Chapter 9: The Private Group Chat

Talia refused to talk in the cafeteria.

I understood.

Half the room was watching us.

We went to the library, chose a table within sight of the librarian, and sat across from each other.

Talia kept checking the door.

“I'm not doing this because I like you,” she said.

“That's fine.”

She frowned, apparently expecting me to argue.

“Greer's going too far.”

“She wasn't going too far when the target was me?”

Talia looked down.

“I know.”

That answer surprised me.

She unlocked her phone.

“There's a group chat. Greer, me, Sienna, Brooke, Mason, and a few others.”

She scrolled.

“It started as jokes.”

I almost smiled.

Everything cruel started as a joke when people wanted to avoid responsibility.

Talia turned the screen toward me.

The chat name was:

“After Hours.”

I read silently.

Greer had posted my hospital photograph there before putting it on the forum.

Greer: “Guess where scholarship princess spent her break.”

Mason: “No way.”

Sienna: “POST IT.”

Brooke: “She's gonna cry lol.”

Then Greer:

“Watch this.”

My fingers went cold.

There it was.

Proof.

She hadn't accidentally created a misunderstanding.

She had known exactly what she was doing.

Talia scrolled farther.

After I posted the photograph of Greer:

Sienna: “DELETE YOUR POST.”

Greer: “Shut up. I'm handling it.”

Mason: “Want me to scare her?”

Greer: “Not yet.”

I stopped breathing for a second.

“Not yet.”

Talia whispered, “Keep reading.”

Later messages discussed the fake visitor record.

Brooke had created it using an editing app.

Greer had sent the information.

Then the newest messages.

Sienna: “The first rumor isn't working anymore.”

Greer: “Then give them something else.”

A file followed.

My old profile picture.

Then fabricated messages.

I looked at Talia.

“Why are you showing me this?”

Her eyes were wet.

“Because yesterday Greer told Mason that if the police ask about the picture outside the pharmacy, we're all supposed to say you probably took it yourself.”

My stomach turned.

“Did Mason take it?”

“I don't know.”

She shook her head quickly.

“I swear. I left the chat after that.”

“Don't delete anything.”

“I haven't.”

“And don't send it to me yet.”

She stared at me.

“Why?”

“Because if this becomes evidence, I want someone independent to preserve it properly.”

Talia blinked.

“Since when do you know all this stuff?”

Since I died because I didn't.

I didn't say that.

“I learned quickly.”

We went directly to Principal Warren.

My mother joined by phone.

Officer Ramirez was contacted.

Talia handed over her phone voluntarily for the relevant messages to be documented.

Within an hour, the atmosphere at school changed.

Greer was called out of class.

So was Mason.

So were Brooke and Sienna.

The fake screenshot post disappeared from the forum.

But copies remained.

Copies always remained.

At 3:10 p.m., Principal Warren sent a school-wide notice.

Several students had been temporarily suspended from online forum access pending investigation into coordinated harassment and fabricated content.

No names.

None were needed.

Everyone knew.

When I walked toward the gate after school, nobody called me a slut.

Nobody blocked my path.

Instead, people moved aside.

My phone buzzed.

Greer.

She wasn't supposed to contact me.

One message.

“You ruined my life.”

I stared at it for several seconds.

Then I took a screenshot.

I didn't reply.

Last time, I had believed she ruined mine.

Now I understood something.

Greer had made choices.

Consequences weren't something I was doing to her.

They were simply catching up.