The light must have been from a cellphone as it was piss-weak at lighting up anything more than a few feet away. Still, I ducked back whenever it swung in my direction.
The owner of the light walked through the park as if they were looking for something or someone. I felt a brief spike of fear.
"Zoemi?"
Hearing my name called out in this place right now filled me with dread. Should I run? It was so dark that I was afraid of tripping over something before I could reach the open field.
"Are you here? Can we talk? Please?"
The voice might have sounded plaintive and pleading, but I still recognized it.
Roger Egerton.
But what the fuck was he doing here? It could only be because JR told him.
I was shaded enough by the sign that I typed out a message.
ZoemiLightBringer: Did you send Roger here?!
ZoemiLightBringer: What the actual fuck, why would you do that?
There was no response, so I locked my phone. That told me all I needed to know. JR had set me up.
"Zoemi, I just want to talk."
Roger sounded exhausted somehow.
I peeked around the sign and watched as Roger found a bench no more than 12 feet away and sat down on it. He was so fucking close to spotting me.
Roger turned his light off, but I could still make out his figure in the darkness from the glow on his screen. He was typing something before he seemed to wait.
My phone buzzed annoyingly loud in the silence of the park. I had to duck down before I looked at the screen.
J0LLy-R0g3R: Roger just wants to talk
ZoemiLightBringer: And why the fuck would I care?
J0LLy-R0g3R: Do you have anything to lose by hearing him out?
I squatted there, feeling like my breath was way too loud. My phone was too loud. Even the damn insects were too loud.
I scrolled up to the settings and turned the vibration off.
ZoemiLightBringer: Fine
JR didn't reply. I turned the screen off before peeking out again.
Roger's face was lit up by his screen. He must have been reading the message from JR.
He lowered the phone instead of turning it off. Maybe he wanted me to see him.
"Zoemi..." He seemed to struggle with words. "I wanted to say I'm sorry. For the things I called you. I didn't understand how cruel it was. Sorry for the way that I treated you for the last..."
What was he doing? Was he seriously counting on his fingers?
"Eight years."
"It's seven years," I corrected him.
Fuck. I slapped a hand over my mouth and ducked down. Why the fuck did I do that?
"Seven years?" He sounded confused. He shook his head. "Seven or eight. Does it matter? I've had a crush on you ever since the first time I saw you in elementary school. You were like the girl next door. My girl next door."
He had a crush on me? I didn't know what to think.
"I didn't know what to say, so I said stuff I'd heard on TV. I didn't know what it all meant, just that girls on TV liked it."
I peeked over the edge of the sign, but he hadn't moved.
"It didn't sound like that to me. It was plain mean," I called back.
"I didn't know then how mean it might have sounded. What I did was childish. I can't even blame my brother for giving my younger self poor advice."
"You turned everyone against me!"
I felt my eyes tearing up. Damn, I didn't want to feel like this again.
"You... you didn't deserve it. I spent way too long pretending I wasn't responsible. I can't do that anymore. I understand why you set my computer up at school. I don't blame you. I deserved it. I've been getting tons of hate mail ever since, some of them are pretty vile. The lies hurt just as much as the truth."
"I left enough evidence on your laptop to exonerate you. They should have seen it when they checked it," I called.
"Ah," he said. "I kind of smashed it in the hallway before they got to see it."
"Why the fuck would you do that? That would make you look more guilty!" I said heatedly.
"Yeah, I didn't think of that at the time. It was immature. Like the way I've treated you. You deserved an apology a long time ago, and I'm sorry that it took this for me to see what I did was wrong."
I could hear him let out a deep sigh.
"These words are ultimately meaningless. No one at school cares. I'm still Zoemi blow me. Show me Zoemi. Dummy Zoemi. Fugly Zoemi. You started them. You allowed them to continue it!"
"I know! I wish I could take it all back. I really wish I could! I want to make it right to you somehow."
"How? How would you make it right?" I asked.
"I'll apologize to the school and the class for the video."
"That only helps you!" I pointed out.
He didn't say anything for a moment. "I know. Then I can... I don't know!"
He just sat there, both of us in awkward silence, and me naked. If I hadn't felt so anxious talking to my personal nemesis, I might have had time to feel aroused by it all. As it was, I touched myself gently down there, to find myself dripping wet. Was I aroused by Roger?
I looked back at Roger. His face was lit up by his phone as he typed something.
Roger stood up. "I'll make it right for you, somehow."
He started walking away.
"How?" I called after him. "Roger? How!?"
The sign in front of me lit up, forcing me to look for its source.
It was my phone, with a message.
J0LLy-R0g3R: That's it. There are no more challenges. I'll send your stuff back. I'm really sorry for everything
What the actual fuck? I stared at the message before I looked up.
Was JR actually Roger?
This couldn't be right. Was it Roger this entire time, blackmailing me with these challenges?