The threat

"Hello Olivia. I have a proposition for you."

I frowned as I looked at the latest notification on my phone. It was from an unknown instagram account with zero followers or following. Probably a scam, I thought to myself as I dismissed the message and went back to my studies.

A few seconds later my phone buzzed again.

"Don't ignore me. You'll regret it."

The new text was followed by a picture of myself working on my laptop in the student centre. Judging by the clothes I was wearing in the photo, it was taken as recently as yesterday. Well, at least I now knew that the mystery account was another student, and not some kind of scam. Curious, I replied, "Who is this?"

"Who I am is less important than what I have." With that followed another couple of stills and videos of me from yesterday. As I took a quick look at them, I felt the blood drain from my face. I quickly brought my phone close to my chest, looking around to make sure no one could've seen them. These ones weren't as innocent as the first. They were high-angle, close-up shots from behind, in which you could clearly see my laptop's screen. On it was the answer sheet to the assignment I turned in the previous day.

"What the hell?! Where did you get those?", I panicked, not really knowing what else to answer.

"Does it matter? All that really matters is that you have two options. Option 1: Do everything I tell you. Option 2: I send these to the Dean's office and you get expelled. Which option sounds more appealing to you?"

I stared idly at my phone as my brain tried to fully grasp the situation. If these pics got out, I would not only be expelled, but Dad would no doubt disown me as well. I simply couldn't let that happen.

With some reservations, I finally replied, "What do you want...?"

I waited restlessly for the mystery person to reply. There was no way I could study anymore, there were too many things running through my head.

Finally, his demands came in. "I want you to go into the restroom, then send me a picture of your breasts, make sure you get them both in the picture."

I took my time to pick all my stuff and place them into my bag to have some time to think. There was no way I'd send a stranger a photo of my boobs. But I couldn't say no either. I looked at the message one more time, and realized that he didn't actually specify that he wanted naked pics...

I went into the women's room nearby and snapped a picture of my breasts, still covered by my bra and t-shirt. I sent it to my blackmailer, hoping that it would satisfy him for now and give me more time to think about a way to get out of this precarious situation.

"I didn't ask for a picture of your shirt. I asked for a picture of your breasts", he replied.

"No way. Only my husband will get to see my bare breasts."

"Well then, I guess the honor code office gets to see these videos."

"I'll tell them you doctored them and are blackmailing me."

"Oh please. It is simple enough to verify that photage is legitimate. And I can send it in anonymously with my metadata scrubbed to make it untraceable. You have five minutes before I send these to the honor code office."