Page 24 of Fight For Her
“Kendahl and Coby, right?” the guy said. “Hey, I’m Aiden Aarons. You might recognize me from my YouTube channel.”That’s where I’d seen him. Lee had shown me one of his videos where he interviewed random people on the street.
I found my voice, but as I was about to speak, he cut me off again.
“I recorded your battle last night. You guys went viral. I’m talking a million views since last night and counting.”
My jaw hit the floor.
“You’re kidding, right?” Coby said as he laughed.
“Not kidding. Someone even made a song parody,” Aiden said.
Phone girl pressed her phone into my mortified face and there it was, an Alvin and the Chipmunks sounding Coby singing a familiar song. Ed Sheeran? I couldn’t be sure because he was cut short by the camera panning to me vomiting all over myself. Overly exaggerated retching sounds were dubbed over it, and the clip was replayed again and again to over the top music.
My face felt like molten lava as I turned to Coby. I’d be a laughingstock. I’d never get a dream job now. I’d bet if I grabbed my phone, there’d already be a hundred messages from Claudia in my inbox. I wobbled against the doorframe, and Coby reached for me before I could brush him off.
“Bro, I can’t believe you posted that shit. Take it down.” His voice deepened.
Aiden held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, hey…it’s not just that part that everyone’s going apeshit over, man. The whole internet fell in love with you two. Honestly, I was surprised by the comments.”
“In love? What do you mean?” I couldn’t catch a full breath.
He nodded to his friend, and the camera went back up. Coby looked two seconds away from committing murder.
“Off, now,” he said.
The friend lowered the phone, but I wasn’t sure if she’d actually turned it off or not.
Aiden continued, “The whole world wants to know. Are you two together? Did he win you back with his serenade?”
This was too much. I needed a shower and coffee. Most importantly coffee. And apparently to check my phone. I took a deep breath to answer truthfully, but once again I was cut off.
“Yes. We’re back together.” Coby slung his arm around me, ripping the armpit of my favorite nightshirt. “Right, baby?”
I scowled as I hyper focused on the tear before snapping my gaze upward. What did he just say?
As I was about to retort with the truthful answer, Coby shut the door in Aiden’s face. With his arms crossed, he looked at me as smug as can be.
Chapter 11
Coby
“Whatthehell,Coby?”She was pissed. I could almost see the steam coming off of her. I had to play my cards carefully.
“Listen, we can use this to our advantage,” I said.
She crossed her arms and sank onto the bed. “What advantage? You saw that video. My career will be ruined. I need to do damage control. It’s my specialty after all.”
I sat next to her on the bed, ripping the ridiculous straitjacket of a nightshirt off so I could breathe again.
“You of all people know how good this could look for you. Think about it. You talked about wanting to move up the ladder when we were dating. This could be the kind of thing that could launch you into the career of your dreams.”
She brushed me off before she reached over the side of the bed and came back up with her phone in hand. “Great. My battery died.”
“Did you hear what I said? What do you think?” I asked.
Without answering, she plugged in her phone. My mind whirled, and I laid back on her bed, letting this whole thing sink in. Going viral meant a lot for me too. I thought about this YouTube guy finding Clyde and interviewing him. That would be my worst nightmare come to life.It meant the past I left behind in Verdant Valley might get drudged up to the people I cared for here in Florida, the life I’d created away from the toxicity of my family and that town brought into my present. Nothing good would come from that.
If we played the nice and boring couple, then everyone would back off. There was no story if there was no drama. I haven’t watched much reality TV, but I knew enough to know, nobody thought twice about the happy couples. It was the rocky ones who made ratings.
