Page 41 of Puck Your Feelings

I open my podcast app to make sure I didn’t accidentally post something else by mistake, like my attempt at signing in the shower two weeks ago.

The episode sits at—holy hell—150k downloads in just under fifteen minutes. That has to be a new record.

But then, I scroll to the comments and my stomach drops so fast it's probably somewhere in the basement.

Is that Kane in the background??

Holy shit, you can hear someone arguing.

DRAMA

Background audio is WILD

Wait. What?

I jam my earbuds in with shaking hands and press play on episode, skipping to the middle and setting is to 2x speed.

My voice, talking about Wall-the-bear.

And underneath it, faint but definitely audible: another voice.

Kane's voice.

“Maybe I'd rather play beer league than have you micromanage my career.”

Oh fuck.

I keep listening, horror mounting with every second.

“—every aspect of my life.”

"I requested this transfer to get away from you!"

My entire body goes numb.

It’s a conversation. Muffled, like it's coming through a wall—or a window—but clear enough that you can hear every word.

Kane fighting with his father.

Private, painful, family shit that I just broadcast to 150K people and climbing.

My fingers are shaking as I desperately scramble to delete it. Where’s the fucking delete button?

But the episode's already been downloaded too many times. People are clipping it, sharing it on Twitter, uploading it to YouTube.

It's everywhere.

"Beck?" Wall's voice sounds far away. "You good?"

I look up, my face probably the color of a stop sign, and scan the dining hall.

Kane just walked in.

He's heading for the food line, his phone in his pocket.

Unaware.

As in slow motion, I watch as he looks around the space, only to find people staring.