Viral footage
Lilly.
“I think someone is stalking me,” I told Leah a week later. I had just sat down at the diner where she had been waiting for me after leaving work early. Walking from the office to the diner, I had felt that someone was watching me. Even in the morning when I arrived at work, I had felt it. I called the officer in charge of Kyle’s case and he confirmed that Kyle was still behind bars.
“Are you serious?” She asked before closing the book she had been reading and placing it on top of the table. I glanced at it before turning back to her.
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure you’re not worrying too much about Kyle?” she inquired. “Maybe it’s the stress making you hear things.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I’m very sure that someone is following me.”
“Who do you think it could be? Kyle’s still in jail, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe Mrs. Rylland is having you followed. Maybe she found out about your little tryst with Jake.”
I looked around the diner. None of the people inside it looked suspicious. A woman with two children at either side was entering the diner while talking on phone.
“Maybe, but it’s highly unlikely. Mrs. Rylland is not like that. She’s not a patient woman. If she had found out about Jake and I, she would have attacked by now. That woman doesn’t waste time. I wonder about Kyle’s mother. She didn’t seem crazy when we met but who knows how far the apple fell from the tree. Maybe she’s angry that I’m the reason her son is in jail.”
“Her son is the reason he’s in jail.”
“Well, people think differently. If she’s anything like him, she’ll blame me for everything.”
The waitress placed our food on the table.
“Eat fast before it gets dark,” Leah told me as she pulled her plate closer. “We have to get back home before it gets dark and some psycho murders us.”
“Don’t make jokes like that.”
“I’m not joking.”Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!
We dug into our food and finished within thirty minutes. There was no conversation during the meal like we always had. Leah who was supposed to reduce my fears increased them. She was way more paranoid than I was.
When we finished our food, we paid and left the diner. The feeling of being watched still lingered on, following me everywhere I went. We were a few blocks away from the diner when someone grabbed my hair out of nowhere.
“Ahhh,” I screamed as the person pulled it. I stopped walking and turned. She let go of my hair.
“You b1tch!” Leah yelled at Ashley. “You’re Ashley Kendall. What the hell!”
“You won’t take him away from me,” Ashley said before charging at me. I grabbed her hair and pulled her head away from me. She latched on to my ears with her claws. I screamed before scratching her hands until she let me go. A man came and pulled her away from me. As a crowd formed and people started taking photographs, he pulled her towards a waiting car. She was bundled in and it drove away.
“What was that?” I asked Leah as I stared at the car disappearing around the corner. It had never occurred to me that I would ever be attacked by a supermodel, not in my wildest dreams.
“I can’t believe it too. Ashley Kendall is totally jealous of you. I thought she was one of the smart ones.”
“That woman is crazy. Jake was right. She kissed him.”
“But he was with her willingly in Catalina Island. Don’t forget that part.”
I sighed. “How can i? This means Jake doesn’t want her. Why didn’t she go after heather then?”
“Because you’re an easy target. You’re a regular girl with no security, no money. If you went against her in court, she’d win. But heather is from old money. Those kinds of families can destroy a person within seconds. No one touches them.”
“I can’t believe that woman was following me.”
“Stranger things have happened.”
After what happened, we decided to get a taxi to take us home. Leah decided to sleep over at my house. Since the next day was a weekend, we didn’t have to worry about getting up early and all that annoying stuff.
We were going to watch a movie but decided to catch up with the current news first. Right after turning the TV, a footage of me fighting with Ashley showed up. But that was not the most shocking thing. It was the headline. Lilith Hellman and Ashley Kendall fight for Jake Rylland.
“What the hell, I was just defending myself.”
“A viral footage shows Lilith Hellman and Ashley Kendall fighting at a street in Manhattan this evening,” Chrissy Rainer, an entertainment news anchor reported. “According to several eyewitnesses, they were fighting because of Jake Rylland. Ashley Kendall was heard saying “You won’t take him away from me”. By him, she meant Jake Rylland who she has recently fallen in love with. Ashley Kendall did not look her usual prim and proper self and we’re not sure if she’s okay. What do you think about this, Kelly?”
Her co-anchor Kelly smiled. “I’m really surprised. I had no idea that Lilith Hellman was interested in Jake Rylland at all. This is a woman who constantly wrote negative articles about Jake. Ashley did not look too good, either. Maybe she got all this misconstrued.”
“But haven’t you noticed that Lilith Hellman has stopped writing negative articles about Jake. Why would she suddenly stop? Could it be possible that she fell for him?”
“Oh I don’t know for sure,” Kelly said. “It’s possible. I mean, look at Jake.”
A picture of Jake was shown on the side of the screen. He was wearing a blue suit while walking out of his company building. He looked perfect as usual.
Kelly continued. “The man is hot, and half of New York women would want him. It’s possible that Lilith Hellman fell in love.”
Chrissy chuckled. “That would be too bad. I’ve seen Lilith Hellman. She’s a beauty, can’t deny that but I don’t think she’s Jake’s type. Ashley is more like it.”
I turned off the television. “Stupid, judgemental women.”
“Sorry, dear. Don’t worry about them. They’re just stuck up b! tches with miserable lives.”
“Are you sure their lives are miserable or you’re just saying that to make me feel better.” I asked, raising my brows.
“What do you want to hear?” Leah asked. “The truth?”
“No, thanks. I’ve already been hurt enough today.”
Immediately, my phone started ringing. I grabbed it and checked the caller ID. The caller was not in my contact list.
“Hello,” I said after picking up.
“Lilith Hellman.”
When I heard the voice, I dropped my phone on the couch like hot coals.
“Who’s it?” Leah asked.
“Jake’s mother,” I said hysterically. “Help me turn it off.”
Leah grabbed the phone. “Go fvck yourself.” she told the older woman before hanging up.
“You didn’t have to say that.”
“Someone has to defend you,” she said before switching off the phone. A few minutes later, I began to think that switching off the phone had been a bad idea. I knew Mrs. Rylland wasn’t going to rest easy.
I picked up the phone and turned it back on.
“You’re making a big mistake,” Leah said.
“We’ll see.” I told her.