Page 68 of Siren's Heart

Instead, I start pacing the living room, barely managing to dodge the furniture as I trail after my thoughts.

"How are you holding up, bro?" Asher asks worriedly and hands me a glass of water. No idea when he got that or what about my demeanor screams dehydrated, but I take a sip anyway.

"I'm not the one any of us need to be worried about right now, Asher."

"Fucking hell," he curses and lands a slap to the back of my head. A hard one that makes my head tip over. "You're my friend. You're always someone to be worried about, idiot."

"Well, I feel like shit," I confess angrily and set the glass down before I do something dumb, like smashing it against one of the walls in frustration. I resume walking up and down Kayla's living room instead. "I still can't believe that happened."

"Neither could we when we saw it online." I look at him. I know news travels fast, but it’s hard to believe that the ten minutes it took us from Serenity to her building were all it took. "That's how quickly you see stuff on social media?"

"Oh, sweet summer child." He rubs his hand over his face, squeezing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and middle finger. "Listen, I have a hunch that you have no idea what the two of them are actually dealing with online. And I mean directly, the messages people actually send them, not some random news outlets. So sit your ass down, I need to show you something."

I do as he says and sit on Kayla's couch, my legs bouncing nervously, while he types something into his phone. There’s a penguin plush and hug it to my chest in an attempt to calm down. Then he sits down next to me and hands it over.

"Look at it, bro. I know you don't use social media, and probably never will, but that doesn't mean you can just stay oblivious to what's happening and what the two of them are dealing with on a day-to-day basis."

Odysseus93750: That slut doesn't deserve Luca. She should just rot by herself and die alone and leave the good men for proper women.

EarsExplosion: Who'd want someone with a higher body count than England conquering their colonies? Fuck off, Millie, nobody likes you.

"What the fuck?" I mutter under my breath as I continue reading. I had no idea people could turn this fucking nasty, but the more I scroll through the comments he’s opened for me, the more faith in humanity I lose.

My anxiety works itself up the more I read, until Asher suddenly tries to snatch the phone from my hands. I evade him when suddenly, the door bursts open, and Kayla marches inside, fury surrounding her like a blazing red aura.

"Gentlemen, we've fucked up massively," she grits out and stomps through her living room. "We shouldn’t have let it get this far. Millie is talking to her parents right now, but we need to come up with a plan. I'm not waiting around for Naroa and Starlet Sounds to fix this anymore."

"Alright. But how can we fix it?" I wonder and let out a heavy sigh because I have no idea what to do here and how to make it right.

"You two are idiots, do you know that?" Asher asks exasperatedly and pulls on his hair dramatically. "Seriously. A bunch of oblivious idiots."

"Well, then, share your grand plan with the rest of the class, why don't you?" Kayla challenges him with her arms crossed in front of her heaving chest, raising her eyebrow at my friend daringly.

"It's nice that you two are there for Millie privately, but have any of you had the balls to stand up for her publicly yet?" He shoots Kayla a sharp glance, and she freezes, before dropping her not-so-fiery-anymore gaze and sinks into herself at once.

I do the same. Fuck. No. Actually, I haven't. There hasn’t been an opportunity yet.

Well, that’s a lie. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. And from what I’m beginning to understand, part of the reason for the women’s aggression is that they think I am the one who deserves better. Which couldn’t be further from the truth.

"See? There's no use being her shoulder to cry on, telling her to ignore the haters because, let's be honest. That's pretentious as fuck coming from you two, who aren’t being bombarded with this insanity. We've got to do something to put people in their place. Give me my fucking phone, Luca." He holds out his hand, and I oblige, having completely forgotten about the device in my hand.

Fuck. He's right. And he's obviously the only one thinking clearly, while Kayla and I are definitely still in shock mode.

"What are you doing?" I ask him, and he shushes me as he types out a message. Then taps a few more times and calls someone.

"Hi there, Adam? Can you do me a solid?" What does he want with the Walker brother now?

The two of them shoot shit for a bit before he gets to the nitty-gritty. And what he asks Adam makes Kayla's and my eyes go wide, both of us staring at him with open mouths. How did we not think of this?

"You're a fucking genius," Kayla says when he hangs up.

"Say it again," he demands with a chuckle, holding his phone in front of her, microphone just in front of her mouth. "This time on record."

"I will do no such thing." She pushes it away from her face. "I'm telling you that it's a great idea. Take it or leave it."

"I'll take it," he chuckles and pulls up another number. "Now, you two take your damned phones and call up the most famous people in your contact lists. We've got an online campaign to put in motion. I’m no professional, but fighting fire with fire seems like a good idea when ignoring it doesn’t work."

We spend the next forty minutes calling all kinds of people in our contact lists. The motive is simple: Get them to go online and tell all of their fans about how great Millie is. I have no idea about the specifics, but no matter who I call in my list, they've met Millie, even if it’s only in passing, and they adore her. I didn't even know it, but my girl has a secret A-List fan club. Would have been nice to know that before I had to depend on Asher to introduce us. Oh, well.

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