Caught Between My Bully and My Stepbrother novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: Friday

Water dripped off his lashes onto my sandal.

Half the quad was still watching us.

"Not today," I said.

"When?"

"When I'm not about to get kicked out of school."

He straightened up.

"Then let's make sure you don't."

That night he sat at the end of my counter at the Night Owl with his laptop open and his hair still damp.

Corey sat beside him with a plate of hash browns he didn't touch.

The cook kept sliding them free refills of coffee.

He'd decided they were my problem and therefore his.

"Show me," I said.

Crew turned the screen.

"These came from an account called joni.burkett. With a period."

"Mine doesn't have a period."

"I know. This one was made Saturday, at 11:52 in the morning. Same profile picture as yours, screenshotted and stretched." He zoomed in. "See the blur on your ear?"

I saw it.

"It followed exactly one person. Saylor. Sent three messages over two nights. Then deleted itself Tuesday, an hour after the complaint went in."

"So it's gone," Corey said.

"It's gone. The screenshots aren't." Crew clicked again. "And look at the times."

One message at 1:14 a.m. Sunday.

Two at 2:40 a.m. Tuesday.

I looked up at the camera in the corner over the register.

The Night Owl had filmed me pouring coffee every one of those nights.

"I was here," I said. "Both hands full."

The cook leaned out of the pass-through.

"I'll burn you the tape," he said. "Ask me nice."

"Please."

"That's nice enough."

Friday at 1:55, I stood outside the dean's office in the one blazer I owned.

Crew had printed everything and put it in a folder with color tabs.

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