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Back Undone Save as PDF
Chapters (34)
  1. Cover
  2. undone
  3. Dedication
  4. one
  5. two
  6. three
  7. four
  8. five
  9. six
  10. seven
  11. eight
  12. nine
  13. ten
  14. eleven
  15. twelve
  16. thirteen
  17. fourteen
  18. fifteen
  19. sixteen
  20. seventeen
  21. eighteen
  22. nineteen
  23. twenty
  24. twenty-one
  25. twenty-two
  26. twenty-three
  27. twenty-four
  28. twenty-five
  29. twenty-six
  30. twenty-seven
  31. twenty-eight
  32. twenty-nine
  33. thirty
  34. Acknowledgments

Kori was always pretending to be me online, saying really embarrassing things. Sexually explicit, I might add. This was no different. I’d tell her about it and she’d laugh. She’d even be impressed if I could pull it off. That’s how she is. But me? I’m a different story. Pretending to be Kori, just the thought, was enough to make my nerves feel like bacon on a hot skillet.

shaym: Kori? ru there?

My fingertips hovered, grazing the tops of the keys. And then, as if they had their own minds, my fingers began typing.

dynamitehackr: im here

shaym: remember me?

dynamitehackr: how could I 4get?

shaym: i can’t believe i found you

I forced myself to take a deep breath. To stay calm. Find out as much as I could about this person without him getting suspicious.

dynamitehackr: how did u?

shaym: saw ur pic

You couldn’t tell if the photo on my site was of Kori or me, which was exactly why I chose it. In the black-and-white photo, with my eyes shielded by a shadow, you couldn’t tell their color—the only physical feature that separates us now that I’ve grown my hair out and dyed it black.

shaym: u look good. been a while.

dynamitehackr: how long?

I waited, but shaym had gone silent on me. He was still online, though, making me miss the days of mouth-breathing junior high phone stalkers. At least you knew there was someone on the other end. For all I knew, shaym was taking a piss break or worse. Then I worried I’d tipped him off. So I tried a more familiar approach.

dynamitehackr: seems like 4ever

shaym: sorry bad dial-up

shaym: about 2 years? seems longer

Two years? I counted back to the summer before eighth grade. Before Kori and I became friends. The summer she changed. Two years? It did seem longer. Like the Kori I knew had been that dark angel forever.

shaym: how ru? ok?

shaym: i

shaym has logged off

How ominous. The Internet can be such a dangerous place, especially when you’re alone and have dial-up. Heh. Like me.

My mom rapped her knuckles on my door. “Serena, computer.”

If there’s any light or typing noise seeping out from under my door at eleven o’clock, my mom will knock. I think she read in one of her books that enforcing a curfew is the key to having a safe and respectable teenager. So I shut down the computer, turned off my lights, and yelled, “’Night.” Then I stuffed my pillows under my comforter and climbed out the window.

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