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Royal
R eleasing an initiation ceremony video is a nuclear option. As far as I’m aware, since these things started being filmed in whatever decade it was, there has only ever been two occasions when one was released. The last one was some time not long after I was born, when camera quality improved significantly, and it was clear to see who was on the screen.
I’d gotten in late from Syn’s birthday party—which he ditched—and was woken up by my phone exploding into life only a few minutes ago. I’m trying to work out if I’m still drunk, or if this is a dream, because there’s no way I just clicked a link on the university alert system to watch a video of Tori being fucked by me, Syn, and Gemini on a porn site.
Rubbing my eyes, I hit play again. Even after pinching myself, the video is still the same.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Syn. What the fuck have you done?” I mutter as I pause the video. I refresh the page, but the only thing that changes is the view count. “Fuck.”
Holding onto my phone, I throw back my covers and jump out of bed, all but running out of my room, and to Tori’s. The knock is more for appearance than meaning, as I push the door open and walk in.
Tori’s room is empty, though there’s an overpowering smell of alcohol.
As I step inside, I see a bottle of Syn’s favorite whiskey on its side, almost empty. There’s a large puddle of it all over the floor. The bed doesn’t look like it’s been slept in, but that means nothing. Although I can’t hear anything from the bathroom, before I can go check, the sound of vibrations distract me.
Tori’s phone is on her bedside table, which means she’s hopefully not seen it yet, and that she’s somewhere in the house.
I hurry over, picking the phone up. She’s got an old model iPhone which needs a fingerprint to unlock it rather than her face. Not that it helps as I don’t know her passcode anyway. As I’m holding the phone, notifications continue to flash on the screen.
Gemini mentioned that Tori had deleted all of her social media years ago, but the notifications are coming from the university app. Hardly anyone uses it for chatting, but now, it’s alive with activity. The link was sent out as an alert from this app, and even though I’ve not seen any message from Syn with instructions, everyone will know what they need to do.
“Fuck.” I turn her phone off but keep hold of it. As I go to check her bathroom, I call Syn. It doesn’t even ring, sending me straight to voicemail. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me you were doing this?” I finish and hang up, before quickly texting the same message to him.
The bathroom is empty. So is downstairs, and the basement. Heading back up, I go into Syn’s room. While his bed does look slept in, his room is empty.
Figuring she ended up with Gemini, I walk straight in, but it only seems to be Gemini in bed. “Wake up,” I snap as I pull back his covers.
For Syn’s party, we wore suits. I changed into sweatpants and a T-shirt before going to bed, but Gemini’s still wearing his dress pants, shirt, and waistcoat. When I pull off the covers, he curls up into a ball and hides his face behind a pillow. “Sunday. Fuck off.”
I grab the pillow and hurl it across the room. “You think I’m going to just let you lie there when you didn’t tell me you were doing this shit?”
Gemini’s eyes open into narrowed slits. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Tori.”
“Syn said it was okay, and frankly, I didn’t think I needed to check in with you.”
“You think this isn’t something I need to know?” I ask in disbelief.
Yawning, Gemini stretches then rolls onto his back so he can sit up. “Didn’t think you cared enough.” He frowns. “How’d you find out?”
He doesn’t act like it half the time, but Gemini is smart. Crazy-high IQ smart. But fuck me, sometimes he can be so incredibly stupid. “Did you really think that I would somehow not see that video?”
Gemini stares at me, confused. For a moment, he seems to be frozen, then he starts looking around his bed. When he sees his phone, he lunges for it. “Have you been through my pho…?” His lips stay parted, but no sound comes out as he swipes his thumb over the screen. Instead, I’m quickly greeted by the moaning from the video.
“Even if Syn told you not to say anything, I still expect you to tell me, especially when I’m in the fucking video, asshole.”
Slowly, Gemini looks up at me, bewilderment still plastered over his face. “I didn’t do this.” He stops the video, the room going silent. “I’m offended you think I’d put something out there with this shitty soundtrack. Syn did this without telling me, either.”
Raking my hand through my hair, I sigh. “I’m going to fucking murder him. I am so done with his shit.”
“Speak of the devil,” Gemini mutters. Before I can ask what’s happened, Syn’s voice is blasting out of the phone.
“Are you fucking insane?” Syn yells. “I can only put up with so much of your shit, Gemini, but you’ve crossed a fucking line.”
“The actual fuck?” Gemini’s eyes go wide. “Why does everyone think I’d upload something like this?”
“Because you’re the fucking computer genius,” Syn snaps.
“My point exactly,” Gemini shouts back. “Give me some fucking credit. I’d have edited that sound file so you’d think it was Tori fucking three completely different guys. And it would have been so fucking seamless that no one would know that—”
“Enough!” I reach over and snatch Gemini’s phone out of his hand. “Gemini says he didn’t do it, and you’re saying you didn’t do it. I sure as hell didn’t do it.”
“I don’t get why you two are pissed. You’re not the ones being accused of shitty editing,” Gemini mutters. “And it’s not like you didn’t say you weren’t going to release it anyway.”
There’s a pause, and in the silence, I can hear Syn’s background. Is he in a car?
“As you’ve so eloquently pointed out, Gemini , releasing that video would be done so with a heavy round of editing so I can be absolutely certain there would be no repercussions on us. But my future career aside, somebody has released that video without my permission, and considering I’m in the fucking thing, I consider that to be an attack on me. Call a meeting. I want every single member of the Elite in one room in one hour.”
“An hour? Where are you?” I ask.
“That is not what matters right now. Set up that fucking meeting.” The phone beeps as Syn ends the call.
Gemini flops back on the bed and groans. “I’m gonna release the video of whoever did this, simply because they’ve made me get out of bed while it’s still morning.”
He makes it sound like calling a meeting isn’t as simple as going into the app he created specifically for the Elite and entering a few details. “I’ll call the meeting. You get your ass on your computer and figure out who uploaded the video, because Syn’s only going to ask you when everyone denies doing it.”
“What about you?”
I glance at my phone to check the time. “I’m going to find Tori.”
I’ve already created the meeting alert and sent it to all members of the Elite before I’ve pulled on a hoodie and a pair of running shoes—though not the pair I swear I’d left on the shoe rack yesterday. I don’t realize it’s snowing until I step out of the house, but I don’t have time to go and grab a jacket.
The grounds staff have already been out to salt the paths, so the snow is only starting to settle properly on the grass. Most people will have stayed on campus this weekend for Syn’s party, but it’s still early, so there are very few people around as I jog across the campus to the dorms where the non-members of the Elite live in.
Inside, I head straight for Penny’s room, knocking loudly. Instead of looking surprised to see me, she glowers at me. “What do you want, Davenport?”
“Where is she?” I ask, trying to look into the pink explosion of her bedroom.
“Who?”
I bring my attention back to Penny. “Taylor fucking Swift.”
She looks me up and down before wrinkling her nose in distain. “Let me pull you out of Delulu land and assure you that you don’t stand a chance of having a song written about you.”
“Tori, Bergmann. Where the fuck is Tori?”
“Haven’t seen her, and while she’s not answering her phone, I can only assume it’s because some absolute shriveled rat scrotum released a sex tape of her, and she’s decided that she’s had enough with this place.”
“Tori?” I yell into the room.
“She’s not here, Royal.”
I barge past her into her bedroom, scanning everywhere before I look in the bathroom, the closet, and even under the bed. When I straighten, Penny’s standing by the door still, arms folded as she taps her foot. “Where is she?”
“Sitting on the bed. Do you need to book an appointment with an optometrist?” She rolls her eyes. “If you don’t believe me, why don’t you check that stupid camera you freaks installed outside her room. She’s not here.”
“Tell her to call me when you see her,” I tell her, handing over Tori’s phone as I leave.
“I guess with all that money, you forgot to buy acting lessons,” Penny calls after me. “Because no one is buying that bullshit.”
Even if Tori does go to see her, I know that Penny won’t even pass on the message, but I was hoping to find Tori there. She doesn’t have any other friends here, so I know she’s not hiding out in anyone else’s room. If I was her, I’d probably have borrowed some money from Penny and left.
Depending on how much money Penny leant her, she might have gotten a taxi somewhere. Probably back to her mom’s place in New Jersey. The snow is coming down harder as I jog over to the gates, ready to check with the security guys to see if Tori walked or got a car, but before I get there, Syn appears from the direction of the parking lot.
“Where have you been?” he asks me.
“Where have you been?”
“Upstate, running an errand.”
People like Syn and me don’t run errands . We pay people to do that for us.
“Don’t just stand around. We’ve got an interrogation to get to.”
I pull out my phone and check the time. “We’ve got twenty minutes.”
“And if the guilty party dares to turn up, they’re more likely to be one of the first people there.”