Twenty-Seven

Kadence

Found Video Footage

Kadence Mulligan’s Laptop

Date Unknown

Image opens.

Kadence sits on a stool in front of the red velvet curtain again. She’s in full makeup, but one of her false eyelashes looks improperly applied and hangs halfway off, giving her the appearance of a drooping eye. Her usually full magenta hair is flat on one side, like she’s been sleeping on it and hasn’t looked in the mirror. Though her makeup is thick, there are still visible shadows underneath her eyes.

“Hello, my beautiful Kady-Dids!” she says cheerfully, giving a wide, toothy smile, but within seconds, it falters, then collapses completely. She gets off the stool and comes forward as if she’s about to switch the camera off, but then she says, “You know what? You are my fans, and I know you’ll love me no matter what. Right, guys?”

She sits back down on the stool. She takes a deep breath and looks away from the camera. She blinks hard, the false eyelash that’s barely attached flapping wildly. She notices and angrily pulls at it until it detaches. She winces slightly, but then a moment later yanks at the other one until it comes free too. She drops them to the floor, still breathing heavily and not saying a word. Finally, after another half minute of full silence, she looks back up at the camera.

“I try to make this a positive show, you know, guys? I try to look on the bright side of life. But sometimes…” Tears track down her cheeks.

“I’ve talked a lot about Lauren and me on the show. Well, today I want to tell you a story about a boy. Not my boy.” Kadence smiles sadly and swipes at her cheeks. “This is a story about Lauren’s boy. You see, when I told you the story of how I met Lauren that day in seventh grade, I didn’t tell you the whole story.

“Before I became Lauren’s best friend, she had another best friend. A boy named Nathan. I never knew that. She never said anything about him being her friend. Not a single thing. All she ever said was that this Nathan kid was sort of creepy and that he would follow her around. She told me he said mean things to her. Naturally, I tried to protect her from him. Whenever he came close, I steered us in the other direction.” Kadence looks up at the camera and her eyes are full of emotion as if she’s pleading with her audience.

“He backed off the rest of that year. It didn’t get really ugly until eighth grade when Lauren complained to her counselor that Nathan was stalking her.” Kadence’s face scrunches up and she shudders. “Word got around. Lauren made sure of it. I assumed it was the truth—I never imagined she could be vindictive and lie about something like that.”

Kadence squares her shoulders and sits up straighter on the stool. “But it turns out that sometimes you never really know someone. Even the person who’s so close to you that you call her sister…” Another tear runs down her cheek, but she doesn’t stop talking. “Anyway, I didn’t think anything about this. Yes, it was sad that this boy was bullied because of what Lauren told everyone. Bullied so bad that he had to change schools. But like I said, I didn’t think anything of it.” Kadence shakes her head.

“I know that was selfish of me not to think more about it, but I was young. I guess that’s no excuse.” She shakes her head again and looks off to the side. She swallows hard and then continues, looking back up at the camera. “I didn’t know the full story until the boy came back this year and confronted me.

“He changed his name, changed his look. He’d really gotten himself together, moved past all the hurtful things that Lauren had done to him. And that’s when he told me that he hadn’t been just some guy to Lauren. He had been her best friend before I came to town and she completely dropped him. Started ignoring him like he was nothing, like he’d never existed. Just like that, poof!

“They’d spent practically every day together for like four years, and then one day she cut him loose like he was nothing. He told me that hurt worse than any of the things people said to him, more than any of the times he got beat up.” Kadence swipes at her eyes again. “I’d never seen someone look so raw like that, this guy who was a stranger to me really, coming up and telling me all of these things that I knew were so dark and deep to him. But he was baring his soul to me and all because he wanted to warn me.

“He was telling me who Lauren really was. He said I needed to know. He said this because”—Kadence’s voice breaks—“because there were rumors about the way she was looking at my boyfriend.”

Kadence’s whole body shakes on the stool now in open sobs, and her words can barely be heard. “I don’t know if he told me as a way”—sob—“to get back at her…or, or”—sob—“because he was genuinely”—sob—“worried about”—sob, hiccup—“me. But I followed them to this fort in the woods, and I saw”—she gulps for air—“I saw…them making out. Heavily. All over each other.”

She is silent several long minutes while she gets herself under control. The video keeps recording through it all. She goes offscreen for a minute and then comes back with a box of Kleenex. She wipes her eyes and blows her nose and then goes offscreen again, coming back without the Kleenex. She sits back down on the stool again. Her breathing is calmer in spite of her puffy eyes and slightly reddened nose.

She looks straight into the camera. “I thought I knew Lauren DeSanto. But I was wrong, and what Nathan told me only confirms it. Lauren was never the girl that I thought. I’m not the first person that she’s done this to. Stabbed in the back. Betrayed by messing around with their boyfriends. There have been others. Another girl back when we were in eleventh grade, the same girl who beat us in the eighth-grade talent show, who I guessed Lauren still felt threatened by.

“Turns out Lauren slept with her boyfriend and totally destroyed her confidence until she moved away from our school. I mean, I can barely believe it, but after what happened with her and”—she gulps, tears shimmering in her eyes again—“and my…” She swipes angrily at her eyes. “After what happened to me, I went and talked to that other girl’s boyfriend. At the time, I’d never believed the rumors, but he confirmed it. And now with Nathan’s story and what’s happened to me, it’s a pattern. I guess she gets off on this stuff.”

Kadence’s jaw tightens and she looks furious. “Lauren seems like a shy, unassuming girl. Like you’d never think she could pull off a lie if she wanted to. But that’s the way she wants to come off. It’s the ultimate mask. She’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and I’m going to confront her about it all. She had the audacity to ask me to play at the coffee shop where she works. As if she hadn’t all but slept with my boyfriend! As if she hadn’t betrayed me deeper than any friend can betray another.”

Kadence shakes her head in disbelief and swipes angrily at another tear. “But that’s fine with me. I’m going to go sing at her coffee shop. And afterward I’m going to talk to her. I’m going to say everything that’s ever needed to be said. And she is going to answer for what she’s done.”

The image goes dark.