Chapter 208
HANNAH
Willa and I walked side by side on our way to class. Suddenly Willa stopped. She darted behind me.
Startled, I looked at the spot she had been looking at. Devin was just passing. He was talking with another boy and had apparently not seen us.
"Willa," I said, turning.
She was bent over, fiddling with something.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
She gave an unconvincing little laugh. "I almost tripped. My show laces came undone."
Now this was a lie. I was sure of it. Just before we left the house, I had been admiring her new sneakers.
It had been neatly tied, all the knots and bows firmly in place. We had driven all the way down here so there was no way her laces could have come undone in that time.
"Your shoelaces look fine," I pointed out.
She gave a jerky nod and straightened. She tried to hide it but I saw her eyes darting here and there before she finally relaxed.
Was it Devin then? Was she still very hung up on him?
"Let's go," Willa said.
I didn't move. There was something in Willa's face I had never seen before- not even that morning when she had been crying over Devin.
It was a kind of... shrinking fear. That was the only way I could describe it.
How had I not seen it before?
A moment later I answered my own question. It was because I had put it down to her still being heartbroken over Devin.
"Something is wrong," I said slowly. "What is it?"
Again that laugh. "Wrong? Nothing's wrong. I told you, didn't I, that I tied my laces wrong-"
"That's a lie and we both know it." I answered.
Willa's eyes slid to me and then away.
"Come on," she said. "I've got to put the finishing touches on my homework."
"It can wait. We aren't submitting it until noon. Something is going on and I should know about it." Willa shook her head. "Okay then. Since you don't want to talk, I'll go tell your brothers. Maybe you'll talk to them."
I made it as if to go away. Willa grabbed my arm. I was shocked to note that they were trembling slightly.
"Please don't," she pleaded. "Please don't say anything to them."
"Then talk."
She looked around us at the other students, her dark eyes frightened. She didn't have to say anything for me to understand what that look meant.
Whatever she had to say, she was afraid of someone else overhearing it. Willa never acted like this. Seeing her this way made me very uneasy.
I grabbed her arm, and marched her down a long corridor to an empty classroom. I shut the door and turned on her.
"I'm listening," I said.
She bit down on her lip. She wasn't wearing any lipstick today and I could clearly see the bite marks on her bottom lip. A tiny section of it had healed and scabbed over but Willa was opening the wound again. A tiny bead of blood appeared at the tip.
Willa swallowed and I heard a dry click in her throat.
"It's Devin," she finally said.
"I thought as much. Go on," I added when she seemed hesitant to.
"He's got... videos of me."
I gasped, eyes widening as I gasped at the import of her words.
I wasn't aware that my voice had almost sunk into a whisper as I said, "Oh my gosh, Willa! Don't tell me you sent that asshole nude videos or you!"
She frowned.
"I didn't!" she said and I believed her. "He- he got them himself." She paused. "You remember the blue lamp? The one he gave me?"
"Uh-huh."
"He planted a bug in it."
"WHAT?" I yelled.
It was as well that we were all alone in the classroom.
"Ssh. Keep your voice down," Willa cautioned.
"Wait," I said, trying hard, very hard, to think around the rage slowly closing around my brain like a dark cloud. "Are you saying he planted a camera in your room?"
Willa gave a jerky nod, tears streaming out of the corner of her eyes. "I didn't know... I had no idea. A couple of days after we broke up, he started calling and calling. When I wouldn't pick up, he sent me the first video and then the rest." She looked up at me then, tears swimming in her eyes. "There are videos of me naked, changing my clothes, going to take a shower. If they get out..."
She broke down then, crying. I held her and waited for the tears to subside.
"What does he want?" I asked her when she could form coherent words once again. "He must have given a reason for doing all this."
I knew though that Devin didn't have a reason. Not really. He couldn't have known Willa would break up with him. Yet he had planted a camera in her room just a few days after they met.
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