I am visibly shaking with a chaotic amount of emotions swarming me. I'm angry, shocked, heartbroken, upset, but most of all confused.

How can someone I love, someone I thought nobody could ever compare to, do something so horrid? And to her friend of three years?

Everyone has a specific way they text.

Reid uses perfect grammar and never shortens his words, yet always uses two question marks or two exclamation marks.

Preston? Miss spells half of his words and never bothers to correct them. And uses way too many gifs to convey his emotions.

Alyssa? Almost always uses abbreviations. If she had to wright an essay using only shortened words, she can do it.

MaKenna keeps her texts short and to the point. If she has a lot to say, she'll send ten different texts instead of putting it all in one paragraph. And her favorite emoji is the smug looking smiley face.

So when Colton showed us the text messages;

Expose him😌

I want everyone

to know

I knew right away that, though it read as Alyssa's number, it was MaKenna who did the texting. Sure, maybe that's a stretch and McKenna had nothing to do with it, but I don't think I'm wrong. And knowing this kills me.

I love MaKenna. I thought MaKenna was the one and that no one had a more beautiful soul than her. I fantasized about us being together and her meeting my family for years. I was planning on making my fantasy a reality and ask her to prom. This is the girl I've wanted ever since we met. The girl who doesn't let me kill any bug because 'every life is precious'. The girl who wants to be a social worker to help kids in foster care.

And then I find out she's homophobic and is capable of doing something as disgusting as sending pictures of my friend and his boyfriend kissing to Colton Rivers? Did McKenna leave the photo in Reid's mailbox too?

I feel sick. This is wrong, this has to be wrong. "There has to be an explanation for this," I say.

We are all at Grayson's house now, sitting in his TV room. Marisa sitting on a La-Z-Boy, Jessica sitting next to Grayson. Preston's kneeling on the floor, angrily eating out of a Cheetos bag, Reid at the edge of the couch cushion, his knee bouncing up and down profusely. I know that if Grayson wasn't sitting so close to Reid and gently rubbing Reid's thigh, Reid would be in the midst of a panic attack right now.

But I couldn't sit still, instead I was pacing the room and biting my nails while thinking of a hundred excuses as to why MaKenna and Alyssa would do something like this, but none of the reasons are justified.

So Reid dated Alyssa and he is gay now. Who fucking cares! Is that really a reason to out him?

"Well, unless Alyssa was held at gun point and forced to take photos of them, I'm pretty sure the only explanation is that she's a homophobic bitch."

I cringe at Preston's harsh words. Then I almost gasp at Reid for what he says next.

"This is my fault," Reid mutters.

We all turn to him confused, but his head falls shamefully into his hands to avoid our stare.

"Baby," Grayson gently grabs Reid's hands, bringing them away from his face. "You don't honestly believe that, do you?"

"I broke up with Alyssa the day after having sex with her then start dating you—"

"She practically forced you into it!" Preston cuts in angrily, jumping to his feet with wild hands.

"What?!" I exclaim. Marisa and Jessica look equally shocked. Did Alyssa force Reid to have sex with her?

Reid ignores my bewildered outburst. "Either way, it still happened and she hated me for it. Of course Alyssa would want to get back at me."

"This is beyond 'getting back at you'" Grayson scoffs.

Almost at the same time I mutter, "MaKenna," the name dry on my tongue. All eyes were now on me. "It was MaKenna who texted Colton," I explain.

.

.

.

"But the number was—"

"Alyssa's," Alex finishes for Preston. "I know. But it was MaKenna who was texting. I mean look at the way she texted," he tells us and motions to my phone that has a picture of the text messages between Alyssa and Colton saved on it. (We made Colton delete the messages and photo afterwards). "Is there a single abbreviation in there?" Alex asks as I reread the texts with Grayson and Jessica leaning over me on either side, to see the messages as well.

Alex is right. Alyssa shortens all of her words. I look back up at Alex and shake my head before Preston snatches the phone from me to check for himself.

"So what?" Grayson questions, looking confused.

"So, Alyssa always uses abbreviations," I state and Alex nods in agreement. "And, assuming McKenna was with Alyssa at the time, she most likely texted Colton off of Alyssa's phone." I frown and glance at Alex, "I'm sorry," I can't help but say.

"For what?" Alex wonders.

"Well because..." I trail off.

"Because the girl of my dreams was the reason why my friend was outed to the entire school and to his parents in the most humiliating way possible? It's not your fault MaKenna was involved."

"This is still Colton's fault, he didn't have to do anything with the text," Marisa inputs to which she got three responses for;

The first being, "I could give him another black eye!" from Preston exclaiming, not helpfully.

The second is me noting that, "At least he's suspended," with a shrug.

And the third response being from Grayson; "There wouldn't be any picture to expose us with without McKenna and Alyssa taking those photos."

"Well, what do we do now?" Maris asks, stumped.

"Um confront them!" Preston shouts excitedly like it was the most obvious solution.

"I was thinking we get them back. Reid, I know Alyssa sent you nudes," Grayson says suggestively.

I gasp at what my boyfriend's hinting at. "We can't do that! That's horrible!"

"And what they did to us isn't horrible?" Grayson questions, his voice growing in volume.

"I'm not saying it isn't. But A: I deleted them because, ya' know, I'm with you. Oh, and also I'm gay. And B: we don't need to stoop to their level. We aren't as shitty as them."

"You really deleted them?" Preston asks. I roll my eyes at him. "I mean, have you seen Alyssa?"

"Yes, I have, but incase you're unaware, I'm kind of-"

"Into dick, my dick," Grayson finishes with a wink. I hear Alex and the girls chuckle as Preston grimaces and I blush fiercely, wacking Grayson's arm.

"Whatever, we're not sending out any pictures of her or McKenna," Alex says, bringing the topic back on the issue at hand and not on my sexual preference, thank you very much. "We'll confront Alyssa, but please, let me talk to MaKenna first."

"What for?" Preston asks, his eyes narrowing.

"I don't know, I just... there's no way someone like her, someone I..."Alex stops himself but I know what he's trying to say. How can someone he loves do something like this? Instead, Alex finishes with, "I just need to understand why."

"Who cares! Move on from her," Preston tells him, unsympathetically.

"No," I say, then face Alex, "look, it doesn't matter their excuse, I'm never going to be friends with them again because of this even if they regret it and apologize. But that doesn't mean you have to end things with McKenna for my sake. I don't want to be the reason you two never date and I wouldn't blame you if you still asked her out to prom like you wanted."

"I don't know what I'm gonna' do yet," Alex tells us before a 'ding' rings out from his phone. Alex checks his notifications. "I gotta go actually," he looks up at us, "We should just confront them tomorrow."

"You gotta leave?" I ask, and feel even more confused when I see a mini van pull up in my driveway from the living room window.

"Yeah, sorry. Kurtis is here to pick me up," Alex explains.

"Kurtis?" Grayson questions with a smirk and sits up.

"Yeah, we exchanged numbers on Friday, after I drove him home," Alex shrugs, "he's pretty cool, I guess," he tells us casually, tying his white Converse on.

Me, Grayson, and the girls, share a knowing glance while Preston looks lost.

"What? A man can be friends with another man who happens to be gay," Alex states firmly.

"Well, yeah," I say with the 'duh' implied.

While Preston jokes, "I wouldn't call you a 'man.'"

"I ship it," Maris claims. Her and Jessica giggle.

"No. No, no, no" Alex rejects, shaking his head profusely while all of us wolf-whistle and holler at him, "there will be no 'shipping'. Kurtis and I are friends. Nay, acquaintances. Goodbye, losers," Alex flips us off before closing the front door behind him.

Once the grey, mini van is driving off, Grayson says, "Ten bucks Kurtis will confess his love for Alex within two weeks."

I roll my eyes and swat at my boyfriend's shoulder. "Anyway, what if they still have the pictures on their phone? If we had proof they took the photos, could we report it as a hate crime or something?" I wonder. "I mean, what's confronting them really gonna' do? Just let them know that we know."

"They need consequences," Jess states firmly, slamming her fist into her palm like a mallet in courthouse.

"But I don't think the school gives a shit," Grayson says, is voice deflated.

"What about the police?" I offer. I really don't know anything about what kind of trouble, if any, that Alyssa and McKenna could get into for what they did. I just know Grayson's right, I shouldn't have brushed this off like it was nothing. "I mean, they took our photos without permission?"

"AND, you're only seventeen! Can't they get charged for child pornography?" Preston asks.

"I don't know," Jessica shrugs, "I think you could press charges on them? I don't know how that works."

"I bet the photo you took of their text messages is all you need for proof, right?" Marisa jumps in.

"Maybe, but I want every picture they took of us deleted," I say, feeling anger beginning to boil inside of me.

"From their phone? How would we even do that?" Jessica asks which brought us all into a considering silence. Each of us trying to string up a way of how to get Alyssa and McKenna's phone.

Marisa gasps as she stands up with a triumphant grin, "I have a plan!"