Chapter 23 #2
“Exactly.” She looked over at me. “Or worse, her dad.”
“How do I make the first post impactful?”
She sat down, her face full of concentration. “Well, Briar would know more about that, but I guess we aren’t involving her either?”
I shook my head. “She needs to be clear of this.” She’d hate it. I was doing it anyway.
“Pity.” She tapped the side of her coffee cup as she thought. I could practically smell the gears turning in her head. “Any other reason you want to keep Briar, the social media manager, out of this plan?” She failed miserably at casual curiosity. “Maybe . . . something’s happened between you?”
“Stay focused.”
“Spoilsport.”
I didn’t deny it.
Hadley watched me as she thought it through. “We’d need to tag someone big enough that they’d see it, and then their followers would see it, and then . . .” She lined the fingers of one hand against the other and tipped the first one over with a small push. “Then watch it fall like dominoes.”
“And we’d need to be fast.” I stood up, taking my tea over to her sink. “We’d need to keep the momentum going to keep their attention.” I dumped my iced tea down her sink. “Too sweet.”
“I wish I had better knowledge of this,” she grumbled. “We definitely can’t get Briar involved?”
“No.”
“You could get into trouble for this,” she reminded me.
“I’m already in trouble.” I loosened my arms like I was warming up. “And I was recently reminded that if a college is found to be doing something wrong, the NCAA protects the players, unless the players are involved. I’m benched. I’m definitely not involved in any player protection or benefits.”
She chewed her coffee cup. “And if it goes wrong, and they say nothing is wrong here, then you lose your place next year.” She looked away. “It can’t land on Dust or Dante either.”
“Never,” I told her solemnly. “I already thought about that. That’s why we keep them clear of this, right?”
I looked down at my phone, at the message that just popped up, and smiled as I read it.
Hadley stood. “Noah? What are you scheming?”
“Will you help me?”
“Yes.” No hesitation. Absolute commitment. “We do this to expose them, but at no risk to my man and our friends.”
“Thank you.” I smiled in relief. “When do we start?”
“Duh. Now.”
We spent the morning planning what we knew so far. We itemized what was worst and worked backward. About two hours in, both of us missing classes, and neither of us caring, Hadley sat up from where she was crouched over her two notebooks.
“We could clear Mason’s name.”
“His name is clear.” I was stretched out on her couch, which was not comfortable.
“In these halls, it’s still smeared. He didn’t do anything wrong.” She glanced at me. “It’s why Briar is here.”
“She’s here to see Sutherland take a fall for something, anything I think. Mason is an incentive.”
“Tiffany didn’t deserve this either.”
I looked over at her. “Hadley, how do we even start that? Ask ‘were you sexually assaulted?’ and then put a hashtag next to it?”
“The hashtag comes first,” Hadley mumbled. When she looked up, she looked excited. “I think we do that. I think we do exactly that.”
“What?” Now I was sitting up. “That’ll get shut down. Immediately.”
She was shaking her head. “No, it won’t. You’ve heard of the #MeToo. Well, we do the same and add Wrighton to it.”
“I thought we weren’t allowed to name names? Isn’t using that naming?”
She squinted. “I don’t think they copyrighted the hashtag, Noah.”
“I think that’s too risky. We want to be seen. Let’s stay away from well-known brands.”
“It’s not a br—”
“You know what I mean.”
Hadley moved on. “We can’t accuse anyone outright.” Her pen tapped on her notebook. “We can’t even hint at it; they could get it taken down for that.”
“Okay.”
“We can point the finger at the whole department, though.”
“Good, let’s do that.”
She gave a light laugh. “Do you have any idea how you want your post to look?”
I stared at her in bewilderment. “You mean . . . words?”
“Oh, good God.” She reached for her phone and opened a well-known platform. “Here. Do you want a specific font? A color? An image with text on it, or just text?”
“Blue and white, just text.”
“Amazing.” She wrote it down. “We keep it standard size, short in length, and available to post on all platforms.”
“Okay. Who makes that?”
She held my stare. “I’ll do the first few. Then you follow my lead, right?” She bit her lower lip. “Definitely no Briar?”
“No.” I pointed at her phone. “I can do it if you show me the template.”
We planned right up to the afternoon, when Dustin texted her to tell her he was coming over.
“Shit.” I shoved my feet into my sneakers and grabbed my things. “Hide everything!”
“On it!”
I grabbed the door handle. “Hey, Hadley?” She looked up at me, the cat in her arms. “Thank you.”
“Thank you. I’m finally doing something!”
I laughed at her excitement and ran down the stairs. I slipped out her door and heard someone approaching.
Shit. I dove into the building next door and waited a few minutes, only letting out my breath when I heard Dustin walk past.
“Jesus, that was close.”
“Was it?”
I turned and met Mason’s cold look.
“Why are you here?” He was in dark jeans, a dark over-the-head hoodie, and a dark ballcap — dressed like a man who didn’t want to be seen either, which was the first thing that made me pause. “Why are you always just appearing behind me?”
“I came to see my sister.” His jaw was tight, like it was already clenched with anger, temper already running hot before I’d even shown up. “Why the fuck are you in her building?”
“Hadley, the girl I was with that time we all met, with the long dark hair, she lives next door.”
He didn’t even blink. “Thought she was the wide receiver’s.”
“She is.”
“Then why are you hiding?” He looked me over. “You’re fucking your guy’s girl?”
“No.” I threw my hands up. “Why does everyone assume I’m fucking a friend over?”
“Because you’re hiding in broad daylight and look guilty as fuck.
” His tone was flat, his look closed off.
But I could read him; I’d known it in the garage when I met him.
Mason Sterling and I weren’t so different.
He wasn’t even looking at me anymore, his attention had shifted to the door, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to walk through me to leave.
He’d already lost interest in why I was here, now that he knew it wasn’t for Briar.
He had a good point though, I probably did look guilty. Seeing Mason and recognizing that anger in his gaze . . . I was already feeling reckless, and seeing him here wasn’t quenching that thirst. “She’s at work.”
“I figured.” He held up his hand. “I have a key.”