LOGINDRE'S P.O.V
Nate's lips finally leave mine, and I'm blushing so hard. "You know it doesn't have to end here, we can go in, finish what we started," he says with a wink. I unbuckle my seat belt. Nate has taken me home, and, as always, he tries to convince me to let him stay over. Like I do all the time, I decline. "I can't have boys over, my mum won't allow it," I remind him. "She has a night shift. You're the only one home, Dre." "I'm sorry," I say. "Can I have my phone now?" "Sure." Earlier, I had given Nate my phone so I could study without any distractions from it. "Luke called?" I ask, going through my phone. "Yeah, so?" Nate replies with a bit of an attitude. I stare uneasily at the seven missed calls from him. "Why didn't you tell me? It seems really urgent," I say. "You were studying, no distractions, remember?" There isn't a single text from Luke either, just calls. I look around, and it's getting late already. "I'll see you tomorrow," I say to Nate. We get out of his car, and he walks me to my front door. Nate looks up at the building. "That's your room, right?" he asks. I nod. "I thought you said no one else is home, the lights are on", he says. "I forgot to turn them off," I say quickly. "I'll text you." I unlock the door, smiling at Nate as I wave him off. I wait for him to drive away I hurry to my room. No boys were allowed, well, except Luke. I watch him lying on my bed. I clear my throat, and he jolts awake. "Hi," I start to say. Luke sits up, and the first thing I notice is the sunglasses he has on. "I called you," he says. "I was studying, my phone was with Nate," I reply. "You were studying till eight?" "Nate and I went to eat after," I explain. "Why would Nate be with your phone?" Luke asks. "You know I get distracted when I study," I reply. Luke wants to say something, but he stops himself. It's then I realise how rough he looks, like he had just gotten into a fight with someone. His shoulders flex, and he just sits uneasily. But it's hard to read his face with the damn glasses he has on. "Are you okay?" I ask, coming closer to him. "Are you?" Luke asks back. "I am, why wouldn't I be?" I ask. "You didn't see the... nothing weird was sent to you?" "No," I reply. "Why are you wearing sunglasses?" Luke gets up instead. "I have to go. I wanted to see if you were okay." "I am okay," I say. "I didn't fight Maddie. Do you think I did?" Is he still worried about what happened earlier? The fight I almost had with Maddie. "No, I just thought..." his voice trails off. "You'll tell me if something happened, right?" "What is it? You're scaring me," I say. I look closely and notice a side of his face, like it's almost swollen. "What happened to your face? It looks swollen," I say, stepping forward. "It's nothing," he says. Luke heads to the door and quickly, I step in front of him "Take off the glasses," I say. I try to reach for them, but I can't because he's much taller. I try again, but Luke quickly catches my hand. "Stop," he says. He's definitely hiding something. Luke attempts to leave again, and I try again. This time, I'm able to knock his glasses off his face. His glasses fall, revealing what he was trying so hard to hide. LUKE'S P.O.V Dre's jaw drops to the ground, and I'm pissed she took my glasses off. "What...what happened to you?" She asks, struggling with words. This isn't why I'm here; whatever happened to me is currently irrelevant. "Your eye is black," she points out, worry obvious in her tone. "You shouldn't have taken them off," I say. I turn to leave, but Dre doesn't let me. She reaches for my hand, holding it. I flinch, overly sensitive to her touch. "Luke, what happened to you?" she asks. "Did your Dad?" My jaw clenches, and I wish she'd stop talking and let me go. But she doesn't, her soft hands intertwine with mine as she leads me to her bed. She sits in front of me, staring at my face. "I don't want to talk about this," I tell her, before she starts to say anything. I don't want to talk about my black eye, how I got it or why I look a mess. "You don't have to," she says softly. It's fucking embarrassing as it is. I didn't want Dre feeling sorry for me, even though by the looks of it, she already is. I watch her leave for her bathroom. She returns with a first aid kit. "Can I ?" She asks, tapping lightly on the box. I shrug. This has happened one too many times. I'll get hurt, and Dre will play doctor. Dre sits up, and my head rests on her lap. She stares down into my face, her eyes hold mine. Her fingers brush against the bruise, and I try my best not to flinch at the pain or her touch. Dre gets to work, dabbing all sorts of medicine around my face to try reduce the swelling. I close my eyes when she tells me to. "What did he say to you this time?" Dre asks about my abusive father. I shrug, "Nothing new." "I'm sorry I didn't get your calls," she starts to apologise, and before I know it, she's already crying. I sit up immediately, taking the first aid material from her hands. "I'm so sorry," she sobs. "Dre, I promise I'm okay," I say. "You called so many times, and I didn't answer once. If I hadn't done this, it wouldn't have happened." "Dre, you don't understand. This isn't why I called you. I swear it isn't," I say, wiping her face with my palm. "Then why did you call?" She asks tearfully. Instantly, I remember what I had watched earlier today. Not all of it, just the first five seconds, because I couldn't dare to watch my best friend's sex tape. "Why?" she asks again. Do I tell her that there's a video going around of her being fucked from behind by some dude? A video which, by the looks of it, she hasn't seen. I have to tell her, I can't hide something like this from her. "Dre...someone sent me your—"LUKE’S P.O.V We hit the locker room, change quickly, and head straight to the court. The squeak of shoes and the constant bounce of balls already fill the gym. Coach is in full form, barking orders like always, with Vincent right by his side. “Move your asses! This is the final game of your high school careers! I will not let you embarrass me out there!” We’re playing against the Red Devils, Chrashaw Prep again. All my years playing against them they won every game. They never failed to serve our asses on a platter, whether it was a home or an away game—they're that good. They have a winning streak, and they sure as hell didn’t want to break it now. But the Eagles are just as determined. Vincent claps his hands sharply, rounding everyone up. “Let’s go! Focus! Warm-ups first, then we run sets. Final game means no excuses!” I start my stretches, but Coach’s eyes lock on me almost immediately. “Ford!” he yells, storming over. “You pull that meltdown shit from last game again
LUKE’S P.O.V It killed me when I let Dre’s phone call go straight to voicemail this morning. It killed me to ignore her, but according to Ian, it needs to be this way. Ian suggested I ride with him to school; that way I wouldn’t have to give Dre a ride back home, leaving the chances of the sender catching us together down to zero. According to the pictures, the sender unfortunately has eyes everywhere, the school parking lot too. The list I wrote last night is currently folded and tucked safely in my back pocket. Ian only skimmed through it. His parents came home very late, so he had to attend to them. After his mum made us have dinner/ breakfast, we were both exhausted and slept immediately. As soon as we arrive at school, I give Ian the list to look at properly. The page is filled with my handwriting. Names, motives, question marks, and crossed-out lines. I lean back in the seat, rubbing my still tired eyes while Ian starts reading. He scans the list slowly, eyebrows raise
DRE’S P.O.VAfter hours and hours of lying awake, my alarm finally puts me out of my misery.The glow of my phone screen is the only light in the room. I keep staring at it, willing Luke to text or call me back, but the last message I sent him hours ago still sits unread. He’s at Ian’s. He’s supposedly ‘still’ asleep, but it’s seven in the morning; he has to be awake by now.While brushing my teeth, I call Luke again, hoping that this time he’s wide awake and already on his way to drive us to school. I can’t imagine going alone. Ruth is still mad, and I have a feeling she’ll confront me again and I don't want to face it alone. After I told Luke she knew about us, he went straight to her place to meet her himself. He never told me what happened when he was there— what he said to Ruth, or what she said to him. He came home afterwards and said there was nothing I needed to worry about, and that was it.But worrying is all I seem capable of. Worrying about what happened with him and
DRE’S P.O.VThe line connects after a third call.“Hello?” I call impatiently. “Luke, are you there?”A few seconds pass, and I finally get a response, but it’s not Luke.“Hi, Andrea,” the soft-spoken person responds. I immediately recognise the voice; it’s Ian’s.My cheeks still burn when I recall our last conversation. Ian caught Luke and me messing around in the locker room, and I haven't known how to face him ever since.“Hi, Ian...can you put Luke on the phone?” Luke did mention he’ll be staying at Ian’s, but then he changed his mind. At least, I thought he did. Why else would he leave me here alone tonight?“Uh, he’s asleep. Is everything okay?”I swallow hard. I just want to know if he’s fine, from him and not Ian. But if he’s asleep at Ian’s, everything should be okay then.“Yeah, everything’s fine,” I assure, forcing lightness into my tone. I just wanted to know if he’s okay... that’s all. Sorry I called, good night—”“Wait,” he cuts in. My ears perk up. I strain
LUKE’S P.O.V For the next two hours, Ian and I spend it scrolling and analysing every single picture we can get of Nathaniel. Group photos, selfies, we even got our hands on some family photos. We go through his entire socials. Posts he uploaded himself, posts he was tagged in, every single one we can find. It gets to the point when we have to ask a few guys and a couple of his first to send pictures they have of him too. They did, we search through each one. At the end of it, we gathered close to three hundred pictures of Nathaniel, and not one of them has a single piece of jewellery we're looking for. A black plaited bracelet. Whoever is in that video with, Dre wore it. It’s the only clue I could find. The only other options to get to the bottom of this are worse. It's either we: A- break into Nathaniel’s room to see if it somehow resembles the room in the video. Or B- show Dre the actual video and ask her directly who the guy is. Ian suggests we do the latter. “It’s th
LUKE’S P.O.V I drive straight to Ian’s instead of Dre’s. I need to think. I need someone who isn’t going to look at me with the whole time with those big, trusting eyes and ask why I sound off. Ian’s house is dark except for the basement light. His parents are probably still out. I let myself in, as always and head downstairs. He’s sprawled on the old couch, controller in hand, some shooting game paused on the TV. “Luke? Grab the controller; I’m about to play another round,” he says, barely looking at me before fixing his eyes on the screen again. “I’m good.” Ian frowns then pauses the game. His eyes scan over me. "The fuck happened to you? You look pale.” I drop onto the beanbag across from him and pull out my phone. “They fucking texted again.” My hands are still shaking a little as I hand him the phone. “It’s not Nathaniel.” Ian sits up straighter his game forgotten. “How do you know? You said you were sure it’s him.” “Yes, because he's the only person
DRE’S P.O.V “So Nathaniel’s in juvenile, did you hear about that?” Mrs Hampshire’s chair feels more uncomfortable under me than usual. It’s probably not the chair, just the way she brought up Nate. “I didn’t really follow up with his trial; I didn’t know,” I admit, fingers twisting in my lap.
LUKE’S P.O.V Dre moves closer to me, running her thumb gently under the skin of my eyes. “Talk to me,” she begs, and even as much as I love hearing her beg, I don’t want to hear any of it right now. My jaw clenches. I take her hand away from my face, then hold it gently . I remember every word s
DRE’S P.O.V (Present day) The sound of the door closing jolts me awake. I sit up so fast I almost fall out of the chair. I look to the sofa opposite me, and Luke’s gone— that makes me fall out of the chair, straight onto my ass. I rub my bruised elbow, scrambling to my feet. *He just left.*
LUKE’S P.O.V The phone feels like a live grenade in my palm. My thumb hovers over the green button for half a second before I swipe it, pressing the device hard against my ear, not saying anything, just listening till he is ready to speak. A low chuckle rolls through the line, the kind that alwa







