Wanted For Pleasure: vol 3

|57| Giving up

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?"