Free Echo Bridge by Kristen O'Toole

suicide bombers followed by a round of raucous laughter at the keg. She left soon after; she had a feeling the muttering would get louder the more they all drank. Farah stopped going to parties after that.
    Lexi sighed. “As long as Hugh keeps scoring goals, Farnsworth will do whatever he can to protect him.”
    “Farnsworth’s not omnipotent,” Farah said. She opened her laptop with one hand while with her other hand she began tugging at the short locks of hair that stood up at the crown of her head, twisting them into spikes. It was obviously something she did without thinking.
    “Nice use of SAT vocab, Farah,” Lexi said dryly. “But what’s your point?”
    “That there are other authority figures we can bring down on Hugh,” Farah dropped both hands to the keyboard and began typing.
    The cops again, I thought. I wasn’t sure I could handle it. I already felt like things were moving too fast. The events of the day—yelling at Hugh in front of everybody; my fight with Ted; my first real conversation with Elaine; admitting what happened to not one, but two people, both of whom I’d barely spoken to before that afternoon—caught up with me all at once. I pressed myself back into the high, deep chair, wishing I could take it all back. If only I’d stood another foot out of Hugh’s reach in Thistleton Hall—he never could have touched me casually, never would have set me off. I’d still be alone with what he’d done to me, but I’d be able to control the situation, too.
    I didn’t want to go to the cops. Lexi was right: Farnsworth would back Hugh; that was how Country Day worked. I could see the bewildered look on my mother’s face when it all came out, the pity on my older sister’s—Anna would never let something like this happen to her. I could hear the endless tide of whispers that would sweep the school. And there was Ted, of course, who’d discover that neither his best friend nor his girlfriend were the people he thought they were.
    “But it’s our word against Hugh’s and Farnsworth’s,” I said. “Those IMs don’t even prove Hugh did anything.” I was practically whimpering, and Farah shot me a disbelieving look.
    “We can get proof,” said Farah. “We just don’t have it yet. He never describes forcing himself on anyone in his emails. Maybe we can get into his phone.”
    “You can do that?” I stared at her, both awed and creeped out. My cell suddenly seemed very warm in my pocket, like it might burn a hole through my coat.
    “In theory, yeah, but since I never have, it would take me a while to figure out. Plus, I’d have to get some higher-level encryption programs and set up IP masking to avoid getting caught. I’m set on getting a scholarship at Stanford next year, and I can’t risk intellectual property violations.” Farah closed her laptop and held it up. “But there are people who already have all that and can do this in less than an hour. I don’t know how much they charge, but we’ve got an appointment for Friday night.”
    “An appointment with who?” I asked.
    “A professional,” Farah said.

Chapter 6
    By Friday night, I had managed to put things right with Ted and with Molly, at least as right as they could be without telling the truth. I apologized to Ted again when he called as promised on Wednesday night, and we exchanged a few cutesy endearments on the phone. On Thursday when we parked by Echo Bridge, I swallowed my nerves and gave him a blow job. Like sex, this was something that had been a part of our relationship that I’d pulled back from after the night in the bathroom with Hugh. I was a little relieved to discover that it wasn’t any worse than it had been before. Going down wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but I liked how much Ted liked it, and that was something Hugh hadn’t taken from me.
    I found Molly organizing her tennis gear in Thistleton before rehearsal. After school, the room was deserted, most students at sports practices on the