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Chapter Thirty-Five

AURORA

I ’ve had shitty days before. Everyone has. I’ve had days that I could easily chalk up to being the worst day of my life. This takes the fucking cake though.

When I woke up this morning, I planned to go to the gym, go visit Dad, get my head straight. When I opened my phone, that was surprisingly turned into the hotel’s lost and found the morning after I drunkenly lost it, I was greeted by a screen full of notifications.

Jules’s texts were the ones that I homed in on. Screaming at me to call her, asking if everything was okay. I had no idea what she was talking about until I checked my other notifications.

They were flooded with people talking about my nudes. Private photos that weren’t meant to be seen by anyone. I took them when I was feeling myself a few weeks ago. They weren’t anything super scandalous, but all my parts were now still seen by the world. The pictures were floating around the internet, probably for the rest of forever.

Everything came crashing down.

I’m going to lose my chance at working for GRW or any major wrestling company. No one is going to want me because of my ‘ behavior’. They’ll claim it’s nothing personal, but I’ll see the looks in their eyes when they realize that I’m a nightmare.

I’ll be stuck working for pennies on the indies for the rest of my days because I know that Rise and Roll won’t take me back either. Too much baggage.

Dating will be impossible. My friends won’t be able to look me in the eyes because all they’ll ever be able to see are my tits.

Kai came over and I let him in, expecting him to lecture me. To make me feel worse because that’s what I want right now. I want to sink into this pathetic feeling. I’m at rock bottom, can’t get any lower. Of course, he didn’t. Kai is too much of a fucking angel. He tried to comfort me and I kicked him out of my room.

I know he hasn’t left yet.

When the door cracks open, I roll over to glare at him. Instead, I realize how much worse shit has gotten.

Theo is standing in my doorway in sweats and a t-shirt. His brown curls are messier than I’ve ever seen them. In his arms, I see what looks like a shadow with the brightest green eyes I’ve ever seen.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Checking on you, baby doll,” he says.

“Leave.”

“Nope. Not gonna. You want me to leave, you gotta get your ass out of bed and kick me out yourself. We both know you ain’t gonna do that, so…” He kicks the door closed behind him and steps further into my room, into my space.

He sits on the edge of my bed, placing the shadow down on it.

It’s the smallest black kitten I’ve ever seen. It stumbles over its own paws as it tries to get used to walking on my bed, over the wrinkled yellow duvet.

“You have a cat.” I hold my hand out, trying to beckon the kitten closer to me.

“Got her last week. Her name’s Rumour. ”

Something clicks and I tilt my head. “Rumour? Like…”

“The Fleetwood Mac album? Yeah.” Even in the darkness, I can see Theo smile. He leans back on one hand, the other drawing shapes on my blanket as Rumour watches him with the slightest hint of interest.

“Why did you name your cat after a Fleetwood Mac album?”

“‘Cause it reminded me of you.”

Any other time, I would’ve smiled. I would’ve melted, but it’s not happening. I think I’m more than a little broken right now.

Theo keeps trying to get Rumour to play and she only keeps watching. I hear him pop his lips before speaking. “Roo…do you want to talk about it? Juliette is worried. Kai’s worried. I’m fucking worried.”

I exhale through my nose, hard. “What’s there to talk about? I’m ruined because I’m stupid.”

His hand leaves the blanket, coming to grab my chin and force my gaze to meet his. “Uh-uh. Not stupid. We’re not doing that. You fucked up. It happens. Not the end of the world. Could’ve been worse. You just trusted the wrong bastard—”

That’s where I cut him off. “I didn’t send them to anyone, Theo.”

That’s what’s been driving me insane. I didn’t send the nudes to anyone. I took them and I wanted to send them to Theo, but I bitched out. So, I deleted them.

“You…took nudes and didn’t send them to anyone?” He sounds like he doesn’t believe me and what can I say? I wouldn’t believe that either.

I explain the entire situation to him. I tell him about taking them for him but never sending them, about losing my phone when I was slightly drunk, about getting it back the next morning. The only things I leave out are my conversation with Micah and what happened with Austin. It doesn’t seem necessary to the story.

Theo exhales heavily. “Lots to unpack there. You took nudes for me? In any other situation, I’d be fucking honored, Roo. You have no idea how… appreciated they would have been.”

The way his voice drops at the end, the suggestiveness in his tone, makes my pussy clench in the most annoying of ways. I’m fucking distraught, but she’s evidently still very interested in Theo.

Needy bitch.

“You got drunk with Austin? Don’t fucking like that, though. Dude’s a creep. He called you a slut, which is so far from cool. Especially since he didn’t run it by us first. That’s just wrestling 101. You don’t go for low blows without making sure it’s okay. I’m an asshole, and even I check in before I go for things like that.”

“I wasn’t that offended by the whole slut comment…” I chime in, but Theo ignores it. He’s on another train of thought.

“Where did you lose your phone? The hotel?” He makes a face. “Someone probably took it. You were drunk, not paying attention. Maybe they went through it and found the nudes. Decided to leak them…”

I groan, turning to hide my face in the pillow. “I don’t care why they leaked them, Theo. I care about how this is going to ruin my fucking life.”

Rumour comes over and sniffs my hair before curling up on the pillow next to my head. I wouldn’t exactly call it a cuddle, but it’s damn close enough.

I lean my head against her soft body as Theo leans back on both elbows next to me.

“Your life isn’t ruined, Roo. You’re being dramatic. So what if the world has seen you naked? You’re hot naked. They should be honored.”

“Yeah, I’m real sure Nathan’s going to feel honored about my nudes leaking and causing a PR circus.”

When it comes down to it, my job is my biggest concern. I don’t want to lose my dream over something so goddamn stupid. Wrestling is everything to me. It’s all that I’ve ever wanted, and now I might have to give it up. I don’t know who I am without it. I don’t want to know.

I’m broken from my spiral by the sound of Theo laughing. Obnoxiously laughing next to me as I’m going through a huge personal crisis.

“Something funny, Abrams?”

“Have you seen the shit that I’ve done, Aurora? Nathan’s not going to fucking fire you. He’s probably going to be relieved that I’m not the one fucking up for once.”

“I don’t even have a contract, Theo. Remember? You didn’t finagle one of those for me when you got me this job.” Yeah, I can’t help myself. I throw that back in his face again. “It’s just a pay-per-appearance situation. Those are easily discarded.”

Theo sighs. He shifts on the bed next to me, inching closer and trying not to disturb Rumour in the process. When she doesn’t seem bothered, he finally moves up so he’s leaning back on the pillows next to me.

I can’t say why I do it, but I reach up for his hand and Theo gives it to me. I trace my index finger over the callouses on his palm while he’s uncharacteristically quiet, just letting me touch him and try to ground myself.

“I’m not letting you lose your job over something that wasn’t your fault, Aurora,” he finally mumbles.

“I want to believe you,” I whisper back.

I want to believe in everything Theo promises me. That he won’t hurt me, that I can trust him, that I won’t lose my job. And maybe I still can’t convince myself that the first two are possible, but I need something to believe in right now.

A little string of hope to keep me from plummeting down in the depths of a depression that I’m not sure I’ll be able to pull myself out of.

Hope is what has kept me going for so long. When my mom died, when my stepmom died, when Dad had his stroke. I had hope that I was going to achieve my dreams. Something to hold onto in the darkness.

“Believe in me then, baby doll.” His hand captures mine, giving it a small tug so he can lace our fingers together.

And now, my little string of hope, is the person who I used to think I hated with everything in me.