Chapter Twenty-Five ~ Intervention-1

I didn't want to say I'd been here before. But, well, I'd been here before. "Poppy and Cole's house," Felix said, hopping out of the car the moment it was stationery. I followed him as he tapped a code into the gate and let himself in. It was as spacious on the inside as it seemed on the outside, the interior decorated with bunches of flowers and seashells that I suspected were Poppy's doing. "Come on," he said, leading me up a wooden staircase. On the upper floor there were lights on. Felix paced towards one of the doors and knocked loudly. The door down the hall opened instead, Poppy standing there with a robe on, her fair features creased with the early stages of sleep. "Felix—Josie, what's going on?" "We need to talk to Cole," he said. I waited for him to give her more of an explanation. When he didn't, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Why do you need to talk to him so bad?" I'd never really seen Poppy defensive of her brother. In fact, they always seemed to be bickering. But now she moved so she was between Felix and the door. "You need to tell me what's going on." "Jeez, Pop. We just need to talk to him. Why isn't he answering, where is—" Suddenly the door opened. In the threshold stood Cole, his red hair mussed and deep gray circles beneath his eyes. For once his harsh cheekbones didn't look aristocratic or elegant, instead they looked hollow. "What do you want?" Poppy rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air. "I tried." "What the hell, man," Felix said. Then his hands were on his best friend's shoulders. "Are you high." Cole gave a big, shallow smile as he swayed on the spot, answering Felix's question. "He's been smoking all day. Ever since Penelope left this morning," Poppy said. Her voice was small. "Smoking what?" I asked, looking from her to Cole. Suddenly the encounter at the party came to mind. "God knows." Poppy scowled at Felix. "I'm looking after him. You don't need to be here." "We need to talk with him alone," Felix said. Poppy's expression darkened. "What? You want to hide more stuff from me? First Ella, then Cole, Jada, and now you guys. What am I to you?" "We're trying to keep you out of a huge fucking mess, Poppy," Felix said. Finally I saw it, a sliver of his anger again. "Trust us." Poppy's jaw pulsed and she shifted her weight, but she didn't budge. "You know what, fine." Felix sternly directed Cole back into his bedroom. The bed was unmade, and a lamp on in the corner. Felix moved to turn on the main light, and when he did I saw that he hadn't been alone in his bedroom. "What the fuck," Poppy said. "What are you doing here?" Jada looked incredibly startled, perched on the edge of Cole's bed with one of his shirts on. She looked at Cole, as if begging him to offer some kind of information. When he didn't, Felix spoke. "This situation is really, really, complicated." "So wait, let me get this straight." Poppy screwed her eyes shut and rubbed at her temples. "You and Penelope have never even been dating all these years?" "Well, we've been pretending to," Cole said. I think he'd sobered a little when his sister had slapped him in the face somewhere amongst the explanation. I was sitting on a chair in the corner, my arms wrapped around my shins. "And she was paying you? For what... appearances?" All of us watched her, waiting for it to drop. "And you," she looked to Jada. "You weren't really her friend." "Well, I was, I was just also... well, paid to be." "And you." Her gaze then found Felix. "Her photographer, come assistant in... I guess keeping us all together." "Wow." "And... me," I said finally. My voice was hoarse. "I was supposed to keep an eye on Cole to make sure he honored their contract. Her reputation. I had no idea it was this... messed up." Poppy started laughing rather hysterically. "Are you guys playing some gigantic prank on me?" "I really wish we were," Felix said. "This isn't just some huge story to cover the fact that my brother is having an affair with my best friend?" She gave a hurtful look to Cole and Jada. "We never planned this," Jada said with desperation, her eyes fixed pleadingly on Poppy. "It was never supposed to happen." Poppy laughed again. "Aren't you angry?" Felix asked. He turned to Cole. "Don't you want this to end?" "Now you just told Poppy everything, yeah," he said sourly. His words were slow, still coming down from his high. The smell of weed cloaked his bedroom. "You're not supposed to keep secrets from me—and now you're basically telling me everything for the last three years has been a lie!" Poppy's voice was loud now. She stood up. "I'm going to call Penelope." "No!" We all stood to our feet. "If you do that, she will ruin everything. She's got stuff on us, Poppy," Jada said. "If the contracts aren't enough reason, then the dirt she has is." "Am I the only one here that doesn't have fucking secrets?" Poppy said. Her eyes were starting to sparkle and I looked to my hands in guilt. She was right. If we were all clean of scandals, this wouldn't be an issue. Jada stood to take Poppy's hand, but Poppy brushed her away, as if she were covered in acid.