“Oh my God,” the phone slipped from Amber’s hand it hit the carpet. She didn’t say sorry. Now it was her who looked jumpy and guilty of something. “Oh my God,” she said again, hands on her braids. 

“I know,” Sally said, in her best It’s-going-to-be-okay voice she could put out. She hoped it didn’t sound forced, hoped that it shows she’s really sorry this has happened. She didn’t know whether this was the right time to lay hands on Amber’s shoulders in order to soothe her, or just watch her shake in worry. 

Amber kept saying oh my God about a dozen times as she paced the room left and right, hand on her head. Sally herself kept saying sorry, tried to stop herself but she could not; she’d hate to come across as an unsupportive bad friend. All of a sudden there was a regret feeling of showing Amber the video. Sally felt as though this was her fault but if she had kept quiet about the video wouldn’t that make her a bad friend?

At last, when Amber stopped pacing around, there was silence. 

“So what are you…what are you going to do now?” Sally asked but received no answer. Amber’s head was bent, the braids played a curtain to her face. 

“I think you should sue him, or have him arrested. Revenge porn is against the law, you know.” Silence. Sally thought more of anything better or encouraging to say, she just couldn’t bear all this silence. In all the years since she’d known her in Bellingham Girls High Sally had never seen Amber so low. Even when Amber was embroiled in some drama among other girls or found herself on the receiving end of some school or online shame, Sally had never seen her in this state. 

The silence was so chilling (it was so unlike Amber, she’d always have something to say under any situation) Sally’s “I’m really sorry” fought its way out of her.

When Amber finally lifted her face up to pull the braids back, Sally saw wet lines of tears on each cheek.

“Where did you get it?”

“I was just scrolling on Twitter when I saw a tweet from someone, not Larry, saying they have the Amber Purple sex tape. Of course I didn’t believe that but as I kept scrolling, I stumbled upon more similar tweets from different people, including Giselle Gordons.”

“Giselle? The one in Grade 11?”

Sally nodded. “I thought the whole thing was just a bad joke, you know how social media can be like sometimes. Out of curiosity I clicked the link on one of the tweets and that’s when…yah,” Sally looked down. 

Amber sniffed and wiped off the tears with the back of her hand. It was only a matter of time before her parents could see the video.