Melody's Muse ✓

27. Leaving

Cole

I stare at my phone in disbelief as I try to process what just happened. Who the hell leaked the interview and photo? I can't believe Melody thinks I would do something like that. I try to call and text Melody for another ten minutes but it's hopeless. She's clearly not going to respond.

I pace back and forth in my room, trying to expel the built up stress in my body. Thoughts are racing through my mind a mile a minute. What am I supposed to do? My phone suddenly lights up and I quickly dash over to my desk to grab it. I groan when I look at the screen and disappointment washes over me. I debate not picking up for a moment. 

"What a way to announce it, Cole." Trisha immediately laughs when I pick up. "What happened to Melody wanting to keep herself private?"

"Hi to you too," I grumble. "Sis...I'm really not in the mood to talk about this."

She ignores me. "It looks like she has some competition."

"What are you talking about?"

"Check your Instagram," she chuckles.

Why? I have four, five photos at most and like a hundred followers from what I remember. I finally manage to log in after several failed attempts to remember my password.

My eyes widen at the thousands of notifications. I feel an uneasy pit growing in my stomach as I skim through some of the comments. Heart eyes emojis, drool emojis, and water droplet emojis, mostly from girls my age. The discomfort is quickly replaced by anger though, when I see comments saying hurtful things towards Melody. I quickly disable my account.

"Unbelievable," I groan. "I don't know how this happened Trish, things between us were private. I didn't share any of this stuff with them. Now Mel's mad at me."

"Ah," she says softly. "I'd say get to the bottom of this ASAP, and find some way to prove you'd never do something like this. I believe in you Cole!"

"Thanks, sis."

-----

"Alright, who the hell is responsible for this?" I growl as soon as I enter the meeting room. I toss a stupid tabloid magazine I bought from the drugstore onto the table. The same god damn picture from Sunday is on the cover. Underneath is the headline,

Melody Aria Exclusive - Rehab, Pregnancy Rumors, Incarceration, and More

Tabloids are a disgrace to journalism. They're the lowest of the lows, filled with lies and gossip.

Everyone stares at the magazine, looking dumbfounded. "None of us have any idea how this happened Cole." Francine looks at me sympathetically.

"We didn't even realize you two were close," Andrea adds.

I tiredly collapse onto one of the chairs. I'm exhausted. I spent all night trying to figure out where they had gotten their information from - obviously with no success.

"Morning everyone," Michael greets us as he steps into the meeting room. He sees the tabloid on the table. "Wow, they got that published much earlier than I expected."

My blood boils and I quickly stand up. "You did this?!" I shout, stepping right up to him.

Andrea gets up too and grabs my arm, keeping me from grabbing Michael by the neck. We've learned through unfortunate experience that a mediator is necessary before arguments turn physical. For a newspaper team, we have a lot more fights than people would think.

Michael looks at me calmly. "Well, yeah."

How is he so nonchalant about this? "Why? How?" I demand.

"I figured you wanted me to when I saw the picture."