A Midsummer's Nightmare

“Come on.” He grabbed my wrist and yanked me out of the guest room, practically dragging me across the hallway and into his room. Then he shoved me into his desk chair and gestured to his computer screen. “Look.”

Whitley Johnson: Hamilton’s New Free Ride

The headline at the top of the page was the first thing I saw. Directly beneath it, in smaller text, was a short paragraph.

In late May, Hamilton welcomed the daughter of hottie anchorman Greg Johnson to town, but Whitley Johnson doesn’t seem to be her daddy’s sweet little angel. Looks like we’ve got a bad girl on our hands. What dirty antics will she get into next? If you spot her out and about (and we’re sure you will), keep us posted!

“What the fuck is this?”

“A Facebook group,” Nathan said.

“Why would someone make a group about me?” I asked.

“It’s Facebook. You can make a group about the tree in your front yard if you want,” he said. “Did you see the picture?”

I scrolled down. On the left-hand side I saw the page’s main photo—a blurry shot of me, clearly drunk, stumbling around at Wesley’s party. In the center of the screen, a little farther down, I saw the most recent post. It was marked as a mobile upload, a shot of me and the dreadlocks guy from last night. We were making out in a booth at the Nest, his hand under my shirt.

“Oh my God,” I whispered.

“Keep scrolling.”

I did.

There were more photos, taken with people’s cell phones. Most of them were of me dancing with boys at the Nest, but a few were from Wesley’s party—including an image of me taking a shot in the kitchen, Harrison at my side.

But the comments were the worst part.

What a skank. Could her skirt be any shorter in that pic?

Her dad seems so wholesome and sweet on TV. I bet he is soooo ashamed of her. Poor guy.

Man, I hope she’s at the next party I go to. I’d tap that.

“Why would people do this?” I asked. I’d been called a skank and a slut and a whore and every other thing you could imagine before, but it had never been on the Internet. No one had cared enough to build a freaking web page.

“Your dad is a celebrity to these people,” Nathan said. “Which means you are, too.”

I clicked on one of the photos. Below the image was a list of people tagged. Greg Johnson was at the top of the list. My dad would see this picture of a boy with his hand up my shirt. Maybe he could see all of these photos.

“I can’t believe this.”

“Small towns are known for their big rumors,” he said. “And you’re starting quite a few. Can you blame them for talking? Look at how you…”

“How I what?”

I was on my feet, my fists clenched. I felt like someone had read my diary—you know, if I kept a stupid diary—or like I’d just discovered a Peeping Tom. It was disgusting and embarrassing. I felt hurt, violated. And I just couldn’t take Nathan acting like a prick on top of everything else.

“How I what?” I demanded again.

“How you live!”

“How I live?”

“You’re wasted every chance you get—I saw the bottle of tequila in your room! You’re selfish and careless. I mean, seriously? Screwing that guy right after we—”

“I didn’t screw him,” I interrupted. “We just kissed. And by the way, you’re the one who put a stop to things yesterday, not me. So don’t even act like that’s an issue here.”

“No,” Nathan growled. “The issue is that you’re acting like a whore and a drunk, and you need to cut it out.”

I shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d almost called me a whore once before, after Wesley’s party, and like I said, it wasn’t as if I’d never been called those names before. Still, hearing Nathan, someone I’d let touch me, someone I’d enjoyed touching me, put me down that way—it stung. More than I thought it would.

“It’s none of your business what I do,” I informed him.

“Actually, Whitley, it is. Because you’re part of my family now, whether you like it or not. We’ve been through enough shit. I don’t need you screwing things up even more. And this?” He pointed at the monitor, like I should look at the pictures again, like the images weren’t already imprinted on my brain. “This is the example you’re setting for my sister. She looks up to you, for some unknown reason, and this is what you show her. I don’t want her turning out like you. You’re the reason she drank that night. And you weren’t watching her, so…”

There was a long pause.

He cleared his throat again, shaking his head.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

I moved forward. “Nathan,” I whispered. “What happened at that party? She’s been acting weird ever since then. Please tell me.”

He looked away, pressing his lips together and taking a breath before he answered. “When I found her, she was passed out in a chair. Two boys were with her, and one was… He was trying to feel her up while they laughed and egged each other on, like it was some joke.” He shook his head again. “I stopped them, and nothing else happened. But something could have. Can you imagine what that would have done to her?”

Yes, I could. I could imagine it all too well.

I could remember it all too well.

“Does she know?” I asked.

“Not about how I found her. She remembers one of them kissing her…. She told me…” I saw his fists clench. “Her first kiss was with some horny, half-drunk moron. Great memory for her. Something to tell her grandkids.”

“Oh, God, poor Bailey,” I murmured, guilt twisting my insides. I was supposed to have kept an eye on her.

“And it’s because of you,” he spat. “What else would she do when you throw yourself at every guy you see? And now with this fucking Facebook page!”

I took one breath, two, three…

“Get out of my way.”

“What?”

“Let me out of here.” I shoved him aside, needing to escape. My heart was racing, my head spi

“Don’t you have anything to say?” he asked when I reached the door.

“Not to you.”

I ran to the guest room, slamming the door behind me. I didn’t let myself cry until I knew he wasn’t coming after me.

16

I spent the next several days avoiding Nathan as much as was humanly possible. This involved lots of the silent treatment and cold-shouldering, mixed with a little bit of immature “Did you hear something? Must have been the wind,” whenever he tried to get my attention in the presence of others. Sylvia raised her eyebrows at this once or twice, but she had the sense not to ask me questions. And Dad… Well, I didn’t see Dad much, so he probably had no idea.

Bailey was the only one who ventured into the questioning territory, stupid kid.

“Did Nathan, like, do something to piss you off?” she asked one afternoon on the couch after Nathan spent ten minutes trying to talk to me with no luck.

“Since when do you say piss?” I asked, picking up the remote and flipping to a movie cha

“I’m almost fourteen. I swear sometimes.”

“I’ve never heard you swear.”

“Well, I do. So, what did Nathan do?”

“Your mother will kill you if she hears you talking like that.”

“I won’t let her hear me, then,” she said. “Why are you mad at Nathan?”

I groaned and leaned my head against the back of the couch. “Not that it’s any of your business, but he said something stupid, so yes, I’m pissed at him.”

“Oh. What did he say?”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Bailey.”

“Okay, sorry. I’ll stop asking questions.” She repositioned herself on the couch to see the screen better. “But you can tell me if you decide you want to talk about it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.”

Not many people could get away with pestering me the way Bailey did, but I was just incapable of getting mad at her. Maybe it was all the time we’d been spending together, watching bad reality TV and goofy eighties movies, or maybe it was the constant guilt I felt when I looked at her, thinking of what those boys had done to her and knowing it was my fault for not watching her.