“Uh, you’re welcome,” I reply.
I sit on the bed next to Peyton. Her eyes are red and swollen from crying and there’s not a speck of mascara left on them. I give her a hug and whisper, “Did you really tell them the truth?”
She answers me out loud. “Yes. I told my family everything. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but I feel so much better. It’s such a relief not having that secret hanging over my head.”
“We’re very grateful you stopped Whitney from showing the pictures, though,” Aiden’s dad says.
A crazy and inappropriate thought flashes through my brain and I’m tempted to say he can thank me by giving me Aiden as payment.
“We’re prepared for the worst.” Peyton rocks on the bed, holding her knees to her chest. “I know it’s not over. Whitney will have backup copies. Best case scenario, she goes to the dean. Worse case, she releases it to the press. We’ll deal with the fallout of it together. And even though I told Damian about it, I’m sure this will be the end of us.” She starts sobbing. “I can’t ruin his career. And as soon as Whitney finds out we’re together, there will be no stopping her.”
“Whitney will not be a problem.”
“What do you mean?” her dad asks. “Of course, she is. We’ll have to worry about it for the rest of her life.”
“Peyton, after you left, Whitney did try to threaten me, telling me that I couldn’t stop her. That she has copies of the photos. But I told her that I could and would.”
“How?”
I grin broadly, knowing that—for once—I used my inner mean girl for the greater good.
“I told her if any photos ever leaked out—if there was even a hint about them—that I'd release a few photos of my own. Only I wouldn’t bother with the press. I’d send them to her parents. Her college. Her boss. Her husband. Her friends. Whoever is in her life at the time.”
“What pictures?”
“She’s been sending pics to Camden for years. Naked. Partially naked. In a recent one, she was even lying on Coach Steele’s desk. She thought she could make him jealous. Make him fall in love with her, maybe. Who knows. But what matters is that Cam has kept everything. He felt guilty he didn’t tell Dawson about them right away, so he decided to save them, just to use as proof should Dawson ever decide to marry her.”
“Wow,” Peyton says. “I knew she was obsessed with him. I didn’t realize how much.”
“Cam warned me that Whitney was planning something. He was worried about you, so he sent me the whole file. And he was right. She’s been planning this since that day she sat alone at the lunch table.”
“I pushed her.”
“I told you it would backfire. There’s a big difference between standing up for yourself and tearing someone else down.”
Peyton shakes her head. “I’m so stupid.”
“Chalk it up to a life lesson. Anyway, I had a couple of the photos on my phone and showed them to her.”
“What did you say?”
“That I'd ruin her.”
“You and Cam are really good friends. Thank you.” She dabs her tears. “Do you really think it's over?”
I give her a hug and say, “Yes.”
Aiden clears his voice.
The sound of it makes me jump.
"Since we seem to have everything covered here, Keatyn and I are going to head back to our room. We have some things of our own to discuss."
He gestures toward the door.
I give his parents and Peyton an awkward wave goodbye.
He’s quiet on the elevator, on the walk down the hall, and as we go into our room.
After the dirt, the No more lying, and all the You can tell me anythings, I understand why.
He has every right to be mad. I should’ve listened to my heart and told him. I had so many opportunities, going all the way back to that day in the chapel.
“Before you say anything, I need to tell you something,” I blurt out.
He takes my hand and leads me over to the chaise, where we both sit down.
He lets go of my hand but I quickly grab it again, clinging to it like a life raft.