Her parents walked in, and the looks on their faces were something Jane would never forget. She realized that she'd never seen them look like that, that their expressions were unfamiliar to her, because what she saw was disappointment, they were disappointed with her.

She started to rise, but Bear pulled her back down to the couch, remaining seated next to her. I'm with you, he was saying, and she loved him for it. He clasped her hand firmly, with her smaller one simply disappearing between his two large ones.

Her mother and father sat on the love seat, facing their children.

"Jane, are you okay?" her father asked, and she was grateful that she only saw concern and love for her in his face, only heard concern and love in his voice.

She nodded.

Her mother spoke next. "I don't want to get more personal than I have to, but do you need to see a doctor for any reason?"

Jane had to think for a minute. What on earth did she mean? Then it hit her.

Her parents were worried about STDs. And pregnancy.

Oh god.

She shook her head decisively. "No, absolutely not."

Her mom nodded. "Okay, that's good."

Jane's father was holding something in his hand, and Jane saw that it was the business card Charlie had left on the counter.

"Well, I need to call Mr. Kellerman, then" he said. "I've heard of him, he's very good. We might have our work cut out for us."

Jane was confused. "What do you mean? If he's very good, that makes your job easier, doesn't it?" She looked back and forth between her parents' faces, and again, the realization of what he meant hit her. She realized that she was processing everything slower than usual, and wondered if this was a symptom of shock.

"Dad, you're not thinking of taking Charlie to court, are you?" she asked, squeezing Bear's hand very hard.

Her father's face hardened. "You're only seventeen, Jane, you're a minor."

"But Charlie's only nineteen!" Jane didn't know the law, but she didn't feel like the victim of a crime, and to prosecute Charlie for what had happened between them would've been a travesty, and a violation of their feelings.

"That does change things legally," her father said grudgingly. "Not that it excuses what he did to you in any way--"

"No!" Jane interrupted him. "Dad, that's so unfair! He didn't do anything to me! We love each other."

Her mother spoke. "Jane, regardless of his age, the fact is that he lives in the adult world, in an industry that matures people, forces them to grow up very quickly. For him to take advantage of a seventeen year old high school student like this is unspeakable."

"Mom, listen to yourself, please!" Jane was beside herself. "'Take advantage of' and 'unspeakable'? This isn't the 1800s, and I'm not some sullied maiden," she said indignantly. "We're nearly the same age. Her mother had the good grace to look a little embarrassed.

"I'm guessing you haven't seen it," Jane went on, "because if you had you'd realize that if anyone took advantage of anyone it was me." She knew her words were harsh, that she was hurting her parents, but they needed to be said. "I was all over him, okay?"

Her father took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. "Jane, all your mother's saying is that it is a little strange, isn't it? A young man like that, who could have anyone--for him to choose you, well--" Her father had the good grace to look a little uncomfortable.

"What are you saying?" she asked. "That you don't believe someone like Charlie could fall in love with someone like me? Is that what you're saying?" She was beyond hurt.

"No, that's not what we're saying at all," her mother said, leaning forward. "Jane, you're a wonderful, lovely girl, and anyone would be lucky to have you--

"But surely someone like Charles McAllister would want someone more worldly?" she concluded. "I mean, he's the one who dated that princess last year, right? From our point of view it just seems a little suspect, you must understand that?"

"So the only reason he'd be with me is because he wanted to corrupt someone," Jane finished. "He chose the youngest, most inexperienced person he could find so he could make a sex tape and show the world how virile he is."

"No," her mother said firmly. "That's not what we're saying, Jane, you're being obtuse on purpose. This is getting us nowhere, so we're going to stop talking about this aspect of things, right now." She turned to her husband. "He's nineteen, and everything they did was consensual. Can we please move on?" She looked at Jane.

"How long have--have you been seeing each other?" her mother asked gently. "Since Camilla won the lunch at the River Cafe? Has it been going on since the fall?"

Jane nodded.

"And all those times you were gone, you were with him in the city?"

"Not every time, mom, no," Jane replied. "We didn't actually have much time together, he's been making a movie."

"How nice of him to make time for you and squeeze you in, then," her father replied, and Jane was shocked at the animosity in his voice.

Her mother looked at her with a little sympathy, and Jane knew she understood, at least a little, the things she'd felt, the things she still felt.

Her father sighed, and Jane felt she'd already lost track of how many times he'd done that since he sat down to talk to her. "I guess I need to talk to Herb Kellerman before we can figure out what to do, then." He rose and went to his den, and Jane noticed that he walked like an older man than he had the day before.

Her mother came and leaned over her daughter, giving her a kiss, and went to the kitchen to start preparing dinner, even though it was ridiculously early and no one felt like eating, anyway.

Her father finally came out of the den three hours later. He sat with Jane and Bear, who were still sitting in the family room, watching TV together. Jane's mother came in and sat, looking at her husband expectantly. Bear turned the TV off.

"Well, it's a real mess," he began. "It sounds like we might not ever find out who put the recording device in there. The police have gotten involved, because the car was broken into, twice, we assume, once to place the device and once to remove it."

Jane realized that it was a godsend that her father was an attorney, that he could put his trained and organized mind to this horrible task for his daughter.

"And of course because of Jane's age, it's considered child pornography," he continued, and she could tell how hard it was for him to say the words. "That means that any site that puts it up for viewing, either free or paid, or any site that advertises it can be prosecuted." He looked at Jane.

"This doesn't really mean much, though, unfortunately. It's already out there, and no one knows how many times it's been viewed or copied. And finding the person responsible would require a level of resources the police don't really have. They'll tag it as an open investigation, but that's about it.

"However, Charles McAllister has said that he'll pay for ongoing enforcement of keeping it off of the internet, and he's hired a private firm to that end." These words were said grudgingly.

He held up his hands.

"That's about it, I suppose," he concluded. He sounded exhausted, even though it wasn't even nine o'clock yet.

"And I spoke to Dr. Shaw, and she thinks that Jane should just stay home from school this week, and return fresh after the new year," her mother said briskly. Dr. Shaw was the principal of Lincoln High. "I think that's a good idea. What do you think, Jane?" She looked at her daughter.

Jane nodded. It was hard to believe that twelve hours ago she was sitting in second period, and none of this had happened yet. It felt like today had been going on forever.

"What about me, Janey?" Bear asked, putting his arm back around her. "You want me to stay home with you?"

Jane looked at her brother. He was that most coveted student, the academic athlete. He shone at both classes and sports, and his eligibility was tied into his attendance. "Bear, of course not! If you miss school you become ineligible for spring sports, for speech competitions, I mean--" the list was endless.

"I don't care about that shit," he said with a shrug. "You need me, I'm here. I'll stay, okay?"

It would be so wonderful to have Bear home with her.

But no.

She shook her head. "You go, Bear, no need for both our lives to be fucked up by this."

He looked at her and nodded, leaning in to kiss her cheek. "You're the boss."

"Thank you," she said to her parents and brother. "I'm so sorry about this, and I know it's going to be so bad, so embarrassing and awful for you guys. I'm grateful to have such a cool family."

And they all kissed and went to bed, probably the earliest the entire family had done this since Jane and Bear were really little.

Jane settled into bed, wanting desperately to talk to Charlie.

Bear stuck his head in. "Hey, Jane? I know you know best, but you really might want to stay off the internet for awhile, hm?"

She nodded, and he blew her a kiss.

Jane hadn't turned on her phone since Charlie turned it off when he picked her up. But she should talk to Camilla, at least.

She owed Cam that much.

She turned on her phone to find thirty-two texts, about half of them from her best friend. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed not to have heard from Charlie.

She dialed up Camilla on Face Time.

"Hey, girlfriend," she said with a wan smile.

Cam's reassuring face smiled back at her. "You okay?" she asked, and Jane could tell that Cam, too, was already in bed.

Jane shrugged. "Let's just say it's been a long day, okay?"

"Okay, Jane," Camilla agreed.

"So, you feel like ditching school tomorrow and keeping a delinquent slut company?" Jane asked, knowing that Cam could probably see and hear the quaver in her chin, her voice.

"Sure," Cam said, giving Jane a bright smile. "We slutty delinquents have to stick together, don't we? I'll be there by nine, okay?"

"Okay," Jane agreed. "And Camilla?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for not judging me."

Cam winked. "Not my style," she responded.

And Jane laughed along with her friend as they said good bye, knowing that they'd just recreated a bit of dialogue from one of their favorite scenes from Sex and the City.

Jane pulled her laptop over to herself, taking a deep breath. She moved her leg, feeling the solid warmth of Heathcliff against her. She turned it on and googled Charlie's name.

"Watch Charles McAllister get it on with underage girl in hot sex tape!" the first hit screamed. Page after page, already, after only a few hours. All of them had her name in the first sentence.

Jane clicked on the link, then clicked on the arrow. Her stomach was in knots, and she wondered if he might vomit.

Whoever was responsible for the tape had obviously cut it to edit out any extraneous talking. Jane remembered saying something about his hair, and him liking her dress, but the video started where Charlie said, "Ooh, is the girl from New Jersey feeling a bit randy?" It was pretty dark, though Jane remembered the light being on. It was still totally obvious it was Charlie, though, because of his hair, his voice, his accent. And she recognized herself, too, from the back, skinny legs straddling Charlie's lap.

Then Jane said, "You have no idea Mr. McAllister," and she pulled her dress off. Had her voice really had that inflection? Had she actually sounded that slutty?

And just in case people couldn't understand what she and Charlie were saying, someone had close-captioned every word.

Dear Jesus.

And now she could see her own, scrawny back, with the thin band of her bra.

"Now I'm going to fuck your brains out," she heard herself say, sounding so ridiculously lascivious. Oh my god.

And now Charlie was kissing her front as she let out the most wanton sounding moans.

"Jesus, Charlie, fuck, harder, harder. Mm, bite me, bite me."

Charlie snapped the light on, and what was pretty much already visible was now even more clear, her wispy hair on her shoulders, the way you could see her ribs from the back; Jane thought she looked like a sickly chicken, malnourished, even.

And now she was rising up, lowering her body onto Charlie's, and he turned her, lowering her onto the seat, so everyone in Redmond, in New Jersey, in the motherfucking world could see her horrible, ugly face, eyes closed in ecstasy as Charlie fucked her senseless in the back seat of the car.

Jane couldn't watch any more, even though she could see that there were less than three minutes left.

She clicked the arrow and was careful to navigate away from the site so she wouldn't accidentally see it again when she opened her laptop. She closed her laptop and set it aside, and realized when she sniffed that her cheeks were wet with tears. She wondered how long she'd been crying, then decided it didn't really matter.

She lay in bed and wished she were dead for a while. Then she got up and went to the bathroom, grabbing one of her brother's leftover painkillers from the previous spring when he'd pulled a hamstring playing baseball.

She thought they might be expired, anyway.

She got back in bed, hugging Heathcliff and crying, wanting Charlie. But Charlie was living his life, getting ready for SNL, and trying to cope with this hellacious mess, too. In a little while she started to feel floaty and strange, in a nice way, so the pills probably weren't expired.

Jane finally fell into a deep sleep, not waking up until after eight the next morning.