Groupchat • JOSEPH MORGAN

FORTY FIVE

LEAH CAME BACK from her long jog and found Dani gone. As she glanced at the empty house, her mind flooded with memories of the numerous articles she had read. Leah had wanted to tell Dani about the scripts which got leaked. She had wanted a strong affirmation that everything would be alright even if it wasn't. She thought of calling Phoebe, or perhaps Daniel and telling them of this.

But in the end, she called no one and got ready for work. She took a quick shower and blow dried her hair. She didn't spend too much time on her appearance or what she was wearing as she knew what would happen. And why spend a lot of time getting ready for something she was going to be fired for? She moisturized her face and applied some lipstick on her lips. And that with that, and nothing else, she left for work.

The studio was only twenty minutes away and Leah had never wished for it to be farther away. Except for today. She didn't want to face what happened. Perhaps maybe, if she ignored it meant it didn't exist and everything was fine. Perhaps, she was too fond of denial. She got a text from Julie when she was driving but she hadn't reached for her phone to check it. It was only now, as she was sitting in her parked car that she saw it.

Julie Plec:
Please come in to see me, as soon as possible.

Sorry I just saw this, I'll be there in just a sec.

And with that, she checked her other messages. There were no new ones from Joseph since the day he had almost been stung by a scorpion. She saw her screen lit up with Nate's name. She clicked on the message and read it.

Nate - teddybae:
Leah, how did it go?

I'm sitting outside in my car

Nate - teddybae:
You can do this babe. You're strong. And no matter what happens, we're going to be here for you.

Leah appreciated his lack of emojis which made him sound more serious. She didn't reply anything. She merely got out of her car, locked it and strode towards the inside of the building. She pushed the door open and was meet by a wave of cold hair. As she walked towards Julie's office she felt eyes on her. But she didn't pause to acknowledge them.

She stopped in front of Julie's office. Much to Leah's surprise, Julie was outside, waiting for her.  "Leah, please come into my office."

"Hi, Julie." Leah responded. She followed her inside of her office as Julie sat across from Leah. She motioned for Leah to do the same but she refused to sit. Leah knew that if she sat, she wouldn't be still.

"Do you know of what happened?" Julie asked. Leah slightly nodded her head once. She tried to look at Julie, to see if she believed in her or if she found her guilty. But Julie's expression was neutral. Leah had hoped it gave the slightest clue away.

"I do and it's not—" Leah began as Julie interrupted.

"Leah, I'm not looking for an explanation," Julie began. Leah looked away, she felt as though someone had poured a bucket of cold water on her. Leah could only mutter, please. "I talked to the others and I was willing to let this pass but the others were not."

"But you recruited me," Leah pointed out. Julie looked down at her hands and sighed.

"I know I did," Julie said.  "But now you can't stay."

"Where am I going to go? No one is going to want to hire me if they think I did this. Maybe if..." Leah trailed off, unsure of what she was saying. Could someone maybe have done this intentionally? Perhaps one of the others that saw how quickly she was jumping from positions?