Devils and Angels (GG Reboot)

Chapter 35

The sudden blast of light wakes me from my dreams. 

"Good, I'm glad you're up!" I hear the voice of my mom. 

I slowly open my eyes to see my room occupied by her and what I assume to be my legal team along with Lisa and Sam.

 "You woke me up." I say with a raspy voice. 

"That I did. It's eleven o'clock, you have that luncheon for Audrey's mom in a little over an hour, you should have been up." She scolds me.

 "Sorry, I failed to set an alarm." I sigh, running a hand through my hair. 

"So are you gonna tell me, why my room is occupied with these people I've never met before." I say with a raised eyebrow. 

"Yes, I was just getting to that. This is your legal team for the trial. And they are here this morning because we got wind of this last night." Mom explains as she hands me her phone to look at.

 It was a video of my slapping Julien at the Met Steps yesterday. 

"Do you not have any idea how bad this looks considering what you are going to court for?!" mom exclaims. 

"I found out she leaked to Gossip Girl what happened on NYE." I try to reason. 

"So." Mom states simply with a shrug of her shoulders.

 "So?! Mom, are you kidding me? I was, am mad as hell with her. She should have never done that. My actions were completely justified!" I defend myself. 

"And I'm sure that's what Luke's team will say about your situation in court." She scuffs.

 I look at her in disbelief. 

"She's right." Lisa, mom's lawyer, speaks up.

 "We believe it would be best for you to quickly make amends with her. It will be good for your reputation." Lisa continues. 

With an exasperated sigh I reach for my phone that sits on my night desk and scroll through my camera roll for an old picture of Julien and me.

 Finding it I post it to Instagram with the caption "Girls Night Out with the best!" 

"There, happy?" I question, looking at my mom and the legal team. 

"It's a start but Willow you need to be conscious of your what you are doing. Everything you have ever said and done can come back to hurt you in this case. Luke's team is going to point you out as a liar and I'm sure several other things. Your reputation and public image matters more now than ever." Lisa warns me. 

"Good to know." I state bluntly. 

"Okay, well thank you all for coming. We will see you all next week for the case prep." Mom weakly smiles as they all file out of my room. 

As soon as they are gone, I get out of bed and head towards my closet ignoring my mom's presence. 

"Willow, they are here to help you. How you talked them was unacceptable." Mom scolds me.

 "Unacceptable? What's unacceptable is bringing them into our home let alone my room. A complete invasion of privacy." I start hastily looking through my clothes for an outfit to wear.

 "And I know that what I did was wrong, especially given everything that is going on right now but you didn't even seem phased at the fact that one of my best friends leaked private information for the whole world to see. To top it off, you all want me to act like I fucking like her now in public." I finish my tangent.