Page 28

Twenty-Eight

AIMES

Aimes has never been so terrified in her life before. This has got to be a nightmare. This is her worst fears come true. She’s literally had nightmares about this kind of thing happening. This, very specifically this. People finding out what a fraud she really is? Torture.

If Vera had asked her to do this just one month ago, Aimes would have said no. Hell no. She wouldn’t have even thought twice about it. But here she is, actually considering it like it’s a reasonable ask that won’t at all ruin her entire life.

But someone’s life might actually be at stake here , the little voice in her mind says. Not her social life, but like, her actual life-life.

And surely that is worth more than Aimes’s reputation. Aimes grimaces. Gah, she hates her thoughts sometimes. Actually, she hates her thoughts all the time. But it’s true. When she thinks of Millie, someone she really wants to be a friend, she feels a stab of concern. And, admittedly, those text messages that Vera showed Aimes really did look suspicious as hell.

And you owe it to Xan , the little voice whispers.

Damn it, it really had to go there. Her past with Xan flashes through her mind. They’d had fun sometimes, shooting those cute skits. He always kept his distance, but Aimes liked him. Not in a romantic sense but as a person. And then the way she had betrayed him—

“Hey,” Sana says, placing a reassuring hand on Aimes’s arm. “You okay?”

Aimes shakes her head, blinking hard to keep the tears from falling. “I don’t know.”

Julia appears next to her. “It’s totally fine if you don’t want to do it. You don’t need to do anything you don’t feel comfortable doing.” And when Julia says it, it’s clear that she means it, wholly. It’s not just something she’s said to make Aimes feel better in the moment only to judge her for it later on.

Aimes looks at Julia and Sana, and her mind goes back to that day when the three of them had hung out together and Sana and Julia had told her, over ice cream, how they’d met each other. What a mess they’d both been before Vera took them under her wings. Here are people who understand exactly what she’s feeling, who know what it’s like to be a complete fraud, to feel like a failure in every sense of the word, and now look at them. They’ve come through the other side. Maybe she can too.

Bitterness pierces Aimes’s mouth. She betrayed Xander because she was a coward and a fake, and she doesn’t want to be that person anymore. What is the point of becoming an influencer if she loses herself in the process? What is she going to influence people into doing when she doesn’t even know what she is doing?

“Yeah, okay, I’m in too,” Aimes says.

Julia and Sana wrap her in a tight hug. “You’re gonna be great,” Julia says.

“And even if you bomb, it’ll be fine,” Sana says. She looks at them both and says, “It sounded more reassuring in my head.”

Across from Aimes, Qiang Wen nods. “All right. I’m not sure what is it you want us to do, Vera, but okay.”

“Good,” Vera says. She’s already whipped out her phone. “Robin, come and shoot the video.”

“I’m her cameraperson,” Robin tells everyone proudly.

“She is very good,” Vera says. “Robin, you shoot from that angle, okay? Remember, right side of my face is the good side. And don’t make me have double chin.”

“Grandma, you don’t have to worry about double chins, you know you look like a bad bitch.”

For a second, nobody in the room dares to breathe as everyone awaits Vera’s response.

Vera nods slowly. “A bad bitch. Hmm. Yes, I like that sound.”

The group breathes a collective sigh of relief.

“All right, everybody!” Vera calls out. “Places!”

“Wait, what?” Riki says. “Are we all in this video?”

“No. Just me, I am star, of course, and then Aimes, Qiang Wen, and TJ. The rest of you stand over there so you don’t ruin shot.”

“Geez, okay,” Sana says. They all file obediently to one side of the room.

Vera primps her hair, then nods at Robin, who starts recording the live stream. Vera looks at the camera and says in an ominous tone, “Who is Xander Lin? I think I find out who he is. His name is Thomas, and he is a member of”—dramatic pause—“a cult.”

Aimes can almost hear the dun dun dun . As Vera launches into her dramatic speech about Xander, Aimes swallows the growing lump in her throat. She feels like she’s about to be sick. Can she really do this?

Someone places a hand on her arm. It’s Qiang Wen. He gives her an encouraging nod. “You will be okay,” he whispers.

Aimes nods, biting back her tears.

“—faking everything online, including his romantic relationship,” Vera says. She looks over at Aimes and gestures for her to join in.

Here it goes. Aimes steps into the camera’s line of sight. She looks straight into the eye of the lens. How many people are watching right now? “Um,” she squeaks. She clears her throat and tries again. “Hey, everyone. It’s Aimes here. I need to come clean about something. I’ve been faking everything on my profile. My place is a mess. It’s not at all Instagrammable. But there are two small spots that I keep neat so I can make content with them. And, like my apartment, my relationship with Xan was fake. We weren’t actually a couple. More like business partners. He would come to my place once a week, and we’d make content for an hour or two, then he’d leave.”

Her voice trembles and she wavers. But then she sees the crowd of people in front of her, some of them complete strangers just an hour ago, and others more familiar faces, and all of them are looking at her with goodwill in their eyes. Sana’s got her hands clasped in front of her and is wearing a You go girl expression, and Oliver is nodding at her to keep going. The sight of it bolsters her. Maybe her online life is about to implode, but if the trade-off is getting this group of people as her friends, it’s worth it.

“The day before Xan died, he came to me and asked me to help him expose something. Some huge secret. And part of that secret was our fake relationship. He wanted to do a live stream to expose everything. I got scared. I had gone too deep with my lies, and I didn’t want to be exposed for the fraud I am, so I told him no. And I have regretted it ever since. I am so sorry to everyone I have lied to.”

“We forgive you, Aimes,” Vera says, putting an arm around Aimes’s trembling shoulders. “And it’s not just Aimes who having fake relationship with Xander Lin. He also have same thing with his so-call grandfather and his talent manager.”

This time, Qiang Wen takes the stage. Aimes steps backward and listens in growing sadness as Qiang Wen tells the world about how Xander filled a hole in his life that he didn’t even know existed and how, like Aimes, he had turned his back on Xander in the end. TJ follows suit, and soon, a vivid picture is painted. One of a lost soul who, for whatever reason, wanted to create a perfect life online for himself.

“And now, Xander’s friend Millie is missing,” Vera says. “Millie is the one who bring this case to my attention. She is very sweet girl, here is a photo of her.” Vera pauses, then says out of the corner of her mouth, “Robin, you are posting photo of Millie now, yes?”

“Oh!” Robin says. “Uh, okay, let me just…There you go. It’s up.”

“Okay, good. You all see Millie? She is very good girl, very sweet, and I am very worried about her. I am scare that something bad happen to her, same thing that happen to Xander. Because even though the police say his death looking like suicide, I don’t think so. It’s a bit too convenient for him to want to expose big secret and then next day is found dead. Don’t you think so?”

“We’re getting a lot of comments coming in,” Robin says.

“We’ll read through them,” Riki says. He and Sana move to stand on either side of her, tapping on the phone screen and scrolling through the comments.

Aimes feels a tiny stab of jealousy at how well Riki and Sana work together, then she feels stupid for feeling jealous. She really needs to learn to stop comparing herself with everyone else.

“Thank you for your comments,” Vera says to the camera. “We appreciate all your help. Any information you can give us about Millie will be very helpful.”

“Um,” Riki says. “Most of them aren’t very helpful.” He frowns. “I’m seeing a lot of guys calling Millie names, saying she scammed them and she probably scammed the wrong guy this time.”

Aimes frowns, thinking of all of the interactions she’s had with Millie. She sifts through their conversations and suddenly, little pieces of what she had thought were just awkward moments made sense. When Aimes mentioned Vera getting scammed, Millie had looked so uncomfortable. It had made Aimes wonder why, and now it’s starting to make sense.

“Why you say such bad things about poor Millie?” Vera is scolding the phone.

“Maybe she was a scammer,” Aimes says.

“Aiya, Aimes,” Vera says in a harsh whisper, “we trying to get people to care about Millie, not trying to get them to hate her.”

“I know, but there were things she said and did that made me wonder…and the thing is, I don’t think she wants to do it. I don’t think she wants to scam people. I think she’s being made to do it.”

Oliver’s eyes widen and he raises his hand.

“Yes, Oliver?” Vera says.

“I think Aimes is right. I think maybe I was one of these guys that Millie was trying to scam, but I only ever saw her as a friend, so she ended it with me. That was right before those strange messages she sent your way, Vera.”

Vera harrumphs. “Okay, so maybe Millie not so innocent after all, but I still think she is very good kid. I can tell her heart is good. Mothers can always tell these things. So, all you men out there that Millie scam, tell us everything you know about her.”

“Um, the comments are getting really creepy,” Sana says.

“Don’t do the creepy!” Vera snaps at the camera. “What is wrong with you?”

Aimes mutters to Vera, “Welcome to the Internet.”

“Oh! We got one that might be useful!” Riki says. “This guy says, ‘I just knew she was up to something, cheating on me like the little sl—uh, let’s gloss over that part—uh, okay, so I followed her home after our date.” Riki’s mouth twists in disgust. “Bro, what? That is creepy as fuck.”

Sana jumps in and continues reading the comment out loud. “She got on the Greyhound for Oakland. I followed in my car. She got out in East Oakland. I was going to confront her, but then my other bitch called, and—” Now it’s Sana’s turn to look disgusted. “Ew, so you were cheating on her, but you’re judging her for possibly doing the same exact thing? Men are trash. Except you, babe,” she adds, kissing Riki’s cheek.

“Okay, so now we know she lives in East Oakland,” Julia says.

Aimes thinks again about what Millie has told her, snatches of conversation flitting through her mind. “She never said ‘home,’?” Aimes says, all of a sudden.

Everyone goes silent. “What?” Vera says.

“Millie. She never said, ‘I need to go home’ or ‘I’m going home.’ She always said, ‘I have to go.’?”

The mood in the room grows dark at Aimes’s words. Aimes herself hadn’t realized just how disturbing they were until they came out of her mouth. A deep sadness settles over her. Oh, Millie.

“I think,” Aimes says slowly, “wherever Millie lives, she doesn’t view it as her home. Maybe it’s not a house? Maybe she’s living in a dorm or something.”

“I’ve updated Selena about Millie possibly living in East Oakland,” Tilly calls out. He tugs on the collar of his shirt, even though he’s wearing a T-shirt and therefore has no collar to tug at. “Uh, she’s not very happy about what we’re doing. Just FYI. She says to tell all of you to, and I quote, ‘Go the fuck home and stop listening to Vera.’?”

“She really need to learn to respect her elder,” Vera says, “especially her future mother-in-law.”

Adi, who’s been tapping away at his phone this whole time, raises his hand. “Maybe it’s a factory or warehouse or abandoned industrial park.”

Aimes’s heart sinks. No way.

He brandishes his phone at them. He has a map open with pins all over it. “There are a lot of abandoned industrial buildings in East Oakland. Thanks to gentrification, a lot of these places were shut down. There are spots that are basically mini ghost towns.”

“You are very bright child,” Qiang Wen says.

“Thank you, yes, I am. I go to a school for gifted kids, actually,” Adi says.

“Okay, tone it down, little man,” Riki says. “Good job though.”

Aimes is so confused by what is going on right now. She’s agitated with worry for Millie, but at the same time she’s also feeling warm fuzzies because of this strange motley group, and she’s also mourning the loss of her online identity—even though it’s a fake one—and she’s also feeling lightened by coming clean online, and it’s just a lot of things to be feeling in one go.

But at the core of it, Aimes knows that what they are doing is the right thing, despite what Officer Selena Gray says. If it comes down to choosing a side between Vera and the law, Aimes knows where she stands.