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# 𝙏𝙐𝙍𝘽𝙐𝙇𝙀𝙉𝙏 ｡˚ ! . . . chapter twentyone
irl.
SYDNEY'S phone vibrates against the coffee table, the sound breaking through the quiet hum of the TV playing in the background. She shoves the last bite of pizza into her mouth, quickly dusting her fingertips off into a napkin before reaching for it. She glances down, her dark blue eyes scanning the screen as her brows knit together. She expects to see a text from her mom or one of her friends. Instead, the notification comes from an unknown Instagram account. She frowns, opening it without much thought.
It's a long message, so long that she has to scroll up a bit to get to the top, from someone named Anna. Do I know anybody called Anna? She tries to wrack her brain as she stares down at the illuminated screen— the message is accompanied by a string of screenshots that fill up her inbox with an overwhelming flurry of colour and text bubbles. As she brings the screen closer, beginning to read the messages, her stomach twists. Then it drops completely, her blood running cold.
The girl introduces herself, explaining that she met Jack in a club some time last week. She's from Florida— coincidentally where Jack was last Tuesday for a game. She says they exchanged numbers, and since then, have been flirting with one another over text. Anna is apologetic— stating she had no idea he even had a girlfriend until she looked up his Instagram and found pictures of them together, which is when she put two and two together and immediately reached out to Sydney.
Sydney's hands shake ever so slightly as she scrolls through the screenshots. Each message feels like a punch straight to the gut. The flirty banter, the teasing, the way Jack's tone is just casual enough to make it seem harmless. This isn't the first time a girl has DMed her to tell her stories about her boyfriend of almost two years hitting on them. But a lot of them didn't make sense; sometimes Jack would be with her when the girl claimed they had been hooking up, or the girl would get dates mixed up— plus, there was never any proof. Not until now.
