Chapter 1
April
“April, wake up now. Your butt is on the Internet.” Sid’s panicked voice cut through layers of fuzzy sleep to reach me.
I groaned and buried my head under my pillow. Yesterday, I’d asked my roommate to make sure I got out of bed on time this morning using any tactic necessary, short of ice cubes. I had no idea she’d resort to nonsense phrases.
“Sid, go away.”
Her hand was on my shoulder, shaking me. “No, seriously, you need to see this.”
“Don’t touch me,” I mumbled. “I can sleep five more minutes.”
“No, you can’t. April, there is a sex video from Comic-Con and I’m pretty sure you’re in it.”
I sat up, blinking, my vision blurry. “What the what?”
I’d gotten next to no sleep over the weekend, and with all the overstimulation, drinking and debauchery, I was flat as a pancake this morning, exhausted.
And I had to start my new position at Draco Multimedia today.
My eyes narrowed, cutting to my roommate. I’d accuse her of playing a joke, but Sid would never get so elaborate. Nor would she ever frivolously use the S-E-X word.
“Okay, back off and speak slowly. It’s before coffee o’clock.”
Sid sighed, obviously frustrated with my grogginess. “I was on Tumblr following the tag for Comic-Con, and this video of people having sex kept popping up. I kept closing it right away because—icky—who wants to see that? But one time I got a closer look at the girl dressed up in what looked like my elf costume—the one you borrowed.” Her voice was shrill like she was excited or panicked. Almost as effective as ice cubes for waking me up.
I swung a foot out of bed, still half asleep as her words rushed over me like a flash flood. There was this sick sensation in the pit of my stomach, and I had a feeling it had nothing to do with my rough weekend.
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
With wide gestures, Sid stalked over to her computer screen and angled it so that I could see. She pointed at the frozen figures. A woman, her back to the camera and naked from the waist down, was straddling a guy who sat on a chair. She had a distinctive tattoo at the small of her back, a hideous skull and snake motif.
Suddenly, my insides froze. My tattoo. My fit of rebellion from years ago now staring back at me from the screen, mocking me.
“So is that not you?”
I gulped. “Uh.”
“Holy Spock on a cracker! Apes, it’s everywhere. There are hundreds of reblogs on it. It’s on Twitter, Facebook, all over.”
I jumped out of bed, comforter and sheets falling on the floor and twisting around my legs, almost tripping me. “Nooooooo!”
Sid would be the last person I’d ever show this video to. She was pure as the driven snow. I was almost one hundred percent sure she was a virgin, and the girl sang—sang—while cleaning the house like Cinder-fucking-ella. And I bet when I wasn’t looking she got little animals to push her broom for her, too.
Unlike Sid, I had had sex before, though I was no expert at it. And the one time I’d ever done anything on the wild side to prove I could be a bad girl—like anonymously hooking up and making a video of it—somehow it ended up everywhere. What the hell was up with that?
My body came alive with panic and fear, adrenaline coursing through my veins and nausea twisting my gut. This couldn’t be happening! Not today! Not any day, but definitely not today. Without my asking her to, Sid clicked on the play button and I was treated to an unobstructed view of the hottest sex I’d ever had in my short twenty-two years.
I stood rooted to the floor as I watched the entire thing play out. I’d been drunk, but not so drunk I hadn’t realized what I was doing. My judgment suffered greatly when I drank, as evidenced by this crazy sex tape and the aforementioned tattoo. With tears prickling my eyes, I vowed I was never going to have another drop…ever. Because next time, with this progression, the world would probably cave in on itself if I drank.
Or maybe just my world.
I put the heels of my hands to my temples, my fingers threading into my hair.
“Earth to April…did someone revenge-porn you or something? What’s going on?”
I took in a shaky breath, unable to believe what was happening. “Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. This is a nightmare.”
“Did you have sex at Comic-Con, April?”
I turned and gave her the best “duh” look I could muster. Her mouth formed an ‘o’ and her brows rose. She sniffed with disapproval and adjusted the heavy black frames of her glasses. “Uh, who was it?”