Rosaline pressed her lips together in a thin line, looking like it pained her to keep the words in.
Lyric gave a sharp jerk of her head and stumbled into the counter when Cash reached for her. “Don’t.” She sucked in a shuddering breath. “If you care about me even a little, be honest, Cash. Please just—tell me the truth.”
“I’m not lying to you.” His eyes were wide and frantic. “I wouldn’t do that to you. Iloveyou.”
“It’s a fuckingvideo, Cash,” she cried. “It’s not like I’m imagining things. We all saw you kiss her.” Her dark eyes welled with tears. “So just do us both a favor and stop lying. Just—stop.”
“No.” He shook his head, adamant. “Baby, you’ve got to believe me. I don’t know what that is, but it’s not—it’s not real. Okay? It’s not. I don’t know how, but someone—someone must’ve done something.”
Tears spilled down Lyric’s cheeks.
“I love you so fucking much, baby,” his voice cracked and—god.Poppy jammed the heel of her hand against her breastbone, aching. “You’ve got to believe me. I—look, I can call Ashley. I’ll do it right this fucking minute, all right? She’ll tell you the same thing I’m telling you.”
A hiccupping sob burst from Lyric’s lips, and she quickly clapped a hand over her mouth. “Why would I believe either one of you?”
“Because—”
“Save it, Cash.”
He shook his head. “Not until you say you believe me.”
“I don’t!” Lyric sounded like she was a few brief seconds away from hyperventilating. “I can’t—I can’t do this.” She turned to Rosaline. “I can’t.”
Rosaline nodded once. “Go wait in the car.”
“What?” Cash sounded like someone had punched him in the gut. “Lyric—”
She whirled on her heel, all but running from the room.
Poppy reached for his arm. “Cash—”
He ignored her, following Lyric down the hall. The security system chimed, and front door slammed shut a moment later.
Like someone had cut her strings, Rosaline slumped over, hands braced against the countertop. “I knew this was going to happen.”
Poppy crossed her arms, suddenly freezing. “What? How could you—”
“Notthis.” Rosaline shook her head. “This is...fuck.This is astonishingly low. Even for Curran. But I knew nothing good was going to come from this relationship. I knew it and I should’ve listened to my gut and put my foot down from day one. As soon as I saw that tweet, I knew. I should’ve tried harder to convince Lyric that Curran was bad fucking news.”
“That’s—that’s enough, okay?” This was still her best friend that Rosaline was talking about. “I know this looks awful—”
“Awful?” Rosaline scoffed. “Poppy, this isdamning. If a picture is worth a thousand words, that video is worth a million.”Her lips twisted bitterly as if she’d tasted something spoiled. “Literally.”
Poppy was going to be sick. “Are you saying you think whoever sent this to Lyric plans on selling it?”
It was bad enough watching the video in the privacy of Cash’s kitchen, a special kind of torture watching it with Lyric and Cash and Rosaline. But the idea that hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of people might see it gave a whole new meaning to the wordviolation.
Rosaline shrugged. “Depends on why they sent it to Lyric in the first place. If it was some Good Samaritan actually looking out for her, or if—”
“Someone could be trying to stir the pot.”
Rosaline pinched the bridge of her nose. “Christ. If this gets out, do you know what people are going to say? Do you know what this is going to do to Lyric?”
“If Cash said he didn’t do it—”
“Are you seriously defending him?Poppy.” Rosaline sounded horrified and she looked it, too, staring at Poppy as if she’d lost her mind. Maybe she had. Nothing made sense.
She clung to the one thing she did know. “I know Cash.”
