Page 116 of Trapper Road

Josiah knew, I think. He’d experienced this firsthand. This was what he was warning me about. Juliette even confesses to the role she played in his downfall. She glosses over a lot of it, minimizing her role, but she admits to taking the pictures herself and setting him up.

I close my eyes. Even though I’d felt he was telling the truth, I didn’t want to believe Juliette had been lying. I’m horrified by the reality that someone might falsely accuse another person of sexual misconduct simply to take them down.

At least now Josiah has proof of his innocence. He’s still young; he can rebuild his life.

I’m not sure the same can be said about Trevor. He’s already confessed — it’s nearly impossible to take that back. Even without his confession, Willa and Mandy’s testimony could have been enough to convict him.

It’s unfathomable to me that they would lie. I can’t believe they would intentionally send an innocent man to jail. But how is that any different from getting a kid expelled, or breaking up a happy marriage, or destroying a high schooler’s future?

My heart sinking, I scramble to look at their most recent posts. There’s one a week ago on Willa’s feed — a selfie showing off a new lipstick. Around her neck, the necklace gleams.

Yesterday Mandy posted a video modeling three different dresses with a poll to pick the best one. She’s wearing the necklace.

I close my eyes, horror overwhelming me. I thought I understood evil. I’d seen it in Melvin Royal and Father Tom and Jonathan Watson. I never expected it in someone so young. My very soul rebels at the idea of it.

They’re only fifteen!

I manage to continue through the text exchange, my stomach churning at everything Juliette describes. The lives she’s ruined.

At least she has the decency to sound genuinely remorseful. She tells Beau she wants to turn herself in, confess everything, and bring down her friends. She wants to wipe the slate clean, clear her conscience. It’s the only way she and Beau can be together.

He takes it all in remarkably well. He doesn’t even seem horrified by her confessions. He believes her when she explains that it was all Willa and Mandy, that she was dragged along by them.

He supports her desire to turn on her friends. In fact, he only has one hesitation.

Beau: What happens if you turn yourself in and they arrest you?

Juliette: I don’t know.

Beau: You could go to jail.

Juliette: But they’d let me out, right? If I testified against Willa and Mandy? They’d have to, right?

Beau: That’s what always happens on TV.

Juliette: If that’s what I have to do, then that’s what I have to do.

Beau: But it would mean not being together for even longer.

Juliette: What choice do I have?

Beau: You’re not doing this alone, Juliette. I won’t let you.

Juliette: What do you mean?

And that’s when Beau suggests meeting up. I slump back in my seat, my mind reeling. My thoughts keep coming back to Beau. The texts are decently written. At times they discuss deep topics like the meaning and purpose of life. Things the boy who wrote the essays Trevor’s grandmother showed me could have never written these texts.

Which one is the real Trevor? Is he a psychopath, living the lie that he’s simple to hide his dark tendencies? It’s not like I can rule that out. I’ve seen it before — I’ve lived with it before. Melvin Royal was the same way: presenting oneself to the world as a shield against the truth.

But what if the Trevor I met, the kind, scared boy, is the truth? Then someone else was pretending to be him, using him to their own ends.

I think about Juliette’s texts — how she described Willa and Mandy’s cruelty. I think about Willa sitting on the swing set, the fear in her eyes when she mentioned Mandy. It was obvious she only identified Trevor as the driver of the truck because Mandy wanted her to. Because Mandy was so positive, and Willa was terrified to contradict her.

Mandy was the one pointing the finger at Trevor.

Could she have been the one setting him up? Setting Juliette up as well?

Could this elaborate setup have been some sort of game for her? A way to test her friend’s loyalty?