GROW UP GINGER

A story about leaving and being followed.

Written by Juliana Resende

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No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the prior written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and events are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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CHAPTER ELEVEN — Bonnie’s Mistake

What I didn’t know, until much later, was this:

While I was sleeping in his bed, my phone in my bag on the floor, Ethan had opened it. I don’t know if I’d given him the passcode. I don’t think I had. I think he watched me type it in, the way he watched most things.

He’d gone through my contacts. He’d opened my Igram. He’d noted who my closest friends were.

And then, after he dropped me off and drove away, he sent Bonnie a message from his own account.

*Hey Bonnie, it’s Ethan. I was wondering if you could help me out with something.*

A little while later, Bonnie wrote back.

*Hey gorgeous ?^?*

*I dropped Anna off at some park on top of the hill and I forgot to ask for her number. Could you send it to me? Or her Igram — I didn’t find it.*

*o ya! her profile is private. Her ID is “Grown_ginger.”*

*Thanks for the info, Bonnie.*

*np.*

He requested to follow me before he even drove home.

Bonnie didn’t know. She was nineteen. She thought she was being helpful. She thought, probably, that she was helping a friend who liked the way a guy had asked.

I don’t blame Bonnie. I never have.

But I have thought, many times, about how easy it was. How small the moment. How much we don’t teach girls about what help sometimes builds.

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