Page 53 of Keep Quiet

“Of course it is.” Jake looked around, and the street was quiet and still. A young mother pushed a stroller, her ponytail caught on the hood of her parka.

“I’m scared shitless. I went to my locker and checked my phone before lunch. Look.” Ryan slid his iPhone out of his pocket, opened the text function, and showed Jake the text in its bright pink bubble.

i am crazy 4 u

“What, Ryan? Some girl has a crush on you.” Jake exhaled, relieved.

“Right, that’s what I thought. At first I thought it was from Janine Mae, but it isn’t.” Ryan started talking fast, running his words together. “She’s in my phone and if it were from her, it would come up with her name. I don’t know that number. It’s not in my Contacts. See?”

Jake looked at the phone number from the text, which had a 999 area code. “So? Somebody has a crush on you. Somebody you don’t have in your phone already.”

“Totally, that’s what I thought, too. I got stoked, thinking some girl liked me. I’m so stupid.” Ryan scrolled to the next text. “Look at this.”

Jake read,ur an awesome player

“Wait.” Ryan scrolled down to the next pink bubble, which had been delivered a minute later. “It gets worse, a lot worse.”

Jake read the text, beginning to get a bad feeling.i watch u all the time“Okay, kinda creepy.”

“That’s nothing, compared to the end. You look at the rest. I can’t. It makes me want to hurl.” Ryan thrust the phone at him. “My phone number’s not that easy to get. It’s not on Facebook, and anyway, I have all my privacy settings on. The school has it, so it could be someone who works in the office. It’s on the team portal, but only the team can get in. You’d have to hack it. I don’t think I have it anywhere else.”

Jake scrolled down through the line of pink bubbles, reading:i wish i cld b w u

ur soo sexy

ur soo cute

ur soo tall

ur shredded

i love ur hair

u have gr8t eyes

I love ur smile

i think of u all the time

i dream abt u

i see u

i watch u

“How many are there?” Jake asked angrily. It had to be Deaner. Deaner must have gotten Ryan’s cell-phone number. Or the texts were from whoever made the video, if it wasn’t Deaner.

“Like fifty or so, I stopped counting. They came one after the other, like seconds apart.” Ryan kept shaking his head, his fair skin mottled. “Keep reading. It gets worse.Wayworse.”

Jake seethed, reading.

i kno everything about u

i follow u everywhere

u can’t get away from me

Jake scrolled up and checked the time of the first text, delivered at 11:02. That would have been minutes after Deaner had left his office. Jake had thought that Deaner would go after him, but he’d gone after Ryan instead. Jake scrolled down again and read more texts, delivered only seconds apart.