I hear Alva yelling, even more angry than she was before.

"At least he said please."

A door slams in the background and then there's quiet.

"What happens when Valentina sees the posts Ronnie."

"She's actually here now. Visiting Michael. I'm sure she'll be fine."

I can sense the annoyed eye roll through the phone.

"Bullshit Ronnie. She likes you. She cares about you. It's going to hurt her. You can't just pretend like there was nothing between you two."

"Sure I can. There was nothing other than sex."

Max sighs and lowers his voice.

"Do you know the shit I went through today, so Alva wouldn't fly over and kill you? That's her best friend. You're such a jackass."

Michael walks in and motions for me to hang up the phone. Max is still complaining.

"Yeah, uh. I gotta go Max. Bye."

I hang up before Max can say anything more. I'll get shit for that later.

~Michael~

I leave Val in the living room to make sure Ronnie isn't tweeting out any sassy ass remarks or responses. When he says goodbye to Max, I sigh in relief. We just gotta wait for this thing to blow over, then it'll all be fine. Hopefully.

"It was just Max and Alvin. It's alright."

I nod my head.

"I checked Valentina's twitter. People are leaving her alone. For now. Half of your tweets are from angry followers. They started the hashtag, takeawayronniesmicstand."

Ronnie busts out laughing. I appreciate the creativity as well, but it's a hashtag against him.

"Ronnie this is serious. They're trying to get you kicked out of Falling In Reverse."

Ronnie laughs even harder.

"That's not going to happen. It's fine Michael."

"Okay but what if they start boycotting tours? Or get you kicked out of venues because you don't know how to treat women?"

Ronnie rolls his eyes. This fucker is always complaining about how much sass there is in this house but he has the most sass.

"I don't know how to treat woman? May I remind you that she hit me, more than the one time in front of you. I should file assault charges against the bitch."

"That's literally not my point at all. It'd just be looked at like it's retaliation. Just don't give this girl anymore attention. Let it settle for a few days and then just let everything go back."

Ronnie starts pouting.

"But I could do assault and slander."

"Do you really want to sit in a court room Ronnie?"

He sighs and admits defeat.

"Fuck you're right. You can't tell Valentina then."

I stare at him in disbelief.

"Um what?"

"You can't tell her."

"So you want her to find out from twitter, or the guys, or Alvanis?"

He looks at me and I see the plea in his eyes. When it comes to this girl, he makes the dumbest decisions. Fuck. She's going to find out, there's no way she won't.

"I want her to hear about it from me."

"Ronnie. I think that'll just make it worse. She understands you're an adult and you're going to do what you want. She thinks you want absolutely nothing to do with her. She's just gonna think that you're telling her because you want to throw it in her face."

Ronnie's about to say something but the doorbell rings. We look at each other, confused.

"Were you expecting anyone?

"Just Val and she's already here. You?"

"No..."

We both go out, through the living room, to see Val has opened the front door.

~Valentina~

When Michael left me in the living room to go talk to Ronnie, I stayed out of it. Not my business. I'd been flipping through the TV channels, trying to find something to watch, when the doorbell rings. Out of habit I get up to answer it. I open the door and see a familiar looking face. Michael and Ronnie come up behind me.

"Val? Is that you? Damn, I thought I'd never see you again."

I look at him confused, searching my memory for a name to go to the face as Ronnie let's the guy in, quickly closing the door.

"Zakk, what are you doing here?"

Suddenly a memory clicks.

"You're Zakk Sandler. Bassist for Falling In Reverse."

Zakk looks sadly at me.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"You don't remember me?"

I frantically search deeper into my memory and it all begins coming back to me. My eyes widen and I pull Zakk into a hug.

"ZAKK!"

Ronnie and Michael look at the two of us, super confused.

"You two know each other?"

Zakk and I ignore Ronnie.

"I knew you couldn't have forgotten about me!"

"Well I was pretty drunk. I'm surprised I even got back that night."

We both laugh.

"Exactly why I gave you my number!"

"You wrote it on my leg, you dick! I was so confused when I woke up the next morning! I still saved it though."

Zakk shakes his head, smiling widely at me.

"You should've called! The confusion would've been cleared up!"

"True.."

I nod my head. I had completely forgot that Jacky introduced me to Zakk at the party Alva and I went to. We had connected and hung out most of the night. I had forgotten my phone here because of Alvanis rushing me out, so Zakk had given me his number by writing it on my thigh. I had drank so much that night that it slipped my mind and it turned into a mystery number. How could I forget this adorable face? Michael interrupts my train of thought.

"That number on your thigh was Zakk's?"

Ronnie is kind of glaring at Zakk. That's the day everything dropped. Zakk just ignores Ronnie like he's not there.

"Yeah! She forgot her phone! Jacky was introducing Val to everyone and we just kinda clicked. We talked for most of the party. I figured she wasn't interested when she never called."

"Aww."

I roll my eyes at Zakk and laugh. Ronnie looks super jealous but it's not like that. We don't know each other well enough for it to be like that. I wouldn't complain but after what happened with Ronnie, I'm good. Once again my train of thought is interrupted, this time by Ronnie. He sounds annoyed.

"Cute. Why are you here Zakk?"

Zakk suddenly remembers the purpose of his visit.

"Oh yeah! I saw AP's post on twitter! I wanted to see if you were okay."

I look at Ronnie and Michael confused. What post?

~Ronnie~

Fuck. Of course Zakk opened his mouth. Valentina is looking at me so fucking confused. God damn it. I didn't want to tell her until things died down a little bit but obviously that's not an option now.

"Fuck. Michael."

"Nah man. You said you wanted to tell her."

Valentina looks around at the three of us and gets impatient.

"Will someone drop their balls and fucking tell me?"

I sigh and shoot a glare at Mikey, who just shrugs.

"Check your twitter Val."

After several minutes of Valentina reading through her phone, she stares up at me with an irritated look and shakes her head.

"You gonna explain how this has anything to do with me?"

I sigh again. Time for the truth. I motion for everyone to sit down. I notice how close Zakk and Val sit but I let it go. Not my business.

"Ashlee, that girl, isn't some random girl I met at the bar. Well I mean she was, kind of."

Valentina is blankly staring at me. I wonder what's going through her head but I also kinda don't want to know.

"Stop beating around the bush Radke."

I flinch at her angry words but still get on with what I was saying.

"Back when Max and Alva were still here, we went to the store. As a joke, he gave my number to the cashier. I had been talking to her, off and on. Well she knew about Valentina so she took me to a bar last night. And I met Ashlee, one of her best friends. We ended up hooking up and she's pissed because my friend told her I was interested."

Valentina sighs and rolls her eyes. Mikey and Zakk shake their heads at me.

"What the fuck does that have to do with me?"

"Fuck I don't know! Ask AP, Valentina."

"I don't want to be dragged into your petty ass bullshit."

I just look down.

"Understood. I'm sorry."

Michael gives Val a look and she loudly groans.

"Look it's fine. I know it's not your fault Ronnie. I just don't want that attention."

"I know. I know. I would never want you to get involved in all that."

Her phone starts buzzing nonstop in her hand. She looks down at it and gets increasingly irritated. Zakk leans over and reads whatever is on her phone screen. Again, not going to say anything about how close they are. She shows her phone to Mikey and then gestures up to me.

"What's going on?"

"Fans are starting in on Val's account."

I look at them.

"What do you mean? Why? This stuff has nothing to do with her. There was no reason for AP to even bring it up, what the fuck."

~Michael~

These days everyone is just looking for excuses to rag on people. It doesn't even matter that Val has nothing to do with what's going on. I snatch up my phone and unlock it.

"Mikey what are you doing?"

I ignore him and begin typing out a statement on twitter. People know we're roommates. I know I told Ronnie to stay off social media, but fuck that.

"Michael.. I don't think you should do that... Remember what you told me?"

I ignore Ronnie once again. FUCK THAT. I was holding back responding because Ronnie pretty much had it coming. But messing with someone who had nothing to do with it? Someone I consider a little sister? Hell fucking no. They all watch as I angry type out my response. I hesitate over the post button. I look up from my phone at Ronnie, who looks like he's torn between what to do, and glance over at Val. She's just shaking her head at her phone. I sigh and run my hand through my hair. To post or not to post? That is the question.