Twisted Ivy

Chapter 6: VOICE NOTE

The towel barely held. My chest was still damp from the steam, n*****s tight, pulse louder than it should’ve been. I wasn’t expecting anyone. I definitely wasn’t expecting both of them. Leo with that twitchy, hunted look on his face like he’d just been caught jerking off in the church pew. And Jasper behind him. Quiet. Still. That black coat open just enough to remind me why my thighs still hadn’t recovered from the hallway.

I didn’t speak. I watched. Leo’s hand was shaking, not just a little tremor, but full-on earthquake holding out a flash drive like it was going to bite him. He looked at me, then looked back at Jasper like he was trying to buy himself time but forgetting the store didn’t take cowardice as currency.

“She forgot this,” Leo said. “Library. She left it plugged in.”

Jasper’s eyes didn’t move. Not from me. Not from the way the towel clung to my hips or the way I stayed very still, like prey pretending to be furniture.

“She?” he asked. Not rude. Not surprised. Just confirming. Leo nodded too fast. “Yeah. It’s Aria’s. I was just bringing it back.”

He didn’t look at me when he said it. Which told me everything.

I didn’t know what the f**k was on that flash. I hadn’t been to the library. I hadn’t touched a flash drive since high school. But Jasper was looking at me now and my body was already betraying me in a dozen ways. My thighs were warm again. My spine tight. And Leo was holding that thing out like it was wired with guilt.

So I took it.

Didn’t blink. Didn’t speak. Just reached out and wrapped my fingers around it like it had always been mine.

“Thanks,” I said. Calm. Sweet. The lie tasted like blood.

Jasper watched my hand. Then my face. Then Leo.

Nothing changed.

Not yet.

He said nothing else. Just gave that tight, unreadable almost-smile and walked away, slow and sharp and leaving the scent of suspicion behind like cologne on skin that wasn’t his.

Leo didn’t meet my eyes.

He stared at the floor.

I stepped back, still holding the flash drive like a grenade with no pin, and closed the door. Didn’t slam. Didn’t lock. Just let it click shut while my mind tried to make sense of the heat crawling up my spine.

Leo had lied. That much was obvious. The only question was why. What was he hiding bad enough to fake a flash drive? And what the f**k was Jasper really thinking, standing there like that, not touching me, not accusing, just... watching.

I turned around. Pressed my back to the door and my hand still held the drive but it felt heavier now, hotter and more dangerous than anything I’d seen in this school so far... I didn’t say anything as the door clicked shut. Didn’t move. Just stood there for a second, towel still clinging, chest still damp, flash drive still hot in my hand like it had a heartbeat of its own. The silence felt too loud. Like it had teeth. Like it was waiting to bite me.

Daphne was still in the room.

On the bed. One leg curled. Hoodie hanging off one shoulder like it always did, like gravity didn’t apply to her. She didn’t ask what just happened. Didn’t need to. She’d been listening the whole time. Watched the scene from inside like a spectator at a very private execution. Leo’s voice. Jasper’s stare. My lie. All of it.

I didn’t look at her. Just walked slowly to the desk, flash still clenched in my hand. It wasn’t mine. But I’d said it was. I’d taken it like a girl accepting a dare she couldn’t walk back from. And Jasper had left without calling me out, which was worse than if he had. Because now it was just... here. Between us. This little black stick humming with tension I couldn’t name.

Daphne shifted.

“I figured it wasn’t yours,” she said finally. Not asking. Just saying. Like fact. Like weather. “But you took it anyway.”

I didn’t answer. She didn’t wait for me to.

“You wanna know what’s on it?”

I sat down. Finally. Legs weak again for an entirely different reason. The towel clung to my back now, damp and pathetic. I looked at the USB like it might start speaking. It didn’t. “I think Leo’s trying to hide something from Jasper,” I said. Daphne made a sound... something between a laugh and a moan. “No s**t, Hale. That boy was twitching like his d**k had a guilt complex.”

I plugged it in and the screen flickered to life.

Daphne leaned in closer.

Her hair smelled like peppermint and sin.

My stomach twisted. My n*****s ached again for no goddamn reason. My mouth was dry. The screen loaded.

One folder... Untitled.

Daphne didn’t hesitate, she clicked it. and inside were four files. No names. No dates. Just numbers. 001. 002. 003. 004.

She opened the first one, I leaned in and froze.

Jasper’s voice, rough and distant. Like it had been recorded without him knowing, like someone had stood outside a door with a phone and hit record mid-sentence. “I’ll ruin her,” he was saying. “But she’ll beg for more.” I didn’t breathe.

Daphne paused the clip, looked at me and smiled. Not sweetly. Like a girl who had just found her favorite kind of porn. “Well,” she said. “Looks like you just got promoted from victim to obsession.”

I couldn’t look away from the screen, didn’t want to and I knew then this flash drive was just the beginning, something else was coming, something worse. Something wet and violent and so tangled in me I wouldn’t come out clean. Not that I ever was.

Daphne didn’t hesitate. She clicked folder 002 like it owed her answers. The folder stuttered, then bloomed open.

Not a voice note. Not a recording. Just… porn. Dozens of files. Then hundreds. Video clips, thumbnails, grainy gifs, folders inside folders, each more blunt than the last. No names. No shame. Just rough labels like “anon_fuckbed,” “dorm_raw,” “wetmouth_drill.mp4.” All gay. All real. None of it pretending.

It wasn’t some mild, bi-curious curiosity. It was an archive. A catalog of c**k. Of men f*****g in gas station bathrooms, dorm beds, dark alleys, sometimes with masks on, sometimes not. Some were homemade. Some stolen. Some shot on VHS-quality tape like they were relics passed hand-to-hand through shame.

I didn’t speak.

Daphne laughed. Low and husky like it got stuck in her throat.

“Guess little Leo’s got himself a hobby,” she said, dragging the cursor over a clip where one guy had another bent over a desk, groaning, spit dripping down his chin, shirt still on, socks still on. The camera angle didn’t even bother with faces. Just hips. Just thrusts. Just ruin.

She clicked another. It loaded slower.

And then there he was.

Leo.

In his room. Propped up on his elbows. Headphones in. Laptop open. And yes, d**k out. His skin glowed under the low lamp like he knew he wanted to be seen but couldn’t admit it.

He was jerking off. Sloppy. Desperate. Not quiet.

The video didn’t have porn audio. It wasn’t screen-captured. It was filmed. From the room. Which meant someone had recorded him. Or… he had recorded himself.

Either way, it was f****d.

Daphne leaned in. Her grin turned sharp.

“Press play,” she said, even though it already was.

Leo’s mouth opened. His lips were moving. At first I thought he was just panting. Just muttering nothing. But then he said it. Clear. Cracked. Like it hurt to want it. “Jasper…” “f**k…” “Please…” My whole spine went still. Daphne let out a slow whistle. “That’s the sound of denial shattering.”

The video went on. Hand pumping. Muscles twitching. A dark spot spreading across the sheets. It was short. But not short enough. Daphne closed it. Finally. Then just looked at me. “Well,” she said, “that’s not something you can unsee.” I couldn’t breathe right. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t decide if I was grossed out or aroused or furious or something worse.

Because Leo hadn’t just lied.. He’d buried this. And Jasper had no idea or maybe he did, maybe they all did and I was the only one still pretending anyone here played clean. Daphne stood up. Smoothed her hoodie. Grabbed her phone off the desk without looking at it.

“Jane’s calling,” she said. “She’s needy after she f***s someone else.” I didn’t ask what that meant.

She didn’t explain she just walked to the door, opened it with two fingers, and glanced back over her shoulder. “Don’t you dare lose that drive.” Then she left and I was alone, with the laptop, Leo’s moaning voice echoing in my head and the third folder… waiting.