Send Pics by Lauren McLaughlin

Author:Lauren McLaughlin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dottir Press
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

MARCUS

I’m at my desk in my room, obsessively reading and refreshing articles about Tarkin Shaw, when Nikki calls. I guess we’re not hiding our association from the police. If Jonesville’s finest are interested, they’ll know that the formerly frosty Nikki Petronzio has included me in her circle of tolerable humans.

“It was Sean Princely,” she says.

“What?”

“He posted the pictures,” she explains.

I try to summon up a face to go with the name.

“Sophomore?” she says. “Wrestler? Red hair?”

“Oh yeah, that guy.” Smarmy is how I’d describe him. Hangs on the varsity wrestlers’ every word, reliably laughs at their so-called jokes.

“He got the pictures from PornHole,” she says, “which is where Mason Shaw posted them.”

“Mason Shaw?”

“Yup. Tarkin’s little brother.”

“Why would he post them?”

She sighs. “Don’t ask me to grasp the minds of assholes, Marcus. Anyway, the pictures are already on four different sites. That we know of. I don’t think Suze is going to be able to delete them all.”

“That sucks.”

“Tell me about it.”

“How’s she doing?”

“She’s gone analog.”

“What does that mean?”

“Not answering her phone. Not going online. Cleansing. She does that sometimes.”

That sounds like a very good idea. I think if I were Suze Tilman, I’d stay offline for as long as possible. Maybe forever.

“There were other pictures too,” she says.

“Of Suze?”

“Other girls. Like lots of other girls. From Jonesville.”

“Who?”

“Danielle Jameson, Izzy Rigoletto, Alica Ramirez, Amber Laynes, Taryn—“

“Whoa. Did you say Amber Laynes?”

“Mm-hmm. A lot of them look like they were all taken in the same place.”

“Where?”

“A bed with a green blanket.”

“That doesn’t exactly narrow it down.”

“Some of them are selfies too.”

“Wait. Did you say a green blanket?”

“Yeah.”

“Could it have been a comforter or a bedspread?”

“I guess so.”

“Could it have been a bedspread with Pepe the Frog on it?”

Over the phone I hear her typing something. “Yeah, it was that bright green color. And there was a black spot that could have been an eye.”

“Well, guess who has a Pepe the Frog bedspread.”

“Tarkin?”

“Yup.”

“Of course he does. Of course he’s into that alt-right shit. Does he have a black water bottle too?”

“Yes,” I say. “With the Jonesville Eagle mascot on it.”

“I bet it’s him, then,” she says. “I bet a lot of those pictures were taken in his room.”

“Plus we found a stash of nudes there. Printouts.”

“Of who?”

“I only saw a few—Marcela Desjardins, Lena Schmidt.”

“My God,” she says. “How many girls was he doing this to?”

I can barely fathom it. It seems like virtually the entire student body has passed through the Tarkin Shaw porn machine, whether they wanted to or not. I knew the guy was bad news. But the scale of this is taking my breath away.

“What did you do with them?” Nikki asks.

“What?”

“The printouts. Where are they?”

“DeShawn took them. To destroy, of course.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

I have no doubt that DeShawn burned the pictures just like he said he would. I don’t tell Nikki how much I opposed the decision. I’m more convinced than ever that we should have saved them.

“Anyway,” she says. “That’s all I know.”

“Hey, Nikki?”

“Yeah?”

I want to ask about her past with Tarkin Shaw.

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