Cash was reckless and prone to impulsivity, but he was a good person, honorable and decent, always putting the people he cared about first. He didn’t lie and he didn’t cheat, and she believed it down to her bones that he loved Lyric. He wouldn’t do something like this. It didn’t... it didn’t make sense.
Rosaline grabbed Lyric’s phone off the counter. She tapped the screen twice, stared at it for a moment, and scoffed. She passed the phone to Poppy. “Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think you do.”
Reluctantly, stomach churning riotously, Poppy took the phonefrom her. A screenshot of a Tinder profile stared back at her. Cash’s, the profile having been created just last month. Poppy didn’t want to, but she swiped to the next and final file Lyric had been sent anonymously. It was a screengrab of an in-app conversation, Cash making plans to grab drinks with the girl he was talking to.
The evidence was stacking up and none of it was good.
If this got out, if someone leaked these screenshots, this video, if they sold it as an exclusive to some tabloid, this would ruin Cash. Ruin his name, his reputation, and depending on the fallout, it might even ruin his career.
Poppy handed Rosaline the phone. She’d seen enough; she didn’t need to keep studying the video, torturing herself by rereading the messages Cash had sent the girl whose name had been redacted from the screengrabs. “What are we supposed to do?”
“Poppy.” Rosaline shook her head sadly. “Poppy, there’s—there is nowein this.”
“What?” she whispered. “What does that mean?”
Nowein this. Of course there was awe.Theywere awe.They were supposed to be.
“You believe Curran,” Rosaline said simply, quietly, staring down at her hands around the edge of the granite counter, knuckles white. “Or you want to. And I get it, okay? I do. I can’t tell you what to think and... he’s your best friend.” She lifted her head and her eyes met Poppy’s, the whites of them shot through with red. “But Lyric is mine. And she needs me to—she needs me. She needs me to have her back. She needs to know I do.” She sniffed hard and shrugged weakly, shoulders curling in, looking as small as Poppy felt. “She can’t doubt that.”
Her eyes burned and her vision blurred. A lump had lodged itself in her throat that made it difficult to speak. “So, what? Lyricand Cash have issues so you and I—” She couldn’t say it. “That’s just... that’s it?”
Rosaline closed her eyes. “Yeah.” Her breath hitched. “I think that’s... that’s it.”
Each blink threatened to spill the tears welling in her eyes. “And I can’t say anything to—”
“Poppy.” Rosaline’s voice broke and it felt like Poppy’s heart was breaking too. “What would you even say? Think about it. How would this work?”
Poppy tried to imagine it. Rosaline in Los Angeles and her in Portland. Cash and Lyric, the two most important people in their lives not on speaking terms, maybe even unable to be in the same room. Off-limits, Rosaline and Poppy unable to talk about them without it devolving into an argument, old hurts constantly being unearthed, bruises pressed. It would be untenable, the gap between them growing into a chasm too vast to bridge. A slow, suffocating death.
“Everything was—” Poppy pinched her eyes shut and bit her lip, stifling a sob.
Everything had been, if not perfect, closer to it than Poppy had ever dreamed. Not even ten minutes ago they had been baking brownies and joking and Rosaline had called Poppy the best thing to happen to her since Lyric. It wasn’tfair.
“I know,” Rosaline rasped, and Poppy felt her fingers brush over the skin of her wrist, a ghost of a touch. “For what it’s worth?” She sniffled. “I really wanted this. I really wanted this with you.”
So did Poppy.
“Lyric’s waiting,” Rosaline whispered. “I should—I should go grab my things. Hers too.” She paused and Poppy cracked open her eyes. Rosaline stood a little straighter, her chin rising, piecing herself back together before Poppy’s eyes. “Curran fucked himselfover. Losing Lyric, whatever the press says about him... that’s punishment enough. I won’t make it worse. I won’t call in any favors. For you. I don’t want to make this harder for you.”
Poppy nodded dully. It would probably sink in tomorrow or the next day or the day after how much that meant, but right now it didn’t make her feel any better. “Thanks.”
Rosaline crossed the kitchen and paused in the doorway, her back to Poppy. “Don’t... don’t go home for Christmas. Okay?”
The tears Poppy had tried to choke down spilled over, rolling down her cheeks and dripping off her jaw. She nodded even though Rosaline couldn’t see her.
“Take care of yourself, Poppy.” Rosaline walked out of the kitchen, taking half of Poppy’s heart with her.
Chapter Twenty
Lyric Adair Updates@lyricadairupdatesunofficial • 12h
Lyric Adair is no longer following @cashcurran.
Less than a week after announcing their engagement, Lyric Adair and Cash Curran seem to call it quits as video of Curran kissing ex-girlfriend surfaces
by Jaimie Xin
published on December 21
