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Five: Broken Telephone
One Year Later
Lex
After one full season of college football under his belt, Lex had hoped the rumors about Coach Rojas possibly accepting a position he was offered at Michigan State was true. He’d read the reviews about the coach online before accepting the scholarship to San Diego State and his dumb ass still accepted it over the soccer scholarship, he’d been offered to ESU. Now he was looking at another possible three years with the asshole or praying the guy took the offer to Michigan State and hoped that whoever replaced him wouldn’t butt heads with Lex like he and Rojas had so far. After another day of his first grueling summer hell week with the still present Coach Rojas, he walked into his house and plopped down on the front room sofa completely drained. He caught the tail end of what his mother was saying in the kitchen.
“. . . because, honey, it’d been so long it just seemed pointless to make this awkward for you and Byron.”
Lex could hear his sister’s voice on the speaker phone, but because it was a room away, he couldn’t make out what she was saying. He could only tell by her tone, she was upset. Which was rare for his usually cheery sister.” Sweetheart,” his dad said. “I’d completely forgotten about it until your wedding last year when Manny brought it up. We all agreed we wouldn’t make a big thing of it and that you didn’t even have to know, but you know how loud Manny’s ass can be. Maybe someone heard him.”
Curious, Lex got up and headed into the kitchen. His mom was leaning against the counter tapping at her iPad and shaking her head.
“Christ all mighty, it’s everywhere,” his mother muttered as he neared her. He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, leaning his chin against her shoulder because he was so damn tired. “What’s everywhere?”
“Daddy they’re making all these YouTube videos about it. Making Byron’s brother out to be a real-lifebeast.” Vannah sounded like she was ready to cry. “Some of the show’s sponsors are already threatening to pull out.”
“Savannah, this was nearly . . .” Lex’s dad turned to his mom. “What? Twenty years ago? It’s only a big deal because he got famous fighting and he has a reality show now. But he’s owned up to all his past indiscretions with the law. And he’s made up for it all. Even did the time. It’s not that big a deal, baby, unless you let it be. Ignore all that shit. Don’t even comment on it. It has nothing to do with you or Byron and don’t worry about the sponsors pulling out. As popular as that damn show is, I’m sure there’s plenty more waiting and hoping they do, so they can take over.”
Lex pulled away from his mom when she reached for her bottled water. “What’s going on?”
“That story Manny blabbed about at the wedding last year,” Lex’s mom said in a lowered voice as she opened her bottled water shaking her head. “About Byron’s brother Beast and him doing your Aunt Sarah wrong way back. It got leaked somehow. It’s going viral on the internet and even TMZ featured the damn story on their show and website. It’s really effecting the reality show, I guess. They’re getting a ton of hate mail and the sponsors are getting nervous. Your sister’s very upset about it.” Lex turned to his dad. “That’s bullshit. Beast’s shady past is no secret. He’s been trying to make up for all that, for years, and if you ask me, he has.” He spoke into the phone on the counter now. “Vannah, hasn’t he given a ton of money to troubled youth charities and shit, to help keep them out of jail and isn’t he like the face plastered all over those foster care charity billboards all over the freeways?”
“He has and he is.” Hearing his sister sniffle made his already tense muscles go even more taut. “It just breaks my heart that it might be someone in the family that leaked the story because not only did they know about it, but they also had intimate details. Like that Uncle Angel got drunk and Uncle Romero’s place and sang sad break up songs when he feared Aunt Sarah was into Beast.”
“Honey, it could’ve been anyone within hearing distance at the wedding,” Lex’s dad said pointing at the phone with a frown. “If there’s anything I can guarantee you is that it wasn’t anyone in the family. Remember, because of Byron there was a lot of people there from the entertainment industry. I’d sooner believe it was one of them. They’d have more to gain from something like this than anyone in the family. You know how loud Manny is, and he talked about that specifically that night. Even if youtryto ignore his ass, he makes it nearly impossible, for all the cackling and wheezing he does when he cracks himself up.” Hearing her sniffle again had his dad working his jaw. “Listen to me, sweetheart. Your brother’s right. This was a long time ago. Beast has done his part to make up for all the wrongs he did in his past. Besides, this is a reality show about a bunch of foulmouthed, tatted up guys in a greasy auto shop restoring old cars. This isn’t some squeaky clean, after-school special. Finding some shade in one of those guys’ past shouldn’t come as such a surprise.”
“Yeah,” Lex added with conviction. “Especially one who’s already come clean about stuff he did that’s way worse than lying to some chick when he was young and stupid.” Lex glanced down at his phone frowning when he clicked on the internet browser icon and it was the top gossipy story on his list. But he shook his head. He knew how algorithms worked. He’d searched for his brother-in-law’s reality show based on his restoration shop “Bad Boys”, enough to know his phone and most search engines knew this was something he’d be interested in. Anyone who wasn’t into the show probably didn’t have this notification first on their list. Problem was that damn show was popular even with the ladies who knew little or didn’t even care about cars. The guys on the show were quite the heartthrobs now. They even put out a damn Bad Boys calendar, that sold like gangbusters. Just another charitable contribution Beast had given to the cause. Every penny of the proceeds for that calendar had gone to one of the shop’s charities.
His parents continued to calm Vannah about this whole mess as Lex clicked on one of the gossipy headlines. Reading the details of it, only reminded him of the one thing he’d been trying his hardest to not think about. For almost a whole damn year after the wedding, besides her text asking him to delete her contact info thenightof the wedding, Xochitl had yet to respond to any other of Lex’s texts or voicemails. He’d wondered more than once if maybe she’d blocked him since he’d obviously not adhered to her request of deleting her number. But his calls had still gone to her voicemail and as far as he could tell the texts were going through as well. Since his dumbass hadn’t thought to friend her on her social media while he still had the chance, they were all private now and he could only check them out if she approved his friend requests, which of course she hadn’t. Lex had stopped torturing himself weeks ago when he decided to stop going on her public gossip blog. He had to. Up until then, he’d held out hope she might eventually cave and give into responding to his texts or taking one of his pathetic calls. Then he found out when he’d been sucked into listening to his mom on the phone with Vannah, that Xochitl was back with her boyfriend. Her firsteverything. Only now his gut couldn’t help wondering. Didshehave anything to do with this Beast mess? Did she really hate Lex that much that she’d do this?
So, here he was going back onto her blog again. It had since been upgraded to a full-blown website and was very impressive. Hehatedhow much it hurt to see those eyes and hear that voice in the videos she uploaded to it. But even as he scrolled and scrolled, there wasn’t a single mention on her website of the viral story his sister was so upset about now. Except the leaked story he’d just read on the other gossip site, was too uncomfortably close to the version he’d given her.
As far as he knew Vannah and Xochitl were still good friends and his sister seemed completely in the dark about what happened the night of the wedding between him and Xochitl. Lex hadn’t been willing to upset Vannah about it even back when it happened. At the time he’d been certain things would blow over in a matter of weeks if not days. Then it didn’t, and as the time passed and it was obvious Xochitl was more upset about it than he’d originally thought, but Vannah had yet to mention it. Lex knew because of how bad things must’ve looked that night, Xochitl had felt stupid that night over what shethoughthe’d done to her and likely preferred no one know about it. So, he’d kept it to himself. He figured he’d done enough to piss her off already.
Now he sure as hell wouldn’t be mentioning this slight but unlikely accurate suspicion that maybe she’d been the one who leaked the story and upset his sister further. Already she’d sounded more broken up over the fact that this might’ve been disclosed by someone close to the family than anything else. Lex had no proof it’d been Xochitl’s doing, but it felt like a good enough excuse to try and reach out to her again. Even if she was in a relationship now. Whether or not he stood a chance with her anymore was the last thing he’d be asking about anyway. He listened as the conversation between Vannah and his parents veered off onto the car her husband’s shop was restoring for his dad and thankfully his sister went from sniffling to sounding like her easily excitable self again. Swallowing hard, he casually walked out of the kitchen as he brought his phone to his ear and ambled into the dining room. “Fuck,” he muttered as yet another one of his calls to Xochitl went to voicemail. There was no way. As pissed as she might be at him for what she clearly still thought she saw the night of the wedding and as irritable as Xochitl could be, she wouldn’t be that bitchy knowing her own good friendVannah would be affected by her leaking this, right?
Without bothering to send a text that would likely go unanswered like all the others, he put his phone away and walked back into the kitchen. His parents were off the phone with Vannah now but still looked troubled. Walking over to the fridge, Lex turned to his mom as his dad stepped out of the kitchen to take a call. “What happened? Is she better now?”
His mom took a swig of her water as if she needed it, before putting it down and nodded then shrugged. “Well, for now. But she doesn’t know about what Aunt Sarah and Uncle Angel have been dealing with yet. Dad and I told her to try and stay away from social media for a while until this dies down. She said she would. But it’s just a matter of time before she finds out.”
Peering at his mom who pursed her lips as she continued to scroll through her phone. “What do mean, what they’re dealing with?”
“They’ve been bombarded with messages and calls.” His mom exhaled loudly before pushing her phone aside. “They’ve even had paparazzi showing up at the restaurant to get their side of the story.”
Still in disbelief over this, Lex shook his head. “This issostupid. It happened so long ago, and he’s done so much worse. The manmurderedsomeone for fucks sake, and they’re dwelling on this shit?” “Yeah, well it’s a juicy story that’s being twisted to add sex to it.” His mom crossed her arms in front of her, as she leaned against the counter. “Juicy and sex sells. Why do you think they still make documentaries and stuff about stories even older than this? People are just fascinated with any kind of juicy sex scandal. No matter how old.”
“Sex?”
His mom nodded. “Apparently someone along this real-life game of Broken Telephone has added and omitted facts.”
“Broken Telephone?” Lex asked confused. “You probably don’t remember.” His mom waved her hand in front of her. “It’s a pre-school game. Look it up. It’s what happens when a story starts getting twisted as it’s passed on. Basically, they’re saying your aunt really did cheat on her then boyfriend of several years with a guy who conned her into doing so. Or something to that effect. Anyway, you can imagine how pissed this is making your uncle to have to read these stories. Especially since in some of the stories, they claim Beast has confirmed that they did sleep together. Which is bullshit. Your aunt would never do that. If anything.” She glanced around and stretched her neck in the direction Lex’s dad had walked out of the kitchen before turning back to him and lowering her voice to a near whisper. “Your father and I were so off and on in those days if anyone might’ve slept with what I considered a hunk back then, it would’ve been me. And it wouldn’t have been cheating either since at the time me and your dad were off.” Lex felt his face instantly sour. He didn’t need to hear this shit. “Ididn’t,”she added quickly because he must’ve looked as nauseated as this made him feel. “I’m just saying. I’ve always beenby far, the gutsier of your aunt and I, and even I didn’t go there. The man might be good-looking, but I got to witness firsthand just howBeastyhe can be. You think your dad’s bad?” She shook her head going back to talking in her regular voice. “Long story even longer Uncle Romero is already amping up the security at all the restaurants just to be on the safe side. Your dad thought he saw someone suspicious hanging out front of ours yesterday and you know him. The moment they saw him and that scowl coming to investigate, they were gone. But that’s who he’s on the phone with now I’m sure, Romero.” She rolled her eyes. “Just like Uncle Angel, he’ll be going all overboard with the security now.”
This was too surreal. But at least he now had some kind of confirmation that Xochitl had nothing to do with this. Not that he’d seriously considered that she had. But she especially wouldn’t have leaked a story and purposely added this kind of crap knowing it’d inevitably affect Vannah’s family in this way.
His mother got a call from a client she had to take, and Lex decided he’d go do what he’d been doing every day since hell week had started. Forget about everything else going on and go pass out.
