“What about the original video? That wasn’t a minor complaint you made. You said someone died. Why wouldn’t they just take it down?” Edie asked.
“Maybe they want people to think it was a joke,” James said.
“You don’t actually believe all this bollocks, do you Edie?”
All heads turned toward Rose in disbelief. Edie looked pained as her eyebrows came together, and James scoffed.
The Earth finally stopped spinning for Cassidy, and she caught her breath again. “I have one point five million followers. I wouldn’t joke around about something like this, okay? They’re going to think I remade the video, and they might think it’s bullshit, but there’s no way that they’re all going to forget about it. I’m sure some news outlet has seen it and is doing follow up.”
“I wouldn’t flatter yourself,” Rose said.
Cassidy deflated, and the stinging embarrassment flushed her cheeks.
“Rose!” Edie scolded.
“Cassidy’s not entirely wrong, maybe news stations won’t cover anything she posts, but TMZ will, and once it’s there it will explode in the media,” James said.
It didn’t make Cassidy feel any better though. Maybe she didn’t understand social media, just like James said. Her platform wasn’t built on well-earned trust, and she wasn’t a true public figure that people cared about when she said anything that attempted to bear any weight.
“We just met these people, Eden. What makes you think they’re telling the truth? This one’s already talking about being recorded in here,” Rose gestured to Apricot, sitting across the table. “And how do we know for sure that they didn’t know this Ryan LeHane bloke? For all you know, they’re filming you now for somePunk’dshit.”
“That’s not what we’re doing!” Indignation squeezed the words into a high-pitched cry from Apricot. “Maybe … maybeyou’rethe ones trying to punkus!”
“I saw that guy fall last night,” Edie said, boring a death glare into her friend’s impassive face.
“You were completely off your tits last night,” Rose said. “You don’t know what you saw. These three were probably hoping with how dark it was and how fucked up everyone was that someone would believe their little trick and respond to that video this morning. And you know, maybe it’s not a prank, maybe it’s something moreavant-garde,” Rose said, spitting the last words out sarcastically. “But we didn’t fucking agree to be a part of this either way.”
“That’s not what is happening!” James shouted and immediately took a step back.
Edie flinched away from the denial and her gaze darted between the strangers and Rose.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell,” James said.
“Come on, Edie, please,” Cassidy pleaded. “You said it yourself, you know what you saw. I do, too. I didn’t know Ryan before I got here, or even James.”
“This is a waste of time. Let’s go, Edie,” Rose said and stood with the grace of a queen. Edie cast one last glance to James standing at a distance from the women with his arms crossed. Apricot scrolled through her phone and started to hyperventilate. Cassidy seemed to be talking to Edie with her eyes, begging her toplease stay,but Edie hardly knew Cassidy. She didn’t owe her, or Apricot, or James anything. Edie stood and crossed the room with Rose.
James followed them as they walked out. “Hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell, but please, you have to believe us.”
Rose cast him a final stare, perfected by years of glaring into a camera for the perfect effect, and closed the door behind her.
“What is happening?” Apricot cried, burying her face in her hands.
“I don’t know, but I guess we’re the only ones who are going to try to figure it out.” James pulled out his phone and started tapping around as he made his way over to the table and sat down with the two remaining women.
Cassidy reached over and grabbed Apricot’s phone off the table. Apricot lifted her head at the movement and recoiled from the phone as though it were a dead thing. Cassidy couldn’t bring herself to rewatch the video knowing that it all looked and sounded like her to everyone else but that it wasn’t really. It was someone else—somethingelse. Instead, she looked at the comments to see if anyone pointed out discrepancies about the two different videos.
“Cassidy …” Apricot whispered.
Cassidy scrolled, waiting for her friend to continue her thought.
“All of the comments about Ryan LeHane on my video are gone.”“Well, those would be easy enough to monitor and delete,” James said.
Apricot didn’t seem to hear them. Her hands clasped at her mouth, eyes unfocused as tears slowly flowed down her cheeks. Cassidy had only ever seen her this pale after some very long nights of drinking in college, and even then, an amused bubbliness lived in Apricot’s eyes. But now, she just looked frail and sickly.
“A?” Cassidy asked. The faraway look in her friend’s eyes caused a new seed of panic to sprout in her belly.
“How did they know what I looked like?” Apricot asked.
