We Make Mayhem [boyxboy]

Chapter Five

That night, Chloe broke her promise and posted the video she took of the Temptr couple on the beach. It was hard to watch—hard to hear Chloe's screeching rage, hard to see the fear in the couple's eyes in the shaky footage. She tweeted a long, angry thread underneath and her thousands of Twitter followers blew it up.

Chloe Jensen (@shutdowntemptr): THREAD: I was at #Ambleside beach last night when a nearby couple started talking, none-too-quietly, about how they had just met through #Temptr.

Chloe Jensen (@shutdowntemptr): These people were a) NOT SHY about the fact that they were there because of #Temptr, and b) the guy was openly talking about the fact that he has a WIFE, and the girl has a boyfriend.

Chloe Jensen (@shutdowntemptr): Sorry not sorry but if you're openly cheating on your SO with some rando you met off an app (THAT YOU DOWNLOADED IN THE FIRST PLACE BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO CHEAT) you deserve to get put on blast.

Chloe Jensen (@shutdowntemptr): Reminder to everyone defending scumbags who download #Temptr: the only reason people download it is because they want to cheat. If you downloaded it, even "just to see," you're a cheater. End of. We are not having this argument.

Chloe Jensen (@shutdowntemptr): WHY ELSE WOULD IT BE CALLED TEMPTR, COME ON ENLIGHTEN ME @DeckerLORD.

Chloe Jensen (@shutdowntemptr): Back to our regularly scheduled cancelling: this dude works at @BancroftIntl (for now lol) and she works at @sephora... perhaps the one in #parkroyalmall???

Chloe Jensen (@shutdowntemptr): Blowing these people up on Twitter might just be the only way we can make people afraid to even touch Temptr. This could be our only method.

Chloe Jensen (@shutdowntemptr): Thank you all for your support!!! Reminder you can support my work via Patreon, Venmo, Paypal, etc.

I figured the best tactic would be to give her time to cool off and let her come to me. I was too angry to trust myself to have a productive conversation with her, anyway. I figured a day or so would pass and then she'd start to miss me.

But as that day or two passed, her tweets picked up steam. She was on a mission, and after two days, she accomplished it: Investment Bro was fired. Bancroft International announced it in a magnanimous tweet.

Bancroft International (@bancroftintl): We were made aware of an employee of ours who was caught in the act of infidelity at Ambleside beach. He now no longer works for Bancroft.

The top reply, liked and retweeted thousands of times, was from Chloe.

Chloe Jensen (@shutdowntemptr): Thank you for doing this. Those of us who #StandUpForRealLove salute you.

The replies were bizarre. People were thanking Bancroft for "taking a stand," like this big corporate investment company had done some huge moral good for society. There were people tagging Sephora, as well, hinting that they should do the same to Makeup Girl. I sat in my bedroom and scrolled through them, at a loss. It wasn't right to download Temptr and cheat on your spouse, but was it right to expose people and get them fired for it? Especially some young girl who worked in retail?

At dinner one night, Dad asked, "What do you think about this ordeal Chloe's started?"

It had hit the mainstream. The local news had run a short story about it, calling Chloe a "high-profile local activist" and showing video from the march of Chloe standing on top of the pregnant woman's Edison.

"I hate it," I said, taking a huge bite of corn on the cob so I didn't have to elaborate.

"Mmm." Dad chewed and swallowed. "You two having a bit of a falling out?"

His big brown eyes—the ones I inherited—looked concerned, but I didn't know what to think. Was he trying to create some kind of jilted men's club? I got up from the table and rinsed my plate.

"We'll be fine," I said.

"It's okay if you're not, you know," Dad said. "Not everything lasts forever."

"We will. Chloe and I will. In fact," I said, "I bet you a million dollars if I downloaded Temptr right now, it would tell me that Chloe is my number one."

Even I could hear how bitter I sounded, but I didn't give a shit. I looked over my shoulder, hoping to see pain on Dad's face. He was just slowly, methodically chewing another bite.

"Don't do that, Riley," he said. "Don't make the same mistake I did."

*

The next day, another thread of tweets was tearing up my timeline.

Kyle Payne (@fired4love): I'm the guy fired by Bancroft over #Temptr thanks to Twitter mobs. Anyone who thinks this is going to stop me from pursuing the love of my life has never had real love. I was lucky to have it twice: once with my wife Brittany, who passed away from cancer four years ago at age 24, and now with Brooklyn, my Temptr match.

Kyle Payne (@fired4love): That's right: my wife is dead. I wasn't cheating and never would. I never told Bancroft since it happened before I worked for them and it was none of their business. They've offered me my job back but I refused. Had enough of the rat race anyway.

Kyle Payne (@fired4love): Instead I'm going to focus on what really matters: my family, my newfound love, and standing up for others. Feel however you like about Temptr and its founder, but it's just a tool used by real people. #ThisIsRealLove

He tweeted a photo of himself and Brooklyn, wrapped in each other's arms, back on Ambleside beach with the Lion's Gate Bridge in the background. They made a beautiful couple. It made for great PR.

Because, shit. He hadn't been cheating on his wife—she was fucking dead. In typical Twitter fashion, Chloe had tweeted before thinking and gotten it all wrong. This was bad. This could take her whole enterprise down. Even if she had made good points in the past, getting a widower fired was going to blow her credibility.

I tried to call her, but it went to voicemail. I tried texting, but there was no reply.

"You'll see her on the first day of school," Mom said. "She probably just needs some time for her wounded pride to heal."

"I hope you're right," I said, even though I didn't know if time would be enough to heal this. Temptr had been in the news for months, and the first victim of the movement against it, Kyle Payne, was enough to set the media on fire for a while. He did interviews on most national news networks and a few pro-Temptr internet shows. Chloe, meanwhile, had been completely silent online.

Then, the week before school started, something else hit the news that kept Temptr at the top of the trending lists.

Decker Lord was moving to West Vancouver.