Chapter 30
30
‘You seriously want to admit to our followers that your most iconic dance routine … isn’t actually yours ?’ Abeo asked in disbelief.
‘It’s ridiculous, I know,’ Felicity conceded, toying with a piece of sushi wedged between her chopsticks. ‘But maybe it’ll prevent Mr Ex from blackmailing me.’
It was early in the evening, and we were at Felicity’s Belgravia apartment, lounging in the living room on a food break in between content creation. We had the place to ourselves because Felicity’s parents were in Hong Kong.
‘Mr Ex is already controlling Chloe Clark ’s wardrobe,’ Felicity snapped incredulously. ‘Maybe it’s smarter if we all just spill our secrets ourselves. At least we’ll be free from blackmail threats then.’
‘Free and fucking cancelled!’ Abeo announced, then took a dramatically deep breath. ‘I don’t know what drugs you’re on today, girl, but I recommend you sober up before you do some dumb shit. And bring us all down with you.’
Felicity began to pace around the room. ‘I’m so sick of this stuff from my past chasing me all the time. I love collaborating with different dance groups, but I don’t do it any more because I feel so paranoid that they all secretly know I’m a fraud and don’t respect me.’
‘Maybe you’re overthinking this,’ I reasoned. ‘Maybe those dancers you stole the moves from have forgotten all about it and you need to move on too.’
Her face fell, as though I’d uttered something ridiculous. ‘Plagiarism isn’t the kind of thing dancers just forgive and forget. Haven’t you noticed the hints Mr Ex has been dropping about my oh-so- original dance routines?’
She ran her hands through her silky black hair as though she was about to pull it all out. ‘Do you think it’s really too late for me to just give those dancers credit?’
‘Oh honey, it’s like four years too late,’ Abeo exclaimed.
Felicity suddenly paused and stared out of the window, her expression looking like she was a million miles away. ‘If I have to do one more thing in exchange for him not ruining my reputation, I think I’ll really lose my mind.’
‘What?’ I asked tersely. ‘What did he ask you to do?’
Felicity jumped and turned to face us, as though she’d seen a ghost. She knew she’d said too much. A cold shiver crept through me; whatever it was, I could tell it was bad.
‘Show us the messages,’ Abeo demanded.
Felicity tapped her foot nervously, avoiding our eyes. And it suddenly became clear just how many secrets the three of us were keeping from each other as well.
‘This is something I need to deal with alone,’ she said in a conclusive tone.
A strained silence fell.
‘Has Mr Ex sent you any new messages?’ I asked Abeo.
He shrugged. ‘Only the occasional flirty texts. Completely meaningless.’
‘You’ve been ignoring them, right?’
‘Obviously,’ Abeo replied too confidently, scrolling through his phone with a nonchalance that appeared artificial.
Felicity and I exchanged a look.
Every Ex seemed to be playing their own game with Mr Ex, and each of us was playing alone, which made us all that much easier as targets. We’d be more powerful together, but the gaps between us just seemed to be widening.
I hadn’t even told them about Zara yet, and I didn’t really want to. I liked there being a part of my life that was just for me . Something people couldn’t meddle with.
‘Shall we just get back to shooting the vlog?’ Felicity drawled.
It was obvious none of us were really in the mood to continue shooting. Content creation had become such a chore – even hanging out together had.
Still, we got up, fixed our faces and our moods, and got back to work.