20
Finding Collin working at his desk in our room once I’d made my way to the dorms from the parking lot did not improve my mood. As I walked in, he merely shot a glance over his shoulder, sneered at me, then went back to whatever he was working on. Not so much as a “hello”
crossed his lips as I shuffled in and set my bag next to my bed. It crossed my mind that Collin felt the onus was on me to say something, to break the seal on the discussion we needed to have, but I was feeling less than amenable after what had happened with Theo in the parking lot.
Instead of greeting Collin and suggesting we talk about the tension from the last few months, I went about unpacking. I put away the clothes Mom had washed for me before we’d left my parents’ house, threw the clothes that weren’t clean in the hamper, and put away my toiletries for later use. Then I flung myself on the bed. I laid there for several minutes, the silence of the room slowly pressing against me until it felt like a weight was on my chest.
All I could concentrate on was the swirling thoughts about Theo and Peepers and the sound of Collin’s fingers clicking away on his laptop. Before I could go completely insane, I snatched my earbuds off of my bedside table, stuffed them in my ears and pulled my phone out of my pocket. I’d had my phone on airplane mode for the car trip, so as to not get distracted by any notifications while driving. Playing the Christmas music saved on my phone didn’t require service anyway, so it was simply safer to use airplane mode while driving.
When I flipped the toggle to give my phone access to the network and the internet once again, my eyes bulged. Notifications began pouring in so quickly that the banners became one, stacking on each other until it was a flurry of banners and the dinging in my ears was incessant. Staring at the pile of hundreds of notification banners at the bottom of the screen, all indicating they were from Peepers, I felt my stomach sink.
“Shit,”
I mumbled to myself.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Collin whip his head to the side to look at me. Whether I imagined it or not, I wasn’t sure, but I thought I saw him grin before going back to his laptop.
Shaking my head, I tentatively tapped my thumb on the pile of banners to separate them.
Ohmygod I’m so sorry! I hope that…
He should be ashamed of himself for…
If you need someone to talk to I’m…
He’s trash frfr
Screw that guy!
He didn’t deserve you anyway, and…
Frowning at the comment notifications, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on with my Peepers account. Obviously, everyone who had seen Ben Carter’s video, and been told by him that somehow, even though Theo and I weren’t dating, that he had cheated on me, were incensed. The torches and pitchforks were out and the Peepers community was calling for blood for what he had apparently done to me.
It struck me as odd that people on Peepers felt that it would be helpful to tag a jilted party in a video reminding them of the betrayal. Not that I was actually a jilted lover, but it was still odd that the people who thought I was felt they would somehow be helping by rubbing salt in the wounds. Secondly, I wondered why so many people were quick to believe Ben’s video when Theo and I had never once indicated we were dating. Other than our one Halloween video, we had never appeared on Peepers together. Theo only ever vaguely referred to me as his “friend”
in any video where I was mentioned in passing.
The Peepers community had simply taken the word of a stranger on the internet that they worshipped for…whatever reason. The entire thing was embarrassing and frustrating, but it was equally perplexing.
Tapping furiously at the screen, I pulled up Ben Carter’s account. I didn’t have to search for the video Theo had been playing in the car because it was Ben’s first video in his list, and he’d pinned it to the top. Of course, since it had already gotten over a million views and two-hundred-thousand likes, he was going to milk it for all it was worth. I angrily tapped my thumb on the video preview.
“Well, well, well,”
I heard Ben say for the second time in less than thirty minutes. “It looks like history just keeps repeating itself. Some people can’t just ruin one person’s life—they have to ruin the life of every guy they’re dating. One of my followers sent me this.”
The short video of Theo being approached by some guy at the bonfire, then being slipped a piece of paper played. Theo looked uncomfortable in the video, especially with how close the other guy in the video pushed in against him when passing him his number.
“That’s Thoe Hendrix,”
Ben showed up on screen again, “getting a phone number from some guy at the Midway University Halloween Bonfire. So…even though he’s got that new boyfriend, he’s still playing the field. I wonder if his new boyfriend knows? He probably thought Theo had changed his ways…but a leopard never changes its spots. I think that this speaks for itself. Theo is and will always be a horrible person. Period. I’m glad he’s finally showing his true colors to the world.”
The video ended with Ben grinning smugly into the camera.
Enraged as I scrolled the comments—ninety percent of which were eviscerating Theo’s character—I desperately wished I could punch Ben Carter in his smug, smarmy face.
If I was to be totally honest with myself, I couldn’t be mad at him for being bitter about Theo cheating on him during their relationship. Telling another person how to react to a betrayal was not something I would ever do. However, using me as a weapon in his war against Theo was crossing the line. Especially since he was lying in order to further his cause.
Even though it was against everything in my nature, I found myself sitting up in bed. I turned around until my back was against the beige cinderblock wall and crossed my legs so that I was sitting up and staring at my phone. I tapped my thumb furiously against my phone until I’d pulled up my Peeper’s page. I took several deep breaths, collected my thoughts, and quickly decided on a script.
I tapped my thumb against the video option. I showed up on screen and a countdown clock appeared atop the view of me from my camera. Counting down from three, I waited until the clock was gone and only my face and the wall behind me showed on screen. Taking a deep breath, I looked directly into the camera and spoke.
“Hey, uh, everyone? I’m Josh Montag. I’ve never posted here before—so excuse me if this video is bad. But I’m going to make this video short, sweet, and to the point. Theo Hendrix and I are friends. We are not dating. Anything you see on the internet that says he is cheating on me is a lie—because we are not a couple. We became friends here at Midway and did a duo costume when we attended the Midway University Halloween bonfire because it was fun, funny, and that’s what the holiday is supposed to be. That’s…it. Theo is free to get numbers from anyone and flirt with anyone and date anyone because he is not currently dating anyone else. I’m glad you all had a few hours of entertainment, but he hasn’t harmed me or our friendship in any way. Hope that helps us all get on the same page here. Uh, have a great night and stuff.”
Then I tapped the “stop”
button at the bottom of the screen and the video ended. Over the top of my phone, I noticed Collin eyeing me from his desk, but I ignored him. I tapped out a quick text caption for the video, and out of a decisive act of pettiness, tagged Ben Carter and Theo Hendrix. Then I clicked the “upload” button before I could talk myself out of it.
When a “woosh”
sounded in my ears, I closed Peepers, locked my phone, laid it down, and ripped my earbuds out of my ears. I tilted my head back against the wall and stared up at the ceiling. After a second, I unlocked my phone, put it back on airplane mode, and locked it again. I tossed it onto my pillow at the head of the bed.
Sighing I stared up at the ceiling, hoping I hadn’t made things worse for Theo. However, I knew that if I sat by and watched him get dogpiled once again, I’d never be able to live with myself. In my heart, I knew I’d done the thing that was right for me. Whether or not it was any good for Theo was yet to be seen. I wasn’t going to sit by my phone and wait to find out, though. Instead, I was going to go on about my life and get ready for the last weeks of the semester.
“You know,”
Collin said suddenly, “covering for him isn’t going to make him more faithful.”
Jerking, I tilted my head to look across the room at Collin.
“What?” I asked.
“He’s not going to like you more and be more faithful just because you make excuses for him,”
Collin snipped. “Once a cheater, always a cheater. He’s going to keep betraying you until you can’t take it anymore and you’ll be sorry you made that video.”
I stared at Collin blankly.
“We. Are. Not. Dating,” I said.
Collin rolled his eyes.
“Theo and I are just friends,”
I said. “Collin, I’ve barely even seen you in two months. You have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.”
Collin slapped his laptop shut, stuffed it in his bag, and jumped up from his desk. He slung his bag over his shoulder and marched to the door. With his hand on the doorknob, he turned to me, his eyes lit up with anger.
“I know that enabling a cheater makes you a piece of shit, Josh,” he said.
Before I could respond, he ripped the door open, marched out, and slammed it behind him. The thought to go rub my bare asshole on Collin’s pillow crossed my mind. Instead of being petty—and possibly giving my former best friend pink eye—I toppled over on the bed.
Curling up on my side, I laid my head on my pillow and drifted off into the kind of deep sleep that can only be achieved when someone is emotionally exhausted.