The final person in the group was Milo. When he arrived at the school his name wasn’t Milo and to be honest I was surprised as hell, knowing what I knew about the popular kids, that the trans friend wasn’t immediately ostracized from the group. I guess their years of friendship won out. He was probably another good reason why Morgan was so very with-us-or-against-us. Me, I didn’t really have an opinion about him. When he transitioned he was the top name on everyone’s lips for like a week, until some lovestruck wannabe gangster kid broke a window to impress his ex or something and got arrested. Conveniently, everyone forgot about Milo, and despite the group he was in, that seemed to suit him just fine.
When GameStop took me in as their latest employee, the first shift they gave me was on Thursday. I was too shy to ask for a reschedule of my first shift and admitted to Taylor that I couldn’t make it. Taylor was surprisingly pragmatic and immediately suggested I meet her at her lunch table instead, which is what we did. Morgan, Crystal, Lexi and Milo did the usual popular friend group thing where they smiled politely at me but didn’t say a single word, and Taylor and I got right to work.
We got nothing done. The cafeteria was noisy, the attempt to eat and learn at the same time was a disaster, and while Taylor had a pragmatic attitude, if any of her friends was around at any time (which, during a group lunch, go figure, they were) she would get distracted immediately. She could basically only give me ten seconds at a time, then talk to a friend because she heard something that set her off, then turn back to me with a telltale, “Okay, sorry, what?” Then I’d have to re-explain. Rinse and repeat.
After the first one went nowhere, given a test was coming up soon, we agreed to meet at lunch the following day. The group of friends, notably Crystal, were getting a bit annoyed that I was becoming such a regular at their table, but when Taylor gave them the sad eyes routine, they waved it off.
Taylor was even less focused this time than before. I tried really hard not to eavesdrop, but it became abundantly clear why she wasn’t paying attention – the group was having a bit of a crisis.
“What am I supposed to do?!” Crystal asked in desperation. “I can’t walk down the hallways anymore. Fuck. Oh my god, I’m so embarrassed.”
“So what?” Milo asked. “Boys get excited about nudes all the time. People are gonna call you slut for a few days, but fuck them. They don’t know you. Okay? They don’t know you.”
“So you break up with Mitchell and he instantly sends your nudes around?” Morgan asked incredulously.
“Fucking pig,” Crystal agreed.
“Oh my god!” Taylor was into this conversation now. “Do you know how far they got? How many boys?”
“I think it’s safe to say the gifted kids aren’t seeing my titties anytime soon,” Crystal joked, then immediately cringed and looked at me. “Uh, no offense.”
I shot a stealthy look at Morgan, but pretended like I was barely noticing the conversation. I shrugged meekly.
“Anyway, like, a lot. I have boys that don’t even know me catcalling me and shit.”
“Well, it’s annoying, but it’s not like it’s the end of the world, right?” Lexi jumped in.
“No, guys, you don’t understand!” She leaned in, as did the rest of the group. I think they were trying to make sure even I didn’t hear what she whispered next, but I did. “They’re the ones I sent him when I was…” I didn’t catch the last word.
“Really?!” Lexi asked, surprised. “If I wanted to show you off revenge-porn style, like, your camera technique has only gotten better since. The fuck is he getting by-”
“Not funny.” Morgan interrupted. She turned to Crystal. “Do any of your teachers know?”
“Oh my God, I’m gonna be fucking expelled,” Crystal realized with horror painting her face.
“I thought Mitchell was better than that,” Lexi carried on. “I could see like Jake doing that, but not Mitchell.”
“Oh my god, fucking Jake,” Taylor interjected. “Like, he’s such an asshole, but…”
“I totally would,” Lexi agreed, reading her mind.
“Would? I did!” Taylor giggled.
“What?!” Lexi blurted out. “Betrayal! When? How was he?!”
“Hello? Guys? I thought you were my friends!! Who cares about fucking Jake at a time like this?!” Crystal angrily spat out.
“He kissed me, but he said he was ‘holding out for someone he loves.’ I thought he was a softie,” Lexi complained.
“Yeah, he didn’t say that to me, you clearly did something wrong,” Taylor told her.
“Hey!” Morgan sharply interrupted.
“Oh what?” Lexi asked, annoyed. “If you didn’t want to get busted like this, why’d you even send him nudes? You knew the risks!”
“That’s not fair.”
My voice. That was my voice. All five of the friends turned to me as I felt my face redden. A took a deep breath and repeated, “That’s not fair.”
“Not fair?” Lexi challenged me.
“Crystal was, uh, sending her – someone she loved, nudes. Consenting…ly. She was giving him permission to, you know, see her body. So when, uh, Mitchell sent her nudes to other people, as an act of revenge, knowing she’s underage in them, he’s the one that broke that trust and got other people to see them, not her.”
Lexi was unmoved. “Um, sending nudes of yourself when you’re underage is a crime, boy. If she didn’t send them in the first place she’d be fine.”
My tone was weak but I held fast. “Have you ever sent nudes before?”
Lexi gave a single laugh condescendingly. “I’m sorry, have you?”
“No, you got me. I’m a virgin. Nice job. Never kissed a girl, never had sex, never got sent a nude, never sent a nude myself. but if I did, I’d be feeling really hurt if someone betrayed me by sending them to other people as soon as I wasn’t in a relationship with them. And I’d be feeling even more hurt if I confided this in my own friends and the first thing they did was blame me. Even if Crystal might have broken the law, distributing this pornography is also illegal, right? Is Mitchell still in this school right now? So they both have broken the law. One sounds like an asshole and one is your friend. Why are you making her feel bad for breaking the law because she trusted someone, when someone else broke the law specifically to hurt your friend?”
No one said anything for a bit. “He – yeah!” Crystal finally shouted, gesturing towards me and staring daggers at Lexi.
“I don’t think talking to Mitchell would solve anything,” Morgan grimly added, eyeing the floor.
Milo turned to me. “That was really sweet, Quinn,” he told me, a soft smile on his face. “It’s nice to see men standing up for her.”
“We need more male voices like yours,” Morgan agreed, and raked her face with her fingers. “God, I wish men weren’t such assholes.”
Taylor was smiling at me. She waited until the others had moved on and turned to me. “That was a cool thing you did,” she said.
“I don’t think Lexi is going to like me much now,” I mumbled.
Taylor rolled her eyes and laughed. “You clearly don’t know Lexi. By tomorrow she’ll have completely forgotten everything you just said.”
“Which means she’s just going to keep believing Crystal was at fault for trusting her boyfriend,” I mused.