𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙖𝙣
⊱ ─────────── ⊰

"—I DON'T GIVE A FUCK WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO, I WANT IT TAKEN DOWN!" Chris roars at Officer Mike Hanks.
It's no use, all the screaming. The drama of it all. We're fucked, always have been. Always will be.

Does anything even matter anymore? What's the point - of me loving Chris and us going any further in this relationship when it's destined to fail?
As I suspected years ago, there are greater forces working hard to see us fail. It's breaking me, all of this. If it were just me, dealing with the consequences of engaging with Malcolm Jameson, I could suck it up, but now I've dragged Jasmine, my best friend, into this. I'm a whore, and a terrible person. That's all I'll ever be.

"Stop yelling." I tell Chris as I sit under him in Hanks's office.

"'Stop yelling,' are you kidding me, Morgan? We need that shit taken down right now!" Chris argues, his fingers pointing in Hanks's face.

"Five million people have already seen the profile. Five... million..." I linger on the absurd quantity of views.

Not to mention the other two million that saw our leaked sex tape. Err, it was two million the last I checked, and that was only on X (Twitter.)

I take AJ's phone from Hanks's desk and look at the profile again.

"Aheh." My laugh breaks.

I sway side to side in the uncomfortable wooden chair and shut my eyes as my head shakes.

"What?" Chris's tone is laced wit concern.

"It says I'm also known as 'Darling.'" I read the nickname given to me.

Thanks, Malcolm. Thank you soooooo much.

"Give me that." Chris snatches the phone from my hand, I assume to deactivate AJ's account and delete the app from his iPhone.

"Actually, give it to me and don't delete a thing, that's now evidence." Mike says, dropping the phone in a bag.

"What the fuck are we doing here, Chris, he can't help us? No one can." I stand to leave.

Chris flails his arms. "I thought you said this was better than fighting."

"What is fighting gonna do, Chris? You can't fight five million people."

The look on his face says otherwise, and I do believe that if he encountered all of the people subscribed to that promiscuous profile that he'd line them up and defend my honor. Or at least, he thinks he's defending my honor. It's nothing left. I am shameful.

"I would, for you." Chris makes me roll my eyes back in my head.

"Stop." I tell him, walking out.

"Stop what?" He asks, trailing me through the police station.

I force the doors apart so I can exit and walk towards Andy, AJ, Madi, and Jabari.

"Morgan!" Chris raises his voice to get my attention. It works.

I stop and turn on my heels to face him.

"This is bigger than you and me, and Malcolm, okay? We lose."

"Lose what?!"

"THIS!"

"What is this?"

I throw my arms up in frustration. "I don't know, Chris, all of it! I give up, I'm done! This is obviously just going to keep happening and I'm tired of it, aren't you?"

He clenches his jaw, standing there with nothing to say because there is nothing else to say.

"I want to go home. I don't care what else happens, let them have the fucking pictures, who cares?"

"If it makes you feel any better, I can buy some of them so no one else gets them?" Andy offers, raising his hand like he's committing some noble act.

"No that doesn't fucking help, put your fucking hand down." Chris barks at him, making Andy's face straighten.

Jabari laughs quietly, putting his hand on Andy's shoulder.

"Bye, Chris. Don't waste too much time here, expecting answers. There are none."

"Morgan, this isn't like you..." he says. And he's right, it isn't, but I'm done.

"You want answers, Chris? Here: there are people more powerful and rich than me and you, and they're going to keep doing what they want. And if we let them, they'll keep fucking with us. So let's just stop. I'll start looking for new houses probably in Maine, or fucking Alabama, I don't know."

"Morgan--" Chris calls after me but I let his hand go.

"AJ, take me to Red Sage?" I ask him, walking ahead.

"I'll make sure she's safe," he assures Chris. "she probably just needs to sleep on it."

✕

"Morgan, if I may-" Madi speaks up to talk.

I cut her off. "No you may not."

She seals her lips as she should.

"Uh, you don't want to talk about it?" Asks AJ.

I lift my head from the backseat window and look at him in the rear view mirror.

"Nobody has said a word for the past thirty minutes, why do you want to yap all of a sudden?" I ask them in a lower voice than usual.

"I hate seeing you like this..." he pleads.

"No? You rather see me half-naked, right?" I test him. "Pfft. I hate you seeing me like that."

"Morgan," he falters.

I sit in in the seat and look between the two of them. "You two are sick, you know that? Was this some sort of plot: You become a prostitute and he creeps on my profile? Tell me you're getting something from it."

"It's not what it looks like, Morgan, but I get why you're upset." Madison claims.

I sit back, arms crossed over my chest. "Ha! I'm not upset, I'm disgusted. I'm hurt. I feel betrayed, and like I sucked Jasmine into all of this."

"It's not your fault, Morgan." says Madi, her glossy eyes on me.

I sniffle, head cocked back. "I know it's not. It's Malcolm's."

The car goes silent again as it comes to a stop.

I peer out of the window and see we're outside of Red Sage Bed and Breakfast.

"But he's dead now, isn't he?" I say to Madi and AJ as I climb out of the backseat. "Good night."

Safest cities to move to

I'm familiar with this website at this point. I guess I should check another site because it led me to Easton Hills, Nashville which has let me down.

Although, I guess it's not the city, huh? It's the people, and more specifically, me. I'm the problem.

Needing a distraction, I turn to my phone. There's a thousand texts I have yet to reply to. One in specific, catches my eye. It's an image sent from Tish, my camp counselor.

Curiously, I open our thread and expand the screenshot of the article she's sent me. The headline reads:

Doctor Mark Towson arrested for prostitution, amongst other professionals, including millionaires, who have been linked to 'Clapper' site

This whole time I thought he was arrested at the retreat because he was dealing drugs with his patients. Oddly enough, I'd prefer that to be true over this.

I'm this close to thinking every rich man is on this app.

Out of curiosity, I download the app on my phone.

Once it loads, I open the application and try signing in. There aren't many passwords that I use so I know it has to be one of a few that I recycle.

After two failed attempts, I select the 'forgot password' option and go to my email for the new password.

I'm in.

This feels eerie. It seems wrong for me to be on this unholy app.

What am I even doing, I asking myself in my head.
What do I want to see at this point? I've seen it all quite literally.

Except, there is one thing I want to do. . .

Jasmine Klein

Many results pop up after my search but the top result is the correct one.

Click.

I'm taken aback by the number of bids that has increased dramatically since we last saw it at the police station this morning.

"Oh, Jas..." I sigh.

I can't help but to still find her beautiful and imagine her personality shining through each picture.

I don't know what's led my best friend to escorting, but I pray she's being as safe as possible. It's easy to assume she's gone down this path after spiraling due to her divorce, but I think it's too easy to blame Jabari. No, it's something else, I know it. I can feel it.

Well, if the money is going to her as I hope it is after seeing the 'make donation' tab on her profile, I decide no one else gets to see her half-naked. So, I select all twenty-two of her posts and try to purchase them. Only, when I get ready to check out, all of the pictures disappear from the page.

"What the?" I puff, forehead wrinkled.

I reload. The pictures are all gone.

I take a closer look and read:

Catalog purchased by JFLAMES97 one minute ago

"Jabari." I whisper, a smile creasing my lips.

Hearing the door unlock, I put my phone away and remain stiff in bed.

It's Chris finally. I say finally because I've been worried sick about him, but I'm dreading having a conversation with him.

He sits at my feet and lifts his head slowly to meet my gaze.

With a deep sigh, he says, "They weren't able to pull your account."

"I told you. There's no use."

"Why do you keep saying that?" he huffs, hanging his head.

"It's been too long, Chris. Look at me, I'm tired."

"You were tired last year, too, and the year before that, but it didn't stop you."

"No, and we didn't stop this. Clearly."

"Baby, I can't let you give up," Chris pleads. "Let me help make this right."

"Then do nothing, Chris," I sniffle, "There's nothing you can do."

Beating himself up, Chris slaps his hand against his face and swipes down, head shaking.

"FUCK!" He roars, erupting from the chair.

"I don't have a plan, Morgan, but I know this has to end." Chris proclaims as he paces before the bed.

"How?" I deadpan.

"I don't know!"

"Give up."

"Morgan, you should be the main person wanting to do something about this!"

"What's there to do, Chris? Kill somebody? You tried that already."

"Why are you being like this?" his voice breaks.

"Do you know what Malcolm did to me? I rather some rich assholes have a few pictures of me than to go through that again. Monty's locked up, that's it. It's done."

"You know better than to think it's that easy."

"Oh? You think it's another Beck out there, or something? An accomplice? This isn't a fucking movie, Chris, it's real life -- my life-- and it is that easy. I got myself into this shit by joining that app, now I'm just some internet whore for rich men. Oh well, fuck it."

"Maybe there is," Chris says, perking up. "Malcolm didn't work alone, neither did Beck."

"Right, he worked with Cleo. She's dead, so?"

"Who else?" Asks Chris.

"Sabrina." I catch on once I remember.

"Shit," I curse. "you don't think she's still in on this, do you?"

"No," Chris answers, pacing. "but she definitely knows something that'll help."

"So what, we have to go to New York?" I snicker, pulling my knees to my chest.

Chris shoots his eyes to me.

I just hunch my shoulders. " I don't have a lot left in me; if we do this, this is it. Are you sure she'll know something, let alone even tell you?"

"Well, she said she owes me her life for being there for Hayes, so." Chris admits before clearing his throat.

"Yeah." I mumble.

"Well, let's pack." I say, getting out of bed.

✕

Bringing the car to a stop, I slap Chris on the leg.

"We're here," I tell him.

Andy wakes up. "McDonald's?!"

I ignore him and remove my seatbelt.

Chris takes the hoodie from over his eyes and stares out of the window.

He snarls and gives me a cold side eye.

"Why did you bring me here?" he grumbles.

I tilt my head. "There's something you need to do before we go."

Chris hesitantly frees himself from the seatbelt and follows me out of the car.

As we near the porch, Mary exits the house with a bouquet of flowers. in one hand. She' smiling like her normal, motherly self and that makes me happy.

"Hi, Mary." I speak first.

"Hi, sweetie." She beams in return, bringing my body in for a hug.

It's a long, warm, tight hug that was far overdue. She has no idea how badly I needed that.

"Yo, Mary!" JB shouts from the car, waving.

"Hi, Chris's mom. Nice to meet you!" Andy hollers, head out of the window.

"Hi, boys." Mary waves back kindly, giggling with flattery.

It's awkward between Chris and his mother, I don't know what to say.

I look between the both of them, trying to read their eyes.

Mary wants to cry, I can see it plus I know her. Chris, on the other hand, I can't read.

To get the ball rolling here, I stand in the middle and speak up.

"We're going to New York before we head home... there's some things we have to take care of. I know we haven't been here long, and we weren't very open to talking to you, or Carter, but I love you. You're going through a lot right now and we've probably only added to that stress. I apologize, Mary, but things are going to get better."

Mary, without looking at me once, nods her head. She's staring up at her son while holding back tears.

"What she said." Chris utters in a low tone.

"O-K." Mary sniffs, choked up.

Her body starts to shake, wanting to explode with emotion after trying to fight it.

Chris finally grabs his mother and squeezes her body.

Mary's sobbing on her only son's arms. You can feel how much she loves him, and how much Chris missed his mother. They needed this.

I'm smiling ear to ear before they laugh and pull me into the loving embrace.

After at least a minute, Chris pulls away first, then I do.

"Where's Dad? I probably need to apologize to him, too." Chris heads for the front door.

"Dad's gone. He went to rehab." Mary tells us.

"Oh," Chris pauses for a beat. "was it that bad?"

"No, but I told him he needed to sober up if he wanted to work things out." Mary says, twisting her mouth.

"Wait..." I start to smile, seeing her face light up.

"You guys aren't getting a divorce?!" I exclaim, jumping with joy.

Mary bursts into a laughing fit, it's so cute, how happy she is.

"I bet you're happy about that." Mary says, nudging her son,

Chris raises his shoulders then drops them with a sigh of relief. "I'm happy if you guys are."

Mary nods, red cheeks swollen. "We're getting there. How about you two?"

Chris and I look at each other then he takes me by the hand.

"Yeah," he says, lifting my spirits.

I agree. "Everything is going to work out." My words shock Chris.

BEEP! BEEP!

Andy and Jabari honk in their truck behind us, rushing us as we do have a plane to catch.

Chris and I say our goodbyes to Mary and then walk back to the car.

He opens the passenger door open for me and I thank him with a broad smile.

"Thank you." I say to him for being mature and making up with Mary.

"You're happy again?" he comments, sarcastically looking confused.

I laugh out loud. "I wasn't at my best last night, no, but you had faith. I can't give up yet."

"Thank you," Chris returns, shutting me inside the car before hopping behind the wheel and getting us to the airport on time.