I was right back to when I’d opened Twitter that morning and seen the video right there, first thing on my timeline.
“I guess you always have been a size queen,” Matt said as I stared down at my own shoes. “Explains why you picked out the biggest one you could find? Where’d you get this one, Iowa? God you’re pathetic, how much are you paying him?”
“Hey,” Ward said, stepping in front of me.
Thatmade me look up. The way he moved, and the tone of his voice.
Everything in his posture saidI’m gonna kick your ass.
Except that Ward wasn’t the ass-kicking type. Not ever. I’d never even seen him stand like that, and I adored him, I thought he was the best man in the entire world, but he wasn’t much of an actor, either.
So this was arealass-kicking posture.
“Easy, Sasquatch,” Matt held his hands up in surrender. “Nothing against you, you’ve probably got a sick grandma or something who needs the money. This is between me and Ryder.”
Ward took another step forward, and my heart lurched as he grabbed Matt by the front of his shirt, hauling him in with an actual growl.
I wanted to move to stop him—not because Matt didn’t deserve it, but because Ward would hate himself for havingdoneit, and this was all my fault—but I couldn’t move.
All I could do was stand frozen and watch.
“Hey,” Allison said, slipping into the increasingly narrow space between Ward and Matt.
Ward blinked at her, then at Matt.
Then he let him go.
I’d never been so relieved in my life. If Ward had actually hit someone, over me, I could never have forgiven myself.
I knew being in this world changed people, and the last thing I wanted was for Ward to change.
He was perfect just as he was.
“You okay?” Allison asked as Matt backed away as fast as he could without breaking into a run.
I was surprised he didn’t. He definitely had experience doing that.
“I’m fine,” Ward said, still sounding a little dazed.
“What happened to the Ryder I used to know?” Matt asked from what I guessed he thought was a safe distance. “The one who had dreams and ambitions and wouldn’t settle for anything less than what he wanted?”
This time, Ward’s grip on me wavered.
“You can’t seriously expect me to believe that you actuallywantBigfoot over here.” Matt laughed, gesturing at Ward. “I remember you being a size queen, sweetheart, butthatis cotton candy and I know you know you need a little substance.”
What the fuck would you know about substance? I didn’t ask, but only because I wanted the ground to open up beneath me and swallow me whole.
“Hey, Matt,” Allison said in her most sickly-sweet voice. “You should go find your agent, I think I saw him talking to the Netflix guy.”
Matt raised an eyebrow. He knew as well as I did that what Allison was saying had to be bullshit, but the slim chance it wasn’t was enough to make his interest in harassing Ward waver.
“Go do that,” Allison said, tone hardening. “And stop being mean to my new friend.”
Matt’s brows drew together, but he wasn’t about to argue. He knew how the hierarchy worked. Allison already had the big, lucrative contract, she’d broken out and she got tapped on the shoulder for increasingly high-profile roles all the time on the back of it.
Matt hadn’t had his big win yet, so he was smart to defer to her in case he needed a favor later. Not, I thought, that she’d do him one if she could avoid it.
But that was how these things worked. It was all bullshit.
