13. Good News And Bad News #2
Guilt eats me from the inside out. I’m lusting over my team captain’s sister. Even worse, she’s Jamie’s girlfriend. Possibly even Connor’s if their date last night went well.
They wouldn’t be mad if you wanted to date her, too.
I want to bang my head against the table to banish that stupid thought from my mind.
Even if I could get past my trust issues, even if I could accept the crazy idea of sharing her with my best friends, she fucking hates me.
Just to add another nail in the coffin of any possible romantic involvement between us, I don’t thank her for saying that she’s going to help me. She’s making it sound like an obligation, and it hurts.
On a rational level, I know I shouldn’t care why she’s going to help me. But it fucking does. And she has no business looking so beautiful all the time. I think she does it just to taunt me.
“Great.” I bite out, angrier with every passing second. “I just wanted to make sure of it.”
My words hit the intended target, and she looks hurt. “Great.”
I should be happy, but I feel like shit. Why the fuck can’t I act like a decent human being in her presence?
Every time Bex and I have a failed interaction, I hate myself a little more. And every time I come in the shower thinking about her, the feeling grows tenfold.
I should get up and go before one of us says anything else that will make the next workshops even harder than the last one; but my butt is glued to the chair and I’m locked in a staring contest with Bex.
My chance to get away comes when Bex’s phone vibrates on the table.
She picks it up, and by the look on her face, I know whatever she just saw isn’t good.
“You ok?” I ask, because I’m a glutton for punishment.
“This can’t be true. I had an alert set up to notify me when Rebecca Shine is mentioned on social media or on a few entertainment blogs and channels. Last night at dinner, there was a little girl who asked me for a selfie and then she posted it.”
I nod. “Yeah, I heard what happened from Connor before practice.” I also know that despite being thrown out of the restaurant, their date went well.
At least judging by the love-struck smile on Connor’s face and by the fact that this morning I saw both him and Jamie leaving Bex’s room. Of course, I don’t mention any of that.
“Are there any more nasty comments on her post? Has it been reposted hundreds of times?”
She shakes her head. “Her post has been reposted thousands of times, but that wasn’t the alert. It came from the Pure Shine main account. They announced Kurt’s engagement to my friend Aisha.”
Bex looks more shocked than sad or jealous, and I should mind my own fucking business, but it looks like today I’m on a roll and can’t keep my mouth shut.
“Your friend? Isn’t she the one who called you ugly just a few days ago and who actively encouraged her followers to come after you?”
She meets my gaze, and for a second I think she’s about to tell me to butt out, but she doesn’t.
“I don’t blame her for that post, Keene.
At least not entirely. We had another girl leave a year ago, and my father doesn’t take kindly to people breaking their contracts with him.
He made us say negative things about her on our social media to ruin her image.
I mean, it wasn’t as harsh as they were with me, but our followers support us almost blindly, and her career was pretty much over.
She went from five million followers to ten thousand pretty much overnight. ”
“Damn.” I can’t hide my disbelief. “What is it, a cult?”
To my surprise, Bex doesn’t take this opportunity to call me crazy like I did with her a minute ago. She actually agrees with me.
“I guess you could call Pure Shine a cult. Since my father moved his top clients into that hype house, he’s imposed all kinds of invasive rules on us. And our followers eat all of that up.”
Fuck.
“To the point that someone attacked you because your so-called friends told them to.” I remind her.
“Yeah. But Keene, my friends had no choice but to follow my dad’s orders.
If they had refused to go against me, they would have been kicked out of the house and lost everything.
I left voluntarily, and I didn’t realize until I needed money that my father had pretty much siphoned all our earnings into the agency’s accounts.
Aisha and all the others would be in my same situation if they refused to do his bidding. ”
That might be so, but in my eyes there’s no justification for bullying and harassing someone and for putting a target on their back. Especially if those people had called themselves her friends at some point. “So your ex-bestie got engaged to the guy who beat you up the night before your wedding?”
A cloud passes over Bex’s eyes. “Yes. And she probably has no idea whom she agreed to marry. I left without telling anyone. I knew my only chance of getting away was before the wedding. My father hired a whole glam squad to help us get ready. The wedding was supposed to be a huge promotional event, and he wanted everything to be perfect. Aisha was my maid of honor, but she didn’t help me get dressed or with my hair and makeup.
I asked the hired staff to help me cover the bruises by leaving my hair down and with makeup, and I guess they either didn’t care about what had happened to me or they knew better than to ask any questions.
I doubt Kurt told her how things ended between us.
I can’t let her marry that monster. I need to tell her what happened. ”
I feel sad for Bex. Not only because of what she had to go through but also because she had to go through it alone. But I disagree with her. “I don’t care if your father is behind that post and all those comments. Your friend still had a choice. I don’t think you have any obligation to warn her.”
As predictable, Bex doesn’t see eye to eye with me on that particular point. “I might not have any obligation to do it, but Kurt could have killed me. If he did the same thing to her, I would never be able to forgive myself.”
“You need to look after number one, Bex. I think getting in touch with her could cause more trouble for you. What if she doesn’t believe you? Or if she thinks you’re lying because you’re jealous?”
“I’ll have to take that risk.” She says, opening her DMs to message her former friend.
She’s so fucking stubborn, it pisses me off. But I’d be lying if I said that there isn’t a part of me that admires her loyalty.
I glance at her phone screen as she types a message to her former best friend.
Rebecca: Hey Aisha, I just saw the news of your engagement to Kurt. There is something you should know. Could I call you, or could you call me, please?
Aisha: If that’s your way of saying congratulations, try again. Your choice of words really sucks.
I probably should keep my mouth shut, but I think it’s more than clear that I’m not very good at it.
“See? She thinks you’re jealous.”
“Jeez, nosy much?” Bex snaps. “Since you’re so wise, what do you think I should say next?”
I’m surprised she wants my advice, but since she asked…
“Just let this go. It’s obvious that she isn’t going to listen.”
Of course, Bex doesn’t listen. “I can’t. I have to tell her what happened to me. Then if she still wants to marry him, I’ve done all I can.”
I roll my eyes, unable to hide my frustration. “If you knew what you wanted to do, why did you ask for my opinion?”
“It’s called advice, Keene. The recipient can do whatever the fuck they want. It’s not an order.”
God, she’s so annoying. “Whatever. When this explodes in your face, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Noted.”
She begins typing again, her bottom lip jutting out as she concentrates.
I have to fight the urge to take it into my mouth and suck on it. I know she’s going to taste so fucking sweet that my cock begins stirring in my pants at just the thought.
Rebecca: Aisha, I swear I’m not jealous. Kurt isn’t who you think he is. Please, I just need one minute of your time.
Aisha: Do you know what I think, Bex? I think you can’t stand the fact that now that you’re gone, I got everything that was within your reach.
The reality show and the sponsorship you wanted, the man you were supposed to marry.
Now that the spotlight is on me, and you lost all your followers, you can’t take it.
I don’t have to listen to your lies. Crawl back into the hole you came from, Bex. I’m blocking you.
“No, no, no.”
Bex types something else at lightning speed and is about to press send when Aisha’s last messages disappear.
The app says, “Message unavailable.”
“I can’t believe she blocked me.” Bex says. “I might have to message Kevin or one of our other friends and see if anyone will listen.”
I open my mouth to tell her that it’s a bad idea, but something else happens.
As Bex leaves the message thread with Aisha, her entire profile vanishes. She is asked to log into the app, and when she tries to enter her credentials, she receives a message saying that the user is unavailable.
“What in the world is going on?” Bex closes the app and opens a different social media app and then another with similar results.
“I don’t understand what’s happening.”
I have a suspicion I know what’s going on, and I open one of my apps to search for her username.
“User unavailable.” I show her the screen. “I think someone just deleted your account. Is it possible?”
The look on her face gives me the answer I need before she explains.
“Yeah. All my social media accounts were created under the Pure Shine umbrella by my father. I had the login credentials, but he created the accounts.”
I ask the next question that comes to my mind, even if I already know the answer. “And you didn’t change the passwords after you left?”
Bex
I’m a total idiot.
For once in his life, Keene is nice enough not to say it out loud, but it’s written all over his face.