Page 123 of You've Got Hate Mail
I square my shoulders. “It’s starting to.”
“Are those—are all of those things actual emails you got? The things about God and—pokers and smacking?”
I’m breathing heavily, but I hold eye contact with him and tell him the ugly truth. “That’s just the start of the hate mail.”
“That—that’s far worse than the worst of what we had.”
“People are meaner now.”
“Fuck.”
“Mabel says the meanest are probably bots, but I think she said that to make me feel better.”
“That—that makes sense. Lots of bots.”
“Do you mind?” I gesture to my phone. Then to my chicken. Then to my phone again.
“I—yeah. Yes. No. I don’t mind. You can—yes. You can get back to it.”
“Not likely. Now the mood’s passing.” I huff as the lingering rage fades.
Just seeing Heath—after the initial surprise—thisis also helping.
Yes, I have a massive crush on him, but also, he’s been my friend.
More family than my own family.
He makes me feel safe.
Even here, where I’m naked and yelling at my phone like I’ve lost my damn mind.
He blinks.
Visibly swallows.
But he doesn’t leave.
And I don’t tell him to.
I suddenly don’twanthim to leave.
And when he looks down at my body, then back up at my eyes, his cheeks going a little red,yes.
Yes, I do, in fact, know the next thing I want to do to work out the lingering anger over what the internet has done to me and the lack of support I’ve gotten from my family.
“We, ah, have to quit running into each other naked,” he says.
“Do we? Maybe I want to be a nudist like Pip. Maybe I’ll walk around like this all the time because everyone in the world’salready seen it, so why not? Maybe I’ll start my own news channel and do a lifestyle segment on nudity. Or on surviving hate mail. Or on people who compensate for their lack of personality and intelligence by being trolls on the internet.”
The Cluckinator clucks in agreement.
Or possibly like she approves of me being snarky to Heath.
Or maybe she’s actually a bad influence and shewantsme to do all of those things.
“Mabel trolls trolls in her spare time,” Heath blurts.
“Good.Good. I hope she makes them cry.”
