Page 90 of Make Me Laugh

I don’t let him try to change my mind. “This can’t happen again.” I scoot off the bed, avoiding the box of pizza in the middle and grab my shirt to hold against my chest.

We barely touched our dinner, but I’m not hungry anymore. It’s been replaced with the fear of falling and an urge to run as fast as I can in the opposite direction.

Lucky for West, the contract I signed binds me to him until the night before Thanksgiving.

I back towards the bathroom door. “Thanks for coming with—” God damn it. “Accompanying me. Thanks for going with me tonight.” I trip over my words, stuttering until I disappear behind the bathroom door, locking it to signify the end of our night.

I don’t know how much time has passed when I finally come out after a cold shower to help bring my body’s temperature down from near nuclear heat, but West’s gone, a note left on the top of the pizza box in permanent marker.

I’ll catch you if you fall.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

THE ONE WHERE THEY AGREE TO BE FRIENDS

HexedHeroine: Best part about getting doxxed on the internet? Finally getting to tell everyone my best friend is THE @ItsFrankie.mp3 Go listen to her music or else!

Comment: Hex & Frankie Sullivan crossover?!

Comment: Hmm using the popularity you got from West for you AND your friend’s gain, I seeeeee

WestParkerComedy comment reply: Hex had 5 million followers before she even let me breathe the same air as her! I think it’s me who’s using this for my own gain but idk man, you seem confident so ok

Comment reply: Defending her honor? YUM

It’s been a week since I basically begged Joey to let me make her come in her New York City hotel room.

The morning after, she posts a video to Hex’s account of her before leaving for Hamilton.

She’s propped at the end of the bed, on the opposite side from where I’d fingered her until she came, wearing a sparkly Hex mask and lavender headphones. Her phone’s set up to record herself in the mirror, hidden from view. She mouths the words to a clip from an audiobook she loved, paired with a Frankie song, wishing the author a happy release day and thanking them for an early copy in the caption.

The video gets a million views in twelve hours. Which is great! But not what it has been… The one she posts on my account of some crowd work she’d caught last weekend goes viral too, but again, it seems we might be tapering off a bit.

There haven’t been any videos posted of us during my shows since New Haven, but that’s because I haven’t incorporated her into the show—she’s barely said a hundred words to me since she kicked me out of her bed.

Our content is consistently doing well, but we’ve fallen off the trending page this week. It’s too early for that, even if things are still moving along better than most could hope.

Something’s got to change or we’ll be social-media has-beens before the month’s out.

Our comments are similar to what they’ve been for weeks.

Comment: No, but I’m just here for Hex and West?? And now they’re not giving it to us anymore sooooo

Comment reply: They don’t owe us anything

Comment: I just wanna know if @WestParkerComedy is still DTF?

No @FunnyGirl2827, I’m not DTF… anyone whose name isn’t Josette nomiddlename Daniels.

I almost comment some version of that but think twice about it. I’ve been pushing my luck with snarky comments lately. Joey’s asked me to be on my best behavior, multiple times now, and statistically, I have a not-so-good track record with that. Especially when it comes to her.

Letting myself have that moment with her in the hotel last week was exactly what I wanted—Joey too, but then that brilliant fucking brain of hers got in the way, letting logic make decisions for her heart.

When Joey finally has to break her vow of silence between us, it’s to tell me about my first brand deal.

My jaw hits the floor. “Forty grand?”

She nods, sending me a text with a link to the company’s website. “I haven’t accepted. I want to make sure you have the final say in these. It’s your name attached to them.” I watch her scroll to our shared notes app before passing her phone to me. “I think it’s important to know who and what you’re representing before accepting any offer. It’s easy to let dollar signs cloud your judgment. No company is perfect, and only you can decide what you’re willing to overlook for the sake of a paycheck.”