MENDED

forty-eight

alex

after me and saylor finished eating dinner, i helped her clean up the kitchen. i grabbed our plates, and i started to bring them to the sink to be washed. as i was doing so, one of our phones started ringing. i turned around to see if it was mine, but saw that saylor was pulling her phone out of her pocket and bringing it to her ear. i stared for a moment, just to see who was calling at this time.

"hey, laura," saylor spoke. "how come you're calling so late?"

like saylor's, my brows knitted downwards. it's unlike laura to call us past five or so in the afternoon, so the fact that she was calling at almost ten at night was a little concerning.

saylor was quiet as she listened to laura. she didn't say anything even after laura stopped speaking, though i couldn't make out what laura had said. "what?" saylor finally asked, her voice nearly a whisper.

that's not good.

"what happened?" i questioned. i placed the plates in the sink then made my way over to saylor. "what did she say?"

saylor didn't respond to me or even look at me. "you're kidding, right?" she asked laura. "fuck. y-yeah, i'll look at it. thank you. we can talk tomorrow, yeah. bye, laura."

i looked at saylor with an expecting look as the call ended. "what happened?" i quizzed again.

still, she didn't respond. she looked worried, sick even, as she did something on her phone. i watched helplessly, completely confused on what was going on. i watched as her eyes scanned over her phone, seemingly reading something on it.

"angel, please, talk to me," i pleaded. "you're making me really nervous right now, and you're worrying me."

she looked up at me, and i frowned as i saw tears brimming her eyes. she started to say something, but she shook her head as she took a step closer to me and buried her face into my chest. i wasted no time in wrapping an arm around her waist, while i placed my other hand on the back of her head and held her closer to me.

"our relationship, they— there's articles, and they know, and—" she started to try and tell me.

my brows knitted down, but i still relaxed a little knowing that that was all this was. "hey, it's okay, darling; don't worry. it doesn't matter, really," i said as i tried to comfort her. i hadn't even began to try and think about how there were articles confirming our relationship yet. "it's okay; please, don't cry. this is—"

"no, alex, it's not. it was," she stopped, and she struggled to take a breath for a moment. "it was arlo. he told them, and he sold me out to the tabloids! i trusted him! how could he do that?! why?"

my eyes widened as she completely broke down, and as i now realized that it was much deeper than i thought it was. i didn't even know what to tell her now or how to comfort her. i could only hold her closer to me.

"are you sure it was him?" i asked.

"there's a video; from earlier today," she sniffled. "i saw his phone propped on the table, but fuck, i didn't think he was recording me. i never would've—" she stopped again as she cried into my chest.

i grabbed her phone off of the counter. it was on an opened article, with an attached video. i clicked on the video. saylor was very clearly in frame. i clicked play. the video wasn't very long; just long enough for arlo to ask if she was in a relationship and for her to confirm it. the video also had saylor telling him how long we've been dating, as well as saying that she loves me.

the more of the video that i watched and the more i read of the article, the angrier i got. how the fuck could he sell out his own sister like that? how could he do that, for just a little bit of cash in return?