25 celebrity
I wake up to my phone buzzing like it's personally offended that I slept through anything.
For a second, I just stare at the ceiling, not moving, letting the sound fill the room while my brain catches up. Then I reach over, grab it, and immediately regret it.
Notifications.
Too many.
Texts, tags, mentions, group chats, things I don't even remember being part of-all stacked on top of each other like they've been waiting for me to wake up and deal with them.
I unlock it.
Big mistake.
My screen fills with photos from last night before I can even process anything else. Us walking in. Us standing too close. Us mid-conversation, looking like we actually enjoy each other's company.
And then-
the dance.
There are videos.
Of course there are videos.
Different angles, different lighting, but all showing the same thing: the moment where it stopped looking like something staged and started looking like something real.
I sit up slowly, leaning back against the headboard as I scroll.
Comments flood under every post.
I stop scrolling. Not because there's nothing left.
Because I've seen enough. Because-
they're not wrong.
Which is the problem.
My phone buzzes again.
I exhale, dropping my head back against the wall for a second. Then-
I get up.
?
Jess doesn't even let me knock. The door swings open the second I step onto her porch, like she's been waiting behind it.
"You saw it," she says immediately.
"I regret seeing it."
"You look fine."
"I don't feel fine."
"That's irrelevant," she says, grabbing my wrist and pulling me inside.
Riley's already in the living room, sitting cross-legged on the couch, her phone in her hand but not actively looking at it. She glances up when we walk in, her expression calm in a way that immediately makes me suspicious.
"That bad?" she asks.
Jess lets go of me long enough to throw herself onto the couch next to Riley. "It's not bad. It's incredible."
"It's excessive," I correct.
"It's accurate," Jess says.
"That's worse."
Riley studies me for a second, like she's not just looking at what I'm saying, but how I'm saying it. "You're not denying it."
"I'm not confirming it either."
"That's not the same thing."
"I'm aware."
Jess grabs her phone, already pulling something up. "Okay, no, listen-this one."
She shoves the screen in my face before I can prepare for it.
It's a video.
The dance.
Of course it is.
I recognize the exact moment immediately-the shift, the part where everything got quieter even though the room was still full. The angle catches the way we moved closer without making it obvious, the way neither of us pulled back right away.
It looks... convincing. Too convincing.
"You can't fake that," Jess says, like she's presenting evidence in court.
I take a step back, dropping onto the armchair across from them. "We literally did."
"No," she says, shaking her head. "You started faking it and then you forgot to stop."
"That's not what happened."
"That's exactly what happened."
Riley leans back slightly, watching me instead of the video. "It didn't look forced."
"It wasn't supposed to."
"That's not what I mean," she says.
I don't respond to that. Because I know what she means.
Jess lowers her phone slowly, her expression shifting from excited to something more focused. "Okay, wait. Something else happened."
That's not a question.
It's a statement.
I hesitate, just for a second.
And that's enough.
Riley notices immediately. "What?"
"Nothing," I say.
Jess leans forward, narrowing her eyes at me. "That wasn't convincing."
"It wasn't supposed to be."
"Tell us."
I look between them, already knowing this isn't something I'm getting out of.
"It wasn't-" I start, then stop.
Because I don't know how to phrase it in a way that makes it sound like less than it was.
Riley waits.
Jess does not.
"Oh my god," Jess says, her eyes widening. "Something happened."
"Nothing happened."
"That's not how you say nothing happened."
"That is exactly how I say nothing happened."
"That is how you say something almost happened," she corrects.
I look at Riley. She doesn't look surprised.
That's worse.
"It was just the drive back," I say finally. "It wasn't a thing."
Jess makes a noise that sounds like disbelief and excitement at the same time. "Define 'not a thing.'"
"It just-" I exhale, leaning back in the chair. "We were talking, and then we weren't, and then it got quiet, and then it got... closer."
"Closer how?" Jess asks immediately.
"Jess," Riley says, but there's a small smile in her voice.
"No, I need details."
I ignore her.
"Nothing actually happened," I repeat. "It just-it almost did."
Riley tilts her head slightly. "You didn't pull away."
I hesitate.
"No," I admit.
Jess makes a strangled noise. "He didn't either."
"No."
"Okay," Jess says, sitting back like she needs to process that. "Okay."
"It got interrupted," I add quickly. "It wasn't like we-" I stop myself. "It just didn't happen."
Riley nods slowly, like she's putting pieces together instead of reacting to them. "But it could have."
"That doesn't mean anything."
"It means something," Jess says.
"It doesn't."
"It does."
I shake my head, pushing myself up from the chair like moving will make this conversation less intense.
"It was a moment," I say. "That's it."
Jess watches me carefully. "And you didn't hate it."
"That's not the point."
"That's exactly the point."
I don't answer. Because-
she's right.
And I don't like that.
Riley glances at Jess, then back at me. "So now what?"
"Nothing," I say immediately.
Jess raises an eyebrow. "Nothing."
"Nothing changes."
Jess lets out a small laugh, shaking her head. "Everything just changed."
"It didn't."
"You almost kissed him."
"That's not-"
"That's exactly what that is," she says.
I run a hand through my hair, exhaling slowly.
"This is still fake," I say.
Riley doesn't argue with that.
Jess does.
"Not like that," she says.
I look at her. She looks back. And for a second, no one says anything. Because we're all thinking the same thing. Even if I'm the only one pretending not to.
I reach for my phone again, opening it without really seeing it, the posts still there, the comments still stacking up under something that looks a lot more real than it's supposed to.
And now-
I don't know if they're wrong.
Which is the problem.