Chemistry (Otis Milburn)

53

A wave of chills flushed through my veins. I panicked and showed the text to Otis and Nick. 

"It's too late! What is too late?!" I yelled. They both stared at my phone and Otis grabbed me by  both of my shoulders in attempt to calm me down. 

"It's okay Vivienne, just breathe." He told me as he began taking deep breaths, waiting for me to start too.

"No! What does this mean? What happened! Nick? Have you talked to her? What did you tell her?" He went silent. I dialed Amy's number and called her. Nick grabbed my phone from my hand.

"Don't call her." He whispered. 

"Why shouldn't I call her? Why shouldn't I call her Nick?" I kept yelling. I couldn't calm down no matter how many times Otis tried to get me to breathe. I wanted to know what was going on and I knew Nick knew something. 

"What is going on, Nick? Why is she telling me it's too late? What is too late? Speak!" I grabbed him by his arm. He let go and took me to his couch to sit me down. He placed his hand on my thigh, leaning closer to me. He cups his hands around mine. 

"Amy called asking where you were. Somehow she found out you were in the hospital. I told her you weren't coming back anytime soon. I didn't know what else to tell her. I panicked." 

"And then what?!" I yelled. My eyes filled with tears as they rushed down my cheek and dripped on to my clothes. Nick wiped them as he continued to talk.

"She told me she was going to give the role to someone else. I stopped her and told her I was going to get you out of there before her deadline. but she refused."

"As if my career and my life wasn't already ruined. You just really had to ruin it even more, didn't you? This was our big break. After all of the bullshit that you and I went through, now I have to watch you on-screen with some mediocre co-star because you couldn't tell me what was going on and spoke on my behalf."

"Vivienne I'm really sorry don't do this...." He pleaded. He ran up and tried to hug me, but I pulled away. Maybe I should have stayed in the hospital. 

"You may be terrified of Amy, but I'm not. Not anymore. I'm sick and I'm tired. She made our lives hell for the sake of her own good." 

I stood there, silent. Otis placed his arm around me as Nick followed in attempt to calm me down once more. 

"Vivienne I said I'm sorry. Please I'll call her right now. Here's my ph-"

"No. In the end, this isn't your fault. It's hers. And her measly little team of phonies dressed in suits and ties. I know what to do." I ran upstairs to grab my laptop. I logged in to my twitter and pulled up any emails and text messages that contained information on Nick and I's publicity stunt.

"Vivienne what are you doing? Can we talk first? I don't want you to put yourself into any trouble!" Otis exclaimed. 

"I'm going to expose Amy and everyone in our team. Camille too. They're all going down." 

Nick stood there, frozen as if he had just walked into a bloody crime scene. "You're putting your whole career at risk. There has to be another way. This won't get you your role back." 

"I've taken many risks in my life and I can take this one too." 

"How are you going to do this?" 

"I have everything. Emails, texts, everything. I'm standing up for the both of us; for Otis' safety. We can't keep being Amy's little puppet anymore. Remember how Camille stalked me? I haven't been able to sleep in my own bed in my own home for so long because of her! It's not fair for us. It's not.." I wanted to burst into tears, but quickly gathered myself. 

"Are you sure you have everything?" He asked, I knew I had him on my side.

"Yes. Everything."

"Amy knows where I live, though. What if she comes after us?"

"Then we'll all go somewhere else. But she can't. I'll get the police involved too if she wants to go that route." I responded.

"I don't know, Vivienne. I'm just worried about you." Otis said as Nick agreed with him.

"Either we expose them and potentially get our freedom back or we sit here and continue to be under their surveillance 24/7. You guys choose." I replied bluntly. 

They were silent. 

"Where are you going to post it? So we can see it too." Nick asked. 

I gathered all of the information I needed. Text messages, voicemails, emails, everything I had I gathered. I began typing my post:

"I've been involved in a publicity stunt. Because of it, I got kidnapped, stalked, went to the mental hospital and got the biggest break of my career taken from me. A (long) thread."

I took a deep breath, and pressed Tweet.