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The obvious answer comes to you so easily you almost <span class="mu-i">laugh</span>! Tapping a few letters into the phone, you frown as your guess is rejected!
You were SURE it was gonna be ‘<span class="mu-i">SCOOP!</span>’ Isn’t that what she was always after? Smacking the phone against your head, you feel guilt join the knot in your chest–how is that not the answer!? She was obsessed with unearthing the truth about every little thing, even if it blew up in her fa-
That’s it!
Spelling out ‘<span class="mu-i">TRUTH</span>’, your finger hovers over the enter key for a moment. You know you won’t be locked out forever, but something inside you <span class="mu-i">compels</span> you to look through her phone now… if only for a little closure.
Letting a breath loose, you press the button. With a soft ‘<span class="mu-i">click</span>’ from the phone’s cracked surface, you find yourself looking at Pepper’s home screen–its background a default blue gradient. Several icons await you upon entry–most of them useless due to the lack of signal.
There’s <span class="mu-s">TEXT MESSAGES,</span> of course–all of which are from three people in her address book: <span class="mu-s">JAKEY, MOM,</span> and the oldest one: <span class="mu-s">DAD</span>.
Warnings. Pleas for her to stop. Digital arguments that go on for days. When you scroll down enough on Jake’s, however, you find a point where the siblings are teasing each other–sharing memes, joking, setting up plans like what to get mom for Mother’s Day and what they want to do for each other’s birthdays.
Those messages, however, are <span class="mu-i">years</span> back.
As for dad, well… all that remains is a singular text from Pepper:
‘<span class="mu-i">I’m sorry, okay? I’M SORRY. You don’t have to answer my calls, but please answer Mom’s. She’s worried</span>’
That coupled with the few contacts in her <span class="mu-s">ADDRESS BOOK</span> don’t help your mood much, save for one recent entry that puts the faintest hint of a smile on your face:
‘<span class="mu-s">DIESEL <3</span>’
God<span class="mu-i">damn</span> it, Pepper…
Feeling the knot tighten a bit, you move on to the <span class="mu-s">PICTURES</span>, which, like her text messages, paint a nasty picture in themselves. Before tonight the entire album is nothing but shots of ‘<span class="mu-i">Scoops</span>’--unfamiliar documents, people clearly not wanting to be watched, shots of places clearly closed off to the public.
But then you reach the newer ones and find yourself staring at a dopey-looking pizza guy tripping face-first into a puddle on the ferry… and countless other candid shots of you and Raj leading up to tonight’s horrors.
You were wrong–these don’t make you feel any better at all.
>CONTD.
