“How many times did this happen?”
I closed my eyes, trying to remember. “Almost
every Sunday.”
One of the female cops frowned. “Those
animals. How could they?”
Harding looked at me. “So, you killed them,
right?”
I smiled at him. “You cops can’t handle this?
This is too much?”
“Why didn’t you call the cops? This went
beyond what they did for you. You should
have called the cops.”
I chuckled. “Officer, if someone is nice to you,
you get addicted to it.”
“That addiction made me suffer those nights.”
“I wanted to run. I thought I could wait until
graduation.”
Harding frowned. “If that’s what you thought,
something else must have happened?”
“What happened?”
L
“What made you light the fuse?”
I sighed. “It moved from the hotel to Mrs.
Davies‘ house.”
“Mrs. Davies bought a camera to record it.”
“She put the videos online and made money.”
“A lot of money.”
“They liked it, so they kept doing it. They
locked me up in Mrs. Davies‘ house.”
“They wouldn’t let me go to school…”
Dr. Evans frowned. “You didn’t come to
school for two months. I asked Mrs. Davies.
She said you weren’t doing well and were
L
I chuckled.
“That’s what she told you?”
“Our videos went viral. I wanted them to blur
my face.”
“I had to go to college. I had to have a life.”
“Mrs. Davies promised she would.”
“I still don’t get it. How did you agree to
this?”
I looked at Dr. Evans. “Have you heard of the
broken window theory?”
“When I let them do it the first time, the
window was broken.”
く
“After that, it was easier to break the others.”
“A week before the SATs, they let me go.”
“They used the money they made off me for
the whole class.”
“We had the most expensive fruit. Like we
were rich.”
“The girls didn’t thank me. They called me a
slut, said I was stealing their boyfriends.”
“Their crushes were part of what happened.”
“I was relieved when the SATS came. I
thought I was done.”
“I’d have a new life.”
く
“But when I sat down to take the test, a guy
recognized me.”
I closed my eyes. I still feel the fear, like a
snake around my heart.
The guy sat behind me. He saw me, his eyes
lit up. He said to his friend.
“That girl is the one in those videos. She’s
famous.“”
“‘She’s here? Think we have a shot?“”
That broke me.
I was a mess during the test. Like a dozen
dirty eyes were staring at me.
L
After, I went to Mrs. Davies. I asked why she
didn’t blur my face.
I did everything they wanted. Why couldn’t
they do one thing for me?
Mrs. Davies smiled. “How can I make money
with a blurred face?”
“That’s when I knew she ruined my life.”
I took the SATs, didn’t know what to do.
“When it was time to apply, I picked a school
on the West Coast.”
“No one wanted to go there. But maybe I
wouldn’t be recognized. Maybe I could have a
normal life.”
Г
The cops‘ expressions changed.
They looked at me with pity. Some of the
women were crying.
“Then what?”
“When the acceptance letters came, I got into
a local teaching college.”
“Mrs. Davies said she changed my application
to make it easier to keep filming.”
“She smiled like she was helping me.”
“But she was so cruel.”
