He must have felt the shiver go through me again. I was a little irritated by my body for responding when I wasn’t sure if I wanted it to, and then I thought, Why not? This could be the twist of the night for me—even the twist of the year. Ever since sophomore year, I had made it my rule to never hook up with anyone from school. I knew that was one reason Jacob thought I was mysterious. But now, school was almost over.

I didn’t say anything, but I turned my face to his, and I let him kiss me.

There were a couple of guest rooms tucked in the back of the basement. We found one of the empty ones and locked the door behind us. I pulled his shirt off before we even made it to the bed. I was wearing a white off-shoulder tee printed with a gold tiger, with a lacy red bra underneath. His fingers fumbled a little on the clasp, so I took it off for him. His skin was warm and his body was firmly muscled, and I wanted him physically in a way I hadn’t felt in a while. There was something transactional about it, but that’s what made it work for me. I was under no illusions that he’d want something more with me, and I didn’t want anything more from him. Just this experience, on this bed, his body above and against me, my hands pulling him in.

When I reached for the waistband of his jeans, he told me to wait while he got out a condom. But when I lay back against the pillow, he had his phone in his hand—he must have taken it out of his pocket—and he snapped a bunch of photos.

“What are you doing?” I said, putting a hand up over my face. Even then it didn’t occur to me to cover my breasts.

“You look so beautiful,” he said. “I just want to capture the moment.”

—

The day after the party, the photos appeared.

Haley sent me the link. I was at home, watching mindless TV to get through my hangover, when her text made my phone vibrate.

Someone sent me this. You’re in these pics. WTF?

I clicked through without thinking, and when the first photo loaded, a shock of heat went through me. I sat up abruptly. There I was on the bed in Haley’s basement, one arm over my head, looking straight at the camera as if I’d posed for it. There were four photos, almost identical, as if he’d kept his finger on the red shutter button and snapped them off within a second or two.

The number of likes on the post clicked up as I was looking. The heat that had flushed my body seemed to pulse through me now, my blood surging with each heartbeat.