Selfless

17

The next couple weeks were the same. I would get small glimpses of the past but nothing really big was coming to me.

My dad finally went home after he felt like I was comfortable enough around everyone in the house.

Right now the girls and I were setting up for the Christmas party as the guys were off somewhere filming a video.

My emotions have been difficult to manage because the frustration was starting to really set in. I wanted so badly to remember, and I could tell Colby was getting frustrated by it too. He's been sweet, and supportive but I can tell he's feeling just as antsy as I felt.

"I feel like we should have one of the guys hang those up." I said as Kat tried to hang up one of many giant Christmas bulbs from the ceiling, "what happened to the version of Cora who would want to be an independent strong empowered woman." She huffed as I breathed out a sigh, "she's been watching you struggle with those for the past hour, now stop before you drop that thing on your head and become like me." I said as she finally got it to stay.

"Ha! I got it!" She yelled and stuck her tongue out at me, "very impressive." I said and clapped for her then turned to continue decorating the tree.

Christmas was next week but we never got around to putting a tree up, but I guess it's better late than never, right? After another couple minutes of decorating, I reached up and put the star on top and turned to Kat, "how's it look?" I asked and held my arms out towards the tree.

"It's perfect!" Kat yelled as we admired it, "Dev! Tara! Come look at this." I called out to them as they came out of the kitchen. They both have been cooking and baking all day so they were covered in flour. "It's perfect! How did you get all those bulbs up?" Tara asked and pointed to the ceiling. "Arms of steel baby" Kat said and slapped her bicep.

We started cleaning up our mess as we danced around to Christmas music. Mia giggled at us the entire time which made my heart melt.

As soon as we finished cleaning everything up the guys came in, "hey guys!" Kat said and waved to them as Colby came over and wrapped his arms around my waist, "hey beautiful girl." He said and kissed my head, "hey." I said quietly and rested my head on his chest as Mia cooed at him from her high chair .

"Hey princess! Did you help mommy set up for the party tonight?" He asked Mia and waved at her as she giggled at him, "how was filming?" I asked and laced my fingers through his hair as I wrapped my arms around his neck. "It was fine...I need to talk to you though.." he said quietly as my heart shifted.

He was going to leave me because I was still having memory issues.

He was going to drop me.

"Hey, no...it's not that, it's just that rumors are circulating again and they are getting really bad." He said with a sigh, "is it that Stephanie girl?" I asked and bit my lip nervously, "yeah...she's saying that you hit her, which you did, but people are saying really horrible stuff about you, so we should probably come up with some sort of plan to clear your name." He said and brought his hand to my cheek, "I want to finish this and put it behind us." He said quietly and I nodded, "okay." I whispered as we turned to the rest of the group.

"Guys, Stephanie is out of control, starting rumors and saying horrible things about Cora, we need to do something before the party." Colby said and wrapped his arm around my waist.

"You two should just sit down and make a short video explaining things. True fans will understand and believe the truth, everyone else won't matter." Sam said and I nodded, "what are they saying? Other than that I hit Stephanie?" I asked quietly as Colby sucked in a small breath, "just...don't worry about it..please." He begged causing me to nod.

We set up the camera and sat in front of it. My heart was racing at the idea of being in a video basically explaining how messed up I was right now. I had been really good at keeping it together, but right now I felt like I was falling apart. I looked down at my shaking hands as Sam stood behind the camera.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay. I'm right here beside you." Colby said and put his hand over my shaking ones. "Let's just get it over with." I said and took a deep breath, closing my eyes for a second.

Sam turned the camera on and Colby took a deep breath. "Hey guys, so Cora and I just wanted to sit down and kind of explain what's been going on.." Colby said as I looked up into the camera lense, holding back the tears that were threatening to spill over onto my cheeks.

"There's someone who is accusing Cora of things and spreading rumors and posts that I don't appreciate at all." He said with anger coating his voice, "we wanted to clear some stuff up." I said quietly as Colby grabbed my hand and squeezed it gently.

"The fan that has been spreading these horrible rumors is actually someone we let into our home, even into our family." I said and swallowed hard. "This "fan" hurt Cora to the point where she is still healing from it." He said and brought my hand to his lips.

"Please don't listen to the rumors you're hearing about her." He said as my chest heaved.

The image of Stephanie throwing me against the wall played in my head, causing me to get up and walk away while shaking my hands.

"Woah, okay, relax it's okay." Colby said and got up too, pulling me into his embrace. "I saw it." I whispered into his chest. "What did you see?" He asked and brushed my hair from my face, "Stephanie throwing me against the wall." I said as a shiver ran down my spine.

"Oh no..." he whispered and had Sam cut the camera for a minute as he sat back down, pulling me into his lap.  "It's okay, cry it out." He said as I sobbed into his shoulder, "she ruined my life." I wailed, as he tightened his grip. "I know, now let's ruin hers." He said and wiped my cheek, before placing a gentle kiss on my lips.

I nodded and got up, only to sit back in my chair again. They gave me a minute to compose myself before Sam turned the camera on and I nodded,

"I have been dealing with something so difficult because of what this person did to me. Stephanie wanted to hurt me to get to Colby." I said then took a long shaky breath, "I have been dealing with memory loss for almost a month now, because Stephanie, who was supposedly a fan threw me against a wall, causing me to hit my head." I said and looked down at my hands again.

Colby grabbed one of my hands and sandwiched it in his own as he started talking, "We wanted to clear some stuff up for anyone who is confused. I didn't hook up with Stephanie and Cora and I are very much together. The only correct rumor that is being spread is that Cora hit Stephanie and it was only because Stephanie continued to try and break our relationship up." He said and rubbed my hand, bringing me comfort.

"Thank you for your support in everything, we still have a long way to go in Cora's recovery but please be kind. We don't need that kind of negative in this fandom. Or in this world. Be kind. Love you." Colby said and I waved as Sam turned the camera off.

"Do you think that's gonna work?" I asked and looked down at my hands. "I hope so. I'm gonna go edit it really fast so we can post it before the party." He said and kissed my head, sending a warm feeling through my chest before he got up and grabbed his camera, then left to go edit.

A couple hours later it was posted and I could feel the tension in the air as we all waited for the reactions of everyone.

90% of the comments were sweet, with people defending me. The other little bit though thought I was lying, which I guess was reasonable but I was feeling so much better than earlier.

Until my phone rang.

"Oh god...Stephanie is calling me." I whispered shakily as Colby looked over quickly, anger radiating from his face.