Chapter 7: Idiots Rule

“The CD comes with nude pictures!” Pete exclaimed, grinning broadly as he held the photos tight.

“Give me that!” I blurted out, snatching them from his hand. I felt heat rapidly rising to my head.

For a moment, there was confusion on Pete’s face. Then it changed to amusement. “Wait, are those yours? Holy shit, I thought they came with the album!”

My mind raced as I stared at the pictures, keeping them turned away from my friends. How the hell did these get into Pete’s hands? I looked at the jewel box still resting at his feet. I could make out the white backside of a third photo lying in the space behind where the black disc holder would normally be snapped in to the tray.

Holy shit, did Heather hide them in the CD? But how in the world did she get the rolls?

Pete was crouching to pick up the box! Instinct kicked in and I lunged at the case, just managing to reach the third photo before he did. Then I pressed the three prints to my chest and stood there, thunderstruck.

“Is that your girlfriend?” Carl asked, coming out from behind his kit like a hungry lion.

“Naked?” Bruno pressed. “Pete, was she naked?”

“Yeah, man, totally! Is that the girl from Montauk?”

“Julie, or the other one?”

“Where did you get them?”

“Let me see, man!”

Their words were overwhelming and I couldn’t process them. Nothing made any sense whatsoever. And yet here were the photos, in my hand. My friends were crowding me, so I broke free and went to the door.

“Just give me a second, all right?”

I stepped outside and rushed back to the house. Safely in my room, I pulled the pictures away from my shirt, hoping I’d been mistaken. There was no doubt, though. There she was. In two of the shots, she was sitting on the rocks near the lighthouse, naked. In the third, she was on the beach, pulling her top aside and flashing me. My mind reeled. This is impossible! The canisters of film were in my desk drawer, right where I’d stashed them a couple of days ago. Or were they?

‘Did you get my message?’ the voice echoed in my head. ‘You should really get into this CD!’

I pulled out my desk drawer so hurriedly that it came completely out of the slot and clattered to the floor. The two canisters spilled out onto my rug among the mess. With fumbling hands, I popped the cap on one of them and dumped the contents out into my palm. It was a roll of ... unexposed, color film. I opened the second: the same.

Everything was suddenly clear now. My aunt had found these brand new rolls on a shelf and mailed them along. This whole time, Heather had had the real ones! She must have stolen them from my camera bag that last day we were together, developed them at her school, and sent a few of them to me hidden behind the CD holder. The was feeling very familiar. Heather and her games!

There was a bit of a problem, though: Pete had seen two of the shots. Pete’s seen Heather naked! My mind raced. What can I say to get out of this one? I looked at the pictures once more. Then a grin spread across my face.

“What the fuck was that about?” Carl asked, when I returned to the cabin.

“Just some pics,” I said, placing the photos face down on my amp. I grabbed my guitar as if nothing had happened.

“So, do we get to see them too?”

“No way,” I said.

“But Pete did!” Bruno complained. “What were they?”

“Just some pictures I took of Heather this summer. For my eyes only, guys. Chill.”

“How’d you manage that?” Pete asked, some awe touching his voice.

I put on a bored face. “I just took them. I didn’t realize she sent them to me in the CD case, so I was a little surprised a minute ago, that’s all. It’s cool now.”

“Cool enough that we can see them?”

“Yeah, right.”

“So how many did you take?”

As expected, the guys looked both impressed and jealous. I stifled a smile, glad to be in control of the situation after all.

“A whole bunch,” I drawled.

“You lucky shit,” Carl grumbled appreciatively. He was staring at the top of my amplifier and presumably praying hard for x-ray vision. “It’s unfair that Pete got to see but you won’t let me and Bruno.”

“I didn’t take the pics so you all could look at my girlfriend naked.”

Carl shrugged. “Still, it’s unfair.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed patiently. “Fine, here.”

His face lit up as I passed him the photos. Before he got too excited, I added, “They’re not the same ones Pete saw, but at least you can see what she looks like.”

Carl grinned as he grabbed the pictures from me. He flipped through them, slightly disappointed that they weren’t the nudes, but also keenly interested. I noticed he took particular time looking at the picture with her in her swimsuit. I wondered if he could detect the mischief in her eyes, too. I had thrown that one in to the set to mollify Carl and Bruno, a surrogate for the nude shots.

“Nice,” he said at last. “She’s a babe. I’ll admit I was wondering if you were bullshitting about having a girlfriend down there.”

I raised a brow at him. “What? Why?”

“The last couple of times you go to Montauk, you hook up. It’s like too good to be true. Maybe once I get my license I should go check it out. Sounds like the girls down there just fling themselves at you.”

“Hardly,” I said, chuckling. “When do you get your license, anyway?”

“November thirteenth, baby!” he bellowed, pumping a fist.

“If you pass the test,” Bruno countered. “Here, let me see those.”

“Well, if you do want to go, I’m coming too,” I said to Carl, suddenly seeing a possible option for more visits. “I can introduce you to some people.”

“You just want to see your girl.”

I shrugged. “I’m sure she has friends. Okay, enough bullshit. Let’s get back to work.”

Bruno finished perusing the photos and held the stack out toward me. “She’s cute, man.”

Pete asked to see them, of course. Despite growing impatient with the spectacle, I passed them over anyway.

“Same place as the nude shots,” he announced, holding out the bikini picture.

“All right, quit it!” I cried, taking the set from him. “Show some respect, guys, come on.”

They sniggered. Then Carl kicked off the song we were jamming on. At last, the episode was over. It could’ve been way worse.

I called Heather later that day.

“Hello?” she answered.

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Hi! So did you listen?”

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“It’s incredible!” I gushed.

“Oh, good! I was hoping you’d like it.”

“Yeah. Basically been listening to it all day.”

“Cool.”

“I also got your message,” I said, with emphasis.

“Message?”

“Get into this CD?”

Heather laughed. “And? I hope you didn’t figure it out when your parents were there!”

“No. Although...” I hesitated. She was going to meet my friends at some point. Did she really need to know what Pete had seen?

“What?”

“Well, I kind of discovered them by accident. At, uh, band practice.” I winced, expecting agitation.

“Band practice?” Heather’s voice was more interested than worried.

“Yeah, I was showing the CD to my friends, and it kind of fell on the floor and broke open.”

“Oh no!” she cried, giggling. “And the pictures flew out?”

“Yeah. My friend Pete picked them up and saw them before I could react.”

“Matt!”

“What? It was only a second! Less, even. I grabbed them right away. I’m not even sure he saw anything. I didn’t know they were in there!”

“How am I ever going to face your friends?” she wailed.

I wasn’t convinced by her response. “You’re not really worried, are you?”

There was a silent pause. “Not really. It’s done now. It’s not like you’re passing them around to everyone, right?”

“No! No way. No one else saw them, just Pete. I swear. They’re hidden—”

A click on the line made me stop. It was my mom, needing to make a call. After she hung up her receiver, I spoke again.

“That was close,” I whispered.

“So do you like them?” Heather asked, ignoring the interruption. Her voice turned from humored to a bit sultry.

“Well, yeah!” I replied, as if it was the most obvious question in the world.

“Which one is your favorite?”

“Um, I don’t know. I have to look at them some more. I’m still a little shocked that they’re here. And speaking of that, how the hell did you get them anyway?” I asked, suddenly remembering the full extent of her trespass.

“I borrowed them.”

“Borrowed? More like stole! When did you grab them?”

“When you were changing at your aunt’s before dinner that last night. I was so worried you were going to figure it out before I got them to you!”

“Jeez, and here I was freaking out because I thought I lost them!”

I related the story of my parents dropping off the film at Murph’s and my subsequent panic. I also told her about my aunt mailing the two color rolls.

“So you can see why I was a little surprised this morning to find Pete staring at these pictures!” I finished.

Heather just laughed and laughed.

“Yeah, very funny. All I know is that I’m going to be much more, uh, paying attention to anything you do from now on,” I said firmly.

“Oh really,” she quipped.

“Yup.”

There was a brief pause. “So you got my other messages, then?” she asked.

I smiled and said, “What?”

She didn’t reply.

“I checked the CD really well. There were no more pictures.”

“I just said other messages, not pictures.”

“What messages?” I asked, my mind racing again.

“That’s for you to figure out.”

“In the album?”

Heather shrugged audibly.

“What are they?” I pressed.

“You just said you were going to pay more attention. So go for it.”

I huffed. “You and your games.”

She giggled.

“So did you print them all?” I asked, sensing I had hit the wall regarding the additional messages. If there even were any.

“Of course.”

“Are you going to bring the others when you come visit?”

“No, I actually mailed them to your house, addressed to your parents.”

“Not funny.”

Heather laughed anyway. “That was a little funny.”

“Mm. Maybe.”

“Did you show the pictures to Lara?” she asked suddenly.

The question took me aback. Had she talked to her? Did she know my deal with Lara?

“No, I haven’t shown them to anyone.” That was true, for now.

“Are you going to?”

“Why would I?”

“I don’t know. I was just wondering. I know you and her share just about everything. Which is really cool.”

Her statement made me pause and seek a response. I realized how much she invited me to simply tell the truth.

“I did promise to show her one. She gave me a blank tape so I could copy the CD when it came yesterday. That was her condition though: to see one of the pictures.”

“So she knows about them.”

“Yeah, when I was looking for the rolls – which you stole! – I had to tell someone or I was going to go crazy. I couldn’t exactly tell you, so Lara was in on it.”

“Which one did you show her?”

“I haven’t yet. I think I’ll wait for some of the others.”

“Why?”

I considered. “Well, these are really, you know, hot.”

Heather giggled at my description.

“Maybe there’s some that are more tame,” I added.

“Does she... ?”

“What?”

“ ... really want to see them?”

“Um, yeah, sort of. But I think she’s more interested in the fact that we did the pictures. Not specifically in seeing you, like...”

“Nude?”

“Yeah.”

Heather didn’t believe me. “Maybe.”

“What do you mean?”

“You told me she and Julie were—”

Another click interrupted us. “Sorry!” came my mom’s voice again.

“Maybe we should talk later,” I said, suddenly feeling nervous about our conversation.

“Okay. I have to work soon anyway. I’ll call you tonight?”

“Def.”

“Talk to you then. Bye!”

I hung up. After collecting my thoughts, I poked my head out the door to let my mom know the line was free. Then I fell down on my bed. It seemed like every time I spoke with Heather, my mind would end up in a whirl.

After dinner, I was waiting in my room for Heather’s call, listening to our album on low volume. Lara dropped in for a visit.

“Did you start the Social Studies reading?” she asked.

“Haven’t even looked at it yet.”

It was true. Life was too exciting at the moment to worry about religious suppression in sixteenth-century England.

“One of the checkpoint questions doesn’t make any sense,” she whined, as if the fate of the world depended on McGraw-Hill’s editors getting things just right.

I chuckled. “I never even look at those, unless we have to write them up.”

“Oh, all right. You’re no help, then.”

She turned to go.

“Hey, wait. Close the door for a sec,” I called.

Lara came over to my desk after shutting us in. I handed her the Post-it that Heather had included with the album.

“Does this mean anything to you?”

Lara scanned the note, checked the empty back side, and then read it again.

“Just that she hoped you would like the music, I guess,” she said with a shrug.

“Well, it has at least one other meaning.”

“What’s that?”

“She really did mean get into the CD. Like, get into the case.”

“What?”

“Payback time,” I breathed, unlocking my desk drawer with a twinge of anxiety.

“Payback?” she repeated suspiciously.

I pulled out an envelope. Lara just eyed it. Then she raised a brow as I slid a photo out, holding the back toward her.