Just a Little Crush(64)
“Yeah, the one I met at the frat party. Her roommate was the dance major. Leena, right?”
“Yeah, that’s them. Well, Mel is a staff writer for The Sutton Star and they are covering some big campus scandal. It makes the university look bad since it involves students, so they are, of course, eating it up at the paper.” She sat on her bed, across from me. “It seems a large group of guys are participating in a competition and running a website where they track what they are doing. Someone outed them. Turned over the website login and everything, giving the paper full access to the site.”
“What kind of competition?”
“They are ranking female students and competing with one another over them to earn points.”
“Like that website that ranked people on looks?”
“Sort of, but in this case they get points for getting into girls’ pants.”
My palms dampened and my pulse sped. “Any girl?”
“No, specific girls. They are added and then ranked. Based on their level of attractiveness, they are assigned a point value.”
My stomach churned. “So, like, a guy sleeps with a girl then the other guys decide how many points she’s worth?”
“Um, no. Girls get added then guys compete to see who can sleep with her first. It’s crazy how involved this is, but they have an elaborate point system with bonus points and everything.” She stared at her hands, then at me. “There are points for sex in unusual places, more than once in a twenty-four period, everything. Even virgin bonus points.”
I swallowed. “Places like…your parents’ house?”
She didn’t make eye contact as she said, “Maybe. I don’t remember all the details.”
My entire body felt numb, yet my insides quaked. My stomach rolled with anxiety and my heart sat heavy in my chest. “Is Ryder a part of this group?”
She frowned as she reached for her laptop. “Mel emailed me these. I just wanted you to see them for yourself. When the story goes live, the website will probably disappear but the paper took screen shots. When they run the article, faces will be blurred in these photos but…well, see for yourself.”
She handed me her laptop and I stared at a picture of myself. I had no idea where it came from or when it was even taken. It was a candid shot, maybe when I was in conversation with someone. I was wearing a sweater my grandma had given me for Christmas, so it had to be in January. Next to my photo was my name and stats. It had my age, my classification as freshman, a point value based on “hotness” and then the word “bonus,” followed by the word “virgin.”
My eyes welled as I continued down to another picture. Conquered was stamped over it in red block letters. This picture I recognized though. It was the one Fallon had taken of Ryder and me yesterday.
Under the picture it had several numbers and a grand total followed by the user name RBriggs. Along the left sidebar was the caption “Leaderboard” and topping the list was RBriggs.
I shook my head. “This is fucked-up. I mean, who does this? It’s elaborate and…I’m going to be sick.” I pushed the laptop onto my bed and paced across the room several times. “When—when does this story come out?”
“Thursday.”
“So all along I was…a game. I’m a fucking game to him?” Tears streamed down my face as I balled my hands into fists. “What kind of sick assholes do this?”
“The website is registered to some guy who lives in Ryder’s dorm.”
“Marcus?”
“Yeah. That’s his name.”
Unbelievable. “He’s the techie Noah told me about. Wait, is Noah involved?”
“Is his last name Price?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“Check the leaderboard.”
On the leaderboard, under Ryder’s username was NoPrice. “That’s what this was about. All along. The arguments. Everything. They were arguing about this right in front of me. Noah tried to warn me. He said something about me not being special. He even made a comment about Ryder winning. I’m such an idiot.” I slammed down onto my desk chair and buried my face in my hands.
“You couldn’t have known. I’m sorry. Really I am. Ryder seemed like a nice guy. He fooled everyone.”
“Print that out for me,” I croaked.
“What?”
“Print me a copy of what you just showed me, please.”
She grabbed her laptop and a second later the printer spit out a sheet. I snatched it and grabbed my phone.
“Where are you going?”
“To congratulate the winner.”
“I’m coming with you.” Fallon followed me into the hall.