“Who in the hell did you tell?!” Leah asked, pacing frantically. She was now in JC’s hotel suite at the Four Seasons, where the guys were staying while they were recording. After JC had rescued Leah from the paparazzi attack, they decided to forego their date. The paparazzi followed them all the way to the hotel, so there was no sense in going out together, because they wouldn’t be able to enjoy their date with nosy ass photographers watching their every move.

“What?” JC exclaimed, he was sitting on the edge of the bed. “How do you know I even told anyone? Besides, I know you told Lucky, you tell her everything.” He said, defending himself.

“Lucky wouldn’t say anything.” Leah replied, plopping down beside JC. The two sat in silence, trying to connect the dots for what felt like an eternity. “Does Justin know?”

“I didn’t tell him, he figured it out.” JC said. He conveniently left out the part about Justin setting that whole night up. Leah was already beyond furious, and he didn’t want to be responsible for his friend’s death.

“Who else did you tell?” Leah pressed.

“Why do you assume I told someone what was nothing but our business, you know I’m not like that.” JC replied.

“Because the only person I told was Lucky. I never told anyone else about that night. Not even my own sister!”

JC knew that Lucky was a faithful friend to Leah and would never do anything to cross her. So that option was out.

“So you didn’t tell anyone about that night?” Leah tried again.

JC thought back to the aftermath of that night. That morning, after Leah left, JC found himself confused, and trying to pick up the pieces. Everything about that day had just been messy. He thought to the conversation he had had with Justin. Then how he broke up with Bobbie. Bobbie. Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! But Bobbie wouldn’t do that to him. She’s not that person. She’s not vindictive like that. But then again, she was exactly that person. Fuck! “I told Bobbie.” JC confessed.

“You what?” Leah asked, the words coming out slowly, and JC knew that he was in for it. “Why would you tell Bobbie?”

“I, um,” JC stammered. “I told her, when I broke up with her.”

“So it’s true then.” Leah said, her voice wavering. She was shaking. She didn’t want to believe it, but she knew that Bobbie Thomas was a writer for some magazine, and that she had the power to destroy her.  She wanted to scream, she wanted to throw things. She was furious. But what was the point in throwing a fit? It wouldn’t solve anything. What’s done is done, and she couldn’t do anything about it. “So everything that I read, everything that’s been printed. It’s all true?” She didn’t want to believe that JC was that person, but it turns out he was.

“Leah…” JC said. But what could he say? He had fucked up, and now he was caught?

“So you were fucking me, while you were still with her?” Leah asked. “You told me that you guys were over!” Leah cried. Leah was beyond angry, she was hurt. The one person in her life who she felt wouldn’t fuck her over, was the one currently fucking her over. Both literally and physically. She felt low. Like a slut. She couldn’t blame anyone but herself. No one forced her to sleep with JC. She made the decision herself.

“So what about all of those other nights, huh?” Leah pressed. “Like last summer in Prague, were you actually single, or were you lying to me then too?” Leah exclaimed, referring to a series of one night stands they had last year, when she and Tyson had taken a break. She always thought that JC and Bobbie were an on-again-off-again couple too, but now who knows? Maybe he was with her all along. All along she thought that he was the one, and that she was the one for him. But now she was coming to the realization that she may have always been nothing more than The Other Woman. “How fucked up is that Josh?” Leah was now up again pacing. She felt so stupid. As badly as she wanted to place the blame on JC, she remembered what her grandmother used to say. “A man can only do to you what you let him.” And she let him in again, and got burned. Again.

“Leah, just let me explain.” JC sighed.

“What is there to explain Josh? That you cheated on your girlfriend with me? I thought what we had was real, but now I feel like I’m just some one night stand. A mistress.”

“Baby, you know you’re more than that.” JC said pulling her into a hug. She was hurt, and it was all his fault and he felt like shit. “You mean the world to me Leah.” He said, pulling her close to him.

She believed him. She felt safe in his arms, like he was the only person in the world who would never do her any harm. She couldn’t fight the effect that he had on her, and she didn’t want to. And when he placed a kiss on top of her head, and gently stroked her back, she almost forgave him. Almost. “You lied to me.” She sniffed, gently pushing him away. “We said we’d never lie to each other. We promised.”

“So it’s only okay for you to lie?” JC asked, becoming more upset. He knew that he had fucked up, but Leah was no saint either.

“What are you talking about?” She asked.

“We said we wouldn’t keep things from each other Leah, so let’s not pretend that I’m the only one in the wrong.” He snapped.

“Wait, what the hell are you talking about?” She asked.

“You never even planned to tell me that you had Anorexia did you?”

Leah felt as if a huge bucket of ice water had just been poured over her head. “W-what did you just say?” She stammered. How? Who? What? When had he found this out? Leah was at a lost.

“When were you planning on telling me?” JC asked, turning the tables. “When it would eventually land on the cover of Us Weekly, or when you faint? Were you ever gonna tell me?”

“But how-“

“Lucky. Lucky told me everything.”  JC replied, answering her question. “She told me about how she found you, passed out in your room, about your stint in rehab. Rehab Leah, really? How could you keep that from me?”

The night was just getting crazier and crazier. First Leah was betrayed by her boyfriend, and now her best friend? She didn’t know what to feel anymore. She didn’t know who to turn to, or who she could trust. She didn’t know if there was even a category for how angry and hurt that she was. Everything she felt was just beyond. It was indescribable. If there was ever a moment to feel vulnerable, it was now. If there weren’t a million photographers outside of the hotel right now, then she would take the fastest taxi home and blast Lucky. Her secret was out. To everyone. It was out to her family, it was out to her boyfriend. The one person on earth that she didn’t want to know about her illness now knew. She never wanted him to know. That was the secret that she was willing to take to her grave. “Jace, listen, you don’t understand.”

“I don’t understand what?” JC exclaimed. “Okay I lied to you, but Bobbie and I were basically over. Our relationship was coming to an end anyway. But what you lied about was way worse.”

“I never lied. I just didn’t tell you, and it’s not even like we were together.” Leah tried to explain her reasoning, but JC wasn’t buying it.

“Bullshit.” JC replied. “We’re supposed to be friends first, and a couple second. You kept something major from me, and the fact that I had to find out that you almost died from someone other than you hurt like hell.”

“Josh, you don’t understand.” Leah repeated.

“You’re right, I don’t understand. I don’t understand how you could keep this from me. I mean come on, it’s me, Leah. Did we really grow that far apart? No matter how bad things ever got between us, you should have never felt like you couldn’t come to me. I would have been there. I would have taken time out for you.”

“I know you would have.” Leah said, willing herself not to cry, but to no avail.

“So then why didn’t you tell me?” JC pressed.

“I don’t know.” Leah said. She did know. She didn’t want to tell him because so many areas of her life had been complete Hell, and being with JC was the one place where she felt in Heaven. And, as far as JC knew, she was a well put together person, not some weak vulnerable self-harming girl. She didn’t want to tell him that she had a problem, she never wanted him to see that side of her; to see her hunched over a toilet coughing up blood. She was afraid that he’d look at her differently, and she just couldn’t handle that. But of course, she couldn’t possibly tell him that. She couldn’t face the truth. Hell, she could barely face it now. But this wasn’t just anybody, this was JC. So why did she have her guard up, and why was she so afraid of letting it down?

“So where are you at now? Are you over this thing?” JC asked, this time calmly. Leah was visibly upset and shaken (who wouldn’t be), and JC was just tired of fighting. He just wanted things to go back to normal between them.

“I want to say yes, but then I’d be lying.” Leah said honestly. “I mean for the most part, I have everything under control, but some days are harder than most, and I have my moments.”

“So do you need, like, professional help?” JC asked. Leah closed her eyes shut at the mention of professional help, and JC could see that it was sensitive subject for her.

Leah couldn’t even stand the idea of rehab. Rehab was the last place she ever wanted to go back to. She’d rather relive last weekend with her family a million times than to go back to rehab. “I need you.” Leah said.

“Baby, you got me.” JC replied, pulling her close to him once again. Leah clung to him, and inhaled the familiar smell of Old Spice. Being wrapped up in his arms just felt like home, and it was then that she realized how stupid their fight was. JC slipped up, but who hasn’t, and it wasn’t like she didn’t lie to him too. She was stupid for ever doubting his love for her, and now that her secret was out, there was nothing holding them back anymore.

“Jace,” Leah said.

“Hmm?”

“I need you to promise me that you won’t treat me any differently now that you know.” Leah said.

JC didn’t know if he could promise her that. It would be hard for him not to monitor her eating, or be super protective over her. He loved her, and just wanted to make sure that she was okay. “As long as you promise not to keep anything from me ever again.”

“Hey, that goes both ways.” She replied, before kissing him. “I love you.” She said.

“I love you too, baby.” JC replied, still holding her. “Looks like we got through our first fight,” he pointed out.

“Yeah we did didn’t we?” Leah said. “So, what are we going to do about our date?” She asked. “I don’t exactly feel safe stepping outside of this room right now.”

“How about we order room service, and order a movie on Pay-per-view?” JC suggested.

“Godfather?” Leah replied. “There’s a special commentary by Francis Ford Coppola and Al Pacino.”

“It’s a date!”

Although the night hadn’t gone as planned, JC was happy that he and Leah had gotten their skeletons out of the closet. Now that everything was out in the open, he hoped that their relationship was smooth sailing. Fuck the paparazzi, fuck the press, fuck people’s opinions, and fuck Bobbi. He was going to live his life, and do what made him happy, and that was being with Leah, and no one was going to get in the way of that.