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IRL
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CW: underage drinking + suicidal thoughts + vomiting

MURPHY'S LAW: ANYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG, WILL GO WRONG. That epigram is taunting Leanna as she looks through the posts about her and Matt. They'd been so careful with their relationship. They only posted each other on their spam accounts and avoided being in videos together while they were dating (except for one that was quickly taken down by Chris after opening up the comment section). Before they hit a million subscribers, the boys' fandom was small enough that they didn't care to know who she was. But, with the new fans joining and becoming incredibly possessive over the triplets, she should have known that everything would go to shit. Odette snatches Leanna's phone out of her hands. With each scroll, Odette saw Leanna's face crumple more.

"Odette, this is bad. This is so bad." Leanna grumbles, falling face down on her pillow. Leanna screams into the cotton bedding to relieve any frustration in her body.

From the other side of the room, Odette is trying to keep calm. However, that is harder than she anticipated considering how grotesque the comments are. "Jesus, these people are cruel."

Leanna's muffled groans grow louder at hearing her roommates' comment.

Odette snaps her fingers excitedly, "You know what you need to do?"

Leanna lifts her head off her pillow to reply, "Fall off the face of the earth?" She inquires.

"No," Odette snorts, pulling Leanna out of her bed, "You need to get shitfaced."

Leanna frowns, her eyebrows drawing closer together. "Shitfaced?"

"Drunk, Lea. We need to get drunk!" Odette exclaims, giving her roommate jazz hands. It's a sorry attempt to make Leanna feel better. But, her rationale is that Lea needs a distraction. Alcohol is a perfect one. "There's a frat party happening tonight. Both of us are already dressed, so we might as well go."

Leanna weighs her options. She could either stay in her dorm and continue to read the obscene amount of death threats and hate comments under her post or, she could attend a party.

That's how she finds herself moving through Delta Mu's frat house. The fraternity is filled to the brim and the loud bass of the music is making her head spin. Odette is pulling her through the bodies of people to get to the kitchen. Thankfully, the kitchen is less full which makes Leanna sigh with relief.

"Ok, this is tequila. You just have to throw your head back and open your throat so it passes by quickly." Odette instructs as she hands the shot glass to Leanna, "Oh it's going to burn by the way."

Lea holds the shot glass, examining the clear fluid. This is the first time Lea's ever drank and she can feel the nerves spreading through her body. Odette on the other hand is naturally pouring the drinks. "How do you know so much about this?"

Odette is pouring herself a glass as she replies, "The drinking age in Quebec is 18."

Odette counts down from three and tilts Lea's hand upwards so she can down the tequila. Leanna's eyes sting as she swallows the liquor. Coughing does nothing to alleviate her burning throat. Her eyes widen as Odette pours more tequila into the cup.

"More?" Lea coughs.

"You need at least four more," Odette explains as she finished pouring her second shot. Four shots later, Leanna finds herself giggling at everything Odette is saying.

"It's not that funny Leanna!" Odette's voice is slurred. She attempts to push her roommate's shoulder but she misses completely.

Leanna is swaying slightly as she nurses the beer she'd found in the fridge. "It's a little bit funny! It's not every day you get diarrhea on a first date." She continues to giggle as the conversation ends. Being her first time drinking, Leanna had gotten drunk off her second shot. Her brain feels fuzzy and her body feels warm but, the alcohol has suppressed the feeling of worthlessness that the Instagram comments had brought.

Who knew getting shitfaced would feel this great? Leanna thinks as she gulps down the rest of her drink. Her eyes slowly trail over to a couple in the corner of the kitchen with them. The boy whispers something in the girl's ear that makes her laugh. He tucks her hair behind her ear and leans in to kiss her. Looking away, Leanna gets the familiar feeling of jealousy in her stomach. Since their relationship had been leaked two hours ago, Leanna had expected a call or text or anything from Matt—she got nothing. It had been radio silence from the triplets' end regarding the whole situation.

"I'm going to the bathroom," Leanna says definitively. She doesn't let Odette reply before she stumbles out of the kitchen. Grabbing the wall to stabilize herself, she walks into the living room. She has to weave herself around the people dancing with each other as the music pounds in her ears. Stumbling up the stairs, she finds the bathroom fairly quickly. Looking in the mirror leaves Leanna cringing. Her mascara is runny and there's sweat glistening from her body. She fumbles for her phone and unlocks it to go straight to Instagram. Yes, she knows that the whole reason for her getting inebriated is to avoid the reality of the situation she's in but, Leanna's considering she might be a masochist with how she continues to go back to the comment section of her most recent post. Tears fall from her eyes as she rereads the comments. Exiting out of her Instagram she blindly switches to her phone app, pressing Matt's contact. The phone rings once before the line connects.

"Leanna?" Matt's voice comes through the phone.

"You suck, do you know that?" Leanna slurs as she gazes into the mirror. Her arms flail around as she hiccups, "You don't even care that your whole fanbase knows?"

"Are you drunk?" He asks.

Leanna laughs humourlessly, "Yes," she hiccups again, "Do you wanna know why? Because everyone in my comments is either telling me that I'm a slut or that I'm a fucking home wrecker—I dated you first. And all for what? Because I'm in love with you? Cause we dated? It's fucking bullshit."

On the other side of the call, Matt sits up in his bed. This is the first time he's used his phone in three hours because the internet in his house went out so he spent the last hours hanging with his family. "Lea—"

Her inhibition is lowered, and everything coming out of her mouth is her pure unfiltered thoughts. Leanna rubs her eyes, "I've been getting so many death threats since you guys blew up, people telling me to kill myself. I thought about doing it one day. I pictured it: crashing my car into a light pole or something."

"Leanna, where are you? I'm going to pick you up." Matt quickly asks, putting on a hoodie. He's worried, but any person would if their ex-girlfriend calls them and tells them that they thought of hurting themselves.

There's a pounding on the door, but Leanna ignores it. She slides down the wall of the bathroom with the phone pressed in her ear. "In the bathroom of a frat house. I think it's Delta Mu or something." She babbles.

Matt is getting the keys to his car when he replies, "Can you stay on the phone with me?"

"Ok," Leanna whispers into the phone.

Look, Matt usually prides himself on being a good driver. He follows traffic laws and rarely goes over the speed limit. But with Leanna on the phone explaining through tears that their relationship had been leaked by some tea account, he couldn't care less about the rules of the road. His attempt to protect Leanna was in vain; breaking up with her didn't prevent anything. His phone is still pressed against his ear when he enters the house. Following Leanna's instructions to the bathroom, he finds a queue in front of the door. He apologizes as he skips the line and knocks.

"Lea, it's me." He announces, looking at the annoyed partygoers. Leanna pulls him by his arm, ignoring the shouts of protest from those in the line. Matt's features soften as he looks at her. "Let me take you home. Please?"

Leanna closes her eyes before nodding. The room feels like it's floating as she takes a step toward the door and stumbles. Matt offers her his arm, which she gladly takes. He's guiding her gently out of the house to his car. Her heels are sinking into the grass, making her grip on Matt's arm tighten.

"I don't want to go back to my dorm," Lea states.

"Ok, I'll take you to your parent's house." He says as he enters the driver's seat of the car

"No!" Lea shouts from her side, "My mom will kill me if she sees me like this."

"Ok, I'll take you to my house." He suggests.

Lea shakes her head, "Your parents will call my parents. I don't need that right now."

"Where do I take you then?"

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Leanna lifts up one of the faux rocks to get the spare key Lilith's family hides. She reveals the key to Matt as she shuffles to the front door of her cousin's house. Leanna can see Matt's concern, in the car he was freaking out over the potential of 'breaking in and entering' when Leanna assured him that they were just 'entering.' She pushes the door open and removes the key from the lock. Matt urges her to enter first, checking if any of their neighbours saw them.

"Lilith's family is on vacation again. So we're good." She explains, removing her heels.

Leanna has taken three steps on the stairs before she notices Matt isn't behind her. His eyebrows are drawn together in thought. She walks back down to meet him in the foyer, "What's wrong?"

Matt points to the door, "I should leave. I know you're safe now. I'll head home."

"Please stay." She pleads and pushes out her bottom lip, "I don't want to be alone right now. I'll just go back to Instagram if I'm by myself." Leanna can see the gears turning in his head. There's hesitation behind his eyes as he looks at her.

Seeing Leanna in such a dishevelled state has pulled the strings in his heart. He wants to tell her loves her, but he doesn't want it to be like this. Not when she's drunk and just needs a friend to comfort her. "I'll stay."

She leads him to the guest room and excuses herself to change. Pulling the shirt she had taken from her cousin's closet over her head, she's hit with a wave of nausea. She uses her hand to cover her mouth as the familiar feeling of salivation hits her. Leanna runs to the bathroom and lifts up the toilet seat to unload the contents of her stomach. She feels Matt gather her hair into a ponytail and rub her back gently as she feels the urge to vomit again. Leanna lifts a shaky hand to flush the toilet.

The taste of bile is still on her tongue when she rests her head against the bathtub beside the toilet. Leanna cringes while she hugs her knees to her chest, "This is embarrassing."

"I mean not really, I threw up in front of you when I had that energy drink." Matt comforts, scooting closer to Leanna. "You were there for me then. We'll call it even."

Looking at Matt, who still finds a way to make her feel better even in the shittiest situation, Leanna finds her heart beating faster than usual. Matt was a great boyfriend and even though she's sitting beside him, Leanna misses him.

"Jude and I broke up. " She confesses, the alcohol still overpowering her senses.

Matt breaks eye contact with her, "Let's have this conversation when you're sober. Ok?"

Leanna feels the hot sting of rejection when Matt brushes her off. How could she be so stupid? Her eyes flicker down to the tile floor of the bathroom. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"How'd you do it?" She tilts her head as she analyzes Matt, "How'd you get over me?"

Matt doesn't have to think about his response, "I didn't."

"What?"

"It doesn't matter, you probably won't remember this tomorrow." He stands up, walking over to the door. "If you do remember this, come talk to me. I have a lot of things I need to say to you." With that, he leaves.

Leanna's mind is still reeling as she lays under the covers in the guest bedroom of Lilith's house. Matt is seated beside her, on top of the duvet, he promised Leanna he'd stay until she fell asleep. When Leanna is fast asleep, Matt looks over at her, moving the hair out of her face.

"You're all I think about, Leanna."

Some part of Matt hopes that she's awake. That she can hear him. Her snores disrupt that fantasy. Matt shakes his head as he lets out a small laugh.

"Even when we're filming or in L.A. You're on my mind."

That's the last thing he says before he carefully moves off the bed and drives back to his house.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

bad ending sorryyy

drunk calls as plot devices>>>

until next time <3!