Spiral by Jacqueline Levine Page A

some sort of serious, life-altering tragedy and turned to drugs and alcohol and bad influences to feel better!
    What’s that you say? You’re not excited? Yeah, we aren’t either. Good luck, Goldmans; you’re going to need it.
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CHAPTER 10
    A fter Shiva, Mom pokes her head into my room. “Sweetheart?” she calls, smiling sweetly. “May I come in and use your laptop? Jim left his at the office, and he’s using mine to get caught up on some work.” “Yeah,” I grunt, turning off my latest movie and handing the laptop to her.
    “Thank you so much.” She sits down at my desk and begins to type and click away. I lie down and stare at the ceiling for a few seconds before growing bored. I pick up my phone, realizing I haven’t spoken to anyone outside of this house in almost four days. When I flip through my missed calls and messages, I see I’ve neglected about a dozen messages from my friends, Frank and Josh. I have four texts from guys on my football team and a few from numbers I don’t recognize.
    What the hell?
I wonder as I sift through them. The most recent text is from Josh, asking if that was me he saw on the news again last night and why haven’t I called him back yet. The question blares at me in big, shouting capital letters. I peer up at my mom, who obliviously clicks and types at my desk. I text him back quickly and tell him to grab Frank and meet me in the food court of the mall tomorrow.
    Another set of texts are from my ex-girlfriend, Katrina, who also asks what is going on and if the “rumors” are true. I’m not sure what this means. As I start to type, “What ru talking about?”, my mom begins small talk in my direction.
    “Did you have a nice time with Cherie today?” she asks in a faint, hopeful voice.
    “Not really,” I mutter. “Some photographers followed us. They almost trampled Britney.”
    On my phone, Katrina replies, “U and Cherie Belle?”
    I stare at the screen, stunned. I type, “What rumors?”
    My mom sighs. “Yes, I see they found the house finally. They are brazen, aren’t they? I’m sure you took care of her. You always do.” She clicks the mouse pad. “Ooh, a coupon for Kohl’s! Didn’t you say you needed socks?”
    Katrina’s scathing text replies, “Like u don’t know.”
    My eyes nearly roll back into my head. I text back, “I don’t. What is it?”
    “What the hell is going on then?” Katrina persists. I can feel jealousy radiating from her, and I don’t understand why or where it’s coming from.
    “I don’t know what ur talking about,” I type back. No response.
    My mom calls, “Jack? Did you hear me?”
    “Yes, socks,” I say quickly. I sit up and roughly throw my phone into my night stand’s drawer.
    Mom turns and looks at me with a raised eyebrow. “Something wrong?”
    “Nothing,” I mutter. “There are some kinds of rumors going around about me and Cherie in the news, and Katrina’s mad at me.”
    She squints at me as if she finds that hard to believe. Her lips purse to the side, and she tilts her head. “I know all of this media attention is hard, honey. Jim and I are trying to figure out the laws and find out what rights to privacy we have. It’s all very confusing. For now, we can’t really stop them, so just remember not to answer their questions.”
    “Yeah,” I grumble. I twist onto my side and close my eyes to turn off all of the conversations around me.
    Finally, Mom stands and pats my legs gently. “Thanks, honey. You can go back to your movie.”
    “Pass me the laptop?” I ask, too lazy to get up. She rolls her eyes and laughs, handing me the computer before leaving.
    In true Mom fashion, every tab is still open. I start to close each tab, one by one. A bunch of Mom-sites flash before me: Kohl’s New Year’s sale items, Couponclipper.com , a Shoprite weekly flyer. Her email is still open. As I bring the cursor to the little red “x” at the top, the first email catches my eye.
    Jim’s email address