The Thrashers(94)

“She asked me if I liked you.” He looked at her quickly. “And I didn’t, just to clarify. Still don’t, really.”

“Thanks,” she said drily. “Same to you.”

“But she got it in her head that I wanted you—which I didn’t—”

“So you’ve said.”

“And it really bugged me. She said it, and it didn’t land with me. But she was so fucking sure about it. So obnoxious. It really got to me.”

Jodi quirked a smile. “Is this how Emily Mills has been haunting you, Julian? She planted an idea in your head, and now you’re kissing me in the theater lab?”

His eyes flashed to her, serious and anxious, before crinkling to return the smile. “I guess so.”

Jodi refocused. “What did you text her?” she asked quietly.

He paused and rubbed his neck. “I just want you to know that I was trying to help you. I wanted her to see she was wrong and to back off.”

She felt her heart drop. “What is it?” she whispered.

“I collected everything.” He didn’t meet her eyes, and Jodi’s palms began to sweat. “Everything we’d said about her in private. Everything she didn’t know. It took me all night. I put it in a Google Drive and texted her the link.”

“What do you mean everything?”

“Texts, Discord chats, DMs. Our group chats.”

Jodi’s head was reeling. “That was private.” Her voice was thin.

“She needed to know, Jodi—”

“She didn’t. She was harmless.”

“Harmless?” he scoffed. “She forged a journal to punish us from beyond the grave! Would you really think she was harmless if she had accused Zack last year?”

Fuming, Jodi said, “Show me the Google Drive. I want to see it.”

“I deleted it. I wiped the text from my phone and deleted the drive the second I saw the ambulances on her street.”

She felt her blood boiling. “You really don’t have any other copy? That’s not like you.”

His jaw tightened, and then he reached into his pocket for his keys. He began untwirling a flash drive off the loop. Jodi had always thought it was a Juul. When he extended it to her, she stared up at him.

“Here,” he said, when she didn’t take it.

She stretched her fingers out for it. “What you sent to Emily the day of prom is on here? You just carry it on you at all times?”

He nodded. “In case they got a warrant for my house.”

Staring down at the blue flash drive, she said, “And you’re just … giving it to me? What, no pleading with me not to show it to the police?”

Julian took a deep breath. “Just … do what you have to. I want this to be over.”

Jodi’s eyes snapped up to him. He looked so tired. Almost defeated.

“You heard from Fordham,” she whispered, guessing.

He swallowed and shifted his weight. “I’m rejected whether I’m innocent or not. The result of my trial won’t change that.”

Jodi was trying to think of what to say—to encourage him that there was life outside of Fordham and college, to promise she wouldn’t rat him out—but she couldn’t do either.

He turned to her front door, hand on the knob, before twisting back to her. His eyes were clear and fierce as he said, “I never wanted her to die. I wanted her to disappear.”

Jodi took in his earnest expression, the hope that she understood him. But he would never understand her. Or Emily.

“That’s the same thing to girls like us.”

His eyes darkened, like he would argue the point. But he just opened the door and stepped through.

Jodi waited for the engine of his truck to start before heading for the computer. She paced in front of the screen as it took eons to warm up, and then inserted the flash drive. She opened the solitary folder labeled Bio Homework and found hundreds of images. Screenshots of text conversations. Saved Snapchat videos. Downloaded Discord chats.

Her fingers were trembling as she opened a Snapchat video.

Lucy and Zack were in the Thrashers’ kitchen. His back was turned to the camera as he flipped pancakes in his pajamas. Lucy sidled up to him and stared at him with wide eyes and a vacant expression. She said, “You probably make the best pancakes out of anyone in the entire world,” in a dreamy voice.

Zack chuckled, still unaware he was being filmed. “It’s just Bisquick.”

“No but you’re, like … doing it so well,” Lucy said, widening her eyes and stepping closer to him. “I wish I could make pancakes as good as you.”

Zack turned to her curiously, then noticed the camera pointed at him. His face broke into a smile. “Are you being Emily?”

Lucy cackled. Jodi could hear Julian’s laugh as he filmed. The video ended on Zack beaming at the joke.

Jodi clicked out, going to some of the texts instead. The first one she clicked was from the group text the five of them had. She saw the date at the top: March 27, 2024.

Julian

are we still going to the lake on sat

Paige

im down

Zack

tight

Lucy

I swear to god zack if you invite emily I will throw her in the lake

maybe with weights tied to her ankles