5

Alice stood at the college gates with her mates, Ed and Joseph, her thumbs flying across her phone screen. Every search engine, every social media platform, every image-hosting site—she was frantically typing her name into all of them. The chances that Adam hadn’t posted the pictures were slim, and she knew it. But she clung to the hope that if she found them first, she could at least try to get them taken down before anyone else saw them.

“Ali?” Joseph’s voice cut through her panic.

She didn’t look up. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“That guy over there is checking you out,” Ed said with a grin, nudging her.

Alice reluctantly tore her eyes from her phone, scanning the yard. She spotted a guy from her Art class lingering near the canteen. “Oh, Josh? He just has a lazy eye.”

“You always do that,” Joseph sighed in exasperation. “You’re so pretty, but you never see it.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “Right.”

“I have to admit, I got a twitch the first time I saw you,” Ed said with a smirk.

“Ew!” Alice cried, shoving him lightly.

“What? It’s a compliment,” Ed replied, feigning innocence.

“You make my dick hard isn’t a compliment, Ed,” Joseph said with a deadpan expression.

“Not fully hard,” Ed corrected. “It was a semi at most.”

Alice groaned and let her head fall forward in mock despair. She hadn’t ever thought of Ed that way, not seriously, mostly because he was constantly flirting with Joseph. For a while, she’d assumed they were a couple, until Joseph had declared that Ed was “tragically out of his league.” Now, Ed’s shameless antics were a constant source of entertainment—and secondhand embarrassment.

“What about Jerry?” Joseph asked, steering the conversation toward its usual topic: Alice’s love life. He and Ed were determined to find her a “non-douchebag” boyfriend after the disaster that was Dave.

“Oh, jeez, he seems like a total simp,” Ed said with a dismissive wave.

“I wish someone would simp for me,” Joseph said wistfully.

“I’d simp for you,” Ed offered eagerly, his tone softening. “I’d simp for you so, so hard.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Joseph said, patting Ed’s cheek with mock pity. “No, you wouldn’t.”

Alice laughed despite herself, but her amusement was short-lived. She felt Joseph’s gaze shift to her phone screen, his tall frame giving him the perfect vantage point over her shoulder.

“Why are you googling yourself?” he asked, frowning.

Alice’s brain scrambled for an excuse. “It’s funny to see what comes up,” she said lightly, flashing a weak smile. “You should try it.”

Joseph shrugged, satisfied for the moment, and turned back to Ed. Alice silently cursed herself. She hadn’t told her friends about the pictures. Not only was she mortified, but she also didn’t want to deal with their judgment or their misguided attempts to protect her. After the whole Dave fiasco, they’d threatened to beat him up—until they saw his rugby mates and decided on sending him a strongly worded DM instead.

The hours at college dragged painfully, each class blending into the next. Alice sat through lectures with a blank notebook in front of her, unable to focus on anything but the gnawing knot of anxiety in her stomach. Her thoughts were a whirlwind of dread. Had Adam kept his promise? Was Jamie okay? And what if Adam decided to use the pictures against her after all?

At lunch, the guilt hit her hard. Ed and Joseph sat across from her in the cafeteria, bickering over the last packet of crisps, while Alice poked listlessly at her salad. Her appetite had vanished.

“You need to eat, sweetie,” Ed coaxed, his voice unusually gentle.

Joseph slid his sandwich across the table. “Want half of mine? Tomato and salad cream—classic.”

Alice wrinkled her nose. “I’m just feeling a bit… iffy,” she lied. “Time of the month.”

Her friends nodded sympathetically, turning their attention back to their argument. Alice felt a pang of guilt for lying to them, but the truth wasn’t something she could share. I feel sick because I sent nudes to a guy who might blackmail me with them wasn’t exactly casual lunchtime conversation.

The rest of the day passed in a haze of worry. By the time the final bell rang, Alice was practically sprinting home. She needed to know how Jamie’s day had gone. She needed reassurance that everything was okay—or at least as okay as it could be.

When she reached the house, she frowned. The door was locked, and the key was missing from its usual spot under the plant pot. With a sigh, Alice began searching the other hiding spots her mum was fond of: under the doormat, inside the garden gnome, wedged in the drainpipe.

Finally finding the key, Alice let herself in and set about making the house feel less cold and empty. She turned on the heating, made herself a cup of coffee, and curled up on the sofa with her coursework. But she couldn’t focus. Her hands shook as she sipped her coffee, her nerves frazzled by caffeine and anxiety.

By the time she heard the front door open, she was on her feet. Jamie walked in, his schoolbag slung over one shoulder, and Alice froze. His hair—shorter now—was platinum blonde.

“What happened to you?” she blurted.

Jamie grinned, running a hand through his hair. “Do you like it? Zoe Bentley did it for me after school.”

“What?” Alice’s voice rose an octave.

Zoe Bentley was the popular girl at Jamie’s school—the queen bee. Her older sister, Christine, had ruled Alice’s year with the same iron fist. The idea of Jamie hanging out with Zoe, let alone letting her dye his hair, was mind-boggling.

“It’s been a really weird day,” Jamie said, dropping his bag by the door. “Adam Hargreaves was…”

Alice’s stomach flipped. “What about him?”

Jamie shook his head, as if struggling to find the words. “He was… nice to me. And then everyone else started being nice to me. It was like a switch flipped.”

Alice felt a wave of relief crash over her. Her gamble had paid off. For now.

Jamie’s grin widened. “And Zoe invited me to her house! Can you believe that?”

As Jamie launched into an animated recounting of his day, Alice reached for her phone. Her fingers hovered over the screen before she typed a quick message to Adam: Thank you.

His reply came almost instantly. No need to thank me. I’ll text you next week with further instructions.

Alice stared at the message, her stomach knotting once more. For now, things were okay. But Adam wasn’t done with her yet.