Chương 7
“It was random.”
“I know.”
“Does Ryan know?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so.”
Eli looked embarrassed.
“They’re not really talking.”
Maya crossed her arms.
“Why are you?”
“Because Noah’s my roommate.”
“That sounds fixable.”
He almost smiled again.
Then his face settled.
“I should’ve said something that day.”
“Yes.”
“I knew Ryan was being a dick.”
“Yes.”
“I laughed anyway.”
Maya nodded.
He looked at the floor.
There was nothing for her to add.
Eli pulled his phone out.
“I have the original.”
Maya’s attention sharpened.
“How?”
“Noah AirDropped it to me that night. Before everything got crazy.”
“Why?”
“He wanted me to tell him if he should post it.”
“And what did you say?”
Eli hesitated.
“That it was funny.”
The answer cost him something.
Maya respected that more than she wanted to.
“Can you send it to me?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you before?”
“Because I was hoping it would go away.”
Maya looked toward the office.
“People keep doing that.”
“I know.”
He sent the file.
It was two minutes and seven seconds.
Maya did not watch it until Denise returned from lunch.
They stood together behind the office desk.
The video began with Noah filming the car.
Ryan posed beside the hood.
Eli made a comment about the wheels.
Maya entered the frame in the background.
Ryan noticed her.
“Yo, valet’s around back.”
Noah laughed.
Maya kept walking.
“You guys done?”
Ryan looked at the others.
“With what?”
“The car.”
Noah made an exaggerated sound.
Ryan said, “Why, you need to wash it?”
Maya shook her head.
“Nope.”
She moved toward the driver’s side.
Ryan stepped in front of her.
Not aggressively.
Casually.
Thoughtlessly.
That somehow looked worse.
Then he lifted his cup.
Noah laughed before the cup even left Ryan’s hand.
The rest was the clip everyone knew.
But it did not end with Maya driving away.
The camera remained on Ryan.
Noah said, “Bro.”
Eli whispered, “Holy shit.”
Ryan stared after the car.
Then he turned toward Noah.
“Delete that.”
Noah laughed.
“I’m serious.”
“Hell no.”
“Delete it.”
“Dude, that was incredible.”
Ryan reached toward the phone.
The image jolted.
Eli said, “Noah, just delete it.”
Then the video ended.
Denise folded her arms.
“Well.”
Maya replayed the last fifteen seconds.
Ryan had wanted it deleted immediately.
Not after it went viral.
Immediately.
That did not erase what came before it.
But it changed something.
“I didn’t know that,” Maya said.
Denise watched her.
“What?”
“He didn’t want it posted.”
“No.”
“He said he knew Noah was filming.”
“That isn’t the same as wanting it online.”
Maya put the phone down.
Her mother leaned against the desk.
“What are you thinking?”
“That I hate incomplete videos.”
“That is an unusually specific hatred.”
Maya picked up the phone again.
Ryan’s apology was still in her messages.
Two weeks old.
She typed.
Did you know Noah kept the full video?
The answer came seven minutes later.
No.
Then:
What full video?
She sent nothing.
Her phone rang.
Ryan.
Maya watched it ring.
Denise raised an eyebrow.
Maya declined the call.
A message appeared.
Sorry. Coach told me not to contact you unless you responded. I guess you technically did but I shouldn’t have called.
Maya stared at it.
Denise said, “He sounds terrified of his coach.”
“Reasonable.”
Maya typed:
Noah is trying to sell the full clip.
Three dots appeared.
Stopped.
Appeared again.
What?
She sent:
It shows you telling him to delete it.
This time the dots took longer.
Finally:
Okay.
Maya frowned.
That was it?
She waited.
Another message came.
I don’t know what you want me to say.
Maya looked at Denise.
“Apparently we’re all bad at texting.”
Denise walked away.
Maya wrote:
I didn’t know you tried to stop him posting it.
Ryan responded:
I still did everything before that.
Maya read the sentence twice.
Something in her chest loosened slightly.
Not forgiveness.
Not sympathy.
Just the removal of one false thing she had believed.
She typed:
Yes.
His reply:
Yeah.
That might have been the end of it.
It was not.
The next morning, a celebrity gossip account posted a teaser.
“FULL SUPERCAR GIRL VIDEO COMING TONIGHT—AND THE STORY ISN’T WHAT YOU THINK.”
The teaser used a blurred still from Noah’s original file.
Maya called Eli.
“Did you send it?”
“No.”
“Then how did they get it?”
“Noah.”
“Can you stop him?”
“I’m trying.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“He’s twenty years old. I’m not his dad.”
“You’re his roommate.”
“That mostly means I know when he forgets laundry in the washer.”
Maya closed her eyes.
“What does he want?”
“Money.”
“How much?”
“He won’t tell me.”
“Why does he think this helps him?”
“He keeps saying everyone already hates him for filming, so he might as well get paid.”
“That is spectacular logic.”
“I know.”
Maya called Beth.
Beth listened.
“Do you own the video?”
“No.”
“Then you probably can’t stop its publication just because you appear in it, given it was recorded on a public street. There can be other issues depending on how it’s used, but there’s no magic button here.”
“What if they misrepresent it?”
“Then we deal with what they actually publish.”
“I hate dealing with things after they happen.”
“Welcome to law.”
Maya went to work angry.
She snapped at a parts supplier.
She dropped a trim clip and swore loudly enough for Denise to look over.
At noon, she scratched her own wrist on a bracket because she rushed a movement she had done a hundred times.
Denise handed her a bandage.
“You’re moving too fast.”
“I know.”
“Then stop.”
“I’m working.”
“No. You’re fighting a phone with a Toyota door.”
Maya peeled open the bandage.
“I’m fine.”
Denise leaned against the fender.
“When your father got angry, he organized screws.”
Maya glanced at her.
“What?”
“He’d line them up by size.”
“I know.”
“You drive.”
“I know.”
“You both become annoying.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m trying to help.”
May you like
“You’re excellent at it.”
Denise looked toward the covered red car.
