I Accidentally Sexted My Enemy novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Gazette

Brock lies that a girl sent him a photo and Rhett shuts him down, until Kenzie says she knows the wallpaper.

By Tuesday the whole school knew a girl had written Brock a note.

By Wednesday the whole school knew a girl had sent somebody a picture.

I did not know how it got out, and I wanted to disappear into the floor.

Dottie sat across from me at lunch with a tray of tater tot hotdish and a look of pure joy.

"This is the best week of my life," she said. "You're famous."

"I am anonymous."

"Famous and anonymous. It's the dream."

"Dottie."

"I'm sorry." She patted my hand. "I'm very sorry. Eat your hotdish."

Across the cafeteria Brock Sandvik was holding court at the hockey table.

He had his arm around Kenzie, and half the senior class was leaning in to hear him.

"I'm just saying," Brock said, loud enough for us to hear, "a girl sent me a pic."

My fork stopped halfway to my mouth.

"A real one?" a boy asked.

"Obviously. She said my name."

"Let me see."

"I deleted it," said Brock, grinning. "Kenzie made me."

Kenzie laughed and smacked his chest. "I did not!"

Everybody at that table roared.

I felt sick.

He had not received anything.

He had been reading a stranger's note aloud for a joke.

Now he was lying about a photo he had never seen, with my voice in the middle of it.

"I'll kill him," Dottie said quietly.

"No. Don't."

"Anja, he's turning you into a story."

"He doesn't know it's me."

"That's worse."

I wasn't sure it was.

At the hockey table, a chair scraped.

Rhett Kolstad stood up.

He did it slowly, and the noise at the table dropped away.

"Brock," he said.

"Hey, captain."

"Sit down and stop talking."

Brock laughed. "Dude. What?"

"You didn't get a picture."

Nobody breathed.

"I'm just saying what I heard," said Brock, and his voice had gone thinner. "Some girl sent it to a hockey guy.

It was obviously me."

"It wasn't," said Rhett.

"How would you know?"

"Because I know who got it."

Brock's smile slipped.

"Whoever she is," Rhett said, "she's not a prop in your lunch show. Leave her alone."

He picked up his tray, walked to the bin, and dumped it.

He did not look at me.

Not once.

I sat with my mouth open and a tater tot cooling in my fork.

"Did Rhett Kolstad just defend your honor?" Dottie asked.

"He didn't know it was my honor."

"Okay, but still."

"He hates me," I said.

"Does he?" Dottie said. "Because he was just really, really hot about it."

I put my head on the table.

Kenzie Finnegan was staring at me.

She had stopped laughing, and her chin was lifted, and her eyes were narrow.

"Brock," she said slowly.

"What, babe?"

"You said she wrote your name."

"Yeah."

"And you said she sent a picture."

"Sure."

"So you saw the picture."

Brock opened his mouth and nothing came out.

Kenzie turned in her seat, and I looked away so fast I almost hurt my neck.

After the bell I stayed behind to stack trays, because I needed somewhere to be that wasn't a hallway.

I was carrying the last stack to the counter when someone stepped in front of me.

Kenzie did not hold up a phone.

She held up one finger.

"Brock told me something this morning," she said. "He saw the picture for one second on Rhett's phone before Rhett wiped it."

My mouth went dry.

"I don't know why you're telling me," I said.

"Because you're the only girl at this school who writes about him."

She tilted her head. "You wrote about his injury. You wrote about his scholarship. Everybody knows it's you."

"Everybody knows I write about the whole team. It's my job."

"Mm-hm."

"Kenzie, I'm covering the school."

She smiled, and it was not a kind smile.

"Brock says the wall behind her had yellow ducks on it," she said. "Little yellow ducks, in rows. Old wallpaper."

I held the stack of trays so tightly the plastic bent.

"That's a very specific wall," I said.

"It really is."

She turned and walked toward the doors, her red hair swinging.

At the door she looked back over her shoulder.

"I'll find that wall by Friday," she said.

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