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She blinked. “Why does he have pictures of me? I thought it was Danny.”

“I’m pretty sure it was Danny. I just also think Mason was there.” I winced for her sake. “I think Mason only does what he’s told.”

“Oh, God,” Lacey said. She bowed over and put her head in her hands. “Ohhhhhh, God.”

I hovered my hands over her back, lowering them slowly to pet her like a feral cat.

“If it’s him, I can totally get rid of them for you,” I said. “Breaking things is the one thing I’m good at so far. But after I did that—they’d be gone. You wouldn’t be able to change your mind again, you know? Or you could, but there wouldn’t be any proof left. Are you sure you want that?”

She turned to look up at me, her eyes dark. “I want all of him broken. But I’ll take making the pictures disappear.”

“Okay then. I can do that.”

“How?”

“I just have to get near his phone is all.” I said it like it’d be easy. Even though I had no idea how I’d manage it, I didn’t want to make anything worse for her right now. “I’ll figure out a way.”

“Okay. God. I can’t believe everything that’s happened.”

“Me either,” I agreed. “But—I’ll fix it. Promise. You gonna be okay?”

“Yeah. My Aunt’s coming down.”

“Betsy? The cool one?”

“Yeah,” she said, then rose up. “Don’t tell anyone about my mom, okay?”

Even as shitty a mom as Ms. Harper was, she was the only mom Lacey had. She didn’t want her to go anywhere. “My lips are sealed.”

Lacey looked over at Darius. “Mine too,” he agreed.

“Okay.” She rocked to standing, and her face went flat as she put her armor back on. “Let me know when it’s done—and hurry?”

“Will do.” I stood up and gave her a hug, while Darius lurked awkwardly behind us, then we threaded through the door and walked out.

CHAPTER 35

He didn’t say anything until we reached the parking lot. “Doesn’t she need some counseling? Or something?”

“Prolly, yeah.”

“Is she gonna get that?” He sounded incredulous.

“You met her mom.”

“I’m serious, Jessie.”

“I am too. I’ll try to be there for her. But she can’t tell anyone at school.”

“Why not?”

“Think about it. Lowly sophomore gets raped by popular senior baseball star? It’ll devolve from ‘what was she wearing?’ to ‘she’s a lying cunt’ in seconds.”

“I just—” he began, and I watched the consternation on his face.

“You think you’re gonna figure out some perfect scenario for this? You think she hasn’t tried? Or that I haven’t tried? You think you’re smarter than we are?”

His eyes studied me, then he shook his head. “But you can’t blame me for trying.”