𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄

** FORTY **

“That’s when I realized what a true friend was. Someone who would always love you — the imperfect you, the confused you, the wrong you — because that is what people are supposed to do.”

*******

"It is really a video of Jewel," Chinecherem stated, worried. Her voice was shaky and she gazed at Jewel with concern lacing her features.

Jewel who was applying makeup on her face brought down the beauty blender and lower the mirror to look at the others. They were all staring at her.

It was at that moment that Chizaram also come into the room with her phone raised in the air. "Someone should tell me the person in this video is not Jewel."

Quickly, Jewel dropped the things in her hands on the swinging chair and left her seat. She half-ran half-walked over to meet Chizaram, took the phone from her hand and she looked at what was in the phone.

Curious, Jedekaih took Khalid's phone from him and he looked at the video that he was watching which everyone seemed to be talking about. He exchanged a look with Chinecherem when he was done watching the video. His expression mirrored hers, then they both shifted their gazes to Jewel who had frozen on her spot, tears brimming in her eyes with Zaram's phone in her hand.

Without saying any other word, Jedekaih stood up and went in search of his friend.

"Who did this?"

"The signature looks familiar. I won..." The voices trailed off as he walked up the stairs, so he could get to his friend before anyone do.

He found him in their room where he was busy editing some pictures he took the previous day on the yacht.

"Zayn, Zayn," he called with a tone of urgency and then closed the door after making sure no one was behind him.

Zayn turned around, worry edging his features as he heard the desperate tone in his friend's voice.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he watched Jedekaih approach his seat.

"Why do you upload the video of Jewel?" Jedekaih asked. His tone had a bit of uncertainty and anger underneath it.

Zayn's face morphed into a confused one. "What video? I did not upload any video." He seemed completely oblivious.

"Of course, you did," Jedekaih debunked. "You posted a video yesterday on your Instagram and Twitter account. The video of Jewel you were editing. And it has gone viral."

"What? I never did that," Zayn shook his head in disagreement.

With worry and a confused expression, Jedekaih urged him on. "Check your phone. Something is not right here. The video is from you."

Zayn looked perplexed and also confused. He quickly grabbed his phone on the desk beside his open laptop and he checked his last post on Instagram and found out that he had a lot of notifications which was a result of a post he made the previous night. And that left him stunned.

"thez_i_sphotos is your photography account," Jedekaih stated as Zayn watched the video he had posted.

Jedekaih was right. He had made a post the previous night. And there were a lot of comments and reactions to it. More than he had ever in any of his posts. But the confusing part was that he never posted anything.

Zayn looked sincerely perplexed. "What? I didn't post this. My last update on Instagram was two days ago and it was a picture of water from the swimming pool. I didn't post this."

He showed Jedekaih the last post he remembered he posted. The new post was a shock to him.

He has no idea how the video got online. He didn't remember doing such a thing. If he were to post a new video or pictures, it would definitely not be that of Jewel. He wouldn't do that to her. Moreover, he hasn't been online since his last post a couple of days ago.