going to have to be fast.” I explained
as quickly as possible, and as I did, I could hear the sound of keys clacking getting faster and faster. By the time I’d finished, I saw a pair of headlights swinging into the parking lot. “He’s here,” I said. “I need to go. Is this possible?”

“Of course,” she said. “But I’m going to need a few minutes. Stall, okay?”

I watched as the SUV got closer to me, feeling like I’d done the right thing. Because even though he had shown up—when Lisa was sure that he wouldn’t—I still wasn’t entirely sure we could trust him. “Thanks, Kittson,” I said.

“See you soon,” she said, and hung up, just as Dell parked his SUV in the space next to Judy.

Dell climbed down from the driver’s seat as I got out of my car and walked around to his passenger’s side. I opened the passenger-side door and got in the backseat, which was absolutely enormous. And, unlike Judy’s much more modest backseat, it would give us room to work.

“Hey,” I said as I slammed the door behind me.

“Good evening,” Dell said, looking up from where he’d already opened his laptop and shooting me a small, rare smile. “Everything going according to plan?”

“So far,” I said. I was slowly becoming aware that the inside of the car smelled overly woodsy, like there was a small pine forest growing in the back. And this car was massive enough that it might have been a possibility. I looked around for an air freshener, but didn’t see one. I turned to Dell, realizing that he was the one who
smelled like a lumberjack. “Are you wearing cologne?” I asked.

Dell, lit by the light of his computer screen, flushed bright red. “Maybe,” he muttered. “Anyway. That’s neither here nor there. Did you get it?”

“I did,” I said, reaching into my purse and pulling out the flash drive. I opened my palm and showed it to him, but didn’t hand it over yet. I couldn’t help but notice, though, that his eyes gleamed a little as he looked at it.

“Well?” he asked, reaching out for it. My phone beeped with a text, and I glanced down at it.

INBOX 1 of 40
From: Kittson
Date: 7/1, 7:36
P.M.

I’m in.

I looked up at Dell and handed him the flash drive. “Here,” I said. Dell inserted it into his laptop, and a moment later, looked over at me with a smile.

“It’s here,” he said. “The folders that she gave you, plus the file on Nate.”

I let out a long breath. “Anything else?” I asked. Dell looked at me sharply over his laptop, then back down at the screen again.

“No,” he said. “Why?”

“Just wondering,” I said. “And the Nate file can’t be copied, right?”

“I told you that,” Dell said, sounding annoyed. “It’s
either on the drive or on my desktop, but it can’t be both places.”

“And it’s still on the flash drive?” I asked. Dell nodded. “Great,” I said. I held out my hand for it. “Time to destroy the evidence.”

Dell raised an eyebrow at me. “Very smart,” he said. He typed rapidly for a moment, then handed me the drive. “When’s she going to be here?”

I checked the time on my phone. “Probably five minutes,” I said. Dell nodded and kept on typing, a small smile on his face. I looked at him closely, and after a moment he seemed to sense this and looked up at me.

“What?” he asked, sounding a little nervous.

“Nothing,” I said as I started to slide toward the door. “Are you hanging around?”

“I thought I might,” he said. “You know. See if … people … show up.”

I had a feeling that by “people” he meant “Peyton,” and that she was the reason that he currently smelled like a redwood forest. My phone rang as I climbed down from Dell’s SUV, feeling like I really could have used a ladder, and I answered it as I dropped to the ground. “Hello?” I asked.

“Is this Madison?” the voice, which I recognized as Sarah’s, asked. “Because Ruth told me that your brother has your phone, or something, and to call this number …”

“It’s me,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“I’m on my way over to the high school,” Sarah said, “but I needed to talk to you now. I remembered why that
girl Tricia looked so familiar. And I talked to Zach, and he confirmed it.”

“Confirmed what?” I asked, feeling myself get increasingly nervous.

“Listen to this,” Sarah said. I heard her take a deep breath, and then she told me. As I listened in stunned silence, I had to restrain myself for the second time that day from smashing my brother’s cell phone. “I just thought you needed to know,” she said when she’d finished.

“Thanks for telling me,” I said, a little hollowly. I hung up with Sarah and stared, unseeing, across the fields, leaning back against Judy. I was feeling totally betrayed—once again. My brain started to make halfhearted attempts at a way to deal with this, but I wasn’t sure I had the energy anymore.

I was just sick of it. Sick of the fact that this had been happening since
April
. And that, always, it seemed to come down to secrets. Secrets that I’d told to other people, which were then used to hurt and alienate my friends in my hacking. Schuyler’s secret that had led to the whole prom debacle and her breakup with Connor. And now, all our secrets—mine, Nate’s, my friends’—being held against us as leverage. I hated it, but wasn’t sure what could be done about it.

Totally unexpectedly, something Daryl had said came back to me. Maybe these secrets only had this power because they were, in fact, secrets. And maybe Rosa was right, and the truth would set you free.

And just like that, I had an idea.

I thought about what it would mean. It would be a big step, one that would change all our lives massively, and one that I couldn’t even have fathomed a few days ago. But there was also something a little exciting about that. Mostly scary, but also the tiniest bit exciting.

I pulled out my phone and updated my status, knowing it would be the last time.