Page 91 of Leah

She looked guilty. “I’m sorry, but you know you get only honesty with me, right?”

I swallowed hard. “I know.”

“I can feed you bullshit—”

“No, I need to hear this, too.”

I blinked back my stinging tears again. Stupid soap.

With another sniff, I looked away from her, staring mindlessly at a spot on the tile wall.

Had I really turned into him?

When the silence got to be too much, she stood up and left me alone.

*

Did I watch the sex tape?

Of course.

And I was pleasantly surprised by how non-explicit it really was. I mean, sure you could see us through the blinds, but the view was pretty far away, and when the person did try and zoom up, it got blurry.

I cringed at myself wearing the trucker hat, riding Carter slowly. Thank God you couldn’t hear words.

My chest tightened when I saw his hands moving up my bare back. It looked so sensual and affectionate. When I had bent down to kiss him, he’d wrapped his arms around me, and it looked almost like we were cuddling for a moment.

Until he started pounding me with his enormous dick.

Sigh.

I watched it only once, grateful they hadn’t at least caught our first session together. There were a lot of nude pictures of Carter, and he’d hidden from the spotlight since it had come out.

Articles of Molly hit the magazine stands too. Melanie came home with the latest one. The cover had a lightning bolt shooting through it and on one side there was a distraught looking Carter, and on the other, there was a constipated looking Molly. The caption above read, “Rockstar Heartbreak, the Beat of Love is Over for These Two.”

The beat of love?

Vomit.

Could you be any cheesier?

And then, lo and behold, there was a school picture of me below. Of course it had to be my worst one. God forbid they pick the more photogenic pictures. No, they had to riddle my articles with crap shots of me.

Rome was correct.

They had leafed through my entire life story, right down to every ugly detail.

I avoided it like the plague, and after a few weeks, it really did die down the way Rome had predicted. Dave was no longer needed, and the money I’d been given to tide me over had run out.

I was officially on my own now.

The days passed.

So many days.

Until I could walk around without being recognized or hounded.

Until I could finally breathe and attempt to put my life together.

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