The Bystander Effect

Chapter 2

"You got it?" asked Kelly Anderson. Her flawless, olive-toned face appeared in the camera. Her silky brown hair shimmered in the natural light reflecting off of the glittering lake in the distance.

They were in Kelly's back yard at the fire pit. Many happy nights were spent by the fire pit, roasting marshmallows and swapping high school gossip. Parties, sleepovers, and even camping in Kelly's back yard--the area was frequently used. Now something more serious was taking place. Kelly Anderson was purging Hayden out of her life.

There were about six chairs, four matching iron patio chairs and two fold out camping chairs, spread around a circle of concrete blocks. The camera looked inside. Ashes and burned wood filled the bottom of the circle.

"Yeah," said the voice of Maddie from behind the camera. "We're live. Ten-no-eleven viewers so far."

Fresh firewood tumbled into the pit, stirring ashes.

"'Good! You all know Hayden. You all know how she is," Kelly said.

"A trampy succubus," said Maddie.

"I've gave her a pass in the past, because I thought she was my friend, but there's no denying it now. Everyone has been right about her. She's an evil homewrecker, and I'm about to burn all her shit that I've borrowed," Kelly said. Her voice had shifted slightly higher with impending excitement.

Maddie turned the camera toward one of the chairs where a box sat. It was the size of a microwave and filled with things belonging to, or associated with Hayden. A blue and orange Tigers hoodie, the mascot of their high school, was sticking out of the top. Hayden had let Maddie borrow it a few nights ago.

A guy's voice chuckled off camera. Maddie swung the camera around to a boy in one of the other chairs. He was wearing a white hat turned backward, and had a beer in one hand and a stick in the other, as though simply waiting to roast marshmallows. He kept his eyes away from the camera, set on another boy whom was lighting the fire.

"You won't do shit," he said. "You're all talk."

"Shut the hell up, Cameron," Kelly said.

The camera came back to her and her face was twisted into anger. She was pulling her hair back in a tight ponytail. A tall blonde guy came up behind her. The top of his hair was slicked back with gel, the sides and back shaved. His cheek bones and jawline were as sharp as a knife blade. His arms wrapped around her.

"Yeah," he said, nuzzling Kelly affectionately. "My girl's got this."

"You should have told me what she was trying to do earlier, Lucas," Kelly said. "I never would have let her get away with it!"

"I just thought I could handle it on my own," he lied.

Earlier, Lucas had emailed her a bunch of doctored files. He had learned how to use picshop in computer class and it paid off dearly today. Hayden was going to spill it all and he would be in it deep. It's not like he loved Hayden, he was sure he loved Kelly, but sometimes he has needs...needs he was fulfilling by blackmailing Hayden. That one photo he shot of her in her bra at that party was golden. It had opened a treasure chest. But then Hayden couldn't just let it be. She had to ruin it.

Well, he'd beat her to it, and the emails he sent to Kelly today showed Hayden was the guilty one.

Kelly punched her hand out of anger. A stinging sensation exploded, like a dozen little pin pricks on her palm. She had almost let a tear out and instead she flared with rage. She couldn't cry on a live video, even if she felt like she was smothering in betrayal. Her best friend in the world...well, someone she thought had been her best friend, had been sneaking behind her back, trying to steal her boyfriend.

"It's about time Hayden gets what's coming to her," said Maddie. "Remember when she went for Chuck when she knew I had a thing for him?"

Messages pinged through, saying things like:

Hayden is a whore!

She's a boyfriend stealer!

Evil siren!

Witch!

Kick her ass!

Kelly smiled as Maddie read a few out loud.

"That bitch is going down," Kelly said into the camera. "For those of you who don't know, Hayden has been acting like a two-faced, dirty whore. She's been sending nudes and filthy messages to Lucas for weeks!" She looked too angry to speak for a moment. Completely overwhelmed with emotions. "I'm going to kill that bitch."

Nobody took that statement seriously, of course, because it was something nearly everyone has said about someone else at some point or another. Mr. Lawry gives you extra math homework when you already have huge plans that night, you might joke that you'd like to kill him. If the same waitress that takes your order every week puts onions on your dish after the hundredth time of you requesting none, you might joke with your family that she should die. It's a serious claim grandly used for non-serious situations, and taken as a figure of speech but not literal. Never literal. In that moment, it simply held no significance.

The fire was blazing now, and Kelly took the hoodie on top. She tossed it in, letting the hot flames claim it as their own. Next, she snatched a photo out of the box. A cheerful, smiling girl looked out of it. The happy photo of her former friend made Kelly's guts clench. She was just about to drop it in the pit when a sound stopped her. 

Hayden's car could be heard in the background, and the camera swung to watch it driving up and settling into park.

Inside the car, Hayden's heart was hammering. She noticed Lucas right away, the tallest of them all, sending next to Kelly. His blue eyes seemed to glow bright and mischievous on his tanned face. His hair was tasseled, as though he'd just come out of the lake behind them, but Hayden knew it was just gel. He always wore too much gel and it made her sick now to think of the overwhelming smell of it.

Maddie had her phone pointed toward Hayden. The redhead behind the phone smiled with her pouty lips, but something about Maddie's expression was dark. It wasn't the kind of cheery smile that said, "I'm happy to see you," that Hayden usually got from her, it was sly.

Cameron and Freddy, Lucas's two stooges, were sitting near the fire pit, sipping from brown glass bottles. Drinking and drugs was all they ever did. Any time they weren't loaded or sloshed, they seemed bored. Now they seemed to be good spirits, though it didn't set Hayden at ease. On the contrary, she found herself speculating just what was so entertaining. 

She hadn't expected other people to be here. An audience. She could turn around, but she'd have to face this at some point or another. She'd already prepared herself, though her nerve was quickly slipping. Lucas glared at her, a confident, daring look packed with threats. She wondered what kind of things he's already told them about her.

Hayden's jaw stiffened. Her lips drew tight. This was something that needed to be done. She had to take up for herself. He wasn't going to hold this axe over her head anymore. She'd done nothing wrong besides not telling Kelly what a jerk he was when it all started, and she regretted that immensely. Kelly needed to know that. Hayden twisted the key in the ignition, cutting the motor, then she opened the door, ready to face her best friend and tell her everything.