The Piano || 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘣𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬

|25| Your streaming schedule is shit.

Ashley opened her phone after Colby had left, not wanting to continue thinking about him and yesterday. And the kiss. No, actually she did want to think about the kiss.

That had been a one-time thing, right? The atmosphere hadn't been awkward in the morning, that was a good sign that they could just forget about it. They had both been drunk and angry at Derek, that's it.

She scoffed as she remembered the video she had taken. Ashley opened it on her phone and started grinning because his face was so clearly visible, as was his arm around her and her efforts to move it away. She had stopped recording after Colby asked what was going on. He wasn't visible, but his voice was recognizable.

What was she going to do with the video now, though? She couldn't openly post it, or Derek would sue her for the slander of his reputation. Or could he even do that? She had a solid piece of evidence after all.

"Jerry?" she called out, leaving her room. He jumped up from the corner couch in the living room.

"You have to tell me what happened last night," he began. "When did you come home? And why with Colby?"

Ashley laughed. "We went to get food first and then he invited me to a friend's party. I'm a lame partygoer, though, you should've seen me. Then we had to come here because he was drunk and couldn't drive, and it was closer to this apartment. Apparently, I convinced him to stay, even though I don't remember that part."

"A date?" Jerry asked.

"No! I guess we just were both bored and decided to spend the evening together?"

Jerry nodded slowly. "Okay," he shrugged. "Keep telling that to yourself."

"Seriously," Ashley said, rolling her eyes. "Okay, but hypothetically, if a girl had a video of a guy harassing her at a party, and that guy was an influencer, what should she do?"

He almost choked on thin air. "I- what? What happened yesterday? Who?"

"Nothing too serious, just that guy, Derek Barren, didn't accept a no until Colby came back," she sighed. "I recorded it. What do I do with it now?"

"Well, you have to tell people," Jerry stated.

"But I feel kind of bad about it, you know? It was probably just a slip-up because he was drunk. I don't know him, and I don't want to ruin his career because of one evening he didn't control himself." Ashley sighed, taking out her phone again. "Besides, it wasn't even that bad. Just the typical asshole behaviour."

"A guy like that shouldn't get to be an influencer," Jerry scoffed. "Come on, he's young, he can still change his career path."

"That's exactly what Colby said yesterday," Ashley said with a dry chuckle. "But I don't think I'm going to publish the video, sorry. If I ever hear a bad thing about him, I will, but for now, I think it's fine this way," she decided.

"You know that he did it once probably means he's going to do it again?"

"I could send him the video and tell him if I ever hear of him doing something like that again, he'll get in trouble," Ashley pondered, "but then I'd probably get in trouble too, for blackmailing. I'll just see what happens in the future. Keep the video safe in case I need it."

Little did she know that this future she was talking about would come much earlier than she anticipated.

She stood up from the couch. "So, what plans do you have for today?"

"I have a meeting with my team, about a new merch release," Jerry replied. "And it's Sunday, so I'm going to do a stream in the evening."

"Your streaming schedule is shit," Ashley announced. "We seriously need to adjust to each other. It feels like we never get to spend time with each other even though we've been living together for months now."

Jerry nodded. "That's a good point. But we'll have to do that later, I have to go now."

Sighing, Ashley retreated into her room to add her last stream's highlights to a highlight compilation she was working on.

In the evening, she got a notification from YouTube, telling her that the video with Sam and Colby was online. She was grinning as she opened Instagram, checking the boys' stories, and reposting them on her story. She went back to editing, to pass the time, until she checked the comments a few hours later when the video was finished.

There were the usual ones about her being loud and taking over the boys' channel. She got them every time she collaborated with other creators and had got used to them by now, just skipping them. But there were also a few sweet ones saying, "I love how she got more confident with time" and similar things.

Several were about her being creepy or weird for just wanting to go on, saying, "Ashley needs to chill, she'll get herself an attachment."

A few also appreciated and understood her, saying, "Even though she's a believer, she still tries to find explanations," or, "Ashley seemed so done in the end."

The theorists were definitely her favourites. "Ilse said name and ring, maybe hinting her name on the ring!" One also read, "1:35:42 the crash happened just when Ashley was speaking!" and she chuckled at that. As if she'd conjured it up.

One of the comments sent shivers down her spine. "It was obvious that in the end, Ilse was trying to keep Ashley from going. She said she wanted to stay, I don't think that was her speaking, though, more a feeling that Ilse made her feel. And when she fell down the stairs, it looked as if she tripped over something. What if that was Ilse, wanting to make her stay forever?"

Ashley screenshotted that one and tried to ignore it otherwise. It didn't matter, she wouldn't go back anyway.

A comment further down made her chuckle. "Aww, the way Colby blushed when they talked about Ilse being jealous of him," it said, and showed the time. Ashley searched the part and rolled her eyes. It was true; the lighting made it seem like his face was flushed, but that was it. Ashley still rewatched the part, watching Colby's eyes flicker away from her as Sam listed reasons why Ilse could be jealous of him. She didn't even notice that her own cheeks had heated up as well.

Jerry opened the door to her room without knocking, and for some reason, she swiftly changed tabs back to the program she was editing her video in.

"You done soon?" he asked as he opened the curtain on the side of her streaming space.

Ashley glanced at the video. "Yeah," she said after a moment. "Basically. Yeah, no, I'm done."

Jerry cleared his throat. "Have you... have you checked your socials recently?"

Ashley shook her head. Her phone was turned off, as she always did when editing, otherwise she would get distracted too easily, and she hadn't refreshed her browser tabs since opening the video about twenty minutes ago.

"What exactly happened at that party yesterday?" he asked, making Ashley frown and turn away from her computer.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Derek posted."

"Posted what?" Ashley asked, grabbing her phone, and turning it on. Her heart was pounding. She had a bad feeling that she knew what this was about.

"You and Colby seemed a little more intimate than just friends," Jerry said.

"You've got to be kidding me," Ashley hissed. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This couldn't be real.

Opening Instagram, she searched for Derek's profile. And there it was, on his story, a clip that only lasted a few seconds. It was with him and his friends in the centre, singing along to the music, but Ashley's red hair was clearly visible in the background. As was Colby, pressed against her body, his lips on hers.

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Author's note-
> 50k views is insane, thank you so much!