6. Carey
Carey
I was wide awake now, adrenaline coursing through my veins and goosebumps peppering my arms. April’s plea had the opposite effect than she intended—by telling me not to look, I instantly had to look just to see what was so terrible.
Another message came through from her just before I could click on Insta. I know you’re probably looking anyway, but seriously, ignore it! These dumbasses literally have nothing better to do with their lives. Why else would they all be up at six commenting on this bullshit?
Now I was even more curious. I clicked on the first notification, which took me to Kiara Swift’s account.
Kiara was the only person I already knew of before I started at Babylon, due to her social media fame. She boasted over five million followers on TikTok and Instagram, and she also had multiple brand deals and sponsorships. It all began when she posted some dancing videos a couple of years ago. After they went viral, she spun the newfound renown into a full-on influencing career.
She was also Jasmine Briarwood’s best friend.
Upon closer inspection, I realized I wasn’t looking at her main account, but a second private one she’d made just for friends, otherwise known as a finsta. I could tell because she only had four hundred followers on this one… including me. I couldn’t remember following it, but somehow, I was on the list anyway.
Maverick.
He must’ve taken my phone one night while I was sleeping and followed the account for me. It wouldn’t be hard for him. I usually slept like a log—last night was an outlier—and my phone had biometric ID set up, so he could’ve used my thumbprint to open it.
With a sigh, I clicked play on the video post I’d been tagged in. The thumbnail image for the video was just a black screen, so I had no idea what was coming.
The plain black image persisted for a couple of seconds. Then some puke emojis appeared, followed by laughing emojis and bold white text saying, ‘EWWWWWW, no surprise though, right guys?????’.
This was followed by a voice recording of me, clearly made yesterday afternoon during my angry rant at Jasmine and Maverick. However, they’d edited the recording by adding new things to it in their own voices and moving my statements around to make it seem like I was saying something completely different than what I’d actually said.
Maverick: So, Carey, what do you think you’ll be doing in five years?
Me: Working at a porn shoot.
Jasmine: Oh my god, really? You want to do porn?
Me: Sure.
Jasmine: *Giggling* Wow, that’s really sex-positive of you. You obviously love sex.
Me: Yeah. You caught me!
Jasmine: *More giggling* What’s your favorite thing about it? I mean, what would you most like to be doing right now, bedroom-wise?
Me: Bouncing on Maverick’s dick.
Maverick: You want me that bad, huh?
Me: Yes. That’s literally all I want right now.
Those childish fucking pricks.
Fuming, I opened the comments section, predicting that it was going to be filled with even more childish pricks. I was right, for the most part. It seemed like half the school had commented, and only a few people were coming to my defense.
Biancababy: Omg she just said that out loud? What a dumb whore
Johann_atwood:Hahahaha OMG is this real?
Louvera2004 That’s def her! I sit behind her in bio so I know her voice!
BrookeSanford04: This is pathetic. Obviously fake. Take it down, Kiara. I thought you would know better than most people how horrible it is to have people shit-talking you and trolling you online.
Louvera2004: It isn’t fake! It’s literally her voice, idiot
Jayjay77: Sluuuuuuuutttttttttt
Bare.minimum.33: How drunk was she to admit this shit out loud lmao even the KGB couldn’t waterboard this info out of me
Tater69: Of course she’s a ho lol she’s from one of those inland towns, they’re all the same out there
AprilG: So someone who doesn’t live near a beach is automatically a ho? What??? That doesn’t make any sense!!!
AprilG: Seriously guys this is so pathetic and fucked up. I know Carey and she didn’t say any of this shit. It’s so fake and immature, even by Babylon standards. Take it down now!
Tater69: Lol go cry to your teacher daddy about it April
I stopped scrolling and threw my phone down, stomach churning as fury and hurt spiraled through me. I’d never been a doormat who refused to speak up when trod on, but I still felt every footprint, and right now, I felt like I was being crushed under the weight of the vitriol aimed at me by all these Babylon bastards.
My chest tightened as I thought about the worst one of all. Maverick. He was the architect of this entire situation—my bad reputation, the bullying, the rumors, the pathetic herd of sheep constantly following along to trash my name in order to gain some popularity points for themselves.
My anger toward him only grew over the next couple of hours as I prepared for the day. By eight o’clock, I was incandescent with rage. I wanted to punch Maverick straight in the face. Or kick him in the balls. But of course, I couldn’t actually do either of those things.
Could I?
I felt like I was in one of those cartoons where the main character had an angel sitting on one shoulder and a devil on the other. My angel was telling me to stay calm and ignore Maverick. If I punched or kicked him as I so dearly wanted to, I’d probably get expelled from Babylon. Even if I didn’t, I’d definitely lose my scholarship, and there was no way I could afford this place and the opportunities it offered me without it.
On the other shoulder, the devil was whispering to me, telling me how good it would feel to march right up to Maverick and jab him right in the face. Not just good… amazing. So unbelievably cathartic.
Fuck it.
The last of my composure crumbled, and I stormed out of my dorm and headed for the main senior building, where I proceeded to stalk the halls until I found Maverick. He was standing at his locker, shoving some books inside it.
“Asshole,” I muttered under my breath, nostrils flaring.
As desperate as I was to hit him, I’d decided on the way over here that I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of watching me get kicked out of school, which he so clearly wanted. However, I was going to give him a good tongue-lashing in front of everyone. That would have to be enough.
Sorry, Shoulder Devil.
“Hey!” I shouted, marching into the middle of the cross-hall that intersected the locker hallway.
Maverick turned and looked right at me, brows rising.
Before I could take another step toward him, Hudson Calloway stepped out from the left side of the cross-hall.
“Hey, Carey,” he said, lips twisting in a smirk. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you.”