Secrets |Toby Cavanaugh|

Chapter 27

We were all sitting at lunch, discussing Emily's move. I sat with the greasy school pizza in front of me and I picked at it. Spencer sat next to us with a plastic bag, "I got it." She said, as I took a small bite of the pizza and forced myself not to spit it out.

"Okay, you're sure Ian can't trace this number back to us?" I asked, swallowing the pizza,

Spencer began to take the phone out, "It's a prepaid phone, I used cash, and the number isn't registered, so service is anonymous." Spencer explained,

"How do you know this stuff?" Hanna asked, 

"Don't you ever watch CNN?" Hanna replied with a blank look and Spencer rolled her eyes, "Not any chance of that. Homeland security is trying to ban these things."

Aria looked behind me at Ian, who was talking to some students, "He acts like he doesn't have a care in the world. He thinks he got away with it."

"Well, he hasn't." Emily responded,

"Okay, so we convince Ian that this isn't about anything but money. Hopefully that'll throw him off of us." Spencer began, holding up the phone,

"If he wants his home movies, it's just gonna cost him. And then when he shows up for the swap, we..."

"Make our own movie." Hanna finished, 

"Right, and we take that, the flash drive, and the prepaid phone into the police." Spencer stated, "The second he responds with a text, we know that he's guilty."

"Send it already." I urged and Spencer typed into the phone before sending it. We all watched Ian and I rolled my eyes at how obvious we were. Ian checked his messages and left the cafeteria, his face grim.

"There must've been a part of me that didn't believe it, because I just... I-I feel..." Aria couldn't finish,

"Numb?" Emily suggested and she nodded,

"Somehow I-I thought I'd feel better when we found out for sure." Spencer said, putting the phone down,

"Well, I know what they do to guys like him in prison, and that makes me feel a lot better." Hanna replied, trying to cheer us up and her phone beeped and we all looked in anticipation, "It's just my mom making sure I stayed out of bed."

The phone Spencer bought beeped and she grabbed it, "He wants to know what we want."

Hanna took the phone from Spencer's hands when she didn't type a reply. Hanna quickly put something in before sending it to Ian.

"Is this the 'Let's love on Hanna' lunch committee?" We all looked up at Mona and I cleared my throat, "Feeling better, sweetie?" Mona asked as she sat down,

"I'm sorry, I have this thing that I have to do." Spencer said, grabbing her stuff and leaving,

"And then there were four." Mona smiled,

"I'll help." Emily stated,

"Yeah, me too."

"Me three." I stated as the three of us stood and followed Spencer. I stopped at the trash can and threw the pizza inside. I stared at it in the bin.

I never knew I was addicted until I tried to stop.