“What do you mean?” Tanya asks.
“If I’ve done that to Annabel, what on earth have I done to the rest of you?” She waves my phone in the air, grinning at me. “And Chloe, seeing as you’ve already had quite the starring role, we might as well continue with you. You’re up next.”
Seventeen
Tanya
May 20, 2023
Chloe, to her credit, tries to defuse the situation rather than freak out and attack Poppy, which is what I’m debating doing. Every bone in my body seems to hurt, or I’d grab the box from her now. My head is pounding even more, an incessant drumbeat this entire holiday. Annabel is still furious, full of rage not only for Chloe but Poppy too, no doubt for wounding her pride. Esther and I exchange glances, trying to figure out what to do.
Maybe we deserve this. This punishment Poppy is dishing out, whatever it is for each of us. We had it coming.
“You’ve already gone far enough with Annabel,” Chloe says. “You don’t need to hurt anyone else.”
“I think it’s you that’s gone far enough!” Annabel snaps. “Go right ahead, Poppy! Fuck her life up too.”
Poppy grins. “If I just hurt Annabel that wouldn’t be fair, would it? That would just be targeting one person, and that’s quite vicious, wouldn’t you say?”
“You haven’t answered why you’re doing this.” Esther looks to me in support, and I nod, though I keep my mouth shut. “So tell us. Maybe we can put this right. Surely that’s why you invited us here? Why bother with all of these dramatics if you didn’t care what we thought?”
“The four of you made my life a living hell,” Poppy says. “And the worst thing is, not one of you cares. Not one of you tried to find out what happened to me after school.”
“We’re sorry!” Chloe says. “There, I said it. I’m sorry, Poppy, for how I treated you. Everyone else is as well, aren’t you?”
“I’m not sorry,” Annabel says, still sitting down. “There’s a difference between being a teenager and doing stupid things, and being an adult and destroying someone’s entire life. Nothing we did was even that bad!”
“Annabel!” Chloe snaps. “Just say it.”
“I think you’ve opened your mouth enough, don’t you?” she hisses.
“I think this will please you, Annabel,” Poppy says. She presses something on Chloe’s phone, then holds it up for us all to see.
“I don’t have a boyfriend or a husband, so there’s nothing you can hurt me with,” Chloe says. “And I don’t know how you got into my phone.”
“I know what can hurt you,” Poppy says. “For example, I’m so happy you’re finally showing your family of followers, as you call them, what you’re really like.”
The colour drains from Chloe’s face, her confidence gone. “What are you talking about?”
Poppy turns the sound on Chloe’s phone, and we hear it. “This is your Instagram story right now,” she says. “I figured I’d save the video to your phone as well so you could view it whenever you wanted.”
It’s the first night we got here. I can see us all in the hot tub; the camera shows everyone except Poppy.
“Never have I ever . . .” Chloe’s face is lit up by the light on the roof of the lodge. There’s no question that it’s her. “Never have I ever had sex with a woman.”
The camera doesn’t show it, but we can hear someone drinking.
“What the hell?” Chloe says. “How was there a camera filming this? None of us had our phones.”
“Now that’s not true,” Poppy says. “I had my phone. I just made sure you didn’t have yours. Had quite a nice little vantage point. On both nights.”
Chloe’s mouth falls open.
I’m equally as horrified. What else has she uncovered?
The video continues, oblivious to our shock.
“When?” Chloe asks. “Does your groom know you have, Poppy?”
Poppy chuckles off screen. “I should hope so, because that was what I was going to tell you. My groom isn’t a groom at all. She’s another bride. She’s a woman.”
I cringe as the camera shows us Chloe’s disgusted face. “A woman?” And then she laughs, this awful awkward laugh where she seems to understand she shouldn’t be so bothered by it but can’t help it.
“Everything okay, Chloe?” Poppy says. “You don’t have a problem with that, do you? It’s okay to like both, you know.”
Chloe’s face darkens further, as if she can’t stand to even breathe the same air as Poppy.
“Congratulations,” Annabel says, her attempt at trying to defuse the situation. “I’m glad you found someone.”
“Chloe?”
And then the worst part of all. Chloe knows it too, because she tenses, hands balling into fists, no doubt praying the video will cut off before we get to it.
“I don’t normally associate myself with people like you,” Chloe snaps. “Hardly a surprise though, is it?”
Tanya shakes her head.
“What do you mean by that?” Poppy asks.
“Desperate enough to be loved by anyone,” Chloe says. “You always were Poppy Greedy.”
The final shot is of her laughing at her own joke, face lit up with joy and arrogance. Then the Instagram story ends.
“Oh dear,” Poppy says. “I don’t think your followers like the real you, Chloe. You’re down to six hundred thousand just in the past couple of days.”
“What the—I don’t—” Chloe can barely speak. She’s pale, and there are even beads of sweat at her temples. “That’s my job, Poppy. Oh my God.”
“All the comments under your latest photos are all just calling you homophobic, and encouraging people to unfollow,” Poppy continues, as if Chloe hasn’t said anything. “Your agent has called you a dozen times and she’s left some furious messages. Apparently PrettyLittleThing no longer wants to use you in their campaign? And your other sponsors are pulling out as well.”
Chloe is going to faint. She wobbles where she stands, and Esther gets to her, grabbing her by the sides and holding her up. Annabel cackles with laughter.
Poppy hands her the phone. “You said those things, not me. I just let the world know who you are.”
I’m stunned when Chloe accepts the phone into her hands without comment. She tries to call her agent to no avail, tapping out desperate messages instead that probably don’t go through. Tears arrive, coming thick and fast down her cheeks, leaving her face red.
“My life is ruined,” she mumbles. “I’m done for. All over a stupid joke.”
“It’s not a joke,” Poppy spits.
“This isn’t real, right?” Chloe has a hand to her mouth, muffling her words. “I’m dreaming. I’ll wake up tomorrow and I’ll be at home.”
Poppy leans over and pinches her, none too gently, making her shriek.
“What the fuck!”
“This isn’t a dream, and this is far from over.” She takes another phone from the box.
I’m positive it will be me next. After all, we were friends for years. If she’s got a grudge against us all, I must be the one she hates the most. I wonder if she knows what that guilt has done to me. Even now I’m desperate for at least a drink to mask this awful pain.
Instead, it is Esther’s phone she pulls out, and I know then she is leaving me until last. Her pièce de résistance.
Can I stand here waiting around for her to tell me what she’s done?
Pinpricks of nerves dance along my arms and legs, sending goose bumps everywhere even though it’s boiling hot, the decking starting to burn at my feet.
Chloe is still transfixed on her phone, trying to get in touch with her agent.
Esther is different from those two; she’s more like me, capable of thinking and assessing a situation. She frowns at Poppy now, not rising to the bait, but a pulse jumps in her neck and that’s how I know she’s terrified too.
“What is the worst thing you’ve ever done to me?” Poppy asks her.
“You mean the exam?” Esther says. “That wasn’t meant to go down the way it did.”
Poppy holds up a hand to stop her. “Not you, plural. You, singular. Esther, what is the worst thing you’ve ever done to me?”
Her frown deepens. “I don’t understand.”
But I do. I know what Poppy’s getting at, and from the gleam in her eyes as she nods at me I have my suspicions confirmed.
“Esther,” I say quietly. “She’s talking about Julian Davis.”
“Julian Davis?” Esther’s eyes widen. “But that wasn’t just me. It was all of us.”
“Your idea,” Poppy says. “Your boyfriend.”
Esther laughs nervously. “But surely you haven’t. I mean, you couldn’t have.” Panic sets in, as she starts to understand like I do just what Poppy may have done. “Oh shit. The dare last night. Poppy, you haven’t.”
“I thought it was brilliant, actually.”
Esther snatches her phone from Poppy, but I can tell Poppy wasn’t trying to hold on to it.