Play the Game Boy (BWWM)

chapter 13

Faith

"I can't trace the owner," Nadine's boyfriend said categorically. Mason was in such a pissy mood already, I wasn't surprised when he only typed a few codes before giving up. "If I was such an excellent hacker, don't you think I would've found out about the creator of the site by now?"

Brendan sighed before taking a few steps back to collapse comfortably in a chair.

We had told Mason about my connection to the gossip website's owner, in the hopes that he could help us unmask the town's über tormentor. He aspired to become a tech engineer and had a whole lot of knowledge on softwares and programming and so he was our obvious pick when it came to getting help with this.

But now that we were in his studio apartment, I didn't know if clueing him in was a good idea after all. He couldn't —although I suspected that he rather wouldn't— help us and now we had a pair of loose lips knowing about our secret. Great. Good thing we didn't tell him about the list. A list he conveniently wasn't a part of, now that I thought about it.

But Mason really couldn't be the cyberbully, it wouldn't make any sense. He and I were mostly on speaking terms because of his status as Nadine's wonderful Prince Charming boyfriend and that was it. He'd never pull me into an urgent web of truths just cause. Besides, his girlfriend was on the list, would he even dare betraying her like this?

"Try a little harder then," Brendan mumbled underneath his breath, but it was only loud enough for me to hear.

As much as my stare looked like it scolded him for coming on too strong, I still was relieved to know my impatience was shared. Mason was acting like the phone number was a series of hieroglyphs and not ten simple digits. He had cracked harder enigmas and codes, why was he so reluctant to do this?

Mason turned from his computer to roll his evergreen eyes at Brendan. Okay, maybe he had heard that swift comment.

"You guys don't understand," he said. "The phone number is that of a burner phone. It's theoretically untraceable."

My eyebrows shot up.

"Theoretically?"

"Unless you're with the feds, any additional info is sealed," Mason explained, passing a hand through his tousled dark hair. Gosh, he looked so much like his brother —not so physically, but in the way two souls who had grown in the same womb resembled one another. "You two could've figured that out on your own."

"What's with the prissy attitude anyways dude?" Brendan finally snapped, as confused as I was about Mason's unusual behavior. He looked tense —scratch that, he was tense.

Mason simply shook his head, as if to gather his thoughts better.

"Nadine's acting up, that's it," he said.

But I knew it was a lie because Nadine was fine, and he and her were amazing.

No, something else was bothering Mason. Something he wasn't telling us, perhaps because it was too close for comfort.

Brendan didn't pick up on the lie however, and saw Mason's response as his cue to leave. He got up and picked up his beige jacket from the place he had let it fall on the desk and got on his feet. He eyed me subtly.