“I’m here,” Audrey replies.
“You need to get out here. There’s something you need to see, and Reeve has been trying to get a hold of you, Viv. You need to call him.”
Audrey slips out of the room to talk to her boyfriend while I finish drying myself. I get dressed and drag a comb quickly through my hair before tying it into a messy bun on top of my head. It will be a mass of tangles, but I don’t care. It’s not like I have plans to do anything today except wallow in my bed, watching sad movies and eating my body weight in ice cream.
When I open the door, Alex and Audrey are arguing in hushed tones.
“What’s going on?” A new layer of anxiety settles on my chest.
Audrey’s tongue darts out, wetting her lips, in a clear nervous tell. “You need to be sitting for this, babe.”
I crawl into my bed, tucking my knees to my chest and pulling the covers up over me. “What is it?”
Audrey moves up beside me while Alex sits on the edge of the bed, wearing an odd expression.
She squeezes my hand. “You don’t remember, but that idiot Nate put the moves on you last night.”
I blink profusely, tugging at my ears, sure I must be hearing things. “What?” I fix her with an incredulous expression.
“He kissed you as I was coming back to the table. I saw it go down. You were out of it, and he was wasted, so I have no idea if it was intentional or not, but he kissed you and…you didn’t push him away immediately.”
Horror washes over me. “I would never kiss Nate or any other guy,” I shriek. “Never.” My eyes fly to Alex’s, understanding now why he was giving me a funny look. “I love Reeve, and I have no desire to kiss anyone else! I know Reeve and I were fighting, but I would never do something like that to hurt him. Never. You’ve got to believe me,” I plead.
“I believe you,” Alex says, his shoulders relaxing a smidgeon.
“I was drunk off my ass, and it must have taken a few seconds to register with me,” I continue, grappling to understand how I let this happen. My hands clench into balls. “I am going to kill Nate!”
“You really are,” Alex adds, holding his cell out to me. “Because someone recorded it and it’s all over social media.”
10
“No. No, no, no, no.” I clasp a hand over my mouth as I stare at the recording in horror. When I find out who did this, they are going to wish they had never been born. It looks so bad, because it’s been edited to just show the kiss, so you can’t tell that I’m trashed and completely ignorant of what’s going on. It’s also recorded in slow motion so it looks like the kiss lasts way longer than it did. Audrey saw it go down, and she says it lasted about five seconds, max, yet this makes it look like we shared a long, lingering kiss.
What’s worse is they tagged Reeve on the post, and the barrage of angry comments and vile insults pours more salt on the ugly wound. I look up at Alex. “Please tell me he hasn’t seen this?”
His lips pull into a grimace, and his eyes shine with sympathy.
Oh my God. What must Reeve be thinking? My stomach heaves, and I race into the bathroom, reaching the toilet in the nick of time. I dry retch, my empty stomach contorting painfully as I try to expunge my fear.
“Come on, babe.” Audrey helps me up after I slump over the toilet bowl. “Rinse your mouth out, and come back to the bedroom. You’re going to call Reeve and fix everything.”
Like a zombie, I brush my teeth, staring at my washed-out complexion in the mirror. I look like death warmed over. My hair is a knotty, damp mess on top of my head. I have dark circles under my eyes, my lips are cracked, and my hazel eyes have lost all their sparkle. I look as hollow as I feel.
I trudge out to my bedroom, silently accepting the bottle of water from Audrey. “Do you want us to stay here while you call Reeve?” she asks, and I notice she found my cell and has plugged it in. It vibrates with a succession of notifications.
“He probably won’t be able to take the call,” I say, noticing it’s after noon which means it’s three in Boston. “He’ll be in the middle of filming.”
She gets up to leave. “Stay.” I grab her arm.
“I’m going to see about breakfast.” Alex rocks back on his heels.
Audrey nods, and he exits my bedroom as I pull my big-girl pants on and scroll through my notifications. I have thousands of tags on social media, and I’m not even going to look at them. “Wow. You have a million new followers,” Audrey says, looking over my shoulder.