Kim Kardashian: #BreakTheGame (COMPLETE)

Chapter 27: Fight & Flight

Kim left The Hamptons and went directly to JFK, where she boarded the next plane to Florence. She meant to just quickly check her phone and then put it away, close her eyes, and sleep for the majority of the flight. But sometimes you look at your phone and immediately the thing you intended to do next is gone forever.

As soon as Kim began checking her social media she sensed that something was wrong. People were ALL worked up about something. She scanned a few tweets and her stomach began to fill with dread as she realized: there was an epic and cataclysmic social media battle unfolding right before her eyes. And Kim was right in the middle of it.

As near as Kim could tell, it had begun when Willow had tweeted--innocently enough--one of her usual Willow phrases: About to reveal my new secret project #wouldntyouliketoknow

Khloé had then jumped in and subtweeted Willow in the cattiest way possible, like One secret I'd like revealed is how certain talentless hacks seem to magically remain famous??? She wasn't calling Willow out by name, but everyone who followed them both knew exactly what was up. Although, Kim guessed, most people who read the tweet wouldn't get that the "magically" part was intended as an insinuation that Willow was somehow artificially keeping Kim from being the #1 celebrity.

In any case, Willow had then subtweeted Khloé's subtweet, like The real magic of celebrity is that the love & support of your fans makes the bullshit disappear. Which seemed fairly innocuous to Kim? And kind of true?

But Khloé had decided to take the "bullshit" comment personally, at which point she had gone directly in on Willow like @WillowPape If magic makes the bullshit disappear why are you still here???

Aaaand things had devolved significantly from there. Willow still wasn't directly responding to any of Khloé's tweets, but there was no mistaking the huge amounts of subtext to everything she was saying online now. It kept going back and forth, and as their tweets got more and more intense, Willow was using the flood of new attention to continue to allude to her new secret project. Which is like, how it's done. Willow was serving Khloé a lesson in How To Promote Your Brand 101 but Khloé just kept trying to go in and the battle got uglier and uglier each time Kim refreshed her TL. Each tweet was a bullet that traveled farther and faster and deeper into its target with each RT and fav it received.

The TL was heated. Everyone was freaking out. Kim was like: Ugh.

Everything was broken and ruined. If Willow hadn't been mad at Kim about the way they'd parted in Miami, she DEFINITELY would be now. How could Willow not assume that Kim was somehow to blame? That Kim, angry at Willow for leaving her in Miami, had gone straight to her sister, to vent and complain and enlist her help in lashing out at Willow?

Kim could try to explain to Willow that she had nothing with it, that Kim had told Khloé not to tweet at Willow but that she had done it anyway, because she's Khloé, and that's what she does. But would Willow even believe her? At this point there was no clear way to create any kind of truce between them. Willow wouldn't believe Kim, and explaining things to Khloé would be even more impossible. Khloé and Kourtney would never be able to comprehend the idea of Kim and Willow being friends, let alone the idea of them being...whatever they were. Or had been, now.

Just a few hours ago Kim had been so happy, happy for the first time in forever, hidden away in Miami with Willow and Calum, all sleepy and snuggled up. Everything had been perfect. Or at least perfect enough to make her forget how imperfect everything really was, both in KKHollywood and in the real world.

And now, thinking about it more rationally, seeing the issues from all sides, with clarity, with eyes unclouded by emotions, Kim felt so terrible about how things had ended.

Because it wasn't easy for Willow either. Of course her career and her relationship with Cassio came first. It was always difficult to balance the things you wanted to do with the things you needed to do. Kim knew that better than anyone. And instead of being supportive and understanding, instead of appreciating what Willow was sacrificing for her already, Kim had let her heart overrule her mind.

Kim knew it was her loneliness at the center of this, but Willow understood that loneliness, understood the struggles Kim faced in a way that one one else ever could. They both knew what is was like to be adored and hated in equal measure. They knew how it felt to make almost unimaginably dark sacrifices in the name of your career. They knew what is was to be the target of unending jealousy and vitriol. They knew what it meant to have everyone staring at you, waiting for you to screw up, knives at the ready, waiting for you to make just one tiny mistake that would create the opening they needed to undo everything you had built, everything you had worked towards.

With Willow, all of that was tacit, understood. They both got it. Kim had betrayed that understanding--the connection that bonded them together, apart from everyone else--with how she had reacted to Willow needing to leave early. She wanted to apologize. She wanted to make it up to Willow. She wanted to just talk to Willow and reassure her, make her see that she not only saw and understood her mistake, but that nothing had changed. That her feelings for Willow were just as strong as they'd always been.

The things they had been through in their short time together, the things they had felt and shared. The things Willow had made her feel. Kim wanted that. She wanted all that, and so much more.

They had been enemies. Then they had become friends. Then they had become lovers, pretending to be enemies. And what were they now? Back to enemies? It killed Kim not to know.

Kim desperately wanted things to go back to how they were before. But as she flew to Florence--flew towards Willow--she felt Willow getting farther and farther away.

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Short-ish chapter to set up the next few chapters in Florence, where things are about to get very, very dark & weird, I promise. Hang tight.