I Lost My Mobile At the Mall (6 page)

By the time I get back to The Dungeon it's almost midnight. I immediately check Jai's FacePlace and the pics have vanished! Gone to the great big Trash File in the sky. All the comments – the good and the bad – have been erased as well.

I have my life back. Yahoo!

I crash out, happy that this vile chapter of my existence is closed. At last!

I wake up at 6.30 to a ding on my computer and an eye2eye from Carmelita. It's unbelievably early, but then again she's probably been awake since dawn feeding Viscount the pig and . . . er . . . tending the nuts (or whatever it is you have to do with macadamias).

El.

This is the WORST, ever. You have to call me. Beg, borrow or steal
a phone! I'm here for ya (even in Queensland). Remember that. Love ya!!!!

Carmelita XXX

Huh? What's she talking about? It's not like Carmelita to think the worst about anything. My stomach does a hideous backflip and I can feel every single hair on my head vibrating with electricity.

I pull on my dressing gown and creep down the hall to the South Wing – like a downstairs maid in the halls of Buckingham Palace trying not to wake the slumbering Royal Family. I open Tilly's bedroom door a crack and see the corner of her mobile peeping out from under her pillow. Her room is the usual smelly trash heap and getting to the phone is not going to be easy. As my eyes adjust to the gloom, I see a few stepping stones of beige carpet and I pick my way through the obstacle course.

My fingers touch the corner of the phone and I carefully extract it from under Tilly's nest of dark brown hair. She stirs and snuffles, but doesn't wake up. I carefully edge back through the pile with the precious phone in my hand and step on a massive buckled handbag. Mercifully there's no 'crunch' of plastic sticks of lip balm and I leap for the door in a mighty bound. Even before I'm back in The Dungeon, I'm dialling Carmelita's number.

'Hey, Elly!' Carmelita's voice is unnaturally cheery for this early. 'How are you, babe?'

I know she has bad news and I politely ask her to get on with it.

'It's Will.'

What about Will? I want her to spill her guts right this instant.

'Well, this morning I was up early cleaning out Viscount's pen and when I came back in there was a message from Lily Cameron's FacePlace.'

Lily Cameron? Carmelita hardly knows her. What sort of weird coincidence is this? My nerves are at critical load and I'm about to black out with the suspense.

'Well, if you go to Lily's mirror, there are, er . . . pictures there of her in the spa with, um . . . oh hell, Elly, it's
Will
.'

I'm not sure I actually say anything at this point. I look out the window just to make sure that I'm still on Planet Earth. For one stupid moment I focus on the last shrivelled apricot on our tree.

'I hate being the one to tell you, Elly,' moans Carmelita. 'But I thought you'd better know now.'

With Tilly's mobile clamped to one sweaty ear, I log on to Lily's site. I'm one of her 194 friends. Oldcastle High's not a big school so pretty much everyone is 'friends' with everyone else – whether they particularly want to be or not. No-one dares
not
be friends.

And OH. MY. GOD! I drop the phone on my desk and both hands are over my mouth and I'm silently screaming. It's like someone's taken to Lothlórien woods with a chainsaw. Aaaaargh! Aaaaargh!

It
is
Will. Even though the images are dark and a bit blurry, I'd know that mop of blond curls anywhere. He's in a spa bath. He's got his head thrown back and he's laughing. There are Lily Cameron's ten red toenails. She's sitting opposite him, her feet propped up on his tanned chest. She's smiling like a fox about to pounce on a marsupial.

And that's not the only picture. In the next one, Lily's sitting alongside Will and he's got his arm around her shoulder – she's under the golden branch that should be sheltering me! At least she's got a bathing suit on. Although there's nothing to be grateful for when I see that Will is smiling and looking at
her
with the same big brown eyes that should be looking at
me
.

There's one more burnt stick to poke in my eyes. In the third picture Will is standing by the edge of the bath and holding Lily's hand as she climbs out of the swirling water. His other hand is on her hip. They're gazing at each other with . . . what is it? I don't want to give that look a name or I'll vomit.

And then someone must have called 'cut' on the scene because that's all there is. I scroll and click like a maniac. Then what happens? Where do they go after this? And after that? But there are no more pics and it's like I have just seen the trailer to the most terrifying horror movie of all time.

I spot the post from Lily:

Oooh, look who 'dropped in' last night. Mr Will 'six foot plus and perfect' Phillips. Both of us makin' waves at my place.

I should be crying by now. Maybe I am. I don't know, because it's like my brain has stopped sending messages to my body. The telephone pole's fallen over. The satellite has crashed from the sky. The cable is melted. The line is dead.

Somehow a flicker of information gets through and I reach for the mobile.

'Els . . . Elly? Are you still there?' Carmelita is frantically calling.

I must make some sort of noise because she hears I am still here. Wherever 'here' is.

'Oh, I just don't know what to say,' she groans. 'Maybe it isn't as bad as it looks, maybe . . .'

Her voice trails off because she knows that it's totally
worse
than it looks. There's nothing under the burning sun or the pale moon, in the wind or the swirling tides that can make this better than it looks.

'If that's what Will's really like,' Carmelita says, 'then you're better off without him.'

And it's the words 'without him' that finally make me hang up and cry out loud. I'm hardly even able to walk as I feel my way down the hall to Tilly's room. I lean against the door frame, snap on the light and then just stand there, paralysed.

Tilly sits up rubbing her eyes and turns to me. I manage to get out a messy sentence that I think includes the words 'Will', 'Lily' and 'FacePlace'. Tilly looks at me, her perfect, pretty mouth turns down and she falls back on her pillow, shielding her face from the light with one thin white arm.

'What? Oh God, Eleanor. I was hoping you wouldn't find out. Not on the net anyway.'

I stumble through the piles of Tilly's clothes and fall on my knees by her bed. I bury my face in her T-shirt and sob into her stomach. Tilly reaches out and strokes my hair as she speaks.

'It all went horribly wrong, Els. We were all there – me, Lily and Georgie Daniels – and it was just like we planned. We fired up the spa and then we rang Jai. He said he was at the footy with Jayden and couldn't come. We rang three times, we texted, and he still wouldn't come. I was in the lounge room. I was going to put on a DVD and forget about the whole stupid idea, when I heard Will's voice at the front door.'

I wipe my eyes on Tilly's shirt and then sit back. I want to hear this. Every. Hideous. Detail.

'I waited until I could corner Lily in the lounge and I asked her: "What's Will doing here?" She just laughed and said: "Who knows?" But I have to tell you, Els, I think she was expecting him to come over. Maybe she was hoping Jai would be there too and they'd – I dunno, have a fight or something.'

A million questions are running around in my head. But I don't know where to start, so I let Tilly go on.

'I couldn't think what to do. Should I go out there so Will would see me and go home? Or should I just let the whole thing unfold. This wasn't "entrapment", Els. I swear. This was more about catching someone committing a crime of their own making.'

My body is shaking, but I'm saying 'uh huh' at the same time, not wanting Matilda to leave anything out.

'I decided to leave and I told Georgie that if anything happened, to make sure she got the evidence on her mobile. So I could show you. You're my sister. I'd want you to know.'

I nod again. Go on.

'And now the photos are on the
net
? Georgie and Lily must have done it after Will left.'

I can't seem to get any air into my lungs through the tears and snot. I wipe my nose on Tilly's doona.

'I kept thinking about Lily and wondering why I trusted her in the first place. It's not like she's one of my best friends. Maybe I was just blinded by wanting to get revenge on Jai. But I don't get it – why would Lily and Georgie do that?'

It's exactly what that site said:
Emotions and the internet
don't mix.
Well, too late, they're mixed up now.

'I'm going to murder Georgie when I see her.' Tilly sits up and punches her pillow. 'I can't believe she'd do something so disgusting! And why would Lily want Jayden to see the photos anyway? It just doesn't make sense.'

I've heard enough now. I try to get to my feet to walk away, but it's easier to crawl. So that's what I do – I crawl through Tilly's underwear and jeans and tops and shoes. Tilly scrambles out of bed and tries to drag me to my feet, but I don't want to stand. Leave me down here with the lowly things that squirm and slither in the shadows.