Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 28826 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 144(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 96(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28826 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 144(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 96(@300wpm)
10
Emily
Janine clicks something on her laptop and then squeals with excitement before jumping up and down. The rapid movement startles me so that I smear the pink nail polish I’m applying all over my cuticle.
“Hey, watch it!” I complain. “Now look what you made me do.” I start cleaning up the mess, but Janine is still bouncing up and down in excitement.
“Will you stop?” I laugh, trying to focus. My sister is very excitable, and anything can set her off, so I think nothing of it. But in the next second, she tackles me so hard that we land on the bed together.
“What the hell?” I giggle, trying to get her off me. “What happened? Why are you acting so crazy?”
She’s laughing so uncontrollably, she’s almost crying.
“You’ll never believe it,” she says in elation. “They just posted our grades. I passed my chemistry test. With a B+.”
“Well done!” I say, hugging her. After all, my efforts to tutor Janine were a flop, so we switched tutors. Tucker’s the one tutoring her now, and believe it or not, it works. Something about her boyfriend giving her extra sexual favors if she passes. I guess we all need motivation!
“No, you don’t get it,” Janine continues with a grin, propping herself up on her elbow so she can look me in the eye. “I passed the other tests as well. This has pulled my GPA up by so much that I’m not on academic probation anymore! I’m going to graduate on time!”
“Whoa,” I say. “That’s amazing news!” I’m filled with happiness for my sister because she deserves it after working so hard. “Let me see,” I demand excitedly. We sit up and Janine pulls her laptop over to show me the school portal’s interface. I beam at all the B’s and C’s flickering on screen. Janine will never be a straight A student and that’s okay because not everyone is destined to be a stellar performer. It’s just not my sister’s thing. And by the looks of it, it’s not necessary either: all she wanted to do was graduate on time, and now that will come to pass.
“This is great!” I exclaim. “Wait, what’s that?” I ask as I see an email notification pop up.
“Oh, just an email,” Janine dismisses, wanting to get back to the celebration of her grades.
I squint.
“No, look,” insist. Just before the notification times out and dissolves, we both see that the email is from Twin Fest, and the subject line is “NSFW – Not suitable for work.” How intriguing.
“Quick, open it,” I say, blinking with curiosity. I have no idea what it is, but I have a strong feeling it has to do with that crazy party we ended up at. It was so wild and hot, and I still can’t believe it really happened. Janine nods, and opens her email account with lightning speed before going straight to her inbox, and clicking on the icon from Twin Fest. Our eyes race along the lines. The email is short. All it says is:
Dear VIP Guests,
Thank you for taking part in our exclusive event. Please find your event photos by clicking the link below. Your password xp34j^. Please do not share this link or your password with anyone else.
Regards,
Twin Fest
Just like the email says, it ends with a link.
“Click it, click it!” I whisper, my heart starting to race. Janine is excited too, and I can tell by how her hand trembles as she operates the scroll pad. She clicks the link, enters the password, and we watch as a download bar appears on the screen. Then her laptop screen suddenly goes black.
“Shit!” Janine curses, getting up. “Stupid crappy laptop.” It’s a very old machine, and it wasn’t great even when it was new. Just a cheap one our parents could afford. These days, it needs to be plugged in to handle large files, so if this is such a large file, does it mean the download contains pictures? Or even videos? I’m impatient to find out.
“Come on,” I egg my sister on as she fumbles with the power cord.
“I’m trying!” Janine protests, sitting down at her desk as the screen lights back up. We both sigh with relief. What’s more, now that the power cord is connected, the download bar fills up quickly.
Janine clicks on the file once it’s done. I’m standing behind her, looking at the screen over her shoulder, but I lean forward impatiently as the laptop whirs, taking forever to display the file’s contents. Janine thrums her fingers with anticipation.
Finally, after what feels like forever, a list of .jpeg files appears, listed in numeric order on the screen. Yep, they’re pictures, alright!
“Oh my gosh,” I breathe, as Janine hastily clicks “open all.”
“Holy fuck,” my twins gasps.
“Wow,” I chime in, my eyes like saucers.
At first, it seems okay. There are a couple of innocuous photos in the beginning. There’s me holding hands with Jason, and Janine with Tucker as we laugh and smile with the Ferris wheel’s sparkling lights in the background. But after the first few shots, our screen is filled with raunchy photos from the secret party at Twin Fest. My heart is in my throat as I take in the contents.