An Unexpected Phone Call

I had just gotten home from work on Monday when my phone rang.  I looked at it, ready to ignore Brody or James, but the number wasn't one of my contacts.  I answered tentatively.  "Hello?"

"Olivia?  Hi.  This is Allie," came the voice on the other end of the call.

"Allie...?" I asked, confused.

"Savannah's friend.  We met at the cabin."

"Oh," I replied.  "Um, hi.  What...?" I trailed off, bewildered.

"I have something I need to tell you.  Can I come over?  Or can we meet somewhere?" she asked.  I considered this.  I didn't know Allie at all.  She seemed nice, but she was also friends with Savannah, which makes her sketchy by association.  I had no reason to trust her.

"I don't think that's a good idea.  Can't you just tell me now on the phone?" I replied.

"I could, but what I have to say might be a little hard to believe.  If we meet in person, I can show you some things that might help you understand a little better," she said back.  "Please.  I wouldn't be asking you to do this if I didn't feel really strongly about it.  I know you barely know me, and I know you hate Savannah, but this is really important.  You can pick the place."

I sighed, and named a coffee shop about a half mile from my house.  She said she'd be there in 20 minutes, and I changed and put shoes on.  I left after 20 minutes, and quickly made it to the coffee shop.  She was already there, sitting at a table in the middle of the shop.  I looked around as I walked in, making sure Savannah wasn't there, or armed assassins, or anything else out of my overactive imagination.

I sat down silently and looked at her.  She looked nervous.  She smiled tightly at me, but I didn't smile back.  "Well?" I asked, hoping she'd get on with it.

She took a deep breath and started.  "What did Brody tell you when he left for Miami?" she asked.

"I thought this was about you telling me things, not me telling you things," I snapped back.

"Please just humor me," she said with a wry smile.

I huffed and then said, "He told me that some manager had gotten fired for using their email for inappropriate messages and pictures and his dad needed him to help find the replacement and train him."

Allie grimaced.  I raised an eyebrow, now more intrigued than irritated.  "What?" I asked.

"The person that the manager was emailing was Savannah," she said quietly.

"What?  How does Savannah know him?" I asked, not understanding what she was trying to tell me. 

"She doesn't," Allie said, patiently.  When I narrowed my eyes at her, she quickly amended, "Or at least, she didn't.  I guess now she probably knows him way better than she ever could have imagined."

I was getting impatient and irritated again.  I just wanted to know what the hell was going on, and I wasn't putting the pieces together in my head.  Luckily, Allie read it on my face, and explained.  "Apparently, back when Brody and Savannah were....a thing, something similar had happened.  Someone got fired, and Brody's dad dragged him back down there to fix it.  While he was there, he did a lot of, um, partying, and the evidence ended up on Facebook and Instagram and all over the internet."

She paused, and the wheels were finally turning in my head.  "So, are you saying that she purposely sought out this guy, and got him to send her inappropriate emails, hoping he would get fired?  So that Brody would have to go down there to fix it, and would hopefully do something stupid?"  Allie nodded miserably.

"It took awhile to hook him in, but she found him on a dating site, and contacted him through it.  And then," she continued, "Brody didn't do anything stupid, at least not publicly--" I glared at her.  "Sorry. He didn't do anything stupid, but his dad wanted to keep him, and well, you know the rest.  It worked out even better than she could have possibly planned."  With that, she clicked on her phone display and tapped the screen a few times.  She handed it to me, showing me texts that Savannah had sent her.  Sure enough, the texts supported her story, and Savannah seemed downright gleeful at the way things had worked out.

I handed the phone back, hands shaking.  Allie saw and quickly said, "Do you want some water?"  I shrugged, and she got up.  She came back with a glass of ice water and pushed it at me.  I wrapped my hands around it to still them, but didn't take a drink.  I was quiet for a long time, processing the information I had just been given.  Finally, I looked up at Allie.

"Why are you telling me this?  And why now?"

She covered her face with her hands.  "I should have told you sooner," she said, her voice muffled.  She moved her hands and looked at me.  "I'm sorry.  I should have.  I wish I had.  I've been thinking about doing it for a long time.  I don't have a good reason for waiting, but I'm telling you now because you should know."

I regarded her carefully.  "I don't blame you for not telling me sooner," I said finally.  "You're Savannah's friend, and your loyalty should lie with her.  I do appreciate you telling me now.  But if you don't mind, I'm going to go now."  She nodded, and I got up and left.

I drove straight to Lauren's house, calling her on the way to tell her I was coming.  When I got there, I told her everything.  She sat silently, stunned.  Finally she spoke.  "I knew Savannah was crazy, but I didn't think she'd seriously do anything to interfere with your relationship," she said slowly.  "I thought maybe she'd try to flirt with Brody in front of you, or spread rumors, or something like that.  I can't believe she actually got someone FIRED in hopes that Brody would fuck up in Miami.  That's...brilliant."  I glared at her.  "In a horribly awful, manipulative, way out of control way, obviously, don't look at me like that," she said hurriedly.

I sighed and massaged my neck.  "But, now what?" I asked.

"Well, you're going to tell him, right?"

"What would it change?" I asked softly.  "I mean, regardless of what she did, he went.  It was probably only a matter of time before his dad made the same offer anyway."

Lauren gaped at me.  "But...she did this.  He was a pawn."

"He let himself be a pawn.  I don't want to talk to him about it.  It won't change what happened."

Lauren stared at me, stunned.  "Well," she said finally, "I'm telling him.  He deserves to know what a terrible human being she is."

"Do whatever you want," I shot back.  "It still won't change anything.  You're right, he does deserve to know.  He deserves to know that he got played and fucked things up because of her."

Lauren hugged me suddenly, catching me completely off guard.  I hadn't realized there were hot, angry tears running down my face until that moment, and I sagged against her.  "It's okay, Liv," she said to me.  "Let me deal with it.  I'll tell him.  And then I'll make sure everyone knows how wretched she really is."