𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐇 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 [slow updates]

𝟒𝟒

CINDY

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"I-I know, okay? But listen—"

"'Listen'? Alexa, I trusted you. And you don't get to call me, asking to "talk" because I can probably guess what you want to talk about, and—frankly—I don't give a fuck."

I probably shouldn't talk to her like this no matter how mad I am. She could be recording or have someone listening, she could send this call to someone and me and my boyfriend could be on the front of a magazine tomorrow because of this.

Whatever I say to her, though, it isn't uncalled for. It's deserved on an otherworldly level, and I don't care if this becomes some insane story people are going to be debating for weeks. I want to call her all kinds of things, tell her how—

"Cindy, please! I'm not going to apologize or ask to be friends again, because I already know what you'd say to that. But I overheard Chris saying something last night and I think you should probably know about it. So, can you please not hang up on me? Let me say this one thing."

When I don't say anything else, she continues with, "When me and you were hanging out a little more, I gave him your number just in case he couldn't reach me. Not with any malicious intent, but he's always been really toxic and possessive, and I didn't want him to flip out on me if he couldn't reach me for some reason. Anyway, last night... I was out with Phoebe and some of the girls, and Chris was there. He was super drunk rambling on about who knows what, and Phoebe overheard him saying shit about me. So, we went up to him to confront him and he was rambling on about how you and Levin 'deserved worse than what he did.' He said that you guys ruined his life—which is a stretch, if you ask me. But I know that a lot of your guys' information got out, and I know I would want to know why or how or who, so..."

"You think is was Christopher?"

"I would be surprised if it wasn't."

Neither of us say a thing for a moment and right as my finger is hovering over the red button on my screen, she says, "I really am sorry, Cindy."

Then, I hang up.

❄︎❄︎❄︎

It's been about an hour since Alexa called me, and I know I should call Levin to tell him about it, but I don't want him to stress anymore than he already has been these past few days. So, I decide I'll tell him later.

I message my mom that I'm heading over to her house because, even though I don't want to tell Levin right now, I do want to tell someone. And I'm not going to make the same mistake I made with Alexa. If I made things worse by telling someone something that isn't really anyone else's business, I'd feel horrible.

He hasn't fully expressed to me how much this is bothering him, but I know my guy. Levin's hating this about ten times as much as I am. The idea of adding even the smallest thing to his plate makes me nauseous.

And it's not like he's home anyway. I can tell him tonight before bed or even as soon as he does get here. I'm not sure. I haven't been sure about anything in what feels like forever.

God, this is all so stupid. I just wish there was someone who could tell me exactly what to do in these types of situations. It was never this bad with Tommy's job.

I shake out my hands and then pop my fingers.

All I need to focus on right now is getting this new information to my mom. Everything else can wait. Getting this off my chest will fix everything. At least for a moment.