Page 71 of The Reunion

He turns his eyes on me now, and they’re emptier than I’ve ever seen.

“Anything else?”

It takes a minute to set in, the pain: I imagine it’s like the white-hot, searing sensation that radiates down to the bone after the initial numb shock of finding your hand in fire. Never in a million years did I imagine confessing my love—confessingeverything—to Ransom and having this be the fallout.

I blink, over and over, hoping it will clear the blur. It doesn’t. “I think I should go,” I say, standing. “I can’t be here right now.”

He’s too quiet, too still. He definitely doesn’t try to stop me.

I leave him alone in the glow of lamplight, let myself out the front door. I’m so focused on getting out of there, on putting one foot ahead of the other until I find myself somewhere that isn’t completely falling apart, that I forget what’s waiting for me outside.

An ambush of flashbulbs, bright and blinding, catch me on my way out. They’re so disorienting I nearly slip on Ransom’s front steps, but I manage to steady myself before breaking an ankle or worse.

“Liv, Liv!” they shout, an ambiguous chorus obscured by foliage and the thick iron bars of the property’s perimeter gate.

Where’s Ransom, Liv? Did you break up? Are you still together? Were youevertogether? Liv! Over here, Liv!

It takes all the energy I have left to force my face into something resembling easy peace, especially knowing it’s far too late for that—the damage has been done. No one will be posting Serene Liv on Her Wayto Her Car when they’ve captured frame upon frame of Angry Blindsided Liv Nearly Breaks Her Face on Front Stoop.

I climb into my car, slam the door, and start the ignition. Slowly, I ease down the drive. One particularly stubborn photographer stands firm beside his camera and tripod just outside the gate, which opens in toward me instead of brushing him aside. He doesn’t move, daring me to stay locked in this prison of public humiliation. I flash my brights at him, a warning, but he still doesn’t move.

Okay, then.

I press my foot on the accelerator, wincing as thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment are ground to pieces under my tires with a sickening crunch. At least its owner had the good sense to move out of the way.

Spotted, Live!: Handsome Ransom + Lovely Liv (!!!)

In this brand! new! feature!, we here atDizzymagazine will bring you *real-time* updates as we get them, straight from @ZeniaDiLitto’s couch to yours! Grab some popcorn and pajamas, friends… we suspect this will be suuuuuuuper boring until it suddenly isn’t!

(Feel free to post all your burning questions/comments below—if there’s downtime, Zenia will do her best to reply!)

ZDL, 7:00 p.m.—Ohhhkay, y’all, here we go! Brand-new segment here thanks to the highly exciting information we’ve learned today about certain developments in Liv’s Love Land (sorry, couldn’t resist, promise to never use that one again). Rather than writing article upon article and forcing you into an internet scavenger hunt for the latest updates, figured it would be most efficient to put them here, all in one spot! SO. In case you’re not caught up:here’sthe news that broke today about Liv Latimer and Ransom Joel being A THING;hereis a Very Interesting Post breaking down theories about whether they’ve loved each other all along (or whether this is just a timely publicity stunt in the lead-up to theGirl on the Vergereunion special); andhere,here, andhereare more in-depth takes on all the developments we’ve seen today, complete with at least two polls where you can weigh in. Obviously, you’ll find a hundred other posts on this subject, but I’ve done my best to curate a list of the mostimportant ones for you to start with. More updates as things unfold!

ZDL, 7:52 p.m.—Okay, so I thought for *sure* we’d see some new developments tonight, but it looks like there’s not a ton to report. At least this is giving everyone *plenty* of time to catch up on all the articles/polls I mentioned earlier. Question, while we’re waiting! What’s your favorite popcorn1topping? Mine’s sea salt and cayenne pepper, with chocolate chips mixed in.

ZDL, 8:44 p.m.—Hoooooooly crap, you guys, A THING HAS HAPPENED. I repeat, A THING HAS HAPPENED. Word has it that Liv’s car has just pulled up to Ransom’s gate. This is about to get GOOD.

ZDL, 8:45 p.m.—My source on the ground just gave methis link to a live stream, open in a fresh window so you can watch side by side with our live updates!

ZDL, 8:47 p.m.—LOOK AT THAT LOOK. I want a man who looks at me like Ransom’s looking at Liv right now, because holy wow, y’all. She looks amazing in that orange dress—she knows it, and he most definitely knows it. I kind of can’t believe all we’re getting is this tame side hug right now.

ZDL, 8:49 p.m.—I know, I know, we’re pretty evenly split here on the possibility that this is all just one big publicity stunt, but I don’t know, y’all. Wouldn’t they have gone full-on front-porch make-out session if they really wanted to get us talking? That said, I can only imagine what’s going on just behind that closed door…;)

ZDL, 9:04 p.m.—I STAND CORRECTED. WHAT HAPPENED BEHIND THAT CLOSED DOOR COULD NOT HAVE BEENGOOD. NOT AT ALL. I AM STUCK ON CAPS LOCK RE: HOW ENTIRELY NOT GOOD THIS LOOKS WTF

ZDL, 9:05 p.m.—Yiiiiiikes she almost busted her gorgeous face, did y’all see that?! Honestly hate this for her right now :(

ZDL, 9:06 p.m.—More convinced than ever that this is NOT just a publicity stunt… Liv’s good at acting, but that look on her face on her way out the door 100% screamed “we were a thing, but now we’re not” and ughhhhhh this is SO DISAPPOINTING, I ship them SO HARD

ZDL, 9:07 p.m.—Dude, our live-feed camera guy better get out of her way—I have a feeling Liv’s not in the mood to play right now, and honestly, I don’t blame her one bit. Like, yeah, we want to see what’s going on, but now I kinda feel like we’ve walked in on someone’s bedroom in the middle of the night, where she just needs to be alone for a minute with her FEEEEEELINGS (along with the various pieces of heart that have just chipped off thanks to whatever happened inside that house). Liv clearly doesn’t want company right now… I wouldn’t either… but gahhhh, why is it so hard to look away??? I hate that I can’t look away right now, what is wrong with me?

ZDL, 9:08 p.m.—And—oh. Well. There goes the live feed. I know a lot of you will probably be Team Broken Camera, but for the record, I’ve decided I’m firmly Team Liv.

1Full disclosure: Spotted, Live! is sponsored by Pop It Like It’s Hot popcorn, but let it be known that we here atDizzywere fans first—our love for their organic heirloom blue corn (not to mention their punny inspirational messages on the packaging) is as pure as it gets!

22

The drive home is a blur. Streetlights, taillights, and—eventually—a bit of starlight once I turn onto PCH. If anyone was attempting to follow me out of Ransom’s neighborhood, I’ve lost them by now.

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