Page 86 of Lights, Camera, Love

AUSTIN:Evie’s not picking up either. ARE U WITH HER? Answer ur fucking phone! I am ur BOSS and its a work day. FFS Kye! WHERE ARE U???

Jesus Christ.

I pull up Nadia’s social media page, and my gut clenches at her latest post. It’s a blurry screengrab of Austin, stamped with an ‘adult content’ warning.

I inhale sharply and tap on the video. Austin stands in front of a full-length wardrobe mirror, wearing only a pair of boxer briefs. While filming himself with one hand, he glides his other down the front of his stomach. I hit the pause button. I’ve never seen the rest of this recording, and I have no desire to. He already told me what happens: he undresses, he talks dirty to himself about how hot he is, and he jerks off. Imagining it makes me cringe.

I take a number of screencaps, then close Nadia’s page and tap out a message to Austin.

ME:Meet me at the Bondi police station in ten minutes.

CHAPTER 22

Evie

Some people say you should never meet your heroes. I say you should never watch your teenage hero choking the chicken in front of a mirror while gasping out things like, ‘Oh yeah, you want this hot meat, don’t you, baby?’ and ‘You like a big banana, don’t you? Don’t you? Ooh, yeah.’

My stomach roils. I slide my phone across the table of the sushi restaurant as if Austin might burst out of it, his sweaty bits still gripped in his hand.

Guilt gnaws at me when I think about having watched that video all the way through. Austin would probably fall into a coma from embarrassment, but once I pressed play, the short clip was so shocking that I couldn’t look away, and before I knew it, he’d already …gulp.

Is it possible to undergo enough hypnosis to delete a memory entirely?

I pick up my phone again, checking that Kye hasn’t sent a message in the thirty seconds since I last looked.

Why haven’t I heard from him all day? Could he still be at the jail with his brother? He was so unsure about going. Unease flickers through me—I hope it went okay.

Rafael clasps my shoulder from behind, making me jerk with fright. He apologises for that, and for being late.

‘It’s okay, lovely,’ I say, rising to kiss his cheek.

‘I was on the phone to Austin,’ he explains as he shrugs off his billowing black cloak, which looks like something Count Dracula would wear. A super-hot Dracula, that is.

‘Austin?’

He drops into the chair opposite me. ‘I wanted to call him after that video went up. To make sure he knows it’s a fucking crime in this country to post that sort of shit online. Remember that ex from dance college who threatened to leak all my nudes?’

My mouth tilts down. ‘Yeah.’

‘Obviously, I don’t know Austin that well, but I wanted to tell him that he’s got my support.’ Rafa reaches for the old wine bottle that’s filled with water and pours us two glasses. ‘Who’s the bitch who posted it, anyway?’

Another serving of guilt leaches into me over having played the video, but I guess Rafa did, too, or he wouldn’t know what was in it.

‘It was his ex-wife,’ I say. I could tell it was her by her username, Nadia-Reynolds-something-or-other. ‘Apparently, she’s been having a hard time with their divorce, and I don’t know, maybe this was a very screwed-up way to get his attention.’

Rafael chokes on his water. ‘Austin was married?’

‘Yeah. They split up a couple of years ago.’

Billie Eilish serenades us from the wooden table, and I snatch up my phone. My heart does a little jump. ‘It’s Kye.’

‘Answer it,’ Rafa encourages. ‘I’ll see if they still have that pinot grigio you loved last time.’

‘Okay, thanks. I won’t be long.’ I turn away from him and answer the call. ‘Hello?’

‘Hi.’

Kye’s rich, warm voice trickles into my ear. If he was here, I’d be clinging onto him like a koala. ‘I tried calling you earlier,’ I say.

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