sweets || bryce hall

Chapter 45: Trust

12/22

TW: This chapter contains mention of self harm, mental distress, mental and physical abuse, suicidal thoughts, a suicide attempt, and suicidal intention.

Know what you can handle reading and what is best for yourself.

-

Rory POV

"Bye bub, I'm leaving" I call into the house before shutting the door. They're all about to do a zoom meeting with Triller and Talent X, finalizing the deal with the new house, and I didn't want to just sit in our room, or sit through the meeting, I would die of boredom, so Anthony is outside. He's gonna take me to Avani's. She called me later in the day, on the day I downloaded Tiktok, and I randomly picked up. We ended up talking for two hours, and it was so much fun.

See, we're both really quiet, and have some mental issues, but the biggest thing is that we both get really random, dorky, and weird when we are actually in a really happy mood, even if that doesn't happen often.

I smile at Anthony as I get in the passenger side of the car.

"Heeeeyyy Ro, how's it going?" He grins back at me as I buckle. He pulls away and I answer,

"I'm good. Tiktok and Instagram have been interesting,"

"Have you been... paying attention to the comments on everyone's accounts? I know you haven't posted anything but...?" He tentatively asks, glancing at me while he drives. I glance down at my hands in my lap, before trying to confidently answer,

"I looked... once. I regretted it. I've just been kind of existing for the last month, collabing, wow I don't know how I feel about saying that word, but collabing with Char, and Nikita, and having Avani, Amelie, Madi, and Char teaching me to dance, doing videos with Seb and Chase and Thomas, messing with Bryce basically. Which is always interesting... But talking to Avani more has been fun! And Amelie seems even nicer than I knew before!" Anthony chuckles, nodding,

"Yeah well, I might be biased, but I personally think that Avani is great. And yeah, Amelie is... insanely nice. Triple A power y'know, just makes us all obviously better than everyone else, y'know?" We both laugh, continuing to talk about random Tiktok things as we drive towards her apartment.

-

"Okay Anthony, time for you to leeave! I want my own Rory time!" Avani says, pushing her exasperated boyfriend's chest through the door, pecking his lips before smiling and closing the door. We both laugh as I move and sit on the couch, her following.

We talk about Sway Gaming stuff for a bit, talking about how cute Quinton and Cynthia are, and random stuff. Before eventually, she asks how I met Bryce. She never really met me until August or July like most people, so she wasn't around when I met everyone at first. I tell her the story of Josh, Bryce, and I meeting at Canes.

"So you just started hanging out with them?"

"Yeah" I smile, thinking back, "I started coming over, and even though I had technically gotten an apartment, and a job, I was there almost all the time after less than a week honestly. I got close with Nessa, met Mads and Cynthia a couple of times, I think you were there when I was a couple of times but I was just so... I mean I still am..."

"Anxious?" She smiles sadly at and I just nod.

"Yeah, I just didn't want to meet any new people. I mean, I had just moved here, had left my family, barely had any money, was a socially anxious 18 year old girl working at Starbucks in LA, and was secretly... sorta dating Bryce Hall. My life was just upside down. But a good upside down." I stare off into space, and after a minute Avani asks,