Page 77 of Broken Butterfly
On his laptop, I flick through screenshot after screenshot of images of Elizabeth posted on some random campus social site. The more I see, the angrier I get. Someone uploaded pictures of me and her kissing in the quad; Jayson and her in high school when he carried her into the school after her big fight with Maria; her with Julien out jogging; me, Fallon, and her at the bowling alley we went to on Thanksgiving; and Trevor and her in the student parking lot. In every picture, Elizabeth is either kissing me, Jayson, or Julien, or she’s hugging Fallon or Trevor. Included on each picture is a commentary about Elizabeth—how she likes a good dicking, how she likes to fuck more than one guy at a time—preferably twins. How we all pass her around like a fuck-toy.
Then I get to the last picture. It’s clearly a fake, but someone took the time to photoshop all of our faces on a gang-bang picture where a woman with Elizabeth’s face is on all fours with a group of guys having sex with her at the same time. The entire thing is vile and disgusting. Fury like none I’ve ever felt overtakes me. I swear to God, if I find out who did this, I’m going to break every bone in their worthless body.
“Who?” I seethe, so angry my teeth clench.
“I have someone looking into it. Hopefully by tonight, we’ll have a name and address.”
“I can’t keep this from Elizabeth.” I scrape my hands over my face a few times. “God, I want to.”
But I know only relationships based on trust are the ones that survive. I kept my past with Fallon from her, thinking I was protecting her. Daniel kept her daughter a secret from her. Jayson kept things from her all the time in high school. She’s had too many people in her life hide things from her, justifying it was the right thing to do because they were protecting her. And still, the bad stuff happened. I’m breaking that cycle.
Fallon closes his laptop. “My bet is on Marshall. Kitten has humiliated him twice now.”
“Marshall is too afraid to go up against you.”
“I never said that dickhead was smart. Maybe I need to send him a reminder.”
Marshall was livid when Elizabeth beat him at the Fields a few days ago. He was in town for Thanksgiving break then so he could have seen us at the bowling alley and taken pictures of Elizabeth and Fallon. But how did he get a hold of the high school one of her with Jayson? Or the ones here on campus? It’s like someone has been following her around, stalking her. It’s damn creepy. Every protective instinct in me flares to life.
“I need to get back. Elizabeth’s class will be ending soon, but she said she would be dropping by here later. Do not say anything to her. I need to be the one to tell her. Send me those screenshots.”
Fallon claps me on the back. “You got it, hoss. I promise, whoever this asshole is, we’ll make him pay.”
Someone is targeting my girl and I need to find out who and stop them. I decide to loop in the twins.
Me: We need to talk. It’s about Elizabeth.
Jayson: Do I need to ask?
Julien: Just saw her this morning. Is she ok?
Me: I’ll explain everything later. It’s important. Meet me and Elizabeth at the main library in thirty.
It takes me longer to walk back to Mason Hall than I expected. As I cross the center quad, I see Elizabeth, Trevor, and Meredith walking out of the building but even from a distance, I can tell something is wrong. I jog the rest of the way and the relief that explodes across my girl’s face has me taking her in my arms as soon as I get within reach of her. Trevor is cursing under his breath and searching the quad for something or someone. Meredith is hovering at Elizabeth’s back giving me worried looks.
“Someone going to tell me what’s going on?” I ask them.
Elizabeth talks into my jacket. “Just some jerks mouthing off.”
Trevor makes a scoff of disgust. “Not just some jerks. Three guys came up to Elizabeth as we were leaving and straight-out asked her to fuck them; said they’d heard she liked taking on multiple guys at the same time.”
“It’s straight-up bullshit is what it is,” Meredith spits out.
“Where?” I follow Trevor’s line of sight as he continues his search of the quad.
“Campus police came in and they bolted. But I’ll recognize them again if I see them.”
Fallon said the post had over three hundred views before he was able to get it taken down.
Elizabeth tilts her head up to me. “I thought something odd was going on yesterday when I went to see Meredith. A couple of girls called me a slut. Trevor was there. He went off on them. Then today, people kept staring.”
I thought I was angry before, but now I’m fuming. Elizabeth never said anything to me about that last night or this morning.
“Elizabeth, why didn’t you tell me?” I ask her at the same time Trevor says, “You didn’t tell him?”
“That’s what I would like to know as well. You should have told me too,” Meredith tells her. “If those girls live in my dorm, I want to know who they are.”
“Why is everyone getting mad at me?” Elizabeth asks us.
