Life Changes » Marcus Armstrong

Fourtytwo.

"Oh, my god," Cate suddenly said, gasped for air and widened her eyes. Her jaw dropped, and she held in her breath. Perhaps she was overreacting, but she was shocked, but also worried.

Everyone looked at her. "What?"

She looked sorry at Jane and Marcus, who both didn't show any emotion, but were waiting for an explanation. "People accuse you of cheating on Norris with Marcus," she said to Jane.

Marcus looked away and sighed. He felt his good mood disappear, it made him feel hopeless. He took his hand off Jane's leg and looked down.

"The quality of people is clearly dropping," Jane mentioned and looked at Marcus, who was clearly not having it. "Who says it?"

"Twitter. It's trending," Cate softly said, she felt so sorry. "They saw you on Robert's story sitting next to Marcus, and they even have photos of you on the beach."

Jane let out a deep breath and rubbed her face with her hands. "What the fuck is happening? Can I see it?" It was dead silence around the table when Cate handed over her phone. Tears formed in Jane's eyes. There were hundredths of tweets, saying Jane was cheating on Norris with Marcus. "This is just bullshit. Fucking wankers. I don't even fucking know Norris. I would never do this."

Marcus zoned out. He knew Jane would never do this to him, but it was more the thought of people connecting Jane to Norris and making her a bad person, just like himself. He looked at the phone and saw the tweets.

It was silence around the table. It was weird. It never was silence. Callum looked at Mick, who sat next to Jane, sharing the same questionable look like the one he got returned. He looked next to him, nobody seemed to know what to do.

"I want this to stop, Jane," Marcus whispered and looked up at Jane. Tears formed in his eyes. "I don't want this anymore."

Her heart started to beat faster, and more thick tears blocked her sight. "Do...do you mean us or the rumours?"

"The rumours," he said. "No, babe, not us, never. I'm sorry, I should've said it different." Marcus took Jane into his arms and pressed a kiss on her hair.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered and closed her eyes.

Luna deeply sighed. "It's just absurd all those people don't see the consequences," she softly said. "Look at them. And I don't even want to know how Norris is feeling."

"You know," Jane said and dried her eyes. She refused to cry. "I don't fucking care what they think about me, but they make Marcus look like a bad person. Even Norris has to deal with it, even though they all feel sorry for him."

"God, no, Jane, don't say that," Cate said and shook her head.

"I'm just like... Why would you do this? What kind of added values does this have for the beautiful lives we have?" Jane snorted about her own words. "That sounded way better in Icelandic in my head." She sighed and laid her head on Marcus' shoulder.

"We're gonna do a marketing campaign," Cate shared her idea. "I know you all are very private, but we have to let that go for now if you want to make this stop. We're gonna make a group photo with Marcus and Jane in the spotlight. One person is gonna post this into their story. Everyone is gonna repost it. There you go."

Luna looked at Cate. "And create more drama?"

"No."

Robert nodded. "I can see this work. But you two need to post a picture of each other on your feed. Preferably one before this season started," he added.

"Exactly!" Cate said. "What else do you want to do? Write a statement?"

"You got the point here," Mick admitted. "But honestly, will this not create more drama? If Norris does nothing about it... And this will probably go away over the time."