ᴛʜᴇ ʀɪᴠᴀʟꜱ ᴄᴏɴᴛʀᴀᴄᴛ

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𝘞𝘙𝘌𝘕 𝘑𝘈𝘔𝘌𝘚

MY MIND REPLAYS LEX'S QUESTION from when I first told her about the project. About Rhys. "Anything else? Like does he have abs, what size bulge does-" Yes. And big.

I groan and roll over in my bed. Puff moves from my pillow and onto my face. Yes. Thank you Puff. Suffocate me. Take me away from the embarrassment. The embarrassment of getting...hot with my work partner.

I mean-sitting on the desk? That's so high school. So so high school that it's painful. But what looked more painful was whatever was going on in Rhys's pants. Ugh. I was acting...frisky and Rhys liked it. Oh God. What did I do?

Puff's fur gets into my mouth and I plop her onto the pillow again. I flop onto my back and reach for my phone. I pull up Lex's contact and type out my message.

𝙝𝙚𝙮, 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞 𝙜𝙤𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙠𝙮 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙍𝙝𝙮𝙨- 𝙮'𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙩 𝙜𝙪𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠. 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙝 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙩 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙩. 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙖 𝙙𝙞𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 <3

I delete it and instead click on Rhys's name.

𝙢𝙚: 𝙘𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙬?
𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙠 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙥.
𝙢𝙤𝙤𝙨𝙚: 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚, 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 10 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠?
𝙢𝙚: 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙝
𝙢𝙤𝙤𝙨𝙚: 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙩 10
𝙢𝙚: 𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙢𝙤𝙤𝙨𝙚
𝙢𝙤𝙤𝙨𝙚: 𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙟𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙨

When I turn my phone off, the darkness swallows me and I lay my head on my pillow. My thoughts are at bay until I remember the voicemail in my inbox. I've listened to it about a hundred times and I haven't responded to it.

I memorized the voicemail. It was from my mother. The people at the facility let her use the phone to call me. I hadn't picked up because I was at the café with Rhys. But when I got into the cab, I pressed play.

𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘰 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪'𝘮 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘪 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘥𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘮𝘦. 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘦. 𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦, 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘳. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪'𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘪 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘥𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘮𝘦. 𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺 𝘪 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘸. 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦. 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪'𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴. 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘣𝘺𝘦

I love you because i'm your mother and mother's love their daughters. But she doesn't. She never has, she's never said that before and when she said it, something went off in my mind and I couldn't handle it. Those were the words i've always wanted to hear from her, and when I finally did, I wanted to forget them. I wanted her to take them back.

Because she doesn't mean them. Because she can't even remember me. She doesn't remember what I was like. What I did and said. She just...doesn't know me. She never has.

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