Page 18 of Deeper

She barged in with a quick hello and waited for me to shut the door behind her. “Bia!”

My best friend was her usual, perky, happy-go-lucky self. And like the kind girl she’d always been, she’d come over with doughnuts and coffee. I didn’t like coffee unless it was iced, or filled with an unhealthy amount of sugar. Victoria took hers like a champ. She liked to say, “I like my coffee like I like my men: Black.”

Zander had always been her exception.

Zander.

I busied myself with grabbing the box of doughnuts and placing it on my coffee table. We sat on my sofa cross-legged, facing each other as Victoria drank her coffee and sifted through her phone.

I grabbed a cruller and nibbled on it, thinking of ways to avoid speaking about the previous night.

Thankfully, Victoria wanted to talk, but not about me. “So, I know why Zander cancelled.”

Swallowing, I faced her, curious. “Why?”

She scowled, disgust coating her brown features. “That bitch.”

“What bitch?”

Victoria rolled her eyes and held out her phone, showing me exactly who she was talking about. On her phone, she’d opened up Instagram. Gossip page, The CelebriTea, was pulled up, and one of their recent posts was a repost of a certain blonde I recognized. The caption was messy:Looks like #Jolie has a new boo. We see you, girl.#ZanderWho

In the photo, Jolie was jumping on some guy with red hair’s back, flashing the biggest smile on her face as he held on to her.

Victoria took her phone back and shook her head. “Fuckin’ bitch.”

I didn’t get it. “He missed out on a major bag forthat?”

My best friend deadpanned, looking at me as if I were slow. “Bianka. Zander acts like Jolie is the love of his life. The guy doesn’t tweet or post on socials, but just a few weeks ago he tweeted that ‘it was always her,’ with an at.”

“So…he’s a simp?” How pitiful.

Victoria shot me a disapproving look, ashut up and listenexpression as she continued to rant about the oh-so heinous Jolene Jones. “Anyway, she never responded publicly, and now she’s posting pics with the next dude. Girl, fuck her.”

But Zander had slept with me.

Had he still even cared?

“Maybe that’s not the reason why,” I tried to say. “Maybe…he’s seeing someone else. I mean, who’s Nazanin?”

Victoria gagged. “Eww, that’s his sister.”

“Oh, I just heard someone mention her name at the venue.”

Tori settled back and drank more of her coffee as her eyes were glued to her phone, reading comments people had posted under the picture of Jolie.

While she read and liked comments, I gathered my own phone to see if it was true about Zander and his loving tweet.

Upon opening up my Twitter app, I found that Zander was a current trending topic. He’d issued an apology for cancelling his show and tour, and people were talking about it.

As I skimmed tweets, I saw that many were either in support of him or annoyed that he’d flaked.

My feelings were a mess, and I felt tempted to tweet out an offense towards Zander to keep up appearances, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“Well.” Tori was looking at me now, eager to know my side of the evening.

I thought about it, I really did, about just coming out and telling her the truth. Seeing her hate for Jolie all but confirmed how she would turn on me if she knew. Mistakes were fun in the moment, but the consequences left in their aftermath were all too overwhelming.

“Well, I meant to just go home after charging my phone, but one thing led to another and we hooked up,” I confessed, keeping it vague.

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