A Theatrical Performance Of An Intimate Moment

Part 5

"Machine Gun Kelly cheats on Megan Fox with Brittany Jackson! See the photos!"

Grainy footage in a music studio makes its way to Dailymail. Brittany straddled across the rocker's lap, their tongues moving in synch. There's no denying the footage. The long blonde hair clearly belongs to the Australian, and the tattoos covering the man's arms identify him better than dental records ever could.

Screenshots of text messages drop next, filled with flirty exchanges and inappropriate bikini-clad photos with a Miami beach backdrop. DeuxMoi goes back through their submissions and posts everything they ever received about Brittany Jackson, along with calls for the general public to send in sightings if they spot her.

"Taylor Swift's people furious with MGK's flavor of the month after coming back to work still rolling from the previous weekend."

"Australian singer who is more famous for the company she keeps seen having a wild time in a London alleyway with a well-known musician."

"B-List blonde Australian rumored to be snatching what isn't hers."

She's officially being canceled, and she drops off the face of the earth. Not literally, but the seemingly endless paparazzi photos come to a screeching halt. They were wolves hunting her for sport, but Brittany Jackson had vanished.

~~~

A few weeks after she disappears, her mother appears on the Australian version of The Today Show in an exclusive interview. Matty watches the interview over YouTube when clips start surfacing on other platforms.

"I just wonder what happened to my little girl. She used to be so sweet, and now I never hear from her," she cried down the camera.

"Tell us about what she was like growing up?" the host pushes.

"She was the life of the party, everyone's best friend. Little chatterbox," her mother lets out a laugh that he thinks sounds fake.

"We once donated some things to charity, including an old typewriter we never used anymore. Brittany came downstairs crying that night after going to bed because we forgot to donate paper too. She thought nobody would be able to use it."

Matty thinks this might be true. His ex-girlfriend had spent most of her life thinking of others before herself, and he doesn't imagine that would stop for strangers, or those in need.

"What would you say to her now, if she was here?"

"I'd tell her to come home, that we miss her, and that we love her."

In the background of the interview is a gallery of old photos he's never seen. Brittany, at maybe 5 years old, smiling with dirt on her face. Another of her playing dress up in princess costumes. There's a handful with her siblings when they were first born and a few others of her school years.

He taps out of the video when her mother starts sobbing with no tears.

~~~

At the end of July new pictures of Brittany Jackson appear online. She's running through New York City, hair tucked into a baseball cap and wearing long sleeves despite the weather. The skin around her eyes is dark, and she doesn't look at the cameras as they flash. She looks skeletal, and he can't tell if it's a trick of the light, or if it truly was her bones poking through her skin.

Matty spends more time than he cares to admit googling the businesses in the background of the photos, trying to pinpoint her exact location in the city.

He hears her name less frequently in hushed tones whenever he enters the room. Her song with Charli doesn't seem to be on heavy radio rotation anymore, and her face wasn't plastered to the front pages of newspapers and magazines.