MALLORY'S POV
I messaged Natalie on Instagram the night Drew told me everything.
That was two nights ago.
It was now Tuesday night and I was currently sitting alone in the booth of a restaurant as I waited for Natalie to join me. The longer I sat here, the more anxious I felt myself become. I wanted to rip the bandaid off. I wanted to confront her one last time and never look back. I knew in my heart this was the end of her stupid game, we all knew it. But my mind was circulating thoughts of this not being the end. What if she doesn't quit? What if she continues to harass us for the rest of our lives? I couldn't think like that. This was the end, and I knew it.
The last thing I wanted to do was to come face to face with her again, but this had to be done. Mainly because I wanted to see the look on her face when I unfolded everything out in front of her. The idea of seeing this bitch in person one last time caused me to tremble under my skin. I was not a confrontational person, so addressing this to her was a huge step for me.
To ease my nerves and my racing thoughts, I looked over to my left and saw Drew, Chase, and Mads sitting with Elaine on the other side of the restaurant. Yes, Elaine, Rudy's ex-girlfriend. She was the one who texted Chase the other night. She was the one helping us get back at Natalie. This wouldn't be possible without her, so it only felt right for her to join us.
My boyfriend and friends waved to me and I felt myself instantly relax at the familiar sight of them. Drew sent me a thumbs ups and his lips read you got this. He was right, I do got this. It was all of us against the wicked witch of the west and my friends made sure I knew of one thing, I wasn't alone in this. Their support meant the world to me and I knew for a fact I couldn't do this without them.
Over the course of the last week and a half, I've dealt with the embarrassment of being publicly humiliated, the fear of losing the love of my life, and the pressure of possibly ruining careers. This was one of the toughest times I've had to go through mentally, but Drew wasn't kidding when he said he wasn't going anywhere. He stuck beside me throughout this whole thing, as well as Mads and all of our friends, and I couldn't imagine going through this with anyone else.
Snapping back into reality, I remembered that Natalie would be arriving any second. I didn't want her to see me looking over at Drew when she approached me, so I looked down at my phone to occupy myself. As I began to answer an encouraging text from Drew, I heard the familiar, squeaky voice that could cause my ears to bleed.
Here we go.
"Mallory," Natalie made her presence known and I looked up at her to see her fake smiling as she slid into the booth.
"Hey," I forced a smile. "Sorry, I just have to answer this." I pretended to type out a message, but I went into my voice memo app instead. It may have been illegal for me to record our conversation without her consent, but I was determined to get her to admit everything on recording. And also because my friends wanted to hear this conversation. I pressed record and placed my phone on the seat next to me. "Thanks for meeting up with me tonight, Natalie." I addressed, making her name known in the recording.
"Of course." She nodded.
"You told me you were already in Charleston, right?" I asked her, setting up our conversation.
"That's right." She answered.
"What brought you to town?" I took a sip of my water as I waited for her response.
"I was finishing up a project last week when I saw that nasty article was released about you. I decided to stay in town a little longer just in case Drew needed the company."
I nearly spit out my water all over her as that last sentence left her mouth. She could not be serious. What the hell was wrong with her? Did she seriously think that if Drew needed someone to go to, he would go to her of all people? When he was surrounded by all of his friends who loved him and cared for him more than she ever has? She was out of her mind.
Clearing my throat, I tried to push away her comment. As much as it fired me up inside, I couldn't let that bother me. I had an act I needed to stick to. "Um," I took another sip of my water. "How nice." I needed to think of something to say to convince her that she won. Make her think she broke up my relationship and ruined my life. "Drew deserves someone like you, not me." I lied.
"Yeah," She agreed, frowning at my words and my body began to heat up. "How is Drew? How has he been handing it all?"
"Not sure," I shrugged, lying once again. "He hasn't talked to me since the night we read the article. I think we're officially over. Nobody has wanted anything to do with me since it was released."
"I don't blame them." I heard Natalie say under her breath before she took a sip of her glass of water. I hope my recording caught that. "It was bound to happen at some point though, right?" I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at her in confusion before she elaborated. "You didn't seriously think you and Drew would last, did you? You guys have known each other for less than a year. You're a nobody, Mallory. You don't understand his busy, public lifestyle. I do. He belongs with me." Each word that left her mouth felt like a drop of venom seeping into my skin, stinging me slowly and painfully. I had to fight back the tears of pure anger as she continued to emotionally stab me. "I don't know if you've noticed, but Drew is a really good looking guy. Like, total hunk. Complete smoke show-"
"Okay," I cut her off, wincing at what she was saying about my boyfriend. "Yeah, I've noticed."
"He can get any girl he wants looking like that. I'm still trying to figure out why he chose you. But, since you guys haven't been together for long, and he's not married or tied down with a kid or anything, it's fair game, Mal." She leaned over the table and crossed her arms in front of her. "In case you haven't figured it out yet, if I see something I want, I make sure I get it."
My heart was caught in my throat and as much as I wanted to respond with something, it was nearly impossible with how stunned I was. I don't know how I expected this conversation to go, but it certainly wasn't like this. I blinked my eyes, trying to rid of the tears, or the red vision that was building up in front of me. My heart was beating out of my chest and my body was shaking tremendously. Not out of sadness or defeat, but instead out of pure hatred.
I took a sip of my water, swallowing the lump in my throat in the process. I let out a deep sigh to try and keep my cool before I responded to her. "You're right." I managed to say. "Which is why I um," I paused, clearing my throat. I hated the idea of her thinking I was giving her what she wants. "Which is why I wanted to meet with you. I wanted to tell you that you won. You got what you wanted after all. He's all yours now." I said to her and I saw the corner of her mouth curl into a devious smile. "I know you're the anonymous and reliable source in the article. And there's nothing I can do to prove it,"
"Hm," Natalie smirked.
"Except for this."
I took Elaine's phone out of my purse and Natalie watched me as I entered the passcode on it. I went to the Instagram app and tapped on the DM icon in the top right corner before going to the conversation between Elaine and Natalie.
"You messaged Elaine on Instagram the other night, right?" I asked her as I turned the phone towards her and I scrolled up to the top of the conversation.
"Possibly."
I tapped her profile and looked at the screen with her. "This is your account, isn't it?"
"How did you get access to that?" Natalie watched me carefully, unsure of my next move. That stupid smirk was long gone from her lips and the look on her face made me smile.
"My good friend, Elaine, of course." I batted my eyelashes innocently. "Just to be clear, this is your account and you did message her the other night, correct?"
"Yeah, so?" She shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. "Didn't her and Rueben break up? I thought she didn't talk to you guys anymore?"
"You mean Rudy?" I corrected her, trying not to laugh. "They did break up, and no, she doesn't necessarily talk to us anymore. She really only talks to us when she finds out information that was used to sabotage relationships and ruin people's lives."
"What are you talking about?" She tried to play dumb, and I wish I could capture the look on her face of being frozen in fear.
"C'mon Natalie. You had to have known Elaine would tell us, right?"
"She told me she wouldn't tell anyone." Natalie gulped loudly. She knew she had been caught.
"Did she say that?" I questioned teasingly, already knowing the answer. I scrolled through the messages and found where Natalie was referring to. "Actually, when you asked her if she promised not to tell anyone, all she replied with was 'what is this about?' No where in here did she say she wouldn't tell anybody."
"I thought by her reply that she was confirming she wouldn't say anything."
My God, this bitch was dumb.
"Hm, not quite." I smiled. "In case you haven't figured it out yet," I copied her remark from earlier. "We know you admitted everything to her, down to you being the anonymous source in that article. She texted Chase screenshots of this conversation. You are aware that Chase and Drew are like best friends?"
"Everyone knows that." She rolled her eyes, completely ignoring the fact that I just told her we all know that she admitted everything.
"Good, good. I wanna hope that you're smart enough to figure out the rest. But, considering that you thought you were smart enough to confide in Elaine about all of this, I take it you aren't as smart as you are pretty." I sent a sarcastic smile. "Chase told Drew, Drew told me, all of my friends know. Blah, blah, blah. Oh, and Drew and I didn't actually break up. Did you figure that out yet too?"
"Okay, fine!" She said abruptly. "Yes, I messaged Elaine. Yes, I told her everything. Happy?"
"What exactly did you tell her though?" I knew what she shared, I just wanted to hear her say it out loud, and also so the recording had as much detail as possible.
"You have the conversation right there," She gestured her hand to the phone I was holding. "Just read it."
"I'd rather hear it come from you, though." I shrugged innocently.
"Like, everything?"
"Every. Single. Thing."
Natalie groaned before she rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Ugh. Fine. The second I found out Drew had a girlfriend, I made it my mission to split you guys up. That time when I answered your FaceTime call on Drew's phone? I did it because I knew you didn't know about me yet. I hoped that would've ignited a fight between you guys. And when it didn't, I had to work harder. Drew told me he was waiting to watch Euphoria with you, so I forced him to watch it with me and posted it on my story specifically for you to see. You didn't get as mad at him as I wanted, so I had to think of something else. But then, you had that guy at your apartment when Drew showed up. When he called Mads that night and I heard everything, I figured that was it. You did all of the hard work for me."
As much as hearing her admit everything satisfied me, it was also triggering to relive these times in my life. It was a rough patch in Drew and I's relationship and I hated to think about where we were months ago.
Natalie continued to confess the things she's done to try and ruin my relationship. How she spread lies to both Drew and I about each other to make us think different things, causing us to fight. And when that wasn't enough to split us up for good so she could swoop in and steal my man, she came up with one more sinister tactic. She contacted Young Hollywood News, informed them that she had inside scoop about Drew's relationship that would get them a bunch of ratings, and she essentially sold our information by twisting the truth and making things seem way worse than they actually were. She was insane.
"Wow," I let out a deep breath, though she was the one doing all of the talking. "You really don't know how to quit, do you? After all that, you look and sound like such a clown. All over a guy? You need help," I laughed in disbelief. "Like, serious help."
"Excuse me?" Natalie raised an eyebrow at my response and I couldn't help but laugh. Did she not hear anything she said to me? Ever?
"You heard me," I nodded, not backing down from this. She's gotten away with too much, she wasn't going to play the victim in this any longer. "Now that you just confessed everything you did to try and ruin our relationship and lives, I need you to get that article taken down and make a public statement explaining everything you just told me."
"Or what?" She challenged as she crossed her arms over her chest again, trying to seem intimidating.
"Or I'll do it myself." I told her as I held up my phone which caught this entire conversation. "I have everything I need right here. So, either you own your shit, or look like a little bitch while I expose you. Your call."
Her eyes widened, her mouth gaped open in shock, and now she was the speechless one. Her reaction was exactly what I had hoped for.
Check-fucking-mate, bitch.
"Ugh, fine." Natalie rolled her eyes, finally being the one out of moves in this game. "I'll contact them in the morning to take down the article."
"Anddd...?" I continued for her to make sure she didn't forget about the other thing I wanted her to do.
"And I'll make a statement admitting everything." She rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Wonderful." I grinned. "I'd imagine a video statement would be the easiest, you know, since you did so much shit to us. I don't want some bullshit thirty-second video. Make sure it's at least five minutes in length. Feel free to make it more. Oh, and I would like it posted no later than Friday night." I listed off the criteria I wanted for her to clear all of this up. "And don't forget, I have everything I need right here," I held up my phone. "So if you don't follow my instructions, I have no problem exposing you myself."
Natalie scowled in response and I felt the smile on my face grow bigger. She slid herself out of the booth and tossed her dark hair over her shoulder. "I hope you're happy." She scoffed in disgusted.
"Very." I smiled.
And with that, Natalie stomped away like a little kid who didn't get their way. Good fucking riddance.
Within a second, I saw Drew get up from the table across the restaurant and he made his way over to me. Mads, Chase, and Elaine followed close behind him.
"Holy shit, Mal," Drew laughed and I stood up from the booth I was sitting at. He wrapped his arms securely around me and kissed the top of my head. "The look on her face was priceless. You did it."
Our friends wrapped Drew and I in a hug as well and we probably looked crazy having a group hug in this restaurant, but I didn't care. I truly could not have done this without them.
"I wanna be the first to apologize," Mads said as we pulled away from the hug. Her and I sat across from each other in the booth and Chase pulled over three chairs from a random table, one for him, one for Drew, and one for Elaine. They crowded around the table, eager to hear what happened. "I am so sorry we were ever friends with her. I'm so embarrassed to say that."
"Yeah," Chase agreed. "We're really sorry, Mal."
"Guys," I looked at them sternly. "Don't apologize. You had no idea those were her intentions."
"So she admitted everything then?" Elaine chimed in.
"Yup," I smiled, waving my phone. "It's all right here."
"The hell are you waiting for?" Mads sat up and leaned on her elbows on the table, ready for me to play them the recording.
"Wait, can we order first?" Chase looked around for a waiter and when he made eye contact with one, they came over to us. "Hey, can we get an order of chips and artichoke dip or something? Maybe a round of beers too?"
"Uh, sure," The waiter, no older than sixteen, took our their pen and notepad. "There's like five of you guys at this booth meant for two people. Did you want a bigger table first?"
We all looked at each other, not caring about where we were seated or the size of the table. "Nah," All five of us said simultaneously.
"We're good," Chase nodded. "Thanks, though,"
The waiter wrote on their notepad before walking away and once they did, Drew, Elaine, Chase and Mads all leaned into the table closer.
"Mal, play that shit." Mads playfully demanded as she looked at my phone then at me.
I placed my phone in the center of the table so everyone could see the voice memo recording. I let out a deep breath before I pressed play, allowing my friends to hear everything.
"Thanks for meeting up with me tonight, Natalie..."
* * * * *
a/n:
plsss dont hate me... i just had to bring natalie back one more time🫣 stupid bitchhh
also sorry for not updating!! work has been kicking my ass im so exhausted i cant even find it in me to write and edit and do things i enjoy anymore. i cant live like this for the rest of my life
also also i went away for my bday last week and i actually went to charleston where they film most of obx hehehe and i went to a bar that the obx cast has been seen at frequently while filming it felt like home i wanna go back esp when they start filming obx4
but anywaysss hope yall enjoyed this long chapter!!! sorry if its not the best, i havent really been in my A game lately especially when it comes to editing. as always lmk ur thoughts and dont forget to vote ily
<3