The next few days pass by in a blur, consisting of even more intense yet familiar workouts: hill sprints, rope climbing, and even boxing again. Axel has seemed to consider every session my last hurrah, which means I leave each one sorer than the last.

I stretch out my arms and drag myself back to my dorm, legs feeling like thousand-pound weights. Before making my way down the hall, I stop in the bathroom to wash my sweaty hands and find Willow in there doing the same. We exchange a few kind words and smiles before each going our separate ways.

My phone lights up with a text from Poppy, another three-paragraph wedding rant. I slip my phone back into the pocket of my track pants, reminding myself to reply to her later, and stop in front of my doorway. Furrowing my brow, I confirm to myself that the door is somehow open a crack, slipping my fingers through the visible space.

Martina is still at dinner, which means...

Cynthia stands by my side table, a folded note in her hand.

Cynthia...?

"What are you doing?" I ask as I storm into my room. Cynthia slowly backs away from the table, hands trembling and eyes wide like a deer's in oncoming traffic. The note slips out from between her fingertips and disappears under Martina's bed.

"I-I..." The next few words come out in incoherent stutters, until she cries, "It wasn't my idea!"

"What?" I take long strides towards her, forcing her to cower in fear. "Whose idea was it, then?"

God, she looks so innocent, petite form shaking like a leaf. I almost feel bad—almost. "It was N-Natalie's," she stammers. "Not mine. I swear, Whitney."

My fist clenches by my side hearing her stupid name. "Then why are you in my room? With another note? What's the point of all of it?" I bend down and pick it up from the floor and then shove it in her face. "Don't you know how fucking sick I am of seeing these everywhere?"

She opens her mouth to speak, but only air comes out, as another voice cuts hers short.

"Cynthia, where are you?" Natalie hisses.

I hear her footsteps in the doorway, and I spin around to face her. She looks like she's about to say something else, until her bug-like eyes fall on my fuming face. Her cheeks pale, and she backs out of my room, life seeming to flash before her eyes.

"W-what are you doing here?"

I snort. "Me? What am I doing here?" I burst out of my room, not caring if I have to fight her in the hallway. "Shouldn't I be asking you that question?"

She clasps her mouth, and her back hits the wall behind her. In the standstill, Cynthia dashes out of my room and out of the building, short legs blurring with speed. Natalie, on the other hand, still doesn't speak.

"What?" I snap, dropping my palms to my sides. "Are you only confident on paper or something? I don't remember you being mute this whole time."

"I'm not the person you should be mad at," she blurts. "It's Adriana. This was all her idea, I swear. I didn't even know who you were before this, Whitney."

Adriana? I blink and expect to land in the Book of Genesis, with the whole Adam, Eve, and the serpent scenario playing out before me. I shove past Natalie's shaking body and march down the hallway to Adriana and Willow's room. To my luck, the door is wide open, as Willow walks into the room at the same time as I do.

"You," I sneer. I shove a finger into Adriana's face, although my hand is itching to send a punch to her face. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"You okay, Whitney?" Willow's voice wavers as Adriana climbs off her bed and starts stalking towards me. She looks between the two of us, bewildered at our equally baleful glares.

She leers at the note in my hand. "Wow, congrats, you found out who's behind those little pieces of paper," she says. "Did you really think Natalie was capable of all of this by herself?"

I snort, unable to understand how this girl takes herself seriously. "Do you actually think it requires some special genius to send stalker notes to someone for a whole month?"

"Wait, what?" Willow walks in between us. "What is she talking about, Adriana?"

"Stay out of this, Willow," Adriana snaps and holds up a hand. "This is between me and Whitney."

I drop my hands to the sides of my pants, the sound shocking an addled Willow. "I beg to differ, Adriana, since I just saw Cynthia sneaking into my room earlier. Who else do you have in on this? Bob? Cindy?"

She wrinkles her brow. "Wait, Cynthia? Who even is that?"

In that exact moment, Natalie whirs by our room and follows Cynthia's lead, but Adriana catches her at the last minute. We crowd the small dorm room—Adriana, Willow, Natalie, and I—yet despite all the familiar faces, I'm nowhere closer to understanding this situation or if any of my theories are even correct.

"Why the hell am I hearing someone else is involved?" Adriana barks, cornering Natalie. "I paid you to write and send the notes, you bitch, not your pathetic little friend! I can't believe you, Natalie. I trusted you."

"I'm sorry," she whispers, bearing the guilt of a convict before a judge. "I just—I was scared, Adriana! I didn't want to get caught!"

"Paid? Scared?" I drag my hands through my hair, on the brink of insanity. I'm unsure where to start, with Adriana paying Natalie to implement her masterplan or Natalie chickening out and throwing the job on her impressionable roommate. "Can one of you crazies finally give me a clear answer about what the hell is going on?"

"Me? Crazy?" Adriana shoves Natalie out of the way and sends her reeling forward into her pink-themed bed. "You should really watch your mouth, since you still won't admit what you did."

"Watch my mouth? Oh, I don't remember being the one sprinkling the words 'slut' and 'whore' in those notes like candy!" I jab myself in the chest and take a calculated step forward. "What have I even done this whole time besides avoid your psycho ass?"

She throws her hands up into the air. "I'm not talking about now, Whitney! This is about last year, when you stole my boyfriend from me, knowing Jonah was in love with me! Not you, you two-faced slut!"

"That's it, I've had enough of your stupid words, you little—" I leap forward and shove her shoulders back, making her lose her balance. She hits her back on the edge of her dresser and knocks over half of her makeup and hair products, the floor a mess of Bath and Body Works.

"No, I've had enough of you!" she screams and clambers to her feet. She sends me tumbling back into the solid doorframe with one powerful push. "How could you take Jonah away from me and then have the audacity to make him sleep with you? You're fucking disgusting!"

"Jonah?" I repeat. "This whole time, these notes were really about him? Your eighth-grade boyfriend?"

"He was more than that to me!" she cries. "I spent years trying to get him to like me again, and one year into our relationship you took him away from me like—like-like the little double-dealing thief you are! How could he have broken up with me for you? You're so-so—ugh!"

I blink and absorb all of her accusations, having never had so many derogatory terms aimed at me in a five-minute period. "Adriana, this all has to be one massive misunderstanding," I say. I try not to laugh at her desperation for Jonah of all people, her face scrunching up like an overripe piece of fruit. "I'd never dream to sleep with Jonah. Heck, we never even kissed. He was my homecoming date and just some guy I talked to for, like, three months. Even then, I still don't even know why he asked me in the first place." I rub the back of my shoulder, which met the door earlier. "And, if it helps, he's the opposite of my type. I'm not into guys who weigh twenty pounds less than I do—or you, for the matter."

She tightens her arms over her chest, face tomato-red. "Do you really think I believe a word you say? You have no idea how long it took to trust my best friend after she dated him before I did in high school." Actually, six months, given the timeline in my head. She sends a glare to Willow, who hasn't uttered a word this whole time. "Why the fuck would I trust you?"

I wonder if hearing the truth from her supposed friend will help her realize she's drowning in a delusion. I bore my eyes into Willow's skull, but she doesn't even look my way, her eyes trained on her black slippers. Adriana huffs and stands in front of her, hands on her hips like an indignant toddler.

Willow looks up and swallows a gulp. "Whitney is right, Adriana. This is a misunderstanding."

I throw my arms up into the air. "See, Adriana—"

She cuts me off. "This is a misunderstanding...that's partly my fault. I just never imagined you would take it this way, Adriana. I can't even believe what I've been hearing this whole time."

Adriana whirls around, her beet-red face still emanating misplaced rancor. "Oh, don't act like you didn't do worse things to people. A couple 'scary' notes have nothing on terrorizing half your high school."

Great, not only am I stuck getting dragged into drama that isn't mine, I have to attend the Psychopath Olympics, as well.

Willow squeezes her eyes shut and lets out a small breath. When she opens them, she turns to Adriana, now emotionless. "Look, Adriana, I don't know if I would really classify us as friends. You've never been there at my worst and I certainly not yours, and what I'm about to admit will confirm that. But..." She glances at me, wincing in guilt. "I don't want to say what I'm about to say, for Whitney's sake."

My heart sinks to my stomach. I don't know how many more blows I can take, especially when I finally started to make peace with high school this week. She drags a hand down her face and sighs through her fingertips.

"Do you remember the rumor you spread about a certain somebody? The one that spread not only around our friend group, but her extended family and her team?" I watch the two of them cautiously, noting Adriana's widening eyes. "Her tennis team?"

Adriana presses a hand over her mouth. "You're not talking about—"

"Mina," I blurt. "You're talking about Mina. Right?"

Willow spins around. "How did you know?"

"I didn't." But I feel like I know where this is going, and it's not good...

"Well, actions have consequences, Adri," she says, rolling the R in her name. "And let's say Mina knew how to hit you where it'd hurt. I just hate that it came at...Whitney's expense." She adds much more quietly, "And I played along with it."

I replay the last two sentences in my head three times, each reiteration making the world grow a little fuzzier. "What did you say?"

Adriana is awfully quiet now, and Willow finishes as her spokesperson. "Whitney...I think it would be best if Mina explained, since this has much more to do with her than me."

"That little bitch! I can't believe her!"

"I am so done with her!"

I stand frozen as the pieces fall into place, finally knowing who Mina was ranting about that day. My first instinct is to call her, but I don't know if I'm ready to see our friendship fall apart after everything else that has already happened tonight.

"Are you okay?" Willow asks softly. She tries to reach for my arm, but I yank it away, not wanting any of her fake sympathy.

"You know what?" I say, grabbing my phone from my pants pocket. I march to the door and pause before getting as far away from here as possible. "You can both fuck off. You people are all the same, no matter how hard you try to delude yourselves. I'm just the stupid one for having ever believed otherwise."

I let their door slam shut behind me and march out of the same exit that both Cynthia and Natalie fled from. I have no energy left to confront the two of them, knowing karma will come for them in the future.

I have to save what's left of it for a long, sweet phone call with my supposed best friend.

Jogging down the grass, I decide not to stop someplace obvious, like those stone benches. Instead, I keep going and going, until I can hear crashing waves and the calls of seagulls. I make my way up the sand and stop a few feet from the shoreline, knowing if this news is going to be bad, I'd like to hear it with a view.

"Hello?" Mina answers after two rings. "What's up, Whitney?"

"Mina, how could you?" I ask, skipping past the formalities.

She pauses. "How could I what? Are you okay?"

"Mina, I spent over a month finding stalkerish notes from a girl named Adriana, who I'm sure you know very well. Today I found out the reason she wants to annihilate me is because she thinks I stole her boyfriend and slept with him! Jonah, in case you forgot."

The line goes silent for a moment when I say his name. She finally speaks up. "Jonah was her boyfriend."

"Wow, I think we've definitely established that!"

"Fine, look," she murmurs. "I do owe you an explanation. It all goes back to a rumor Adriana spread that I was sleeping with my tennis coach to rig the rankings, which literally couldn't have been further from the truth. But Adriana thrived off power plays like that, and word spread like wildfire...eventually reaching my crazy strict Persian parents. You can imagine how long it took for them to believe me, let alone stop treating me like my family's biggest disgrace."

"And how was any of that my problem?"

"It wasn't. I never intended—shit, Whitney, I don't know how to say this without sounding like an awful friend." Maybe because you are. "Basically, I wanted revenge on Adriana, and Willow came into the picture at just the right time. She told me all about Adriana's unhealthy obsession with that guy, Jonah, and how she'd been forcing a relationship on him for the past year. She suggested that I...well, seduce him, knowing Jonah would have dropped Adriana for just about anyone."

"I don't remember the story going like that," I say, starting to catch on.

"No, it didn't. I knew—I knew I wasn't his type, after talking with him a few times. Turns out he had his eyes on you for years but knew you weren't the dating type, so he never made a move. Eventually, I encouraged him to ask you out to homecoming, but I didn't force him to, Whitney. If you had said no, he would have definitely backed off."

My stomach turns a little as I realize I could have prevented this all if I'd never given him the time of day. But then again, how stupid am I to blame myself, when this problem seems to be caused by everyone but me?

"I still don't get it. Yeah, I did go to homecoming with Jonah, but where did Adriana get the idea that I was sleeping with him for shits and giggles?"

"It's complicated," she says. "Jonah broke up with Adriana that night, even though they were never really together in the first place. When I noticed he started flirting with you more—which was all him, by that way—I got a little...creative. Willow started helping me come up with lies to feed to Adriana about you and him to mess with her head, as this sort of mutual revenge thing. We knew she could never actually verify our claims, since Jonah blocked her and cut her off completely." I stand frozen as she finishes, "I just didn't think Adriana would go that far, Whitney."

"Mina," I breathe, struggling to maintain my composure. "Did you ever realize you got your revenge...by using your best friend as a pawn in your game?"

I wish this phone call was a video call, so I could see the look on her face. If it doesn't bear overwhelming guilt right now, then I know Mina is the opposite of who I ever thought she was.

"I didn't think of it that way," she says softly. "You have to put yourself in my shoes. I was so mad at Adriana for ruining my reputation in front of everyone—my friends, my teammates, my dad, even my grandmother. I got back at her in the easiest way possible, while some part of me justified it, knowing you at least got a guy out of it. You never dated anyone before him, Whitney."

"I never even dated him!" I kick a mound of sand in frustration, watching the grains fly up into the air. "That doesn't justify anything you did, especially when you knew who you were dealing with. How could have had the heart to throw me under the bus for that bitch? I was your friend."

"You still are, Whit," she says, voice cracking. "If I had known Adriana would have tormented you like that, I would have just moved on. You can't blame me for not knowing. I was also blinded myself."

I stare up at the gray sky, wondering why the universe plays so many tricks on me. The least I deserve from my own friend is an apology, and she can't even give that to me—if I can even call her a friend anymore.

"I do blame you, Mina," I reply, my voice low, "but maybe I blame myself more. I'm so goddamn tired of people stepping on me—including you."

I give her nothing else and hang up, deciding to finish my business elsewhere. I make it from the beach to the center of camp in record time and slam my fist against Adriana and Willow's door. It takes four knocks for either of them to open the door for me.

The right person appears in front of my face.

"I swear, Adriana, I don't want to ever see another note from you anywhere, anytime. Get out of my life and find a way to use your psycho ass to get your little boy toy Jonah running after you again. I didn't want your boyfriend last year, and I certainly don't want him now." I back her all the way up into the wall on the other side of the room, reveling in her panic. "Because maybe this slut has another man to think about."

Adriana's mouth opens and closes; in fear or shock, I can't even tell. Willow senses disaster and climbs off her bed to try to wedge herself in between us, but I hold a hand up.

"Consider this the last you see of me," I say, backing up. I turn to Willow, my eyes flickering with a certain disappointment. "You should really get a life though, Willow. I actually have an ounce of faith left in you."

I have none left in my luck, having a feeling this isn't the last of my misfortune.