Hi Riley! ^^ How's it going?

Once upon a time, Benjamin Franklin and his buddies put some cash together to create the first public library, since they couldn't all afford their own private libraries. Now, though, Wattpad offers private libraries for everybody for free. The moral of the story is, add this story to your library. What I'm really trying to say here is, Emily, you missed chapter 25.

The Internet is a scary place. In the wake of the music videos, Scömìche shippers have risen up from their dark hiding places and resurrected their old ways in full force. They're at war now with the Milex shippers, and they might be winning. They know I stayed the night at Scott's house, the creeps, and they've figured out that Scott punched Alex. They've run wild with theories, speculations, and, of course, fanfictions. Once again, Alex is being painted as some kind of monster. I need to make a point of snapping some pictures with him at dinner tonight. First, though, therapy. I've come early and I'm in the waiting room now, talking to Scott's side account from mine. We're discussing the videos and trying to pick favorites.

> Vocally, Wit's End is my fav. Mitch's voice is like melted butter and hot maple syrup.

He's making me hungry.

+ Do you think my therapist will make pancakes with me? Pancakes are therapeutic.
+Wit's End needs more restraint on the second chorus. Brutus was better technically.

> Def ask about the pancakes. Lol, look at you criticizing Mitch Grassi.

+ Haha, I'm just very particular. Ret-con was probably my overall fav, mistakes and all.

> There were no mistakes!

+ He snuck a breath right in the middle of a word, and he didn't sustain the "back" long enough.

> ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????

+ Sorry for speaking the truth!

> Listen, if you don't love Mitch, we can't be friends.

+ Ha, guess you'd get along great with Alex then. ;) Relax, I still love ha.

> Ugh, who does Alex think he is, dating Mitch?

+ Oh, idk, just Mitch's BOYFRIEND.

> Obscenely lucky, that's what he is.

+ U jelly?

> 2010 called. It wants its memes back.

+ Middle school called. It wants you back. Can't see why, though.

> Drag me to filth.

He was asking for it, hating on my boyfriend. I wish I had some way to talk to him about it without him knowing. The first friend I would go to to talk about this kind of thing, though, is completely caught up in it all, and isn't even really my friend right now. I'm glad he's at least willing. The thing is, though, that I can't convince him Alex didn't cheat with me, and he's at a point now where he'll talk to me anyway, but how sad is that?

I can talk to Felicia. Better than nothing, I guess. Weekly sessions are all I have time for, but I'm worried it isn't enough. Stuff keeps happening. The client before me scurries away, and I wait a few more minutes for my appointment to officially start before stepping into Dr. White's office. "Since we last met," I tell her, running through the week's events in my mind, "my boyfriend came home with a black eye, he told me he told Scott he cheated on him with me, which explains a lot, I went to tell Scott and found out it was Scott who punched Alex, Alex had already told Scott, and, in fact, he had told him years ago, Scott still didn't believe him, I sang a lot of songs at Scott's house, I found out the next morning that my attempt to text Alex failed and he thought I was leaving him, and also he has some latent feelings for Scott that he doesn't really understand because he's not very in touch with himself, Scott published everything I sang, Alex was upset about it, I discovered nobody can even tell the difference between me acting and me faking my way with just a few hours of practice, I decided to change my career back to singing again, and I invited Alex to come with me, but he's afraid because he seems to think we're gonna break up, and he wants me to forget about Scott."

"It sounds like you've had a busy week." That's accurate. I give her a more thorough summary of my conversations with Alex, and she asks me to tell her more about him. "You mentioned him a lot. How did you meet?"

"I was sharing an apartment with Scott when he started dating him. I liked him. A lot of Scott's boyfriends saw me as a threat, but Alex never tried to exclude me or get Scott away from me, even if he was a twinge jealous at first." He never made me feel like a third wheel. He was even okay with me moving with Scott to the frat house. "Maybe it was because he actually saw me as a person, maybe because he was falling for me already, or maybe a bit of both. Anyway, he left Scott slash Scott sent him away, but we kept in touch, and it kinda felt like maybe he liked me, and I really wanted a relationship of any kind when I left Scott, and here was this nice perfect single boy who listened and cared and understood, so I kind of threw myself at him, and the rest is history."

"Has he been a good boyfriend?"

"The best. He treats me like a queen. It's not just opening doors and stuff, it's things like making sure I eat breakfast, making sure I have a good therapist, dropping me off places just because he likes to spend time with me, telling me I'm good at things, being really encouraging all the time, and going out of his way for me. Really my only complaints are that he hates Scott, and like I mentioned, he also still loves him a little bit and he's kind of overcompensating with hating him too much, that he really hurt him when they broke up, and that he didn't tell me about it until last Saturday. To be fair, it only took him that long because it took me that long to admit how hung up I was on Scott."

"You seem very eager to defend him."

"There's no deep psychological reason for that. I'm just used to people hating Alex for no good reason." I regret playing up Scömìche as much as I did. "Things have been tenuous between us recently, and the fans have gotten worse." Why is it so strained between me and Alex? I guess I can't expect it to go back to normal overnight.

"You said Alex wants you to forget about Scott."

"He hasn't pressed the issue, though."

"Why do you think that is?"

"Because he doesn't want to fight."

"How might a fight about that end?"

"Are you getting at something here? Because I get that you want me to figure it out for myself, but I can take advice. It's an important skill in music, acting, life in general."

"I've noticed a pattern."

"Do tell."

"Alex hasn't really been holding his ground. He dropped the issue with Scott, and he's okay with you going back to music, even though he'll be losing a lot of time with you."

"He could come with me."

"But he's afraid it might not last. You said he thought you were leaving him, and now he's being really submissive on issues he probably cares about a lot. You hold all the power right now."

"I might if I were willing to actually leave."

"You are leaving. Not all the way, but you won't really need Alex if you're close to Scott again, and going into music will mean seeing very little of him. How long do you think you can have it all before something falls off the edges? You can only spread yourself so thin."

"So I should give up music? Give up Scott?"

"You should decide what's most important to you, then prioritize accordingly."