4
Hearing this, Susan panicked.
She tried to act calm. “I didn’t hear you mention anything about an engraving. Maybe we just didn’t see it!”
She paced around the room, agitated, then suddenly said, “Leah, there must be a misunderstanding. I’ll go get the earrings back for you.”
As she made a show of running out, the text appeared again.
[Stop her, Leah! She’s going to get the earrings back before you can and pretend she lost them on the way.]
[Both pairs of earrings will be gone. Your friends all think yours are fake. You’ll have no way to prove your innocence.]
[The social butterfly will take all the blame, playing the victim. It will drive a wedge between you and your friends.]
[Poor Leah. This is the beginning of her isolation.]
I had been on an IV all day and hadn’t eaten much. I was too weak to stop her. All I could do was shout, “Don‘ t bother! I have a camera in my locker. I think the earrings were swapped.”
My words stopped her in her tracks. She looked at me in disbelief. “What? That’s impossible! I… I didn’t see
one.”
She immediately realized her slip–up and quickly corrected herself. “I mean, I’ve never heard you mention a camera.”
“Well, my things are pretty expensive.”
Susan was frozen, not knowing whether to stay or go.
I quickly messaged Brianna, asking her to send a picture of the inside of the earrings.
It turned out that Susan had given her the exact same gift as me. She had swapped them and then vaguely suggested that mine were fake, leading everyone to believe it. But she hadn’t counted on me being prepared after seeing the text. I wasn’t going to let her get away with it..
Soon, Bri sent two pictures. One pair of earrings had a letter engraved inside; the other did not.
I showed the pictures to Susan. “See? The ones with the engraving are the ones I bought. The ones without are the ones you gave her.”
Susan’s face turned ugly. Before I could say another word, she burst into tears.
“I had a friend buy them for me! She must have scammed me! I’m a victim too! I really didn’t do it on purpo- se!”
3/11
Chapter 2
1443 W
She started apologizing profusely in the group chat, playing the part of the deceived victim.
I sent the video of her rummaging through my locker to the group. “You deliberately looked at my gift and bought the same one, didn’t you?”
Susan vehemently denied it. “No! I was just curious to see what you got!”
“Then why did you buy the exact same thing?”
“It was the best–looking style my friend could get.”
She was as stubborn as a mule, refusing to admit her guilt.
I sent the final video,
“Then why did you give me a spoiled drink to make me sick?”
The video showed Susan pouring an old, spoiled bubble tea into my cup, which was what had given me diar rhea,
But she still tried to argue. “It was just a prank! I didn’t mean anything by it!”
I was done with her. I explained her motive to my friends. “You wanted to pass off your fake as the real thing make everyone think I gave a cheap gift while you gave an expensive one, so they would hate me and you could take my place.”
A social butterfly is a social butterfly. She took all the blame, apologizing over and over again with a sincere humble attitude. She even sent screenshots of her “confronting” the friend who had supposedly bought the fake gift for her.
Her performance quickly won everyone’s trust.
