Chapter 32
Nika
Sunday
Nika Geary runs upstairs, taking the steps two at a time.
Her parents will leave her in peace now that she’s done her daughterly duty, her polite chit-chat with Juliette Sullivan.
Her phone is buzzing with notifications.
She’s been getting messages from Ariana’s most loyal supporters on and off since Tuesday night, but this—the avalanche of notifications—feels scarily like things have gone up a notch.
On her bed now, she pulls it out and clicks into Snapchat.
She’s been added to a group chat called xNGx. Her breath stops.
@ItsNikaG two faced bitch
@ItsNikaG see u in school in few weeks if ur brave enough bitch
@ItsNikaG u sud just kys now
@ItsNikaG yeah kill urself save us the trouble
She scrolls, tears threatening. Every single one of their friend group has joined in, and wider friends too.
Not Ariana. Ariana doesn’t need to. She’s got her minions on the job.
Ariana who had texted her on Thursday to say she was welcome to Zach, that Ariana was kinda tired of him anyway.
It would really help if she would tell everyone else that too…
Nika exits the group and throws her phone to the other end of her bed.
Moments later, the buzzing starts up again.
She picks up her mobile. They’ve added her back to the group chat.
She leaves again and they add her back. She switches off her phone and buries her head in her pillow.
She knows what her mum will say. Delete Snapchat.
It’s not that simple though. Stupid Ms. O’Donnell and her stupid message.
How dare she? And it’s not surprising that Susan O’Donnell is Maeve Khoury’s aunt. Two of a kind.
Nika sits up straight.
Wait.
Could it be deliberate? Would Maeve’s aunt stoop that low?
For the last few days, as she’s waited, feeling sick, for the inevitable pile-on, Nika’s been assuming Ms. O’Donnell is just a nosy old cow, too stupid to pay attention to where she’s sending her bitchy messages.
But what if it’s more than that? What if Maeve, in some twisted attempt at revenge, fed her aunt the information and got her to send the message?
Maeve Khoury is that kind of person. She’d turned a bit of banter into a huge drama last year, claiming they’d been bullying her.
She’d sent her mother to school to report them, too much of a coward to handle it herself.
They’d all been summoned to the principal, and their parents had been called again.
Celeste and Warren had believed Nika’s side of the story, believed she wasn’t involved.
And luckily, none of the screenshots Maeve had saved showed Nika’s messages.
But—Nika acknowledges now—Maeve knew she’d been part of it.
And maybe, since she and Maeve used to be best friends, Maeve was angrier with Nika than she was with Ariana and the others.
Is angrier. Maybe she’s not over it. If that’s what this is—some kind of revenge—Maeve needs to cop on and get a life.
A knock on the door tells her Celeste is here. Nika really doesn’t want to talk to her mother right now, but Celeste might be suspicious if she doesn’t let her in.
“Yes?”
The door opens, and Celeste comes in, hovers near the bed but doesn’t sit. Her dark red hair falls in immaculate, precise waves to her shoulders. Her thin eyebrows rise in a question.
“Is everything OK?” She says it in the same business-like tone she uses when taking work calls or talking to the man who cleans their windows.
Nika smiles up. “Yes, why?”
Celeste clasps and unclasps her hands. “Well, it’s just that Juliette Sullivan is claiming that this boy you’re seeing is Ariana’s boyfriend?”
“OK. First of all, they were pretty much almost broken up, and second of all, there’s nothing serious going on between us. It’s all good; Ariana gets it. Wow, was Juliette really talking about us? Like, gossiping about a group of kids?” Nika wrinkles her nose.
“Well, you know how she is. She likes to have her finger on the pulse…You’re sure everything’s OK? You’d tell me if it wasn’t?”
“Of course I would, you know that.”
“OK. I’ll pop in later to say good night.” Celeste hesitates and, for one crazy moment, Nika thinks she’s going to hug her. She doesn’t. She leaves, pulling the door closed.
Nika switches on her phone. It explodes with notifications. She doesn’t exit the group this time. If she does, they’ll know she’s seen the messages, that they’re getting to her, and they’ll just add her straight back. What is she going to do? She needs a distraction. A bigger drama.
And then she remembers what’s under her bed.