It's Not Over Yet (the seventh book in the glee series)

Chapter 66: Honestly, I'm Freaking Out

"So the good news is," Marley said as she walked to Finn's kitchen carrying a binder and set it down on the table, "that last night we raised about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Which is beyond what we expected and simply... incredible."

"Yay..." said Finn, though Marley wasn't feeling like celebrating, what with the stress that the gala had caused them.

"The bad news is, of course," Marley continued, "that someone managed to hack everyone's phones and has been periodically leaking data from them. My mom had to change her number."

"So did mine," Finn groaned. "Though, I'm sure it wasn't as bad. Most people weren't really looking into my phone and I didn't have too much going on there anyway. I do feel bad for everyone else. Especially our famous friends. They got the worst of it."

"Yeah," Marley sighed, taking a seat. "I just wish we could figure out who did this. It's obviously taking a while for people to go through all the information but what's out there already has been damning for all of us. This was a huge invasion of privacy and I know everyone wants a name. I've heard talks that people want to press charges and sue and honestly... I can't blame them."

"Neither can I," Finn sighed. "I was gonna say we should try to stay focused on the school but... Honestly, all I can do is worry about our friends. How's Kitty doing?"

Marley frowned and shook her head. "I can't imagine it's going well over in her house," she said.

***

"How could you keep this from me?" Kitty yelled, standing in front of Riley in their living room. 

"Shh," Riley hushed her. "The kids..."

But Kitty ignored her, continuing, "And how could you think it was a good idea to discuss it all via text message?"

"I'm sorry," Riley sighed. "For the millionth time. But it's not like anything specific was in those messages so it's not the worst thing that could've happened."

"Riley," Kitty crossed her arms, "you texted my mother about her rigging my election. About her committing a crime that implicates me, and implicating yourself in the process. Now that's out there and I'm being investigated. My political career could be over forever. How do you not understand the severity of this situation?"

"I do get it," said Riley. "But I'm asking you to put it into perspective. It could've been worse. Other people did have it worse."

"Right," said Kitty, calming herself for a moment. "I could've had it worse. I could've had my nude photographs leaked as well. Oh wait, that also happened. But guess what? People seeing my exposed private parts is nowhere near as awful as finding out along with the rest of the world that I'm mayor due to my mother cheating. I care more about my career and my future. The future of this family. I can't believe that you'd keep all of this from me, Riley... You should've told me what happened the moment my mother told you."

Stalking off, Kitty left Riley alone to feel even worse about the situation than she had before.

***

Over in Hill Country, Julie sat in her living room next to Skye, who had prepared tea for them. The tea sat on the coffee table, untouched, while the two women sat in comfortable silence.

Then, when it had become impossible to tolerate it, they were startled by the sudden opening of the door. Shawn walked in and Julie immediately rose to her feet, rushing to him.

"You're home!" she exclaimed. "I was so worried when you didn't come home last night."

"I'm not here to stay," he said, barely looking her in the eye. "I just came to get clothes. I'm staying down at a hotel."

"What?" she said. "I... We're getting married in less than a week. We need to talk and figure this out and I... I need a chance to explain everything to you."

"I don't wanna hear it right now," Shawn shook his head. "I just wanna... Grab some things and get some space to clear my head."

"But Shawn, it's not what it—" she started, but he was already heading up the stairs, ignoring her.

With a heavy sigh, she trudged back to the couch and flopped down beside Skye again. 

A sympathetic smile on her face, Skye said, "No luck, huh?"

"I just wish he'd at least listen to me," Julie responded.

"I'm sure he'll come around," Skye shrugged. "He'll calm down, come to his senses, and then talk to you. You'll explain everything and he'll understand and your wedding will be amazing."

"I don't know if he'll believe me," said Julie. "I wouldn't believe me."

***

Walking into the JV Records lobby nervously, Lyric stopped at Autumn's desk and said, "Is Quinn in yet?"

"Nope," Autumn responded. "She's gonna be out for a while, actually. Putting out fires, left and right. Figuratively, of course. But you're free to wait for her. I'll let her know you're here."

Lyric nodded and took a seat by Autumn's desk, pulling out her phone and staring at it.

"Can I ask you something?" asked Autumn. Lyric glanced up, nodding. "Am I a bad receptionist?"

"Huh?" said Lyric.

"Well," Autumn cleared her throat. "The old receptionist quit not that long ago and Quinn wanted me to take on the job and I thought I was good at being her assistant but then the leaks showed my performance review and... Quinn's comments weren't exactly great. So now I'm doubting my current performance at this job."

"I think you did fine in both things," said Lyric. "You're doing great. No need to doubt yourself."

Autumn forced a smile and said, "I'm kind of relieved I didn't get invited to this Sexy Gala thing. #SexyGalaHack was trending all night and I think it's probably still trending."

"Yeah..." Lyric nodded slowly. "Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to Quinn about. I may have said some rude things about her and Julie... and... John and... Yeah. It was dumb conversations with Isaac, just venting. I was upset that my music wasn't good enough and they were pushing more commercial, Julie-written music onto me and I was mean about it and... I just wanted to clear the air with Quinn. I don't want our relationship to suffer because of meaningless messages that were never meant to be public."

"Maybe she hasn't seen them yet," Autumn offered.

"Have you?" Lyric asked curiously.

Autumn scoffed, "Oh yeah. I think the whole world is currently into these leaks." After two seconds, Autumn realized what she'd said and quickly added, "Sorry. That doesn't help at all, does it?"

"No, you're right," Lyric shook her head. "She must've seen that among everything. There's no hope for me. I should've never ranted about her and Julie like I did."

"'Sup hoes," Carly chimed as she stepped out of the elevator, strutting towards them.

"You're in way too chipper of a mood for someone who just had all the private information on their phone leaked," said Lyric, surprised.

Carly shrugged. "Honestly, I'm like an open book. There's nothing those hackers put out that I wouldn't have put out myself." Turning to Autumn, she asked, "Is Quinn here? I just found out Can't Hold Us Down is getting a Top 5 debut and she promised an increase to my budget when that happened. I have new music coming and I wanna talk to her about getting me a good spot for the Met Gala crap. It's gonna be my very first one."

"She's not here," Autumn shook her head. "But you're free to wait. Lyric is also waiting to speak with her. Happy birthday, by the way."

"It's your birthday?" asked Lyric. "Wow, congratulations."

Carly turned her attention to Lyric again and laughed, saying, "Thanks. I saw you went off on Julie, by the way. Classic mistake. Never take on someone you're not ready to handle."

"I wasn't taking anyone on," Lyric groaned, burying her face in her hands for a drawn-out moment. "I was just frustrated about the song I had to do. I didn't ever expect it to blow up like this and be such a big deal."

"But why be upset?" asked Carly, dashing towards her. "It was a really cool song."

As Carly sat down beside her, Lyric explained, "It's like... You're a rapper, right? And in rap, writing your own verses and everything being authentic is super important."

"Actually," Carly stopped her, "that's not true. You're thinking of hip-hop."

Autumn chimed in, "Rap and hip-hop aren't the same thing?"

Carly snorted, "Rap and hip-hop... O-M-G you're so cute."

Autumn looked at Lyric, confused, and the latter said, "Well, the point is that in your genre authenticity is important. And it's not in pop. But I'm more of uh... I guess indie? I don't know. But I don't like the feeling of having a pop machine behind me for the singles."

"That's stupidly stubborn," Carly shook her head. "You want people to listen to all the cool music you created but for that you need exposure. A big pop song with a big machine behind it gets you that exposure. You think I liked doing a verse on a song like Girls?"

Lyric made a face, "Well according to those leaked chats between you, Shana and Santana... None of you liked it."

"Well, yeah," Carly rolled her eyes, "but I did it for a reason. I wanted to expand my audience so I hopped on a song that didn't feel like me. And when I performed it, I made my verse feel like me. And I got a ton of new followers and a big ass paycheck."

"Well, it's too late for any of that," Lyric shrugged. "Everyone now thinks I hate the song, which was never true. And I put out a statement apologizing. Tagged Julie and John and apologized for the mean things I said about them and their feud and... Neither of them responded. No retweet, no like. Nothing. I think I ruined my reputation."

"A reputation," Carly assured her, "could never be ruined by something this trivial and petty. You'd have to, like, rape someone or abuse someone or... I don't know... Be involved in some huge crime for the public to completely turn on you. And even then you'll still have some sickos who think it's fine to support you and your music. So don't even worry about it."

"That's..." Lyric said, one of her eyes closing. "...reassuring?"

"If you really wanna distract the public from this drama," Carly suggested, "then maybe you oughta... I don't know, do a little something to boost your song. Like... remix it."

Lyric squinted her eyes at her. "Are you suggesting..?"

"That I hop on your song with a verse or two to help it pop off," Carly said, standing up. "With everyone distracted by the leaks and Quinn nowhere to be found, I don't see a better time than now, if you're down."

Lyric rose to her feet immediately. "Hell yeah, I am," she said. "Lead the way."

As Carly and Lyric headed down the hall, Autumn waved them away and exclaimed, "Have fun!"

***

"You know, we could've cancelled in light of everything happening right now," said Alex as Peyton passed him a bottle of syrup.

"Nonsense," Peyton shook her head. "Nothing could make me cancel on my promise to give you a proper goodbye brunch, not even my titties being all over the internet."

"And mine," Kara chimed in with Addison shaking her head at her.

Carrie reached for the butter, sighing, "And, unfortunately, mine."

Tabitha rolled her eyes and said, "You're all so dumb. Why would you leave stuff like that on your phones? Hacks like these happen to celebrities all the time."

"We're not celebrities," Peyton said. "I mean I have a small following in the YouTube community. And the journalism community."

"And Alex's fanbase adores me," Kara smiled.

"I have the entire city wrapped around my news-providing fingers," Carrie shrugged.

"None of these are brags," Tabitha said. "If you were smart, you wouldn't have had so much private stuff leaked. I had no embarrassing stuff leaked because I don't allow any access."

"Or because nobody cared enough to dig deep into your phone," Kara told her.

"They really didn't care about you until they saw you naked," Tabitha rolled her eyes.

Kara leaned over her plate and hissed, "Somebody's bitter that they have no sex life."

As they began to bicker over each other, with Luke and Peyton jumping in, Alex rolled his eyes and said, "Everyone, please. That's enough. Can we just enjoy one meal where we pretend all of that didn't happen?"

"You know what I wanna pretend didn't happen?" said Addison.

"You making Alex and me sing together," said Kara, "to prove we were still in love and having it backfire because all it did was prove we no longer have any chemistry at all?"

"Wait," Alex furrowed his brow. "That's what that was about?"

Addison stared at him blankly a few seconds and muttered, "Uhhhh..." Then she turned back to everyone else and said, "No, not that. I wanna forget that when the hacker posted Kara's nudes online, I saw Gus Bukhari like the repost on Twitter."

"O-M-G," Luke gasped. "No way. Kayli's boyfriend?"

"He may not be her boyfriend much longer," said Tabitha, turning her phone around for everyone to see. "This pictured leaked thirty minutes ago."

"The leaks are still going?" Peyton exclaimed.

"Yup," Tabitha nodded. "And look at this. Cleo White's nudes were found in none other than Gus Bukhari's phone."

Everyone around the table took a look and muttered a unified, "Oof."

***

"I didn't send him anything!" Cleo exclaimed. "I swear."

In her and Rory's three-bedroom house, the tension was high. Cleo sat on the couch in the living room while Rory walked around, frantically searching for his jacket and keys while his wife panicked with him.

"I don't even know him very well," said Cleo. "We did one ad campaign a few years ago, back when we were both starting out, but we never actually hung out or anything. I don't even have his number. That hacker is lying about where the picture was found."

"The hacker leaked so many things," said Rory. "And as far as I know they've all turned out to be real so far. Why would the one thing they lied about be your pictures?"

"I don't know!" Cleo exclaimed. "Maybe the hacker is someone who hates me."

"That's a long list," said Rory.

Cleo ignored him and said, "Someone who wants to destroy me, or someone who doesn't want us to be together." Epiphany spread across her face as Rory found his keys by the television. "Or maybe both," she told him. "What if it's Stefan and Bree?"

Rory raised an eyebrow and said, "You think Stefan would be capable of hacking 78 phones just to mess with us? His own racy photos leaked."

"Maybe that was to throw us off," said Cleo, getting up. "And it's not like Bree wouldn't be the mastermind behind this. You know she's capable of plenty and she obviously still hates me. She was watching me like a hawk for most of the gala. What if this was all out of revenge?"

"Revenge for what?" asked Rory. "You and Stefan?"

"No," Cleo shook her head. "For you leaving the diner and starting your own restaurant. Stefan's been holding a grudge ever since."

"I don't think he hacked everyone's phones and committed a huge crime just to get to us," Rory said. "You know what I do think? I think you were off to something shady. To something awful. And you're pointing fingers to try to get out of it. Because none of this is adding up."

As their baby started crying in her nursery, Cleo frowned and looked to Rory hopefully, but he was opening up the front door.

"I have to go to work," he said. "We'll talk later."

Cleo nodded slowly, knowing she couldn't just follow after him and try to solve everything now. He needed time to cool off and she needed to stay with Stella. 

"Coming baby," she called out to her as Rory left, staying behind to wonder who was trying to frame her as a cheater.

***

In the Lopez-Davis household, things were going far worse. From the moment the two women woke up, cranky from little sleep, they had been at each other's throats, all culminating into one big fight in the living room.

"I can't believe you had Brittany's naked body all over your phone," Shana shook her head. "That's disgusting, Santana."

"Okay, first of all," said Santana, "it wasn't all over my phone. There were a couple pictures that were in my cloud from years ago. Back when we were dating, like, a decade ago. I didn't even realize they were still there. And it's nowhere near as bad as what you told John."

"I was texting a friend about something that was bothering me," said Shana. "That's not a big deal. You also have text messages that prove it was your idea to sign Crimson, something which you then lied to me about for months. And that was recent so you can't play the a decade ago card! That all collectively trumps my brief conversation with John."

Santana looked at her eyes wide, incredulously exclaiming, "You told him you didn't know if you still wanted to be in this marriage anymore!"

The two went on to yell over each other, throwing around Brittany and John's names, with Santana switching in and out of Spanish more the angrier she got.

It wasn't until Valentina interrupted, asking for breakfast, that they realized how angry they had been.

As the two women composed themselves, Shana cleared her throat and, in a lower voice, said, "Yes, of course baby. Let's get you some cereal. Okay?"

Valentina nodded and let her mom lead her into the kitchen, while the other mom turned her attention to the TV. The hack was sure to be covered by every celebrity news outlet already.

***

"I'm afraid to leave this room," said Tracy, peering out her hotel window's blinds and onto the street, searching for any signs of paparazzi. "I can't live this way. This is the most humiliating moment of my entire career and I demand some sort of justice. Find out how we can take action. This is not going to stay this way!"

She hung up her phone and tossed it onto the bed, next to her packed suitcase. Beside her, Francesca was adjusting her makeup on the mirror, equally as frustrated. Her anger made her hands shake, so she was having trouble getting her eyeliner on properly.

"I can't believe this is happening," Tracy groaned, taking a seat on the recliner at the corner of the room. "Not only did my entire album leak ahead of schedule, but also those very private pictures. Nudes and... me engaging in sexual activity with my boyfriend."

"Tell me about it," Francesca sighed. "I had that entire nude photoshoot leaked. That wasn't going to come out until May and they weren't even professionally edited. Embarrassing."

Tracy turned to her and scoffed, "You think that's anywhere near as bad as what happened to me? Francesca, there are pictures of me giving Austin a blow job in a boat all over the internet now."

"Well," Francesca turned to her, "at least nobody knows that it's him."

"But they know that it's me!" Tracy exclaimed. "You can clearly see my face! And poor Austin... Even if people don't know that's his penis, it's still his penis out there. He didn't even have to be at the gala to be a victim of this hack. Our relationship is so new. I'm so afraid that this'll scare him away."

With crooked eyeliner, Francesca made her way towards her friend and said, "You're right. This whole thing is just... so awful. All our texts, emails, contacts... It's all out there for the world to see. We'll have to get everything replaced and put out so many statements."

"Whenever we find out who's behind this," said Tracy angrily, "I'm suing the crap out of them. And pressing criminal charges."

"I'm right there with you," Francesca agreed. 

"Do you think it was someone who was a guest at the gala?" Tracy asked.

"It had to be," Francesca nodded. "And we're gonna find out who and destroy them for messing with us like this. When we're done, their lives will be over."

***

Julie lied flopped down on the couch, face down and waiting for Shawn's return. Skye had gone up to her guest room to pack her bags before her flight back to Los Angeles. Feeling all alone, Julie tried to distract herself by reciting some of her favorite songs in her head as the time passed by, but she couldn't have been more pleased when she heard the front door open again and jumped to her feet.

It was Alex, however, and not Shawn, who walked in, holding Rosie in her portable carrier, fast asleep.

As he set Rosie down on the floor, he walked closer to Julie, who met him halfway in the hallway and said, "What are you doing here?"

She glanced nervously towards the staircase, hoping Skye didn't show up and find them talking. "You didn't tell me the tape was out there," said Alex. "Or that you tried to pay it off last night."

"I didn't exactly have time to let you know," said Julie. "I found out like an hour before the rest of the world did and I told Sebastian to take care of it. I didn't expect the hacks, so chill."

To her surprise, he did seem far more relaxed. "Yeah," he let out a heavy breath. "You're right. You're absolutely right. I'm just on edge. I was going to come sooner but I didn't know if Shawn was going to be here and when you texted that he'd left I just... I was with everyone over at Peyton for her 'Goodbye and Good Luck on Your Tour' brunch thing."

"Right," said Julie. "Well, we're not exactly alone. You know my friend Skye? She's here, too. She's leaving in a few hours but still."

Alex nodded, "That's fine. I just wanted to come drop off Rosie and to see you one last time before I left. Last night was... not what I thought it was going to be."

Julie's expression softened and she stepped towards him again, saying, "Well, the big 'Julie didn't cheat on me' speech was a great touch, all things considered."

"You don't think it was too much?" he asked.

She put her hands in her pockets and said, "No, I thought it was pretty great. It's too bad the good mood it was starting to put me in was ruined by the whole 'we got hacked' thing."

"Yeah, what's the status report on that?"

Sighing, she took a step back and explained, "Well, Shawn is pissed about the whole 'I made a sex tape and then had Sebastian pay someone off last night so that it wouldn't get out' thing."

"Rightfully," Alex nodded. "But where does that leave you?"

"He won't talk to me," she shrugged. "He doesn't know it's you on the tape and while that's a bright side, it's pretty much the only bright side. I don't know how I'm gonna explain keeping something like this from him."

"Just lie," Alex shrugged. "Not even about when it was made and who was in it... Just deny that exists altogether."

"Really?" she responded. "You think that'll work?"

He shrugged again. "Who knows," he said. "But it doesn't matter too much, right? Just tell him that... You were trying to bait the blackmailer to see if you could get some information out of them and that you never actually paid them. The Sebastian email was a hoax. As is the sex tape."

Julie let out a deep breath and nodded slowly. "Okay," she said. "Since I have the support of the only other party involved and the blackmailer seemed to be satisfied with the payment... That could hold things off. Give me time to make it to the altar and then... We'll go from there."

"Exactly," Alex nodded. 

The front door opened again and one of Julie's maids rushed to it, hoping to figure out who it was and warn Julie this time. But she was too late and Shawn walked in, unhappy to see Alex there.

"Um, hey," Alex said as Julie stammered for words. "Hey, I was just... dropping off my daughter. And um, yeah. Heading out now." He turned to Julie and said, "Bonnie will pick her up next week so... Yeah. Bye."

"Bye," Julie responded as callously as she could, watching Alex leave and then picking Rosie up from her spot.

 As Rosie clung onto her mother, Julie rocked her for a few moments and then handed her off to one of the maids.

"Go make her a snack please," she said, quickly turning her attention back to Shawn. "I'm glad you're back. Um, we have a lot to talk about."

"Yeah," Shawn nodded. "We really do."

"The sex tape is not real," Julie said immediately. "Yesterday when we were at the gala, Sebastian told me he got an email of someone claiming they had my sex tape and were going to leak it. But I've never filmed myself having sex. With anyone."

Shawn watched her, suspicion written all over his face, so she kept going.

"But I considered the fact that someone else could've filmed me without my knowledge," she said. "And that terrifies me. I don't think I've ever slept with anyone capable of that but I didn't wanna take my chances. We had to bait this person into giving us more information. So I told Sebastian to say we were accepting their terms. And then the hack and the leaks happened and I never actually made the payment. I can show you all my bank statements and prove it, if you'd like."

He shook his head and walked to the sofa, sitting down. She faced him as she lowered herself down onto the couch, very slowly, waiting for his response.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

"I was scared," she shrugged. "I didn't wanna scare you, too. I thought I could handle all of this quietly and no one would ever have to know I was being extorted but then the leaks made sure everyone knew and you left so abruptly and... You don't believe me."

She took a look at his face and he stared down at the ground, still not looking her directly in the eye. "I don't know what to believe at this point, Julie," he sighed. "Why were there pictures in your phone of you naked with a baby bump?"

Julie frowned and looked down at her hands, embarrassed. "Those were old," she said. "Really. From back when... When I was pregnant with Rosie and Alex was on tour." She turned to him and said, "I swear I didn't even know those were still on my phone"

"And the flirty texts with that Christopher guy?" said Shawn. "And flirty texts with Damian? And with Santiago?"

"They weren't flirty," Julie rolled her eyes. "Those were just me being friendly and joking around. I can't have you this insecure about me having guy friends. That's just not gonna work. But look, if you don't believe me about the sex tape... You can ask Sebastian. He'll corroborate my story."

***

"I need you to corroborate my story," Julie pleaded to Sebastian, hiding out in her bathroom while Shawn hung out downstairs with Skye.

"You need me?" Sebastian laughed. "You fired me the moment those leaks came out."

"I know," Julie sighed. "And I'm sorry about that. I should've listened instead of jumping to conclusions. You can have your job back, of course. Just... Tell Shawn the sex tape thing was a hoax, okay? Tell him it was all to lure the blackmailer out."

"I don't know..." Sebastian said. "Let me think about it."

Before she could respond, the call clicked off and she stared at her phone. She had less than a week to convince Shawn he should still marry her, with or without Sebastian's help, or she was royally screwed.

***

***

The following transcript is from a live episode of Starstruck. It was filmed and aired on February 21, 2028.

Tenesha: A lot happened over the weekend.

Rob: Indeed it did. Whew. Crazy weekend.

Tenesha: Let's run it down. So over the weekend, several celebrities gathered in Ohio for a small, charity gala called...?

Rob: Oh. The Sexy Gala.

Tenesha: ...

Rob: It was, like, I think... Charity is sexy. Something like that.

Tenesha: Uh huh. Well, at this gala, there were quite a few big names. Damie B, Juliet Vasquez, all of Crystal Army and Rhythmix, Tracy Moore, Carly Dom, Santiago Vela, Mercedes Jones... You name it. And at the end of the night... everyone's phones get hacked. And all the info on them leaks over the next day.

Rob: Yup. Some devastating things, too. Trivial texts and what not but then also really personal details and private conversations. Private photos and emails... Things that should have never been out in public. It's been causing major storms across social media, naturally, but it also put a lot of people in big legal problems.

Tenesha: Yes, and this all happened amid a huge Twitter fight that was going on between Juliet Vasquez and Francesca Durand. Which just seemed to add fuel to that flame.

Rob: It was more like an entire forest fire, this one. And it affected everyone there. Dozens of celebrities and their friends and families. 

Tenesha: Let's run down through some of the biggest points.

***

Santana turned off the TV and lied down on her back, staring at the ceiling. "Great," she muttered. "Now that it's on Starstruck it's gonna be impossible to avoid it. Every paparazzi is going to ask about our marriage."

"And why wouldn't they?" Shana asked from the kitchen, where she was distracting herself by re-arranging their spice rack. "Their job is to invade our privacy and someone else already made that a lot easier for them."

"I hate this," Santana sighed. "I hate our ceiling."

"What?" Shana asked, walking towards her.

Santana sat up and repeated, "I hate our ceiling. Is there an easy way to have a ceiling replacement? I never noticed how ugly it is."

"Our ceiling isn't ugly," Shana answered, taking a seat beside her. "I think you're deflecting here. We do need to talk about our marriage, but not with the paparazzi. Clearly, there are still issues we didn't quite fix in counseling."

"So what then?" asked Santana. "Do you wanna go back into counseling or..?"

"I just want us to talk about it without needing any prompting," Shana shrugged. "But... Unfortunately, it will have to wait."

Santana rolled her eyes and turned away. "Right," she said. "You have to go out and promote your song."

"It's only a few weeks," Shana sighed. "And I'd say I could cancel on a few things but the truth is that after those texts leaked of Santiago telling his manager Rhythmix was cheesy and he'd rather work with just Kayli or me alone and not hop on this song with us... It's really necessary that we do some clean up PR. You understand, right?"

Santana didn't seem very pleased but she glanced back up at her wife and said, "Yeah, I get it. You gotta go do what you have to do. I'll be waiting to talk when you get back. And maybe the time apart will give us time to really think about what we want."

"I agree," Shana nodded, getting back up. "I'm gonna finish packing."

Nodding, Santana watched her wife walk away, wishing she knew how to express what she was feeling, but it was as though her entire vocabulary disappeared the moment she was making an attempt at it.

***

"Hey guys," Luke began, "as you may have seen from the headlines all weekend... We've been exposed. That's right, I'm talking about all those leaks from hacked phones this weekend, which included my phone and my girlfriend's phone as well. Someone hacked into our phones while we were at a charity event with a lot of our friends and all the info on them got leaked. Some things are still leaking. The biggest things that came out from that on my end were, of course, my girlfriend's super sexy pics. And... the sex of our baby was also leaked."

As her phone rang, Julie pressed pause on Luke's new YouTube upload and answered, noting quickly that it was Alex on the screen.

"Hey," she said. "How's San Francisco?"

"It's great, I guess," Alex replied. "The show's not until tomorrow but I do have a radio thing in a few hours. I wanted to check in first, though. How'd the talk with Shawn go?"

"He didn't really seem to buy my lies," Julie sighed. "So I think everything is screwed now."

After a long pause, Alex asked, "Is that really so bad? I mean, one way or another you're getting what you want here, right?"

"Not the way I wanted it," Julie shook her head. "I want to make it to the altar, Alex. If I don't then... Everything I've done the last two months will have been for nothing."

"Can't you just accept that and stop?" he asked. "That's still an option, Julie. We could just... stop."

"No," she disagreed. "I've come too far to give up now. I just need to make sure the wedding still happens. And after that.. After that it'll all be over." The front door opened and Julie heard several footsteps. "I, uh," she said, "gotta go. Talk to you soon, okay?"

"Okay," Alex responded just as Julie was hanging up.

She rose to her feet and watched Shawn enter the living room, only he wasn't alone. Sebastian was with him. Wide-eyed, Julie waited for an explanation.

"I'll let you two talk," said Sebastian, giving Julie a knowing look before disappearing towards the den.

"So..." Julie said while Shawn came closer to her.

"Sebastian talked to me," he said.

"So I see."

"He explained everything," Shawn continued. "About your plan to bait the blackmailer and figure out if it was true or not. The sex tape stuff."

"Uh huh..." Julie said, trying to maintain a poker face.

"And..." Shawn said, taking a long beat before finally pulling her into a strong embrace. "I'm so relieved. And so sorry that I didn't just believe you right off the bat on everything. But he proved to me that you were telling the truth and I couldn't be happier that it's all out of the way now."

"He proved to you..?" said Julie, confused.

"Yeah," he nodded, pulling away from their hug. "And now we can just put all of this behind us and get back to ensuring our wedding is perfect."

"Yeah," Julie said, forcing a smile. She fell back into his arms, letting him hug her longer as she wondered what Sebastian had told him to accomplish such a turnaround. What proof had he mustered up?

***

"Thank you for coming," said Stefan as he joined his guests at Amelia's Diner, putting the CLOSED sign on the door and rubbing his hands together.

"What's all this about?" asked Jake. "I have important work to do."

 "Being a police officer can wait," Bree told him, gripping onto her coffee cup. "This is more important."

"I'm a detective, actually," said Jake, "and I doubt there's anything here that's more important than that so..."

He begin to stand up by Kitty walked through the door and said, "Have a seat Puckerman. We're ready to start." She handed a sheet of paper to Bree and said, "Here's the list."

Bree glanced over the list Kitty gave her and then looked around the room at their friends: Jake, Dan, Lyric, Joyce, Albany, Cory, Denise, Charlie, Riley, Kara, Finn, Brittany, Marley, Mandy, Carrie, Christopher, Luke, Peyton, Amity, Tyler, Dani, Quinn, Ryder, Unique, and Blaine. 

She skimmed through the list again as the room sat in absolute silence.

"Can you just tell us what this is about already?" asked Mandy.

Bree glanced back up and sighed, "We're trying to figure out who was behind the leak. In this room, is everyone we've already ruled out."

"On account of how many of you had things leaked that were too humiliating for it to have been you," Stefan added.

"Everyone had embarrassing things come out," said Amity.

"Maybe so," Bree agreed. "But someone had things that they put out on purpose. So we have to see who would've purposefully released what they released. In my hands I have a list of everyone at the gala, and the most damning information that was leaked about them."

Kitty pulled out a stack of copies from her purse and split it with Stefan. As they passed them around, Amity took a look at her copy and cringed, looking away.

"For the record," Jake said, "the only reason that Leila isn't here is that she and the rest of Rhythmix flew out of town last night so..."

"Right," Bree agreed. "We've already crossed out her and Shana.''

"What about Kayli and Zoe?" asked Charlie.

"Still suspects," Kitty informed him. "But we also ruled out a few people who weren't able to make it here. Sarah, Kurt, Jackie, Rory, Bianca, Harmony, Shannon, Santiago, Gus, Mercedes, Chad, Santana, Dean, Eli, Sam, Addison, Sid, Xavier, and... Nick. The remaining twenty-nine, which you will see on the backside of your list, are our suspects."

"What about Lord Tubbington?" asked Brittany.

Bree turned to him and exhaled loudly. "Yeah, sorry, Britt," she said. "Of course Lord Tubbington isn't a suspect."

"Oh, I was just saying he wasn't on the suspect list," said Brittany, looking down at her list. "And I think he's definitely capable of something like this."

Kitty rolled her eyes and said, "Think about the things that were leaked and who had the biggest motivation to leak them."

"I think we should cross out John," said Mandy. "He had a lot of really personal text messages leaked. Talking about his relationships, and his plans, and his sobriety and struggles and... Things I know he wouldn't have gotten out. I mean, I know none of you trust him but... I do. He wouldn't do something like this."

"I feel the same way about Damian," Amity chimed in, making Mandy roll her eyes. "I don't think he would want all those text messages out there."

"You mean the ones where he let's his producer use the f-word and doesn't call it out?" Blaine grunted.

"What's wrong with the f-word?" asked Stefan.

"The other f-word, babe," Bree told him. "But it wasn't him using the word and he could've been prepared for the backlash of it."

"No, I think they make good points," Kitty said, staring at the list. "He would've deleted that if he was going to leak everything. And those conversations sexting with Amity were..."

"Okay!" Amity exclaimed before Kitty could go on. "So we agree Damian doesn't belong in the suspect list?"

"Right," Kitty said, grabbing a pen and crossing him out. "But I'm not so sure that we can rule out John just yet. He's an evil genius with very little to hide. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't care exposing himself like that if it meant exposing his enemies."

Mandy scowled but didn't protest, allowing John to stay on the suspect list.

"On the note about Damian," said Amity, "maybe suspecting Kayli is wrong for the same reasons. She had messages with Gus in which he used several slurs and... She's gotten some heavy backlash for being involved so... Maybe she wouldn't have put this all out there."

Bree and Kitty exchanged looks. Bree shrugged so Kitty said, "Okay. Accepted. Kayli is no longer a suspect."

"Uh," Unique raised a hand, "why is Leo a suspect? He's literally the nicest person in the world."

"Maybe so," Bree nodded. "But we can't help find it suspicious that nothing damning came out on his end. No skeletons, no controversies. Yet, his political enemy had a lot of skeletons dug out."

She pointed Kitty's way and the latter said, "Unique, I don't think he did it either. But we can't take any chances. He could've been out to get me for all we know."

Unique frowned and looked down at the list, wondering if her new friend was capable of such a thing.

"I don't think Cleo did anything," Lyric added in. "She's having a lot of issues in her personal life right now because of the leaks and... Without revealing too much, I have to say that she's devastated by all of this."

Bree rolled her eyes and said, "Fine, whatever. We can rule her out for now. Anyone else?"

"And Puck," Jake said. "Puck was so drunk that night. There's no way he was also plotting a major hack. He's staying with me right now and I haven't seen anything suspicious. He's not capable of this."

"He is an idiot," Kitty agreed, turning to Bree.

"Not what I meant," Jake muttered.

"I guess the too drunk to be scheming defense is legitimate enough," Bree shrugged. "I buy it. Any other objections to the suspects?"

"Yeah, uh," Tyler raised a hand. "Travis and Cassidy... Why are they on here?"

"Because the only major thing leaked from their end was their weird baby deal," said Kitty. 

"Exactly..." said Tyler. "He didn't want people to find out about that for a while."

He glanced over at Luke and saw him staring down at the list, with nothing to add. 

"I just don't think he purposefully let that out," Tyler added.

"You never know," Kitty shrugged. "Maybe that was the plan. He let it leak so he wouldn't have to make the announcement himself. It's a pretty juicy situation. And Cassidy may have wanted it to leak for the fame and attention of it."

"I agree," Bree nodded, done counting down the list. "Let's leave them on for now. So that leaves us with twenty-five suspects."

"Tracy, Carly, Travis, Minnie, Isaac," Kara read out, "Shawn, Shea, John, Sebastian, Julie, Jean Baptiste, Tabitha, Everett, Leo, Francesca, Alex, Rylan, Zoe, TJ, Andrew, Skye, Cassidy, Caleb, Mike, Bonnie."

"Wait, Mike?" said Finn. "That doesn't sound right."

"He's on here because he could've been scheming with Zoe," Kitty shrugged. "We all know they have a thing for each other and Mike did have reason to hate Sid enough to help Zoe out what he did to Dean."

Finn stared at the list, unsure, but didn't say anything else.

"Alright, now that we know who to look out for," said Bree, "it's time to investigate. Keep an ear out for everyone we mentioned, figure out if they had the motivation. Whoever it was... They'll slip up eventually. We just have to be around, paying attention when they do."

***

The following day, Amity was surprised to find Santana knocking at her door. When she opened up, Santana walked in immediately and said, "So I heard about the little meeting last night. I'm glad you're all trying to figure this thing out."

"Uh, hi..." Amity said, stepping aside to let her through and then shutting the door.

"Shana told me it was your birthday so I thought I'd come spend it with you," Santana added. "She's out of town and I figured with your tryst with Damian being public now, the loss of secrecy killed whatever excitement was keeping that relationship alive. Shannon's shady business was exposed so there's no going back there. And I frankly couldn't think of any other friends you might have in town other than them and Shana so... Here I am."

Amity nodded, slowly.

"And frankly," Santana continued, "I feel a little bad about those text chains that leaked where I said Girls was a bad song."

"There it is," Amity forced a smile.

"I feel really bad, actually," Santana sighed. "I didn't mean to be so harsh about your song. I did kind of enjoy the end result. I just wasn't feeling it at the time and I was upset and should've said something to you or not at all. Gossiping with Shana and Carly, talking behind your back... I was wrong for that."

"It's okay," Amity said.

"It is?" Santana raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Amity assured her, taking a seat. "I was upset, at first. But then when my conversations with Alex leaked and everyone saw me talking mess about Julie and saying how she was using him and implying she was just a maneater who used and disposed of men for the sense of power it gave her... Well, the slutshaming accusations have been rolling in and my team is pressuring me to issue an apology so... I'd be wrong to judge what you did when I did the same. It's okay that you didn't like Girls. I'm happy you took part regardless."

Santana let out a breath of relief and said, "Good. Well, now that that's out of the way... I did wanna spend your birthday with you. I didn't bring any gifts or food but I can take you out on a shopping spree and we can have lunch together. Does that sound good?"

"Actually..." Amity began, but she didn't get to explain her plans because a knock interrupted them.

"Oh I'll get it," said Santana, heading for the door. Amity tried to stop her but she was too late and Santana looked rather surprised to find Dani at the doorway.

"Hey birthday girl!" Dani chimed while digging into a gift bag. "I brought you a really yummy..." She glanced up and found herself facing Santana, her voice trailing off. "...treat."

Santana turned from the entrance towards Amity and said, "You already had someone coming..?"

"Yeah," Amity said, nervously getting up. "So, um, Dani and I... We're just... Um."

"We were gonna hang out for her birthday," said Dani. "We're working on music together and I'm producing part of her album and uh... She's just wanting to work through even the big celebratory days."

"What?" Santana said. "No way. You're not doing that, Amity. We'll just both take you out and the three of us can hang out and get our nails done at that cheap place at The Lima Mall and eat whatever it is Dani brought."

"Umm, we'll save this for later," Dani clutched onto her gift bag. "I'll put it in the fridge."

"Okay," Santana shrugged. "But hurry! We should head out right away because the lame nails place closes by two."

Santana headed out the front door and Amity said, "Well, it's a good thing Dakota's at daycare."

"Good thing?" Dani hissed. "These are not edible treats. I mean, they are but not cupcakes Santana's expecting. What do we do? She can't find out about us."

"I know," Amity groaned. "We'll just have to make it through today and not let her get suspicious."

The door opened again and Santana poked her head in. "Hello?" she said. "Didn't you girls hear me? Let's go!"

"Right," Amity forced a smile, silently urging Dani to hide her gift bag. "We're coming!"

***

"This is wrong," said Unique, walking into Marley's kitchen as the latter was taking a sip of the sauce she'd just finished stirring.

"It tastes fine to me," she responded.

Unique shook her head, showing Marley her copy of the list. "Some of these suspects," she elaborated. "We can't seriously be suspicious of Alex or of... Bonnie. Why is Bonnie on this? I think she seems sweet."

"Alex's nanny?" Marley glanced over Unique's list. "I think Kitty said we didn't know enough about her."

"Well I don't think they did this," Unique insisted. "And I definitely don't think Leo did it."

Marley made a face and said, "So that's what this is about."

"Partially," Unique admitted. "Marley, I'm supposed to hang out with him tomorrow and I'm feeling weird about Bree asking us to basically spy on the suspects from now on. I feel like I should warn him that Kitty's coming after him like this."

"I don't see it as Kitty coming after him," Marley shook her head. "I think she's rightfully concerned about who would stand to gain from her private information getting out. But you don't have to spy on him. I'm not spying on anyone. I think suspecting each other like this is really messed up and the person who did it probably wasn't a guest at the gala at all."

Unique squinted her eyes and muttered, "Tina... No, Sugar!"

"No," Marley laughed.

"Jeremy?" Unique suggested. "He's been suspiciously absent lately."

"I meant," Marley gave her a look, "that it isn't someone we know. Remember when Alex was being framed? It was a super skilled fan who easily blended into the background as a total stranger. For us, it's gonna be one of the servers or someone who was in their car down the street the entire time and is really good at hacking or... I don't know. I just don't think anyone we know is capable of being so awful."

***

"I feel um, tired," Julie said, sitting in her living room with Adrian. "And just constantly with this like weird feeling in my stomach."

Adrian raised his brow and said, "And this is why you wanted an emergency home visit? You're feeling wedding jitters?"

"They aren't wedding jitters," Julie rolled her eyes. "Look, Adrian, I called you here personally because I know you're discreet. And I needed someone discreet. I think there may actually be something wrong with me. My mother died of ovarian cancer, maybe I have that."

Adrian pressed his lips into a sympathetic smile and said, "Your big day is coming up. You're overwhelmed, stressed, anxious... That feeling you've got in your stomach is probably just nerves."

"But—"

"How about this?" Adrian said. "Come by the hospital tomorrow and I'll make sure you get a blood test done. We'll check all the usual markers and see if there's anything you need to be concerned about. For now, just focus on your wedding. We don't need another runaway bride in this town this soon."

Julie stared wide-eyed at Adrian and then said, "Oh... I'm so sorry. You and Marley, um... Sorry that didn't work out."

"Don't worry about me," Adrian shrugged, gathering up the med kit he'd brought to check on Julie. "I'm fine. Honestly, a part of me saw it coming. She was never over John and they were bound to go back to each other at some point. I was just getting in the way."

Julie remained silent for a moment and then said, "Uh, let me walk you out then. I'll come by tomorrow to see if I'm actually dying or not."

"Let's hope not," Adrian chuckled, following her lead to the entrance.

***

"You called Adrian for a home visit?" Alex asked as he prepped for his final soundcheck backstage. "That's highly irregular."

"Well," Julie sighed, "I'm really feeling sick. And before you say it, it's not nerves. I know nerves."

"Maybe it's guilt," he suggested, shifting through his travel bag for his charger. "You're doing some, uh, pretty immoral things."

"Hey!" she exclaimed. "No judgement. You've killed two people. One with your own hands."

"Probably shouldn't bring that up over the phone," Alex sighed.

"Right," she said. "Sorry. I'm on edge. I'm scared I have cancer."

Alex laughed, "You don't have cancer. You're just freaking out over the wedding. It'll all go smoothly."

"You really think?" she asked.

"I don't know," he admitted. "But I hope. Anyway, I'd love to stay and chat longer but I have to get to work. I guess this is goodbye then... For now."

"Right... Julie muttered to herself. "Um, yeah, I gotta go, too. Bye."

She hung up quickly and he set his phone down, his own stomach feeling the 'jitters' for her. He didn't know how much of what she'd been telling him lately he should believe, but at least for now all he had to do was put on his shows and wait for the answers.

***

"So I signed on to do that Viva Cozumel festival in Mexico," Amity was saying, showing her phone to Dani as they sat together in her living room. "And I'm thinking of wearing this dress. I'll be unveiling my new song."

"Right," Dani said. "I heard you got TJ on board. That's awesome. Have you told Damian?"

"No," Amity shook her head. "He backed out and it's no longer his concern so I figured I didn't need to tell him anything personally. His loss. Not my responsibility."

Dani smiled, "That's my girl."

At those words, Dakota started calling out for her mom upstairs and Amity sighed, "That's my girl. BRB."

Dani nodded, waiting patiently as Amity headed up the stairs. Moments later, Santana emerged through the front door and said, "I just had the most irritating conversation with Quinn. She's freaking out with these leaks still. Ugh, dinner did not fill me up. I need alcohol to really round out the meal."

She headed for the kitchen and Dani tapped her fingers on her knees, waiting impatiently for Amity to return.

But it only took a few seconds for Santana to go into the kitchen and return, holding Dani's gift bag in her hands. "Uh..." she said, staring inside it. "This isn't a cupcake..."

"Umm..." Dani stared at her at a loss for words, while Amity came down the stairs with Dakota in her arms. "She wants some milk, predictably," Amity said jokingly. She noticed Santana and said, "Oh."

"What's this about?" asked Santana with an awkward laugh. "I didn't know Amity was into these type of gifts."

She glanced down at the gift then up at the two women again, noting how uncomfortably they were staring at each other. Realization crossed her face in an instant.

"Wait a minute," Santana muttered, pointing from Dani to Amity. "Are you..?"

"I didn't know how to tell you," Amity said instantly. 

Santana's jaw dropped for a moment and then she exclaimed, "I don't believe this! I... I just can't." She set down the gift bag, grabbed her purse and phone, and quickly hurried out the door.

Amity began to go after her but Dani said, "Don't bother."

"What?" Amity turned to her. "I have to explain. She's my friend."

"And if that's the case she'll come around," Dani shrugged. "It's not like we've been dating for months. We're friends, we've been sleeping together and I used to date her years ago. It's not as big a deal as she's making and she'll come to realize it soon."

"And what if she doesn't?" Amity asked.

Dani shrugged again, this time turning away and putting her attention on her phone.

***

The next day, Amity spent all morning calling Santana, trying to explain how things had happened and why this didn't mean an end to their friendship.

But every time that Santana ignored one of her calls, she remembered that Santana had explicitly told her, backstage at the Grammys, that a friend sleeping with an ex was an unforgivable crime, regardless of how much time had passed.

Knowing how stubborn Santana was, and how often it took a more reasonable person to talk sense into her, she gave up after a dozen calls and targeted the best person for the mediation job.

"Shana, hey!" she exclaimed. "I'm so glad you answered!"

"Hey, I'm just in New York right now," said Shana, "about to do this interview so you called right on time. What's up? How was the birthday?"

"Actually, that's why I'm calling," Amity sighed, lying on her sofa with her feet hanging from one end and her head barely resting on the arm rest of the other end. "Things kind of took a sour turn by the end of the night. I may have been keeping something from Santana and she found out and... I'm sure you can guess she was very upset and now won't take my calls."

"That bad, huh?" Shana sighed. "What happened?"

"Well," Amity took a deep breath. "It's kind of something I kept from you, too. I just didn't tell anyone because it was never meant to be a big deal like this but... So I've been sort of sleeping with Dani for about three weeks now."

"Oh," said Shana.

"I know we don't keep secrets from each other," said Amity, "and I probably should've told Santana the moment this relationship began so she wouldn't be caught off guard the way she was last night but—"

"Amity, stop," Shana interjected. "You have no  reason to feel bad about this. What you or Dani do isn't Santana's concern. I actually can't believe her. She always gets this way when Dani's with someone and..."

Amity could hear Shana's voice start to shake, either from sadness or from anger. Or maybe both.

After a long pause, Shana continued, "It's just the way she behaved when Albany and Dani were hanging out a few years back and then last year Dani was seeing this girl that I used to hang out with and Santana freaked out and now this and... I just can't believe her. I really can't."

Shana continued on, rambling about Santana's jealousy, and Amity listened on, but she had wanted to stop the moment she realized that letting Shana in on what had happened was a huge mistake.

***

"I got your messages," Julie said as she walked into her office at the label, where Sebastian was waiting and sitting on her side of the desk. "I see you've made yourself comfortable."

"Well, now that I have my job back," said Sebastian with a shrug, hardly glancing up from the documents in front of him. "And you owe me big time, by the way. I got Shawn to wipe away all the doubts he had about you. And there were a lot. Trust me. More than just the sex tape stuff. The guy... did not wanna marry you."

Julie rolled her eyes and said, "I am grateful to you for all that. Thanks. How'd you do it? What did you tell them?"

"It was just a little man-to-man," Sebastian said, glancing up. "But we don't have time to talk about that. We needed you down here in person to approve a few things for the upcoming releases. Quinn and Santana already signed. We just need you."

Julie groaned and said, "You can't sign for me?"

"Unfortunately, no," he sighed. "And you're literally standing right in front of me. You may as well do it yourself."

"Fine," she said, taking a seat and leaning in close. "Just tell me where to sing. I have to get to the hospital."

Sebastian looked up again, a hint of concern on his face. "Why?" he asked. "Are you sick?"

"Ugh, I hope," she said. Sebastian gave her a funny look and then pointed down for the first spot she had to sign. 

As she mindlessly put her signatures down on the appropriate spaces, he said, "By the way, I heard that Tracy is going to release her album on Friday. Her sales are looking to take a big hit thanks to the album leaking so they're going to drop it ahead of schedule to minimize the overall losses."

"I actually kind of feel bad for her," Julie admitted. "I'd hate for something like that to happen. I'd rather have my nudes leak than that many of my songs. And she had both things happen to her. On that note... Do you happen to know whose dick that was she was sucking in those pictures?"

Sebastian looked up and laughed, "Why would I know that?"

"Because you know everyone's secrets in the industry," she shrugged.

"Well, no," Sebastian said, flipping a page over and pointing down to a spot. "Sign. I don't know whose dick she was sucking, sorry. And I think that was the last of it..." He pulled the stack of papers over to himself and quickly glanced over it. "Yup," he nodded. "That's all there was."

"Next time just drop by my house again," she said, getting up.

He rolled his eyes and asked, "You're not a little happy about getting to slip out of all the wedding planning madness to come over here?"

"Okay, maybe sort of," she admitted. "Whatever, you suck, and thank you again."

"No problem," said Sebastian. "Oh and one last thing. Santana agreed to do the appearance at the Crimson album launch on Friday, since you have the rehearsal dinner and Quinn will be at that."

Julie smiled and said, "I guess it's lucky that I didn't invite her to the wedding then, right?"

Sebastian laughed, shaking his head at her. "And I'm sure she's pissed about that," he noted.

"Good," said Julie. "She should be. She's been nothing but aggressive and unsupportive to me for the last year and I'm glad she'll be missing out on the show."

"The show?" Sebastian repeated.

"The wedding," Julie shrugged, backing out of the room. "Spectacle. Show. Wedding. Same difference. I have to go."

"Right," Sebastian nodded slowly, watching her leave and then turning back to work.

***

"Travis!" Tyler exclaimed, practically cornering his friend outside the Blackbird studio. "Hey! Man, what's up? You haven't been responding to my texts. None of us heard from you since the gala."

"Yeah," said Travis, uncomfortably rubbing the back of his neck. "I've been keeping busy. New single coming out on Friday and finishing the album pretty soon so, uh..."

"Right, sure, yeah," Tyler nodded, understanding completely. "I was pretty worried, man. Those leaks kind of hit everyone and I saw that the baby thing got leaked and now that's making headlines everywhere... How are you doing with that?"

"It was a disappointment," Travis shrugged. "Naturally. At least that it happened the way that it did. But when I look at the bright side... I see that I don't have to go through the trouble of finding a way to announce it. Cassidy has been laying low so reporters don't corner her around town. And fans don't go all crazy on her. And as for me... I'm okay. Just burying myself into finishing this album. Keeping busy."

"Yeah, sure, sure," said Tyler. He couldn't help noticing that at Amelia's, his friends had noted that same thing as being a possible motive for Travis to commit the big gala hack. He shook off those suspicions and said, "Well, I'm glad there's a bright side at all."

"How are you doing?" said Travis. "I know a lot of private conversations leaked."

"Nothing too crazy," Tyler shrugged. "I'm pretty careful to delete anything that shouldn't be on my phone. And to not have bad stuff on my phone in the first place, considering nothing is ever deleted forever. There were a few embarrassing things and pictures but nothing damning. At least not to me. Fans are going crazy about feuds thanks to a few text arguments but... It's not that deep to me. There was one thing I didn't want getting out though. But... I realized that it didn't really look bad unless people knew any of the details."

"And what's that?" asked Travis curiously.

"There were a few bank statements in my email," Tyler explained, "and they detailed some... payments to a private party in Chicago."

"Oh no, Ty," Travis frowned. "Prostitute?"

"What?!" Tyler exclaimed. "Why would your mind go there?"

"I paid some prostitutes years ago," Travis shrugged. "And I didn't even sleep with them. It was one of the weirdest PR stunts in years."

"Well that's not what I was hiding," Tyler sighed. "I used to date someone that lived in Chicago. And for about a year and a half I was sending them money. I didn't make the payment in their name or anything but it was a lot of money."

"That doesn't sound so bad, though," Travis said. "I don't get it."

"I can't explain it too well," Tyler sighed, shaking his head. "But that relationship was my most private. Ever. Not even the other guys in the band really knew anything about it. I actually felt so bad because I constantly lied to them about it... Anyway, I would've hated for the world to find out."

"And then go hounding your past lover over stupid leaks," Travis nodded. "Yeah, man, I get it. But, uh, I have to get going. New single stuff. Anyway, I... Cool catching up. Here's to no more leaks coming out. About either of us."

He hurried away before Tyler could get another sentence in. He seemed so much more relaxed now than he had before the leaks. Could it be that he was involved with the hacking somehow? Did he belong on that suspect list after all?

***

"So basically Bree and Kitty want us all to snoop around a little with the suspects," Dan explained to Harmony as they set the dinner table together. "And I don't really think we should."

"I'm surprised they didn't make me a suspect," said Harmony, shaking her head. "They always blame things on me when given the chance. I guess those text chains were too embarrassing to have been leaked on purpose."

"The Julie stuff?" said Dan.

"Yeah!" she exclaimed, mortified. "I tried calling her, I tried texting her... I wanted to explain myself. Because on paper, it does look bad. But there was all this context to it."

"To you telling Mom and Denise not to invite her to things?" Dan raised an eyebrow.

"Don't give me that look," she frowned, putting her hands on her hips. "It wasn't out of malice. It was out of concern. I didn't wanna bother her and I also didn't wanna put the family in a compromised position. And Christmas proved I was in the right. Inviting Julie always made family events uncomfortable for all of us. I simply suggested we stop inviting her because I knew something like Christmas was bound to happen. She and Tony went at it. And poor Sam got caught in the crossfires. That was terrifying. She was terrifying."

"Somehow I don't think any of that would make for a good apology or explanation," Dan sighed. "But I do get what you mean. I just don't know how we could ever get Julie to understand it."

"Her wedding is going to be so awkward," groaned Harmony, putting the final plate down. She turned back to Dan, gasping, "Wait! What if it was Julie?"

"What was?" asked Dan, confused.

"The person behind the hacks," said Harmony, putting a hand to her mouth and gasping again. "Oh no. This makes too much sense."

"No way," Dan shook his head. "I refuse to believe that."

"Believe what?" asked Denise, walking in ahead of Cory, who carried their daughter Angie in his arms.

"That Julie was the hacker," Harmony answered.

Denise looked back at Cory briefly and then turned back, shaking her head. "No way!" she exclaimed. "She may be... a little lost right now. But she's a good person. And I can't imagine she'd have the time for all the extra scheming, given how busy she's been. It just doesn't seem like she'd be capable. Morally but also timewise."

"We're gonna go stay with her tomorrow, though," said Cory. "And I'm sure she'll share her concerns and theories about the hacks with us. "

***

"I have no idea who it was and honestly I don't care," Julie said as she led Cory and Denise into her living room. "Frankly, I don't think anyone should care. We've all moved on, right?"

"It hasn't even been a week yet," said Cory. "It's all anyone can talk about."

"Well, there are bigger things going on in the world," Julie said. "It's an election year and there's rich assholes going up against President Vega and some bullshit going on with Russia. Why can't we talk about that instead of stupid celebrity leaks that no one was really truly affected by? Except, of course, all that crazy stuff about possible election tampering for mayor last year."

"Right..." said Denise, looking at her husband with slight concern.

"I'm gonna go put our things in our guest room," said Cory, heading for the stairs with two suitcases.

Denise held onto the diaper bag, as Angie stood behind her, cowering by her legs and hiding from Julie. "Where's Rosie?" asked Denise, glancing around. "I miss her so much."

"Oh she's with one of the maids," said Julie. "Did you want me to have her come get Angie or..?"

"Oh, no, that's alright," Denise shook her head. "She's not great with strangers. Yet. But thanks for offering. Um, so how's the wedding planning going?"

Julie signaled for her to follow and Denise took her lead towards the back, glass wall. Together they looked out to the backyard. Just past the pool, a crew of employees were setting up a large tent.

"That's for the reception?" asked Denise.

"Yup," Julie said, inhaling nervously as she watched the crew work. The exhale that followed was shaky and loud.

Denise watched her with concern. "You doing okay?" she asked.

"Huh?" Julie responded, turning to her. "Oh, uh, yeah... What do you make of all of this?"

"The tent?" asked Denise, confused.

"All of it," Julie said, looking outside once again. "I wanted them to start setting everything up now so I could see if I love it or hate it. Make any changes needed. Maybe decide to cancel the whole wedding altogether."

Laughing, Denise said, "What?"

Julie turned to her urgently and said, "I can't believe I'm even doing this at all. How did I let it all get this far? There's no turning back now and I'm officially in freakout mode."

Startled, Denise reached for Julie, trying to be as comforting as possible. But the moment she laid hands on her, Julie began to crumble to the ground, looking like she was going to break into tears any moment. 

"Oh no," Denise said, crouching down with her. "Not a panic attack. Not on my watch. Come on, girl. Breathe. Breathe with me. In and out. Come on..." She breathed in and out heavily, and Julie attempted to replicate her movements. As she focused on her breathing, Denise continued, "You got this, girl. You chose Shawn. You rushed through this, sure, but that's what people do when they feel something strong. And if that's no longer the case then... It's not too late. You don't have to do this. Either way, you're in control."

Julie looked away, shaking her head. "No," she disagreed. "I was in control. But I'm not anymore. I lost all of that control. And now I have to go through with this. Don't I?"

Denise stared at her in confusion. Julie was having a full-on meltdown, one which she was not equipped to handle.

***

"No more shows the rest of the week," Tabitha said as she emerged onto the living room in Alex's hotel suite, all dressed up. "I say we get out into town. Spend a little quality brother-sister time. Have a great time. Preferably all on you. You're way richer and Los Angeles is super expensive."

Alex didn't react, too busy staring at the phone on his lap, sitting in front of a TV that wasn't even on.

Tabitha crossed her arms and said, "Oh come on. You're not still thinking about her, are you?" He glanced up, so she elaborated, "Julie. You're still all wrapped up on the fact that she's about to marry someone else. Gosh, Amity may be a backstabbing snake but she was so right about the two of you in those leaked texts."

Alex simply shrugged and stared down at his phone. "I'm uncomfortable," he admitted. "Isn't that normal?"

"Well, sure," Tabitha said. "But you can't just sit in a hotel all day pining. And waiting for news or some call from her that's not gonna happen. Come on! Let's head out and have a good time together. We're in Los Angeles. Paps are everywhere. They'll see you out and about and the world will see that there's no issue here and you're totally unbothered, living your best life.

Alex rolled his eyes but got up, forcefully. "Fine," he said. "Let's... take you shopping or whatever."

"Yay!" Tabitha cheered, grabbing her purse and heading for the door. "Your pain will truly be my gain. Shopping montage, commence!"

***

["IDGAF (REMIX)" by Lyric Heron featuring Carly Dom. Original artist: Dua Lipa featuring Saweetie.]

Carly: I've been winning since I left you, left you. And you think you sick, now you about to get much sicker. Cause I'm looking in the mirror and that ass got thicker. Beggin' baby, hands is poppin', wrists with six plus figures.

As Tabitha and Alex headed out to spoil themselves around L.A.'s finest stores, Carly and Lyric sat in the studio with Quinn, playing her the new remixed version of Lyric's song. 

Carly: I've been there, I've been here, I just hustle low and pray. Got a lot up on my plate, taking meetings in L.A. Glowing up and blowing up, that's what I'm about to do. When it's all been happening since I left you.

Quinn was sitting back, listening with her poker face on. There was no telling whether she would green light this project or not, especially since she had yet to address Lyric's comments about her directly.

Lyric: You call me all friendly. Tellin' me how much you miss me. That's funny, I guess you've heard my songs. Well, I'm too busy for your business. Go find a girl who wants to listen. 'Cause if you think I was born yesterday, you have got me wrong.

***

Meanwhile, Amity was in the studio at Blackbird, working on a new song and failing to concentrate on it. She hadn't heard back from Santana or Shana and now Damian, who had heard about her replacing him with TJ, was ghosting her, too. She stared down at her new phone, all unanswered messages.

Lyric: So I cut you off. I don't need your love. 'Cause I already cried enough. I've been done. I've been movin' on since we said goodbye. I cut you off. I don't need your love. So you can try all you want. Your time is up, I'll tell you why.

Her "I'm sorry" to all three of them were sitting alone, all read but none acknowledged. Shutting down her phone screen, she pushed the thing aside and went back to her writing. She had to put all her energy into what really mattered.

Lyric: You say you're sorry, but it's too late now. So save it, get gone, shut up. 'Cause if you think I care about you now. Well, boy, I don't give a fuck.

***

While Julie stood inside her wedding tent with Denise, her nerves getting the best of her still, she noticed her phone lighting up on the nearby table she had left it on. 

Lyric: I see you tryna' get to me. I see you beggin' on your knees. Boy, I don't give a fuck. 

Picking it up swiftly, she noted three missed calls from Alex and immediately stuffed the phone in her back pocket. After briefly practicing her breathing, she put on a fake smile and turned back to Denise, who was putting out a few replacement centerpieces for her to admire, being entirely too helpful to someone who was utterly helpless. 

Lyric: So stop tryna' get to me. Tch, get up off your knees. 'Cause, boy, I don't give a fuck.

***

As she came out of the dressing room in a boutique, wearing a sparkling black dress, Tabitha put a hand on her brother's shoulder, over wish she saw that he had just attempted another call at Julie. He looked up at her, appearing guilty at first but then just defeated. 

Carly: How it feel, how it feel, how it feel? Sign off on our connection, and I sign onto a deal. Shoulda kept a hundred, man, you shoulda kept it real. Cause I realize you fake and you lost all your appeal.

Was Julie ghosting her ahead of the wedding, or just taking extra precautions so close to the finish line? It was getting hard to tell the longer he went on with silence from her end.  

Carly: It don't hurt when I see you with her. You was always insecure and believed what you heard. Cause you've seen that all these men tryna see when it's they turn. But I don't need a cuddle buddy, I just cuddle with my fur.

***

Another meeting was being held, in the meantime, to discuss the suspects of the hack. This time, Bree was hosting in her house along with Brittany, who presented the victims of her event with new cell phones, at least for those who hadn't already been able to replace their old ones.

Lyric: Cut you off. I don't need your love. So you can try all you want. Your time is up, I'll tell you why. (I'll tell you why!)

While denying Brittany's offer for a phone, Tyler focused up on the names that Kitty was drawing on a white board, displaying the remaining suspects now that a few more had been ruled out. Travis' name remained up there and after their conversation, he wasn't so sure he still wanted to protest his involvement in the investigation.

Lyric: You say you're sorry, but it's too late now. So save it, get gone, shut up. (Too late now). 'Cause if you think I care about you now. Well, boy, I don't give a fuck. (Boy, I don't give a fuck)

What if Travis had leaked the information as a way to get his crazy baby story out there for publicity while also seemingly getting revenge on Luke? What if this was all part of his spiraling?

Lyric: I see you tryna' get to me. I see you beggin' on your knees. Boy, I don't give a fuck. So stop tryna' get to me (get to me). Tch, get up off your knees. 'Cause, boy, I don't give a fuck.

***

Quinn sat still, pondering for several minutes after the song was done playing. Carly and Lyric stood side-by-side, nervously awaiting her response.

She finally gave it in the form of a simple nod, getting up and heading for the door. "Wait, that's it?" Lyric stopped her. "You liked it and..?"

"It's not bad," Quinn shrugged. "It has star power appeal, thanks to Carly. And if we can convince Julie to talk about the writing process for the original song in an interview soon or something... It can really be the boost the song has been needing. So I approve. We'll drop the digital single tonight, at midnight. Good job, ladies."

As Quinn exit the room, Lyric turned to Carly, who started to squeal with excitement. Lyric joined her and the two jumped up and down for a few seconds before settling back down.

"Tonight," Lyric said. "We don't have to wait, oh my gosh. I'm so excited. That was nerve-wrecking. My pits are sweating."

Carly made a face and said, "Gross. But I'm excited, too. Here's to this song being a hit!"

***

"Anybody have anything else to say?" Kitty asked as she finished making minor notes by each name on her board. 

Tyler wondered whether he should say something but just when he was starting to raise his hand, Sam's arm went up in the air. "I have a concern," Sam sighed. "I really don't think that... Well, I feel like it's kind of messed up for us to be suspecting each other."

"Thank you!" Marley exclaimed.

"You too?" Sam asked her.

"Yes!" Marley said. "I keep saying it can't be one of us."

"I kind of have to agree with them," Ryder said.

"Of course you do, you're spineless," Kitty snapped at him.

Ryder put his arms up defensively and said, "Hey, don't take this all out on me! I know you're all stressing out. My girlfriend won't talk to me because she thinks I was flirting with someone else in those leaked texts."

"You totally were," said Kitty.

Marley frowned, "Sorry, but she's right about that. Those texts with Joyce were really flirty."

"What?" Ryder exclaimed. "They were not. I'm her boss. And a friend. We were just joking around."

"You were flirting," said Sam. "But who cares? We can't turn on each other, guys. That's what this hacker wanted. To stir up drama and get us all fighting. But we should trust each other. I refuse to believe that anyone I care about was willing to do something like this."

"Exactly," Marley nodded.

"Ty, back me up," Sam turned to Tyler, who was surprised to be called out personally.

"Uh..." he said hesitantly. "Yeah, of course. You're right."

"See!" Sam shifted his attention back to Kitty. "He gets it."

"For once in your life, use your brain, Sam," Kitty glared at him. "Nobody in this town is who they say they are. Just think about all those leaked messages and pictures. The unexpected real thoughts people were holding back. All the secrets your closest friends were keeping from you for years. For decades in some cases. Face it. None of us can be trusted in the end. Friends don't keep such important things from each other, but the leaks revealed that we all did. So... At this point it could be anyone. Even people in this room."

With that, she turned and walked out of the room. "Was this about us..?" Stefan asked. "Or, like, about an unrelated personal thing?"

"Probably both," Bree answered. "She's still ticked off at Riley and her mom. But she makes several good points. We can't trust any of the people we keep saying wouldn't be capable of something like this. Everyone wears a mask. We just have to figure out which one is hiding a really devious and troubled mind underneath.

***

After spending most of the day in the tent approving wedding things, Julie and Denise relaxed inside after dinner, sitting in the living room with Rosie and Angie.

Shawn stepped outside, where Cory was sitting by the pool, and offered him a beer.

"It's not too cold, is it?" Shawn said, taking a seat beside him with a beer of his own.

"No, I like drinking just the same in any weather," Cory said, taking the bottle and opening it swiftly.

"I meant for Saturday," Shawn clarified. "It feels like it'll be chilly."

"Oh," Cory said, shrugging.

The two men sat in uncomfortable silence for the next eight minutes. It was when Cory carelessly flipped his beer cap into the pool, attempting to skip it like a rock, that Shawn finally spoke up.

"I know you don't really approve," he started, getting Cory's attention immediately. "I hurt your sister in the past. And you haven't forgotten that, clearly. She hasn't either. I haven't either."

"Good," Cory said, taking a drink from his bottle.

"And I also know this wedding is happening too fast," he said. "It makes everyone uncomfortable."

"Okay..." Cory responded, unsure where this was headed.

"What I'm trying to say," Shawn explained, "is that... despite all that and how insane this idea may seem... It means a lot that you're still here. To me, but especially to Julie. You're about the most important person in the world to her, her children aside... So I know she's really happy that you're here."

Cory nodded, not saying a thing. Then, after another long period of silence, when he had finished his beer, he turned to Shawn and said, "Just treat her how she deserves, okay?"

Shawn smiled, pressing his lips together for a moment. "That's exactly what I'm trying to do," he said. "I promise you that."

***

"Okay, I have six different open lots," Marley said. "Most of them are outside of Lima, with the exception of one. But they're all close enough. And I think any of them would be decent options for McKinley."

From her phone, which sat on speaker on the table beside her computer, Finn responded, "But we don't need decent. We need perfect."

"Beggars can't be choosers, Finn," she said. "We're not exactly full of options here and we should just take what we can get at this point if we wanna meet our deadline. That means finding the place by May, building over the summer, and being ready for renovations in the Fall. It gives us more wiggle room in case things go wrong and... given this town's history many things will likely go wrong."

As she pulled a sheet of paper out of her binder, the slip of suspects from the meeting earlier fell out and Marley couldn't help her gaze shifting down to John's name, with plenty of reasons listed for why he was the most likely culprit. 

She sighed and said, "Finn, I think we need to take a break for a bit, given everything that's going on. We'll pick this up tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, that sounds fine," Finn said, sounding equally as exasperated. "Thanks for everything, by the way. Your help is really doing wonders. I couldn't do this without you. Rest up."

"You too," Marley said, reaching over and ending the call. She buried her face in her hands for a few moments, grunting loudly in frustration and then remembering her kids were already asleep and she shouldn't wake them up. Ben had school and Kai was particularly cranky when his sleep schedule was disrupted.

She glanced up at her computer and, impulsively, went to a website she had steered away from. The hacker's site, under the tag Wizard of Chaoz, was difficult to navigate initially. It had moved through several URLs as authorities attempted to take it down, but it seemed that it had found a safe home now under this name and everyone had given up on getting rid of the site.

It took a couple more minutes of navigation to find the tags of all affected parties, which pretty much encompassed every guest at the Sexy Gala.

Scrolling down, she clicked on John's name and braced herself.

She'd seen headlines and heard comments about what had appeared on his phone, but hadn't actually checked it out herself. And to her surprise, there was very little to find. John was private enough, at least when it came to his phone, and not much had been found on the phone that could be used against him.

But then, that had been Kitty's main argument against him at the meeting. John likely had many skeletons in his closet, so why had so few of them come out? A few inappropriate or tasteless jokes exchanged with him and his friends were the extent of it. Where were all his secrets?

Marley pushed her laptop away and rested her chin on her hands. "Don't do this..." she whispered to herself. "Don't let yourself fall victim to all this. You're not about to spiral in your doubts. And you're not going to point fingers at him. He didn't do this. Stop talking to yourself."

Exiting out of the page, Marley closed down her computer and took a look at the sheet with all the suspects. She flipped it around and saw the full list of attendees. What if the person who had hacked them was someone who hadn't been invited?

***

"Impossible," Brittany told Marley when she presented her theory over breakfast at Amelia's the next morning. "Mostly because... I invited pretty much everyone we know. A lot of people just couldn't make it."

"Like who?" Marley wondered. "Who knew this was happening but didn't attend?"

"Let's see," Brittany racked her brain for names. "There was Tina... Sugar... Mike... No, wait, Mike was there. Uh... I don't know. Everyone from glee club and a few people from the Cheerios."

"Anyone who would want to expose all of us?" asked Marley.

"Not that I can think of," Brittany shook her head. "Maybe one of Lord Tubbington's bitches."

"Excuse me?" Marley said.

Brittany explained, "Oh, sorry. There's these dogs that follow Lord Tubbington around the neighborhood when he gets out. Not, like, chasing him. They just walk behind him. I think they're his gang."

Marley stared at Brittany in temporary disbelief and then said, "Forget about that. I just.. I thought this could lead us somewhere but if everyone who would want to be at the gala was invited then... I don't know. I can't believe I'm asking this but I wanna clear some names so... What theories do you have?"

"I think it's our current bad guy," said Brittany. "But I didn't wanna bring it up because no one ever takes me seriously."

"What do you mean?" asked Marley.

"When I say things they call it stupid or ignore it," Brittany shrugged.

"No, not that," Marley responded. "The thing about the current bad guy."

Brittany set her plate of pancakes aside and answered, "Well, every story has a bad guy, who always has to go against the group and make things miserable for everyone for some reason. For example, at first it was Coach Sue. For a bit it was Santana and me. And Quinn. Then it was kind of Jesse. And usually, always Rachel. Whoever is sabotaging the group, whether from the outside or the inside."

"What?" said Marley, confused.

"Oh, right, that was all B.M.," Brittany rolled her eyes at herself. "Sorry for the confusion."

"Bowel movements?" Marley said, grossed out.

"No," Brittany shook her head. "Before Marley. Keep up. For you the villains were more like... Kitty, then Bree, then Harmony, then Alex, then Carrie, then Stefan, then Carrie again... And fast forward to Sebastian, and Tracy, and Francesca... Bigger sharks. And of course, the present-day antagonist is obvious."

Marley hesitated and then slowly asked, "Julie..?"

"She's the anti-hero," said Brittany, shaking her head again. "Protagonists can't be antagonists. Jeez, didn't you take an English class, ever?"

Marley pulled back, taking the judgement to heart. "Fine," she said. "Then who is the villain?"

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Brittany. "It's your Baby Daddy. John. He did this."

Marley let out a deep breath. 

"Don't believe me?" Brittany asked. "See, I knew people wouldn't take my theories seriously. That's why I didn't say anything." She leaned forward and quietly added, "Marley... Who do you think gave me the idea to host the Sexy Gala in the first place?"

Marley's eyes widened.

"John gave me the idea back in December," Brittany explained, leaning back. "He said we should have a party that was all about hotness and I was like, 'That sounds hot but why would you want a party with so many people you hate?' Because, as you know, hot people always compete over who is hotter so he's enemies with all the hot people around. But he looked all sad for some reason and he said he wanted an opportunity to have all his friends together, reunited for a special occasion."

"Oh my god..." Marley muttered, her fingers nervously tapping the table.

"And he told me that it should happen soon after the Grammys," Brittany went on, "because of something that was going on. I thought he meant like an eclipse or something but I guess he meant with his career and his plots to take down his enemies."

"No..." Marley shook her head. "You're wrong or making this up. I came here to clear John's name not to get proof that it was him."

"Maybe it wasn't him," said Brittany. "I'm just telling you my theory based on what I know. Like you asked. I don't plan on telling anyone anything but this puts you in an interesting position. I'm so into this drama, Marley. What are you going to do?"

"What am I going to do?" Marley wondered out loud, having already shut Brittany out. "If this was John then... I have to tell everyone but... If I tell everyone, they're going to sue him and press charges. He could go to jail. He's Kai's dad and... He's the man that I love... But he committed a big crime."

She looked up at Brittany, her eyes wide and shining.

"Brittany, what do I do?" she asked wildly. "Why did you tell me this?"

***

"Crimson is having their party tonight," said Leila, scrolling down her phone as she and the other Rhythmix girls prepared for their appearance on the TODAY show. "We just got an invite. Maybe we should fly back home after this and go? It would be nice to support them. Especially after our group chats showed you three being catty towards them."

"If we go and kiss their asses now," said Shana, "we'd just end up looking two-faced instead. Besides, I really don't want to see Santana right now. Don't ask why."

"And I don't want to see anyone right now," Zoe added. "You know why."

Kayli didn't answer, so Leila turned to her and asked, "What about you? Would you go with me?"

Glancing up for just a second and then turning her attention to the wall of their green room, Kayli answered, "Why do we always have to launch a new era when I'm heartbroken? When we did Shout Out To My Ex I was completely broken up about Sam. I cried during The End, remember?"

"Oh, honey," Leila sighed, leaning down beside Kayli and wrapping an arm around her, giving her shoulder a squeeze. "Gus is a jerk and he doesn't deserve your tears."

"He's been texting me nonstop," Kayli told them. "He called so many times I lost track."

"You gave him your new number?" Shana asked. "Why? You had the perfect out. We all changed phones and numbers."

"I couldn't help myself," Kayli explained through teary eyes. "What if something happened? What if I changed my mind?"

"You can't change your mind," Shana told her, the volume of her voice rising noticeably. "He used the n-word and said faggoty and god knows what other slurs. He clearly uses them regularly but held off in our presence. Not to mention all that mess with Cleo sending him a nude or whatever. And after all that, it was you who put out an apology statement for being a part of those texts with him even though you didn't use the words and you called him out for it. And what did he do? Nothing. Called and texted you but didn't apologize. Didn't take responsibility. Just denied every single claim despite all that proof against him. I'm sorry to tell it to you so bluntly, Kayli, but Gus is not who you thought he was. And he's definitely not worth any of this pain you're feeling. And like you said, you've broken down over a guy on TV before. Don't be that girl again, Kayli. Be better."

There was a long pause after Shana finished, with none of the other girls knowing what to say or whether adding anything was even necessary.

Kayli stared into empty space for a bit, her face growing a darker shade of pink with each passing second until she couldn't bottle it in anymore. "I loved him," she said, staring up at Shana and shrugging lifelessly. "And I don't care about anything else right now. Sorry. We can't all be on the right side of every issue and put our feelings aside all the time. I had a connection with someone and I was disappointed. Disillusioned. But I'll suck it up so I won't embarrass you on TV this time around. I have to go pee."

She got up from her seat and hurried out of the room. Leila got up as well, sighing, "I'll go..."

"Where the hell..?" Zoe muttered, watching Leila leave. "Are they serious right now? Look at all we're dealing with and you don't see us... You know what? Kayli's a kid. I won't even bother."

Shana slumped down where Kayli had been sitting, staring at the ground for a few minutes.

After a long silence with Zoe, she asked the latter, "Why does everything keep going south? Why does it all have to be screwed up, all the damn time? We can't ever win."

Zoe didn't answer. She waited in silence with Shana, impatiently, for the other girls to return, so they could get the first televised performance of their new single over with.

***

Tyler arrived at the label, ready to hit the studio, but the one he'd been doing all the work for his album in was occupied. He waited and waited, losing time out in the hall, until finally the door opened and he discovered that it was Xavier going overtime and sucking up his time.

"Hey!" he said when he saw Tyler. "I was just in here making sure everything sounds good for next week."

"Next week..." Tyler repeated.

Xavier made a face. "My album?" he said. "It's already done and finished and I can't change anything but it brings me some comfort to listen to it over and over again to reassure myself it's great."

"Glad confidence isn't an issue with you, buddy," Tyler responded. "But could you go keep listening to it elsewhere? I'm supposed to do some work in here."

"Oh yeah," Xavier nodded, "I saw you had reserved the space. Sorry I went over a little. Your guys are already in there waiting for you, by the way. I let them listen to the album."

"My producers?" asked Tyler in disbelief. "Why?"

"I needed strangers' validation," shrugged Xavier. "Speaking of starving for attention, did you hear Travis's new song yet?"

"Oh that's out now, huh," Tyler responded. "I spaced. John produced it so I kept telling myself I have to listen and then do the whole 'go on Twitter and praise them on it publicly so the fans are sure we're still friends despite texting mean things about each other every now and then' thing but... Then I just forgot. Please tell me it's good so my praises can be genuine."

"Are you kidding?" laughed Xavier. "It's Travis and John, working together. You know it's awesome. Give it a listen later."

As Xavier started walking away, Tyler said, " Thanks. And good luck on the album launch next week. I'm super stoked for you!"

Xavier put up two fingers as an acknowledgement and then continued on, while Tyler turned into the room and told his producers he was ready to get going. However, one thing Xavier said to him was echoing in his mind. It's Travis and John, working together.

Maybe Travis, alone, wasn't capable of hacking everyone and leaking their information. But John was. What if they had done this as a team? What if everyone was right, and they were the prime suspects?

***

["Spotlight" by Crimson. Original Artist: Star Cast.]

Penny: They tryna steal my spot-li-li-li-light. But they can't do it. Tell me why you're trippin'. I'm just out here drippin'. Boy I know you li-li-li-li-like. Just what I'm doin'. I'm just tryna vibe yeah. Don't wanna waste my time yeah.

On the Starstruck stage, the three girls of Crimson were clad in appropriately colored clothing, celebrating the release of their debut album on what many might consider the best stage for the occasion.  

Deena: How bout I pull out the safe. How bout I visit the bank. I'ma get money today. Haters they feelin' a way.

The group's leader, Carmen, was giving the cameras all the charm and charisma imaginable, the thing that had won over their ever-growing audience.

Carmen: Bottle poppin' it's the high life. Never flexin' this is my life. You ain't livin', you should try life. Tryna infiltrate my chyph.

The other two girls had just as much energy, despite Penny's lacking in the vocal department and Deena in the charisma. But combined, they were proving a force to be reckoned with.

Penny: Oh you got a room I got a suite. I'm talkin' 5 star you won't hear a peep. This is my car two up in the seat. We could drive far this a energy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it only helped that the leaked texts from the Rhythmix girl group chat where three of them talked poorly about the rise of Crimson were generating seemingly infinite buzz for the girls.

Carmen: I'm just tryna get mine. Why you tryna dim my shine?

When the performance ended, Tenesha cheered them on along with the rest of the audience, before waving them over to join her on her couch.

"That was amazing!" Tenesha raved on. "And you can find Spotlight and more on Crimson's brand new album, Crimson, out now! Girls, tell me everything. Why this name? Why this cover? And why this song to launch it?"

"Well," Carmen spoke up, smiling at her girls, "we really wanted the album to represent us and to feel authentic to our experiences. And to empower women everywhere to take charge and just be who they wanted to be and feel good about it."

She paused perfectly, as the audience took their cue to applaud the girls and cheer them on.

Once it died down, Carmen added, "And as for why we chose to sing this particular song... We just noticed that when you start popping off... some people start to see you as a threat. They want to take away your spotlight because they're pressed and intimidated and they think that you shining is gonna dim their own light. And to people like that..." She turned to the one of the cameras closest to them, looking directly into it. "Bring it on. We're not going anywhere."

The audience cheered again and Tenesha made her usual, bug-eyed look she did when someone had just given her the juicy things she was hoping to get. And Carmen's words? They were a clear clapback at the Rhythmix girls and invitation to try and top what they were currently doing.

***

"Oh my gosh, these are just so funny," said Tabitha as she sat in Alex's suite with him once again, the two of them lounging in the living room. "I just can't get over them and every time they pop out on my timeline again, I read through the whole thing and just laugh."

"What are you talking about?" asked Alex, hardly entertained.

Tabitha giggled through her words, answering, "These stupid ass texts Amity sent you. Bro, she's still so bitter that you traded her in for Julie. It's so obvious."

"Come on, lay off it already," Alex rolled his eyes.

But Tabitha continued, "It's just so funny because it's true but at the same time it's like, 'Chill out, Amity. Let it go.' I mean, listen to this. You said, 'I fall for the bullshit every single time so I'm mad at myself but that's it.' She could've just responded, 'Sorry' with, like, a sad face emoji or something. But she was so extra about it."

"Tabby..." Alex warned her not to go on.

"She says," Tabitha ignored him, "'I know what that's like so that makes me more mad for you. And I know that's not my place but it's really upsetting to know you're hurting.' Well, at least she knows. So you go on, blah blah blah. She says you can do better. You say you wish you understood Julie... And then here comes my favorite part. She says, 'It's just what she always does. It's a power move. If I'm being honest, this is why I wasn't really too on bad...' Wait, what?"

She trailed off, seemingly losing her place, so Alex glanced up.

Squinting at her phone screen, she said, "Oh wait, that says board and I'm just blind. 'I wasn't really too on board with you dating her in the start. I had a feeling it would end this badly because that's just what she does and she has a long line of other men to prove it.' And not only that but she goes on to say Julie is manipulative and possibly insecure but at the same time full of herself. It's brilliant. It's absolutely brilliant."

"Okay, come on, Tabitha," Alex sighed. "That's enough. Let it all go."

"Why?" Tabitha asked. "Why haven't you said anything about this? And if you were so angry at Julie when you found out she was engaged, then why do you keep calling her and checking if she's reached out? Why are you waiting instead of just trash-talking her some more and maybe trashing this suite?"

"Because I'm only an animal in my videos," Alex said. "I don't actually behave that way in real life, Tabitha."

"Okay, but notice how you only answered that part of everything I just asked?" Tabitha said, crossing her arms. "You've been acting weird for so long. Can you finally just tell me what's going on?"

"Julie isn't..." he said, quickly trailing off and then reconsidering it. "No."

"Oh, come on!" Tabitha insisted. "Please, please, please tell me. Why are you being so weird and obsessive about this?"

Alex turned to her and said, "You know what... Tomorrow was the last day I had to keep my mouth shut anyway. It's not like you're gonna go out and spill everything and if you do I will fire you and leave you destitute."

"Jeez," Tabitha scowled at him. "That's harsh. I'm your sister."

"And I pretended you didn't exist for a good eight or nine years, remember?" Alex asked. "That's how important this is. So please. Don't say anything to anyone. Not through text, not on the phone, not through smoke signals. No communication."

"Fine, I get it," Tabitha rolled her eyes. "Just tell me already."

"Okay," Alex took a deep breath. "The truth is that Julie and I have been seeing each other."

"Huh?" Tabitha made a face, totally lost already.

"And the wedding is a ruse," Alex continued. "At least... It's supposed to be. But Julie's not taking any of my calls anymore. I have a really bad feeling something's changed. Or maybe it was never what I thought it was and she was still playing me the whole time. I just don't know anymore and honestly, I'm freaking out."

Dumbfounded by all she'd just heard, Tabitha shook her head, saying, "Okay, wait, no. None of that made any sense to me. You're gonna have to start from the beginning."

----------------------------------------------------

[end of chapter]