A House United

“Fuck.” You, Stella, Cassie, Viv, and Tanya all say in unison. You glance at Becca, and you find her seemingly problem solving already in her mind. You catch Maddy being a bit more lost by the revelation, as she seems to be checking on everyone’s reaction.

“Yeah. That’s what I said too.” Brooke admits, the guilt in her voice palpable.

“So Ms. Courtney possibly thinks Jay has the app too. Why is that a big deal?” Maddy asks innocently.

“It’s more than a possibility at this point, Maddy. She knows and she’s hostile. A troubling combination for all of us.” Becca deftly summarizes the problem to Maddy.

“‘Hostile’ is a bit of a jump, isn’t it?” Maddy continues to ask.

“Did you not hear a word I said, Maddy?” Brooke answers, unable to control herself from releasing snark and sarcasm in her tone as her guilt in causing this problem seems to be eating her up. Thankfully, Brooke seems to realize this too, and she immediately apologizes to Maddy for her tone.

“She thinks Brooke, and everyone in Papi's orbit, is being mind-controlled. Worse, she’s dead-set in trying to ‘free’ her and, possibly by extension, us. It’s one thing to think papi can mind-control us, but to learn that there’s an explanation for how he’s possibly doing it… it removes any chance of him explaining it to her without hostility.” Tanya explains.

“I basically removed any chance of talking to her without hostility after what she went through with me and Brooke anyway. The problem now is she has more reasons not to trust me.” You add.

“I get all that.” Maddy surprisingly replies. “My original concern was more towards what could she possibly do?” Maddy adds, to the obvious confusion of everyone.

“I mean, even if she is as ‘hostile’ as you guys think, she most likely has the base capabilities of the app. Jay told us he needed to max out Cassie’s affection score before he unlocked the app’s trait shop. As long as she doesn’t have traits that can counter the traits Jay bought, then her ‘hostility’ is a non-issue.” Maddy explains, making everyone tilt their head in consideration of her point.

“I also don’t think her reaction immediately leads to hostility. She was only cautious of Jay after acquiring the app, and after understanding it more, her first reaction wasn’t hostility either. Her intentions of ‘freeing’ Brooke, misguided as it is, came from a place of concern and friendship. At least, based on Brooke’s retelling of events.” Maddy continues.

“I think there’s still a possibility that Ms. Courtney will be open to Jay and Brooke talking to her and explaining to her her situation with the app.” Maddy concludes.

“Not that I disagree with you completely, Maddy, but you’re jumping to conclusions just as much as we are.” Becca points out, causing Maddy to frown. Though, Becca wouldn’t see Maddy’s reaction herself as Becca seems to be busy with something on her phone.

“It’s only a non-issue if Courtney does not max out anybody’s affection. However, it seems you forgot about the fact that she’s in a relationship with that mountain that inexplicably fawns over her. It’s not outside the realm of possibility happening soon, based on how quickly the app can increase one’s scores.” Becca adds, as she places her phone on the table, seemingly done with it.

“And once she does, she knows exactly how Jay is influencing everyone with the app.” Tanya adds to Becca’s point.

“And hostility is definitely where her head would be when it does.” Brooke adds even further.

“I’m kinda leaning towards Maddy’s line of thinking now. What would that mean, exactly?” Viv asks.

“I think Maddy touched on it already. She can start farming her own points to acquire traits that counter whatever traits she thinks Jay is using to ‘mind-control’ us.” Becca answers Viv.

“And what are those, exactly?” Viv asks pointedly, and the silence that ensues is deafening.

…

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Viv says smugly, before giving a wink to Maddy, who blushes and smiles shyly out of appreciation of Viv’s support.

“Viv’s right. None of us are here because Jay used traits to **** us to love him.” Maddy says confidently, and the silent nods of agreement from all of your girlfriends can’t help but tug at your heartstrings.

…

“I hate to be a downer, but she can still fuck with us regardless.” Brooke points out, pulling everyone back to a sobering reality.

“I’m not sure if I’m imagining hearing this about your app, but you can delete traits you’ve already bought, right?” Brooke asks you.

“I can if I choose to, but I can’t recover the points I’ve spent if I do. Why do you—” You answer her, before trying to ask why she did. Until it dawns on you exactly why Brooke asked the question.

‘Courtney might be able to do the same to you’

“Assuming the app works the same way for her, then she can’t do anything to your profile page the same way you can’t do anything to hers.” Brooke prefaces, before taking a pause to choose her next words.

“But…?” Tanya asks.

“But… we aren’t protected the same way.” Brooke says ominously, and yours and Becca’s eyes immediately dart towards Cassie.

“That means she could remove Cassie’s trait.” You say in realization.

“And allow my father to respond to our relationship as indiscriminately as he chooses.” Becca adds.

“Can’t your ‘nuclear deterrent’ prevent that?” Tanya asks.

“Like I said previously, my threat of revealing Cassie’s existence to my mother wasn’t as much of a deterrent as you all thought. Father has probably begun taking the necessary steps so that he doesn’t lose his voting shares and his control of the company in the event of a divorce. This’ll alarm my mother of course, but with my resignation most likely already doing so, I’m assuming that’s a risk he’s willing to take.” Becca answers.

It’s this added info that starts making everyone realize the gravity of Courtney’s possible hostility — and you notice it affecting one person more heavily than the others. The one who made everyone realize all of this to begin with — Brooke.

Brooke has her arms resting on the table, her hands clasped together like she’s praying, but they're obviously shaking. Her eyebrows are furrowed, while you can only describe her lips as if she’s snarling. A look of disgust that’s pointed at no one but herself.

Before you could say or do anything to comfort your girlfriend, someone breaks the silence that’s enveloped your group.

“Then we talk to her.” Stella suddenly chimes in, surprising everyone, as she’s been silent throughout all this. “Now.” Stella then adds, with emphasis.

“Did any of you even listen to my story!?” Brooke says, her emotions finally bursting out. “If I could have talked to her afterwards then I would have! I looked for her everywhere already!” Brooke shouts, and this time, it doesn’t seem to occur to her that she’s coming off as aggressive.

“Brooke,” You finally address her directly, and it’s your voice that seemingly makes her realize what she just did. “No one’s blaming you for what happened.” You assure her, getting nods of approval from Viv, Tanya, Maddy, and Becca.

“Well… you should.” Brooke says, obviously dejected with herself.

Cassie suddenly stands up from her seat and seemingly makes her way towards Brooke. You and other girls aren’t sure what Cassie intends to do, and even Brooke’s look of dejection changes to one of surprise, as Cassie too has been noticeably quiet throughout this discussion. You haven’t seen her since last night, and can only imagine what she’s going through after only hearing your daughter’s side of the story. Does she actually think Brooke’s at fault? Is she angry with her?

Whatever action you and the others thought Cassie would do, it wasn’t anywhere close to what she actually does — Cassie wraps her arms around Brooke and hugs her, resting her cheek on top of Brooke’s hair.

“I know what you’re going through.” Cassie tells Brooke. “I felt exactly what you’re feeling right now after what happened with my mom and Becca’s dad. I blamed myself for bringing that shitstorm into our lives.” Cassie continues. “And now… everyone’s worried about what Courtney might do because of that exact same shitstorm possibly coming back to bite us.” Cassie

“But this is NOT on you, Brooke. This is not on us. You told Courtney exactly what she needed to hear. Maybe it wasn’t ideal how you told her, but it was obvious from your story that you only blurted it out like that because you weren’t comfortable lying to her.” Cassie continues to comfort Brooke.

“If she does do all of that and tries to mess with our relationship, then there’s no one to blame but her.” Cassie concludes, and Brooke’s eyes become watery from hearing Cassie’s words.

You finally stand up from your seat and mirror Cassie’s hug on the other side of Brooke. You feel her tears finally begin to flow in earnest, as she places a hand on yours and Cassie’s forearms in gratitude, and you see her smiling in appreciation.

You then see Stella stand up from her seat, and you notice the tears welling up in her eyes too. Though it may seem that she stood up to show the same support towards Brooke, as you and Cassie did, her teary eyes are locked on to someone else.

“Cass,” Stella says, her voice quivering. You look at Cassie, and her expression mirrors Stella’s almost exactly. You give Brooke’s shoulder one last squeeze, signaling to her what you intend to do, and you feel Brooke squeeze your hand in return to tell you that she understands. You then separate from Brooke, backing up a few steps, giving Stella and Cassie a clear lane to meet in the middle.

The two best friends basically sprint towards one another, almost as if in slow motion in your mind, before finally embracing each other in a tight warm hug.

“I’M SO SORRY!”