It Happened Last Year

Chapter 43

I rush to the cafeteria, to the table, then to Jana. She is sitting with Watts, Taylor, and Jordan, but I yank her up and drag her out, ignoring her "what are you doing" and "Hailey, what's going on" until we make it out of the cafeteria doors. The hallways are sparse with students, and I take her back to where Sam took me, yet he's gone as I expected. I wonder what he's thinking.

I let her go and she lets out a weird laugh. "Will you tell me what that was all about? You know, I could have followed you, you didn't have to pull me out."

"Shut up," I breathe out, panicking. "Something bad has happened."

Her face turns serious. "What? Is it Harrison? Daphne? Did they do something?"

"Actually, yes, but I need to explain, and before I do, I'm sorry."

"Sorry? For what?"

"For not telling you this sooner," I give her a sad smile, hoping this will make her less offended by my explanation. As my best friend, I should have definitely told her when it first happened, not Daniel, not someone so unsure in my life. "I have proof that Harrison...did what he did."

She steps back. "What? How?"

"It was caught on video through a window. Some kid named Sam was filming at the party last year and caught us through Harrison's bedroom window, and the video shows enough."

"This is crazy. We—we have to take it to the police, You're gonna get justice, payback for—"

"It's not that easy anymore," I mumble.

"What do you mean? Do you not have the video?"

"Well, I did. Now I don't."

She raises an eyebrow. "You lost it, didn't you? Did you make any copies? Do you know where it might be?"

We pause our conversation as a teacher walks by. He smiles and says "good afternoon" and we say it back, then Jana turns to me with a questioning face. "I put the USB in my locker thinking that it would be safe there, right? Well, I went to get it a few minutes ago and it's not there. Someone broke into my locker and took it. And the kid, Sam, said that they knew. Harrison knows I have proof. Harrison has the USB."

Jana falls back against the locker. "So what? We have to steal it back from him? How are we gonna do that?"

I pause for a moment. "It could be in his locker."

"And you know his code?" She asks sarcastically.

"Well if he got into my locker somehow, then we can get into his."

"Do you even know which locker is his? Do you know the number?"

I sigh. "Stop being so hard on me."

"When did you get the USB from this Sam kid?"

I bite my cheek. "I don't know. A week ago."

She gives me a very dramatic look. "A week ago? I thought you were going to say this morning, or maybe yesterday, but a week!"

"I couldn't do it then. I don't know, it's hard to explain. I just wasn't in the right mind. I just wasn't right," I murmur and look to her. "Things aren't right anymore, Jana. I don't know how to tell you this, but my Dad is moving back to Florida and—"