Page 95 of I Knew You Were Trouble

Bianca bites her lip. Tears spring to her eyes. She gives a nod. When she speaks, her voice catches inside her throat. ‘I think I was angry with him, yes. I felt humiliated.’

‘And when you sent the tweet, do you remember what it said?’

Tears fall. Beside the window, Cal holds his head in his hands. At the time of the interview, my heart had gone out to her, but I’d known we had to continue. ‘I can’t even say it out loud now… I’m so ashamed of what I said… I didn’t know… it was gonna go viral. I left my phone for about a half hour after. Then when I got back, I realised things had snowballed… “Rebel Heart NYC” was trending, so were my words. About ten minutes later I deleted the original tweet. But it was too late by then; somebody had already taken a screenshot of it under my account, and instead, that started doing the rounds. People started tagging me with comments. Then it seemed like it was everywhere. It blew up.’

‘What happened after that?’ I ask off camera.

Bianca wipes her face, but it’s clear for anyone to see that she’s heartbroken. The boys have all gone quiet. ‘The fans came after me. Of course they did. I mean, I was already a known face, except now I was public enemy number one. So many people I’d never met started calling me horrible names, wishing me dead. Once they knew my name, they found out where I lived. It went on formonths. I had to change my number, delete everything. There were times I couldn’t bring myself to leave my apartment. Eventually, I moved back over here with my parents. It felt safer that way.’

‘Are you seeing anyone now?’

She shakes her head, biting her lip, still wiping tears.

‘What was your reaction to the song coming out?’ I hear myself ask, ploughing on. ‘Knowing it was you who’d spawned the single?’

Bianca is unable to look at the camera. The tears are coming quicker than she can wipe them away, some of her eye make-up now running down her cheeks.

‘When I heard about it,’ she breathes, ‘I just wanted to die. He has some pretty choice words to say about me, huh? Hey, it’s a good tune. But I want people to know the truth of what happened that night. I left because he’d already moved on. It was pretty obvious he wasn’t into me.’

During the interview, I waited for her to compose herself. ‘What would you say to Caleb if you ever saw him again?’

The break in tears doesn’t last. For a moment, Bianca just sobs, unable to speak, burying her face in her palms.

‘That I’m soverysorry,’ she manages at length, raising her head. ‘That I never meant to hurt you. But you hurt me too… I wish I’d never sent that tweet. It’s the biggest regret of my life. I hate that you’re out there and knowing you think badly of me. And I never thought that about your face. Ever. You have a handsome face. I just got swept up in it all…’

When she addresses him directly, Caleb looks crushed.

‘Bianca, would you like me to turn off the camera now?’ I say off screen, and Bianca nods her head.

I stop the video.

A silence descends over the room. Nobody moves.

For a moment, the atmosphere is tense, no one saying a word.

‘What did I do?’ Cal whispers, more to himself, head in his hands.

‘I knew it! I knew we didn’t have the whole story!’ Miller blurts, breaking the spell. ‘Cal, you’re a fucking idiot! She disappeared for, like, twenty minutes, and you went and got yourself someone else. If I was Bianca, I would’ve said a lot worse about you on Twitter. Like, shame you’re such a dick.’

‘You didn’t give us the full story, Cal,’ Ravi says quietly.

One hand covers his face. ‘I forgot about the other girl,’ he croaks. ‘I’d had a drink; I thought it was more than twenty minutes. I thought she’d left the party for good.’

I’m almost surprised when I hear Aidan’s voice. ‘Cal, you’re gonna need to do someseriousgrovelling. We’ve put out a number one single which is based on a half-truth, which basically amounts to a lie. She came back to you, you moron. Our entire track is based on a misunderstanding.’

‘I didn’t know that, did I?’ Cal whispers again in agony, holding his head in his hands. ‘Fuck!’ he then hollers, getting to his feet. ‘Why do I always have to be such a massive prick?’

‘You should go visit her and apologise,’ Ravi suggests with a grin.

‘She’s in Manhattan, not all that far from here,’ J.B. adds. ‘Or call her.’

Cal paces. ‘Nah, nah, I gotta do better than that, mate. I gotta make this up to her good and proper.’ He rakes his fingers through his curly hair. ‘Shit. What can I do? I gotta make amends.’

I suppress a smile.

‘Dude, it’s been two years, she’s not gonna care,’ Miller states.

Not for the first time, I wish Miller would keep his mouth shut.

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