Read Online Back Talk by Saxon Bennett - Free Book Online

sort of online, off-air dialogue. That could spark tangents, and tangents were her forte. It could be a gold mine for brain-picking and she wouldn’t have to risk a relationship in the process. “It’s win-win,” she said aloud.
    She headed for the technical back end of the Web site. It shouldn’t be that hard. She’d seen Hilton mucking around in it to change things. Surely, there would be a little icon or something for adding a message board. A box popped up indicating a password or the option to bypass. Anne thought nothing of it and opted for the bypass. She clicked the box and a message popped up on the screen. It read, “You have entered an unauthorized area. The system will now terminate itself.” A set of symbols started running through all the screens like the program was eating its own tail.
    “What the hell?” Anne said. “It was a trick.”
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    It took about two minutes before it occurred to Anne what was happening. Hilton must have installed a virus so that if the program was violated in any way it would destroy itself.
    “Oh, this is fucking great!” Anne frantically dialed Hilton’s cell phone. Hilton had made mention that she lived in the university district but what was she to do, drive around the college until she found a pea-green Bug parked out front? In desperation she called Veronica and after much discussion and threatening her within an inch of her life, Veronica gave her Hilton’s address.
    Anne drove fast and redialed Hilton’s cell phone a zillion times.
    In ten minutes she was in front of the Victorian house. The front yard was a parking lot and loud music emanated from the living room. It seemed every light was on in the house and the front door was wide open. Not knowing what else to do, Anne slipped inside with the rest of the party-goers.
    She frantically looked around for Hilton. There must have been fifty people crammed into the living room and spilling down the hallway. She was about to ask the next passerby when a young woman with long dark hair grabbed her by the arm.
    “What are you doing here?” the young woman asked her.
    “Excuse me?” Anne said, slightly taken aback by the young woman’s tone of voice.
    “You’re Anne Counterman, aren’t you? You look just like your billboard.”
    “Yes. Look, I need to talk to Hilton. I did something to the Web site and it’s all messed up. Can you help me find her?”
    “You didn’t bypass the password?” the woman asked. Her eyes got big.
    Anne nodded.
    “You’re in big trouble. I’m Liz, by the way, one of Hilton’s roommates.”
    “It’s nice to meet you,” Anne said, holding out her hand. Liz shook it firmly and Anne felt better immediately. This woman appeared competent.
    Liz grabbed her shoulders and spun her around in an obvious 48
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    attempt to prevent her from seeing a topless woman in a g-string and red heels go marching by with a silver tray of Jell-O shots.
    “Can I have one of those?” Anne asked the woman.
    “Sure,” a man’s voice responded.
    Anne watched as Liz cringed. She slugged down her shot and took a deep breath. “She’s in transition, I take it,” Anne said.
    “Yes, Lyle is almost Lynette except for the last little snip. Let me take you upstairs, and try not to look at anything … please.”
    “I’ve seen things …” Anne started to say when another topless woman dressed in black Levis went by. Her nipples were pierced and two long chains connected them to rings above her eyebrows.
    “Okay, I haven’t seen that before,” she said stoically.
    On the way upstairs Liz’s efforts to avoid the wildness proved futile. Anne was offered a mirror with several lines of cocaine on it, got propositioned and on the second floor, was handed a joint that Liz quickly snatched and handed back to its owner. Once on the third floor, they turned left and climbed a small narrow set of stairs which ended at a