HAZEL FINE SINGS ALONG (WATTYS 2022 Winner!)

Chapter 26: What Did You Do?

"Holy shit," Zoey said. "What did you do?"

Hazel pried her eyes open. She'd had a terrible night's sleep, full of memories banging through her brain. She'd lurched awake at three a.m. feeling sweaty and scared and had trouble falling back asleep. She'd eventually broken into the mini bar, using her $20 per diem and Zoey's to down several mini bottles of vodka.

And now her head felt like it was splitting open. She would've been better off just toughing it out. "What are you talking about?"

"This." Zoey said, holding her phone in front of Hazel's face.

Hazel took a moment to focus as she took the phone from Zoey's hand.

It was a tweet from an anonymous account that read: Martin Taylor offers 'private lessons' to contestants who want to get a leg up in the Sing Along. He's been doing it for years. Everyone knows and says nothing. #MeToo.

It had been posted at eight p.m. the night before and had been liked and retweeted thousands of times in the hours since.

Hazel's heart thumped with excitement and nerves. "How did you find this?"

"It's all over the media. There's an Insta account too, same thing. TMZ covered it."

Hazel propped herself up. She ought to have known that Zoey would be the first person to find out about the account. She was always surfing People.com and TMZ like a nervous tic.

"Is that all?" Hazel said. "One anonymous tweet?"

"No, look. There's lots of people saying stuff in the comments too."

Hazel scrolled down below the original tweet. There were hundreds of comments, from men accusing the tweeter of being a host of gross misogynistic things, to people saying well, duh, and all kinds of terrible memes about horrible men past. Interspersed were tweets from former contestants saying simply #MeToo. One even offered details, saying that Martin had propositioned her repeatedly and that she was sure she'd been kicked off the show because she'd turned him down. Hazel recognized the name from season three. A beautiful girl with a sometimes-shaky voice who'd been eliminated in the early rounds.

"Are you behind this?" Zoey asked.

Hazel let the phone fall to the bed. She'd never seen Zoey angry. Happy, nervous, drunk, silly, confident, giddy, frustrated. But Zoey was angry now. Her fists were clenched, and her jaw was tight, and Hazel was a little afraid of her. "Did you tweet that?"

"No."

That was technically true. Though she'd helped write the tweet, it was Kate's anonymous Twitter account, set up using an encrypted email service.

As they worked out the details of their plan yesterday, they'd done everything they could to protect Kate's privacy, but it had to be Kate to tweet. The only way that her TMZ connect would agree to amplify it.

Hazel had been relieved. Even though it was her idea, the thought of putting her neck out like that left her shaky and nervous. But after her initial resistance, Kate had been determined. She'd finished her three-record contract for Martin's label and had signed with a new label six months ago. She was established enough that she ought to be relatively protected if it ever came out that it was her.

"I don't believe you," Zoey said. "It's too much of a coincidence. We were just talking about this yesterday. And you were so mad. You've hated Martin since the beginning."

"That's not true."

Zoey snorted. "Please. I know you think you're smarter than me, or whatever, but I notice things."

"I never thought you weren't smart."

Zoey crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes boring into Hazel's.

Hazel turned away and pulled herself out of bed. She felt queasy, and not only because of the alcohol. "I didn't tweet that."

"But you know who did."

"Maybe."

"Who?"

"It's anonymous, Zo. Clearly for a reason."

"I think it's bullshit."

"You think she's making it up?"

"If it was true, why not come forward when it happened? Why do it anonymously on Twitter and let the mob cancel him?"

Hazel reached for a pair of shorts. She wanted to take a shower and wash the terrible night off her, but she couldn't walk out on this conversation. She didn't feel like having it in her underwear.

"You can't actually be that naïve, can you?" Hazel said, feeling some anger herself now. "Why are you taking Martin's side? Did you read those comments? People calling her horrible things and threatening her. That's just the beginning of what happens to you when you come out against a powerful man."

"People shouldn't have to answer anonymous allegations. And cancel culture is bullshit."

"In a perfect world, I agree with you. But the world is far from perfect."

"I think you wrote the post."

"I didn't. Why won't you believe me?"

"Because you lie all the time, Hazel. I didn't really care when it was just about your parents, or Benji, because that didn't matter. You wanted to get ahead in the competition. I respected that. But this is different. This could destroy the Sing Along. Everything I've been working for, and you, too. Is that what you want?"

Hazel was shaking. Zoey's assessment of her was devastating, and worse because it was mostly true. "No."

"Then why post this now?"

A good question that Hazel didn't have an answer for. There was no reason for them to unmask Martin now. They could've waited until after the competition was over. But that would have left her vulnerable to further harassment and Sarah too.

"Because of Martin. He keeps coming onto me. He wanted me to come to his room. He said he could help me in the competition if I let him give me 'private lessons'. He won't leave me alone. Just last week he invited me and Checkers to move into his bungalow. And because I keep saying no, he keeps trying to sabotage me."

Zoey's face softened for a moment, then hardened. "But you didn't go with him."

"No."

"And you didn't get cut."

"He cornered me in the green room. It was awful. Nick had to save me. The second time too. And you heard what he said about my song. He wants me gone because I won't give into him."

"How do I know any of this is true and not just some scheme to get Martin to stop criticizing you so you can win?"

"You think I would do that?"

"I don't know, Hazel. Is it so different than pretending to be in a fake relationship to get a bunch of attention you wouldn't otherwise?"

Hazel felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. "Ask Nick then. And Bella too. She overheard part of it. That's why she started that rumor about me. And I have the texts. The texts from Martin." A wave of nausea was rising. She had to get to the bathroom, STAT. She pushed past Zoey, then paused in the doorway. "Not for nothing, but this is why women don't come forward."

She launched herself into the bathroom and got the toilet just in time.

When her body had finished heaving, she sat on the cool tile floor with her back against the wall and remembered how she'd felt like everything was finally falling into place. How she was stupid enough to think that things were finally going her way.

How many times could one person be fooled about their own life, Hazel wondered, before you gave up and just walked away?