***

“I don’t know if I can do this,” I said as Whitley handed me my cell phone. “I can’t do this. I can’t—I can’t—”

“It’s ringing,” Whitley said, sitting crisscrossed on my bedroom floor. “And recording.”

“I can’t—”

“Yes, you can. Now shut up, stop whining, and do it.”

Nathan was a little kinder. He put a hand on my shoulder and said, “You’ll feel better when it’s over.”

I pressed the phone to my ear.

Two rings.

“Hello?”

“H-hey, Justine.”

“Hey, Bailey.” She sounded like she was in a good mood. I wasn’t sure if that would make things better or worse. “What’s up?”

“N-not much.” I couldn’t stop stuttering. “I just, uh…”

Whitley glared at me. After a pause she mouthed, Come on.

I cleared my throat. “You need to tell Principal Roth what you did.”

“What did I do?”

“You know,” I said. “The video… of Elsie. You need to tell him you posted it.”

She burst out laughing. “What? Are you kidding me? Why would I tell him? What the hell are you thinking?”

I swallowed. “If… if you don’t tell him, I will.”

She stopped laughing. “You have lost your mind. Go ahead and tell him. He’ll never believe you. You don’t have any proof. And if he so much as asks me about it, I’ll turn it around. I’ll tell him you did it. And that’s the least of what I’ll do to you. People might like you now, Bailey, but they won’t if you mess with me. You’ll be a narc. No one will want to hang out with you.”

I could feel my bottom lip shaking. It was disgusting, but as horrible as she was, I had to fight the urge to apologize. To beg for forgiveness. I didn’t like Justine anymore, but I wanted her to like me.

Nathan squeezed my shoulder.

“What if I did have proof?”

“What?” Justine asked.

“I have proof.”

“That’s impossible,” she said. “The YouTube account is connected to an e-mail with a fake name. So are the links I sent. You can’t trace it back to me.”

I glanced at Nathan. He nodded and held his hand out. I gave him the phone.

“Hi. Justine? This is Bailey’s brother, Nathan. How much do you know about computers?” He paused. “Oh, okay. Well, that’s a bummer, because I know quite a bit. Has anyone ever explained IP addresses to you? Because the thing is, the YouTube account may be connected to a fake e-mail, but it’s also connected to a real IP address, which belongs to your computer. You following? So, turns out, I can track down your IP address through this account and prove that the video was uploaded from your computer…. Uh-huh. Well, I just thought you might like to know. Here’s Bailey.”

He handed the phone back to me. I must have had a look of terror on my face because Whitley stood up and walked over to the bed to put an arm around my shoulders. I took a deep breath.

“Justine?”

“You got your geeky brother involved?” she snapped. “How old are you? Seven? I can’t believe I was actually friends with such a baby.”

“I can’t believe I was friends with you, either,” I murmured. “So are you going to tell Principal Roth or do I have to?”

There was a long pause. “I could tell them Brody did it, you know,” she said. “He has access to my computer. I could blame it on him. You wouldn’t like that, though, would you? Since you like him so much. Might as well kiss that good-bye either way. He’ll never like you. Not if you rat on his little sister.”

“His little sister who’d be willing to throw him under the bus?” I asked. I’d been shaking before, but I was feeling different now. Angrier. “You’re worse than I thought you were. Your record might be clean, but you’ve done this before. I know about Gretchen. By the way, that IP address thing works on blogs as well.”

“Go, Bailey,” Nathan mouthed, doing a little fist pump.

I kept going. “And you couldn’t blame it on him anyway. He was at a game that night. People saw him there. He left school before the video was recorded. That wouldn’t be hard to prove.”

Justine didn’t say anything.

“Tell the principal,” I said. “You’ll get in less trouble if you turn yourself in. You’ll seem like a better person if you do than if I tell them the truth.”

“He’ll expel me.” Her voice cracked, and for a second I wondered if she was crying. “I’ll be kicked off student council. I’ll lose everything I’ve worked for.”

I was starting to feel sorry for her. Starting to regret this. Starting to think maybe I was wrong. But then I remembered that broken look on Elsie’s face on Monday. She hadn’t even been to school since then. If anyone deserved sympathy, it was her.

“You win,” Justine said. “I’ll turn myself in. But people are still going to hate you, Bailey. I’m going to tell everyone you made me do this.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “Maybe those people are the ones who—as you put it—aren’t worth knowing.”

She made a small grunting noise before hanging up.

I put my cell phone down and let out a breath. “She’s telling the principal tomorrow.”

“Good,” Nathan said. “And if she doesn’t, you have that whole conversation recorded on your phone.”

“Could you really do that?” I asked him. “All that stuff about the IP address?”

He shrugged. “I actually don’t know. It’s possible on some sites, but I’ve never tried on YouTube. But I figured she wouldn’t know, either.”

“Do you feel better?” Whitley asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “I do… mostly.”

“Now what’s wrong? Upset you’re not going to be Miss Popularity anymore?”

I shook my head. “No…. Well, a little. But that’s okay. No, it’s just… Justine’s brother is this really cool, cute guy, and I think he was starting to like me. I don’t think he will after Justine tells him about that phone call.”

“You’re too young to date anyway.”

“Nathan,” Whitley said, rolling her eyes.

“She is.”

“Ignore him,” Whitley said. “He’s just jealous no one wanted to date him in ninth grade.”

“Hey, you know that’s not true,” he argued. “I was on the basketball team. All sorts of girls wanted to date me. But I knew I was too young to date—and I was busy with school and sports.”

“You mean you were busy playing with Star Wars action figures,” Whitley said.

I grinned a little. “He totally was.”

“I didn’t play with them,” Nathan said. “They were collectibles. I collected them.”

“Okay, Nathan,” Whitley said. “I love you, but collecting action figures isn’t any less geeky than playing with them. In fact, it might be a little worse. But that’s okay.” She stood up and walked around to where he sat on my other side. “Because today your nerdy side was pretty useful. And kind of sexy.”

“Really?” He smirked at her. “Want to go to my room and listen to me read from my computer sciences textbook?”

“Mm. Maybe.”

“Ew!” I said, slinging a pillow at them. “Get out.”

“Gladly,” Nathan said, standing up and grabbing Whitley’s hand. “Good night, Bailey.”

“Good night,” I said.

Whitley stopped at the door and turned around. “And seriously. If the guy stops liking you, he sucks.”

“Thanks.”

It was easy to hear. But it wasn’t easy to believe. The truth was, Brody Frasier was amazing. And tonight, I’d lost any shot I may have had with him.

Chapter Five

By first period the next day, rumors were flying all over the place. Justine had been suspended, expelled, arrested. There were a thousand different stories, and no one seemed to know which ones were true. People only knew one thing for sure—this was my fault.

Well, not everyone knew that. But Wendy and Melanie did. They’d both given me death glares in the hallway that morning, and I knew cheerleading practice later would be a nightmare.

The rest of the semester would be a nightmare.

I just had to keep reminding myself that I’d done the right thing. That Justine deserved whatever she got. And that anyone who thought otherwise was just as bad as she was.