Chapter 3

Then came the flood of messages—people fawning over them, gushing with envy, and egging them on.

After I'd scrolled through several dozen of these, Sara "cautiously" chimed in, "Um, everyone, maybe we should stop? Courtney must be feeling really awful right now. Even though she was careless enough to lose her admission ticket, it's not like she did it on purpose."

That shade-filled comment landed like water in boiling oil, and the group chat erupted instantly.

A few of the guys who always trailed behind Josh started mocking me without restraint, and several girls who had always been jealous of my grades joined in with their own snide remarks.

The class president, Todd Kern, and the academic chair, Sheila Archer, made token attempts to calm things down with a few "let's not pile on" messages, but their words were quickly swallowed up by the avalanche of vitriol.

Then, Tricia Cooley—a quiet straight-A student who rarely spoke up—sent a message. "Maybe we shouldn't spread rumors before we know what actually happened."

Less than three seconds after her message appeared, a system notification flashed—Josh had kicked her out of the group chat.

The chat fell silent for a heartbeat, and then the messages began flooding in even faster than before.

I stared at the words on my screen and let out a cold, incredulous laugh.

Did they really think I was that easy to push around? Did they truly believe they could rewrite reality just by silencing anyone who spoke for me?

My fingers flew across the screen. I selected screenshots from the chat logs in which Josh admitted to taking my ticket and Sara confessed to cutting it into pieces. Then, I dumped the entire file into the group chat.

I accompanied the images with a single sentence.

"Josh, Sara, did you two develop early-onset dementia? Can't you even remember what you said and did?"

The moment my message was sent, the group fell deathly silent for a full half minute. The ones who'd been the most vicious moments before went instantly mute.

I couldn't be bothered to wait for their backpedaling excuses, so I tapped into the settings and left the class group chat. Then, I blocked and deleted them all without missing a beat.

I had just put my phone down when it started ringing like crazy. The caller ID showed Josh's name.

I pressed the answer button, and his voice immediately tore through the receiver, thick with rage and profanity.

It was nasty and grating, to say the least.

"Courtney, have you lost your mind? How dare you post that in the group!"

I gripped the phone, suddenly feeling utterly drained by the sheer stupidity of it all.

"Josh, if you're mentally unwell, go see a doctor instead of taking it out on me."

With that, I hung up and promptly blocked his number too.

I had known him for 18 years. We grew up together, shared countless secrets, and during the most grueling days of senior year, we had encouraged each other, swearing we'd get into Calder College together.

But now, I felt like knowing him was a dark stain on my life.

Not long after, my best friend, Rosie Ingram, sent me a private message. Her tone was frantic.

"Courtney, are you okay? Josh just said in another group chat that he's not going to let this slide—that he's going to teach you a lesson. Be careful when you're out and about, okay?"

I looked at the message, but there was no trace of fear in my eyes. Instead, there was only cold disdain.

He wanted to teach me a lesson? As if he was even worthy.

I replied to Rosie, "Relax, I'm fine. He wouldn't dare do anything to me."

The ones who really needed to watch their backs were Josh and Sara themselves.

I tapped the screen lightly, creating yet another backup of the evidence I had saved. After reassuring Rosie, she sent over a few more screenshots from the other group chats.

When I opened them, all I felt was bitter irony.

In the group chat, Sara was playing the victim to the hilt, posting walls of text and claiming she was "crying her eyes out". She was telling everyone that I had faked the chat logs to slander her out of jealousy because she was with Josh.