TRITTANY: Finally Noticed

Still There

TREVOR

"What did I say to Brittany?" Victoria repeated. She sounded both startled and confused. I wasn't surprised she was taken aback - considering a pretty demanding question wasn't exactly the most usual way to start a conversation over the phone - but her confusion was unexplained.

"Yeah," I said as I switched what hand I was holding my cellphone in. "What did you tell her?"

"What did I tell her when?" she said, not sounding anymore enlightened about the subject.

"I don't know," I said, my frustration starting to show in my voice. "Whenever you guys have talked since she left."

"Um...I don't know," said Vic, sounding weirded out, "the usual 'hey, how's it going?' or maybe a 'what's up?' if I was feeling particularly wild." I could sense the sarcasm in her voice and it was not making matters any better. "Why, what's going on?"

"What's going on, Victoria, is that Brittany has just video called me - which for a start she never does - not to mention that she said she did so because a) she wanted to check if I was alright and b) she thought there was something I had to tell her," I said in annoyance. "Sound at all familiar?"

"Wait Britt video chatted to make sure you were alright?" said Vic. There was some poorly concealed excitement in her voice. I didn't bother to call her out on it.

"Yeah," I said. "Which is why I know something's up."

"Trev," said Victoria, "she's in Australia! Maybe she just wanted to check in. It's not exactly a big deal."

"No! It wouldn't be a big deal if she had shot me a message or called me at the very most," I told her, "but she video called me!"

"Alright...."

"Look - that's not even point, alright?" I said taking a deep breath. "The only reason I'm calling is because she didn't get the chance to tell me whatever it was that she was really calling about."

"Okay," said Victoria slowly, "and you're asking me because...?"

"Because it's obviously been something that you said to her," I insisted. I checked the time quickly and realised that if I didn't leave now, my mother was going to be seriously wondering where I'd got to.

"Why do you assume that I'm behind this thing?" Victoria giggled defensively.

"Oh come on Vic," I said as I grabbed my backpack, "ever since you had that random outburst on the last day of filming, you and I haven't been able to talk about Brittany without what you said coming up."

"So what?" Victoria continued to deny.

I opened the door and climbed out of the car, closing it again with my hip.

"So, now Brittany is acting weird too," I said, "and she told me that the only person she's really spoken to since she's been gone has been you."

Victoria was silent for a minute then. I was betting that she didn't know Brittany had told me that.

"Okay, so we talked about you a little," she admitted in a way that made it sound really tiny. "After we talked about you, you were probably on her mind and she decided to call. No big deal."

"In what way were you talking about me?" I continued to press as I walked away from my car and towards the studio.

"I dunno, just general conversation," Victoria said and I could imagine her carelessly shrugging. "Why?"