Paper Flowers (Pretty Plastic People) ★

038. Guilty as Charged

A/N: Double update today!  There are 5 chapters left in the book and I'm going to try to be done by the end of the week.  Thank you all so much for continuing to read!

038. Guilty as Charged

At Aquino High, people are ruthless.

I expect by the end of the night everything will be settled, once and for all.

The last thing I want to do is go anywhere.  But as the rest of the school day progresses I grow even more uneasy, my eyes darting back and forth between each of my supposed friends, trying to guess who knows things that I don't.  My doubt and confusion heightens with every passing hour, and by the evening I'm pacing circles around my bedroom, restless and afraid.

My phone is pressed tight against my palm so that my knuckles cramp.  If I unlock the home screen I'll see that I've already opened my blackmailer's contact, and that a call with her is merely a push of a button away.  It seems too easy, that all I have to do is report Celia's secret before I'm finally free.

Anxiously, I press the button and hold my phone up to my ear.  I haven't stopped pacing my bedroom, pausing only to glance outside and make sure that Allison's car still isn't parked in the driveway.  Before I have time to second-guess myself, my blackmailer answers the phone.

"Erika."  I can practically hear the smile in her voice.  "Great of you to call.  What's up?"

She seems too friendly, a stark contrast from her typical broodiness.  It's one more thing that's only just out of the norm enough for me to be set on edge.

Finally, I will my feet to stop moving and sit down on the corner of my bed.  "I have the final secret," I say.  "Celia's."

"I figured you might.  Go on."

In what has become ashamedly routine, I begin to detail the things that I know I should never even speak of.  "She's failing three of her classes.  That's what the clue meant.  Everyone thinks she's smart—well, not top of the class smart, but slightly above average."

"Yes, Erika."  My blackmailer sounds exasperated, almost mocking.  "Not everyone can be as smart as you."

She had to know I hadn't been trying to imply that by my comment.  Nonetheless, I have to pause for a second to compose myself before I continue.  "Right.  Anyway, she doesn't want anyone to know she's failing these classes, but apparently it's a big problem.  She blames it on Liam."

"Really?" asks the blackmailer—I know that, for the first time, I've told her something she doesn't already know.  "How so?"

My breath hitches, and I realize I need to stop this now.  "I don't know. She just does."

"Hm.  Well, is that it?"

"Yes."  A wave of relief washes over me, relaxing tension I didn't even know I had in my shoulders.  "Are you going to stop harassing me now?"

"There will be one more phone call, sometime this weekend.  Consider it sort of like your prize."

This can't be good.  "I get a prize?" I demand.  "What do you mean?"

"You'll find out when I call you.  Keep your eyes open."  I can feel her smirk on the other end of the line as she ends the call.

 I sit without moving for a little while, feeling the weight of the phone in my hand.  I feel better now that I can stop snooping around in my friends' lives and playing a double agent, but the looming possibility of a "prize" unnerves me.  Something tells me my blackmailer and I don't have the same idea as a reward.  Did I do something wrong?  Accidentally anger her so that she'd want to prolong this torture?