The Thrashers(100)

Lucy nodded. “As soon as the police have custody of that second journal, my lawyer thinks the prosecution is going to drop everything. Hey, how did you know about that second journal?”

“I sorta … went looking for it.” Jodi winced. “I visited the Millses under false pretenses and snooped around.”

Lucy’s lips curled into a devilish grin. “Jodi Dillon, you badass.”

Jodi laughed and shuffled her feet.

“Also,” Lucy said, pushing her hair behind her ear, “Did I hear something about you and Julian?”

“Oh, dear. Look at the time.” Jodi grabbed her books and shut her locker, fighting the blush on her cheeks as Lucy cackled.

She spent the rest of the morning wondering what she wanted to say to Julian. Finally by the end of the day, she found him waiting for her outside her last class. Jodi chewed on her lip as she approached.

“I hear there are some very exciting developments happening with the Emily Mills scandal today,” he said, tilting his head with a smirk.

“There probably are.” She took a deep breath. “I’m headed to the theater building for tech rehearsal. Walk with me?”

He fell into step beside her. “The play opens this weekend?”

“Yeah. My part’s almost done, so now I just have to worry about Nikita’s costume changes.”

He cleared his throat. “So, look. I thought I’d hear from you after I left your dad’s. Maybe, like, a lot of yelling or crying. Or a brick thrown through my truck window.”

“I had to get my head on straight about it.” She glanced up and saw him looking at his shoes as they walked. “Sending that to her was not okay. So much of it was private. Things I never would have said if I’d known she would see it.”

He nodded. “I know.”

“I can’t pretend I don’t know about it.”

“I know.”

She stopped walking and faced him. “You do?”

“Jodi, I knew what I was doing when I gave you that USB.” There was that look in his eyes again, like he was tired. He stepped back and tossed over his shoulder, “Leave me a ticket at the box office, yeah?” as he walked away.

Jodi stared after him, wrapping her mind around the next truth she had to tell and wishing she’d had more time with this version of him.



* * *



Jodi sat at the coffee shop a few blocks from school on Tuesday morning, sipping something sugary. Her knee was bouncing under the table as she kept an eye on the door.

When it swung open at precisely 7:30 A.M., Jodi’s hands jerked to her cup while Detective Harding swept her eyes over the coffee shop. As she dropped into the chair opposite her, Jodi noticed that Harding’s makeup was perfect, her blouse crisp, and her hair pulled tight. She set her designer bag—fake, but it was a good try—on the chair next to her and smiled.

“Miss Dillon. Glad to see you finally ‘remembered’ where Emily Mills’s cell phone could be,” she said sarcastically. “Now, what’s this about?”

Jodi reached into her pocket with shaking fingers and placed the USB drive on the table between them.

“What’s this?”

“This is what Julian Hollister texted Emily Mills the day she died.”

Harding’s eyes lost their faux-bored look, narrowing on Jodi’s face. She sat forward and folded her hands. “Is it? How do you know?”

“Because Julian gave it to me.”

Red lips pressing into a thin line, Harding stared at the USB. “What’s on it?”

“It’s … I guess you could say, it’s proof that we didn’t like Emily Mills.”

“Who’s ‘we?’”

“The Thrashers. It’s a collection of screenshots, private conversations, private TikToks … Stuff that Emily was never supposed to see.”

Harding sat back in her chair. She reached for the USB and plucked it up between her red nails. Her eyes flicked to Jodi. “Why did Julian Hollister give this to you?”

She swallowed. “Because we … I don’t know. But we were maybe going to … date, or not really but…”

Harding blinked at her, brows jumping. Her face pinched into an expression Jodi didn’t like. Something like pity.

“Jodi,” she said softly. “I’ve known people like your friends all my life. Boys like Zack, Julian—they don’t date girls like us.”

Jodi jerked her gaze away. Her eyes caught on Harding’s shoes, the fake Louboutins. Harding still wanted to be like them, even after fighting tooth and nail to get some petty high school revenge. In twenty years, Jodi didn’t want to still be worrying about whether or not she was a Thrasher.

Harding leaned forward. “Thank you for bringing this to me, Jodi. It was very mature of you to put Emily and the Mills family ahead of your own friendships.”

“I just wanted to tell the truth and be done with it.”

Harding nodded and dropped the USB into her bag. Jodi heard it land like a gavel.

“Wait,” Jodi said. “He texted her two things, you guys said. One was the link to this. What else did he say?”

Harding took a deep breath. “I suppose you’ll know soon enough. He sent her the link, and under it, he said Jodi doesn’t care if you live or die.”