Chapter 21: Second Row

Preston stopped a foot from Brooks and stared at him.

"Move," he said.

"No."

"Brooks. Move."

"No," Brooks said again, and his voice shook on it.

He turned halfway so the front rows could hear him, and he held his hands out at his sides.

"It's real," Brooks said. "It's his phone and it's his thread. I'm in it. I wrote 'lol' under half of that."

A hush spread across the hall.

"I watched him take the jacket out of the booth locker," Brooks said. "I watched him post it."

He looked at me.

"I sat in the front row with my phone up and laughed at her."

"Shut your mouth," Preston said.

"My name's Brooks Denham, I play lacrosse, and I'm done."

Somebody near the stage said, "Dude."

It was one of the other lacrosse players, a big boy in a team jacket, standing up from his seat.

He looked at Preston, and then he sat down again, slowly, with his arms folded.

Two rows behind him, a girl put her phone away.

Then another girl did.

Then all around the hall, the phones that had been up for two weeks came down, one after another.

On the screen behind us the livestream comments scrolled.

The words "Ben wrote it" and "he stole it" ran up the side faster than anyone could read.

The host stood in the wings with his mouth open.

The camera's red light kept glowing.

Keep reading free with an account. Start His Public Confession Was a Lie, So I Stopped Loving Him from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.