VICTORIOUS || ETHAN CUTKOSKY

NINETEEN

"tiff?"

"hi."

"what's wrong?"

"okay so uhm, when i was in high school - like an actual school, before i was homeschooled-"

"you were homeschooled?"

"yeah, for the majority of high school. anyway, something really bad happened and i was involved. only a handful of students know about this, but one of them commented on maddy's picture of me."

"how bad? the thing in high school, i mean."

"illegal bad."

"shit."

"yeah. but i told my friends about it. i had two back then, luna and this girl in my class, but luna was the only one who believed what i said. the other girl got really mad and ditched me."

"the fuck?"

"she uh, she contacted me yesterday. obviously i blocked her after, i don't even know how she got my number, but i think it kind of made me crack a little. i haven't spoken to her since i quit public school and she knows all of the horrible things and she's trying to rip open all of the wounds again."

"tiff-"

"ethan, it took so long for them to become scars. i can't let her get to me."

"tiffany, it's okay. breathe. block her, even if she gets new numbers, just keep blocking. you deserve to be happy, no matter how bad this thing might have been. when do you have to go back to filming?"

"not today, we're wrapping tomorrow though so i have to get to bed in about two hours."

"then we are going to talk for two hours about anything you want, anything that calms you and comforts you."

"we are?"

"yes."