The Summer I Left novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Frozen

On Monday morning, the fundraiser page went dark.

I found out in the dining hall, when an email slid onto my phone.

*This campaign has been paused pending review of an unauthorized-payment report.*

Eddie leaned over my tray and read it.

"You did that," he said. "You did that with a form and a screenshot."

"The bank did it."

"You did it with the bank." He bit into a waffle. "Eat something. You haven't slept."

I ate half a waffle.

My phone buzzed against the table.

Then it buzzed again.

Then it didn't stop.

Brynn had posted a new video.

It was her face in close-up, eyes red, a tissue in one hand.

"Someone who used to live with our family got our fundraiser frozen out of spite," she said, voice trembling. "Nate cried all night. He can't sleep. If you care about him, please share this."

The comments were already climbing.

In one hour, three hundred people found my name, my old high school and my new school.

My direct messages filled up.

*Go back where you came from, parasite.*

*Hope your new roommate knows what you are.*

*Pray you never have kids.*

I locked the phone and put it facedown on the tray.

My hands were cold.

Eddie looked at me, then at the phone, then at me.

"Okay," he said. "Give me that."

"Eddie."

"Give it to me. I'm not going to do anything crazy. I'm going to do something very sane."

That evening, seven people from the fourth floor crowded onto the carpet of our dorm room.

Eddie had made popcorn.

He stood in front of them in a cardboard ninja mask he'd drawn himself and held my phone like a sacred object.

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