Chapter 5: Played Out Loud

"What are you doing?" Chelsea whispered.

I turned my phone's volume all the way up and pressed play.

Her own voice came out of the speaker, loud enough to bounce off the ceiling.

"He does anything I ask."

Nobody in the line near us was talking. A kid with a juice box stopped drinking.

"That's kind of cold, Chels."

"It's not cold. It's a plan. He's Malcolm. He's solid. He's the one I marry."

Then Toby's laugh.

"And me?"

"You're the fun part."

Chelsea lunged for the phone.

I stepped back and held it above her reach.

"Malcolm, stop it, give me that!"

"Malcolm is so careful," her voice said from the speaker. "He holds my hand like he's signing a form."

A woman in the front row put her hand over her mouth.

A teenager three seats down lifted his phone and started filming.

When the recording ended, I let the silence sit.

Toby was the first to talk.

"Dude, that's not, like, what it sounds like," he said. He tried to grin.

"It sounds like you, in room nine of the Starlite Motel, on the day of my exam," I said.

His grin stuck on his face and then slid off.

Chelsea put both hands up. Her eyes were huge and wet.

"That's fake. Malcolm, listen to me. Somebody made that with a computer. They can do that now."

"Chelsea."

"It isn't real! Why would I say that? Why would I ever say that about you?"

"You said you'd marry me and you said you loved only me," I said. "And you looked at your phone before you asked me to leave the last section blank."

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