Ninety one

"What?" I asked, not because of people knowing about Uche and I but because she said it was on an anonymous page on the school blog.

"Good news is I know who really hit Nate into the mess he ended up in the hospital," She said and distracted me from the first news she broke to me."Come closer," She whispered and I did."It's Kim."

"What?" I asked again for the second time, not wanting to believe her.

"Kim did it. He told Nick about it yesterday by text. But he's deleted it. Nick was mad at him, I think that's why he deleted it, I don't know."

"Did you save it?" I asked her, just in case it was needed in the future.

"Yeah, but the police already knows; it's what he told Nick. He said his parents talked to Nate's parents and they put it off."

My jaw dropped,"So they just like closed the case?" 

"Yeah." She shrugged, and just immediately, I saw Uche coming to me.

"Casey, give us a minute." He told her and took me by the arm.

"What's up?" I asked him but he inhaled and sighed out a breath after before responding.

"Last night," he started,"You read my text without replying and I thought it was because of what happened with your aunt and you probably didn't wanna talk about it...but I just watched a video Nick sent me and..."

"Nick is talking to you again?" I asked, desperately wanting to change the topic of our conversation.

"No. I don't know...he just sent me the link to the live vid."

"You've seen it?" My heart sank. God only knows the awful things that were said about me in the comments."How bad is it?"

"..." No answer. I blinked repeatedly to hide my anxiety, then I summoned courage.

"Let me see the video." I asked for his phone but he didn't give it.

"The video's been deleted." He claimed and just scoffed because I knew nothing that went up on our school blog ever left it. The videos of Casey and Nick were still there.

"Let me see it, Uche." I demanded this time around, knowing I wouldn't get what I wanted if I didn't insist.

"For real, it's been deleted, Julie..."

"Let me see for my self." I opened my palm in front of him and he took out his phone and gave it to me. I wanted to type his password but I got lazy and just held up the phone to his face.

It opened and good enough for me, it was already in his chats."What did you save Nick as?" I asked even if I saw Nick's name at the top of the chats above mine; hys last message.

"Just Nick, you'll see it." He muttered and just stood there like he was waiting for an important call.

I clicked on Nick's name and saw the link Nick had sent. There was a 'the whole school is calling my cuz a hoe now, hope u happy' underneath the link.

I clicked the link next and it took me to a blank page. I looked up at him; he really didn't lie when he said it's been deleted. But then I kept reloading the page till it as showed a 'this post has been deleted'. 

"What was said in the video?" I asked but he didn't answer immediately,"Uche?"

"Nothing much. Just told everyone we've been secretly dating for a while." He scratched the back of his neck, making me worried.

"Did she insult me?" I asked him, getting angry.

"No." He lied. I could fish out that lie so easily.

"Then what's Nick talking about with that text he sent you after the link?"

"The video's gone, okay? Just forget it. No one's talking about it, I made sure of that." 

"What?" I laughed nervously, still somewhere stuck between anger and worry.

"I got the video deleted. I fixed it."

"Are you fucking with me? Cassie said..."

"I shared the link to our art teacher; the links for the video and for our class group. Then I begged one of my friends to 'alert' everyone not to say anything bullying shit about you in the group because there's a teacher in the group." He poured out and stopped with a sigh.

"And now, I'm going to have to go against my dad and go to the art teacher's competition..." He said after his breath after.

"What the fuck? He's making you do the competition because you helped him do his job?" I didn't even know who I was mad at at that point.

"You think he'd give a shit otherwise?" Uche chuckled.

"And about your dad, what do you mean 'go against him', I thought he wanted you to do the competitions?"

"Nah, he only supports that I go to math and science competitions. Drawing shit is just a waste of time, he thinks."

"If you don't wanna go for any of those shit, just cancel them all. Fuck our arts teacher and..." I paused, holding my tongue from going too far."No disrespect to your dad, but you know what I mean. Fuck everyone." I heaved a sigh of worry and folded my arms against my chest while leaning my back on the wall.

I had remembered what my aunt fad said about Uche's dad thinking I'm a distraction to his son. It was probably because of the competitions he wanted Uche to go to.

"Come here," I opened my arms and whispered to him when he was just standing there and watching me think to myself.

Just then, while he was in my arms, his face buried in my chest, Kim and Nick walked by. Nick wanted to walk passed us so fast but he stopped walking when Kim stopped.

"Yo, you cool with him doing this to your sister here, in front of everyone?" Kim asked Nick and Uche raised his head.

Nick shrugged indifferently,"She's his girlfriend, what do you expect me to do. If she lets him, then he can." Nick blinked repeatedly when Uche stopped leaning over me to hug me and looked at him."I'll be heading to class now." Nick said and walked away.

I tried to notice if Uche showed any anger towards Kim, then I'd be sure he knew it was Kim who did what he was blamed for. He didn't get mad at Kim. Instead, he patted his back.

"Even if she leaves me, she wouldn't go for you. I hope you know that," Uche told him and took my hands to lead me to class.