then hit send.
Up ahead in the dining room, there was an old-skool beeping alert. Audra heard it too but didn’t say anything. Weird as it sounded, I was going to miss txting AnyLies.
In the dining room, judging by the level of wine in the Parents’ glasses and the empty bottle on the table, they had indeed come to the final minutes of the meal. Neither Parent looked up when I entered.
“Hello, dear,” the Mother said.
The Father said nothing.
“Father, we need your chair.”
“No, don’t get up. I can stand,” I said.
“That’s silly. My parents are finished anyway, aren’t you?”
Clearly, Audra was trying to get them out of the room, probably afraid of what they were about to hear. Normally, I’d be cringing, waiting for the sniping to start. For once I wasn’t at all concerned by their icy remoteness. Or by the wall screen blaring violent news. Or that the chicken bones on the plate indicated that the Mother had forgotten again that Audra was pescatarian. And not because I’d written Audra off, but because there, sitting in my usual seat, bearing this torture with a grateful smile, was my old best friend and current hater, Ailey.
“Kyle,” Ailey said brightly. “So glad you stopped by.”
She said this generously, as if this were her house, her friend, her life I’d just been invited into. Not as if she was stealing mine.
“It looks like we’re finished eating,” the Father said, but made no move to stand.
Something like surprise flickered in the Mother’s eyes, that her daughter had two friends over. I imagined pulling up Audra’s naked pics on the wall screen. Seeing if that could wrench a stronger emotion from this woman. But I didn’t want to steal Audra’s thunder. No doubt she’d been looking forward to that moment since she turned eighteen two weeks ago. I wished I could be there to see their reactions. But then, shockingly, the Mother pushed back in her chair and picked up her plate.
“Do not think bad manners will always be rewarded in this household, Audra Bethany. Gregory, let’s let the girls chat.”
While Audra cleared, I stared at Ailey. Her braids were piled high on her head, as if she’d had them shoved under a wig. She was clad in comfy yoga sweats, but her tank was more form-fitting than anything I’d ever seen her wear. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Ailey had developed so much. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen her cleavage recently. Only the first time I’d seen it in person.
Her eyes flicked to me, then away. Her right hand moved to twirl her braid as it did when she was nervous, but it only met air and settled for her earlobe instead. She checked if I was still staring at her. I was. A tiny nervous whicker escaped her.
“Smiley face,” she said.
When the Parents left, Audra closed the dining room doors. Ailey took her Doc off her lap and placed it on the table. I wondered if she and Audra had been engaging in the same surreptitious dinnertime color commentary that Audra and I always had. I realized I didn’t care.
“So?” Audra asked, hands on hips.
“Sorry to interrupt. Ailey, I was about to tell Audra that I figured out who made the sex video. It’s this hacker in Philly. I was going to show you guys what we swiped from his home hub, but my Doc died on the bus ride back. We left in such a hurry to get there, I forgot my charger. Ailey, can I borrow yours real quick?”
“My charger?”
“No. Your Doc.”
She clutched it to her chest, glanced at Audra, who rolled her eyes impatiently, like, what’s the big deal? Only then did Ailey meekly nod and hand it over.
“You actually tracked down the person that made the video?” Ailey asked.
“We did.” To Audra I said, “He was one of the ConnectBook guys after all. We got him to delete the source file.”
“So that’s it?” Audra asked, begrudgingly interested, begrudgingly impressed. “The video’s gone?”
“Not quite. You were actually right too. There was something that linked us all. We all looked like his ex. And there was a reason I was chosen more than the others. Oops, Ailey you deleted me as a biometrics user. Is the friends’ password prompt still the same?” Before Ailey could answer, into the Doc’s microphone I said, “Flipper Fourteen.”
The Doc whirled to life. By the nervous way Ailey glanced at Audra, you’d think I was about to, like, delete her movie queues or reading shelves. Maybe while I was at it…
“So, one of the things I learned today was how to search for hidden files. Audra, you already know this, but Ailey, you would be amazed at what Sharma can teach you over a two-hour bus ride. Apparently, there’s this way to scan all Doc files solely based on gig size. Doesn’t matter where you store them; the program simply looks for bulk fileage. So, say your hi-res nude selfies are all in a double-encrypted folder, this special search will bring them to the front of the list. See? Here they are.”
I put the folder on fast slide show and swiveled the Doc around so the girls could both see Ailey’s previously hidden pics zip past on-screen. Since they were originals from Audra’s shoots, the girls’ faces weren’t cropped out yet. In half the photos, while the girls posed ubersexy, they were crossing their eyes or sticking their tongues out or just caught midblink. They were the antithesis of the sexy selfie face. My mouth got all bile-y. I guessed it was the taste of jealousy, because the girls also looked like they were having so much fun.
“Granted, this doesn’t work if what you’re looking for is stored on a separate drive, as I’m sure all your B&P files are, Audra. But how many people back up their data on the home hub like they’re supposed to? Besides, if a gal’s worried about her folks accidentally decoding it—say if her dad’s some big gig over at Eden—she definitely wouldn’t take a ’crypted file off her Doc and stash it on the home hub. And most especially not if it was the first official download of her old best friend—air quotes—‘having sex’ with her teacher.”
Audra’s perfect little heart-shaped lips formed an O. Ailey’s pouty lips formed a flat, angry line. A few more swipes and I’d logged on as a guest to Audra’s wallpaper screen. Behind Ailey, my sex video came to life.
“I told you, I didn’t make the video.”