Five, four, three, two... Marcus looked at himself in the mirror and took a deep breath. He replaced his hands around the bar; the barbell was resting on his shoulders. ...one. He pushed his upper body up for the last time before putting the barbell back in its rack.
The back squat was the last exercise of this gym session. Marcus took a deep breath and took a huge sip of water. His heart was racing in his chest, meaning it was a good session. He grabbed his stuff and left the gym.
When he was waiting for the lift to go down to his room, more people joined him. Marcus took another sip of water and sighed. He forgot his phone in his room, so he had nothing to fill the time with. Yes, he was too lazy to get back to his room when he realised he didn't have his phone with him at the beginning of his gym session.
"Hey, man," Callum slightly surprisedly said when he bumped into Marcus. Nobody had seen him since Sunday, and it was Wednesday now. "How are you doing?" Marcus was leaving, Callum was going to the gym.
"I'm alright," Marcus only replied. "You?"
"Yeah, fine, fine. Haven't seen you in a couple of days," Callum honestly shared and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You okay?"
Marcus nodded and ran his hand through his hair. "Yes, I am. I wasn't feeling it for a couple of days, but I'm fine now."
"Good," Callum said, but questionable. Rumours were going around in this world, and just a few people knew the actual truth. Marcus seemed really chill, not worried at all. "Is it something we need to worry about?"
"Nah, it's just a dip. Missing my family and stuff. It was my mums birthday, and I got all these pictures from family. And I'm here, 26 fly hours away. The second race went shit; I pushed Jane away, the situation back in Italy. It all got a bit much. It was just a moment." A weak smile curved on Marcus' face. "No worries." There was silence. "What?" Marcus could see Callum was thinking something, perhaps even hiding something.
"There...uhm...you haven't checked your social media, right?"
"No." Marcus looked questionably at Callum. "Why? Should I?"
Callum swallowed hard. "There...is...err... Those F1 fangirls threw some rumours in the world, and...err...it doesn't look good."
"What? What is going on?" If it hadn't had to deal with Marcus, Callum shouldn't have said this. "Is there something with Jane?" She was the first person that came to his mind. "I don't have my phone with me. What's happened?"
"Someone posted a picture of Norris and Jane on Twitter, saying they're dating."
Marcus' face straightened. "You're kidding, right?"
"I'm sorry..."
"What the fuck, Callum. What did you just say? Jane and Norris? Are you fucking kidding me?" Marcus looked around, he needed to see this. "Jesus fucking Christ. They are dating?"
Callum's eyes rounded. "No, no, no, they're not dating. Someone spread rumours they are dating, which they are not, obviously," he quickly mentioned. "It was a fan who posted it, it went viral, they found out the girl is Jane..."
"Can I see it?"
"Yes, of course." Callum grabbed his phone and opened Twitter. Even after three days, it was the gossip.
Marcus snatched the phone out of Callum's hands when he was about to hand over the phone. It felt like his life had stopped. It were photos from the track, Jane and Lando were looking at each other and laughing. He scrolled through more tweets. "No..."
"I'm so sorry..." Callum's voice was soft, he couldn't imagine what Marcus was going through right now, what Jane was going through - if she wasn't seeing Lando behind Marcus' back. No, Jane would never do that.
"Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" Marcus' voice was soft, but he was losing his shit. "Three fucking days, Callum!" Tears started to flow in his eyes, this couldn't be true. "What is she thinking?"
Callum swallowed hard. "I assumed you already knew it. This is the topic for days."
"Obviously, I did not know it!" Marcus was trying to figure things out, but it was difficult since he got distracted by the other comments and tweets.
'I FOUND HER. HER NAME IS JANE'
'Lando and Jane, my new favourite couple'
'LANDO IS DATING? WHO IS THIS JANE???'
'Jeez, leave that man and his girl alone. He has a life, like you fangirls had a chance lol'
'According to sources, they have been dating for a couple of months. I'm glad Lando found someone who makes him happy'
'Ew Lando isn't single anymore :( '
"How...how did they meet?" Marcus looked up, trying to hold back his tears. "How did they find out this is Jane? This can't be true..." He didn't know what hurt more: the rumours or the possible truth.
"This isn't true, Marcus," Callum said and snatched his phone back. He didn't know the story, but he had to comfort Marcus now. "Knowing Jane, she wouldn't even know who Lando Norris is. These are just attention-"
"But it started somewhere! Where smoke is, is fire. Those rumours doesn't come from nothing," Marcus sneered. His heart started to beat faster in his chest, and he felt the heat rise to his chest. "Jesus Christ, after everything I did for..." Marcus shook his head and scoffed. "It's Lando Norris, out of everyone, for fuck's sake."
The photo was, of course, real, but it looked real real, like they were actually together. And all those comments... Everyone seemed so hyped by it, but there was also a lot of hate. Jane received a lot of hate, showing how extremely toxic this environment was. This was precisely what Marcus was trying to avoid, but I guess it was still needed... He bit on the inside of his cheek and tried to calm down.
"Why Jane?" Marcus' face softened, it was breaking him from the inside.
"Have you tried to talk to her? Look, this is just a stupid rumour and fake. Even Norris doesn't know how it happened."
"So even he was aware of it?"
"Yes? He asked for you to talk about it?"
"He even knows about Jane and me, what the fuck is this?"
"Jane told him she was here to support you so...it makes sense?"
It was silence. So many thoughts were going through Marcus' mind, he was lost in it. He knew Jane wouldn't do this, but...it started somewhere. There was a reason why it happened, but he knew what kind of power the fans these days had. "I don't know what to think anymore. I swear, my mental health is under construction," he mumbled and walked away from Callum. He took the stairs to go down to his room.
When he entered the right floor, he bumped into someone he absolutely didn't want to see.
Lando tried not to show any emotion when he bumped into Marcus, who looked furious and lost, by the way. Lando felt bad, things escalated badly on social media, and he had no idea what to do. An innocent girl fell into a trap she didn't even sign up for. He stepped towards Marcus, ready to talk to him. This needed to be addressed.
"I'm sorry, not now, please," Marcus managed to say in quite a friendly way. He wasn't waiting for a chat with Lando Norris.
"I'm sorry," Lando said, hoping Marcus would turn around and let him explain it to him.
"I know, I'm too."
When Marcus finally got in his room, he grabbed his phone. To his luck, the battery was empty. He annoyedly groaned and looked for a charger. His eyes became glazed with a glassy layer of tears. He refused to cry, he didn't want to cry. It took his phone a few minutes to pop on-again, enough time to make the tears go away.
For the past few days, Marcus lived in his own world. He barely looked at his phone, he just forgot about it. The meetings were at the same time, so he didn't have to pay attention to it. Marcus felt guilty about pushing Jane away, but he felt insecure...alone. More factors caused this situation, he was struggling.
The Twitter app opened. Marcus' heartbeat fastened, just like his breath. He saw the tweets on Callum's phone, but a part of him wanted to see more. His Twitter page was filled with updates on the new F1 season, but there were multiple tweets between them about the situation with Jane and Lando Norris. Tears welled up in his eyes again, the vision he had, began to swim in front of him. It hurt seeing people believing his girlfriend got linked to someone else, it was so convincing.
Instagram didn't tell Marcus anything else. Jane gained a lot of followers, she had more followers than Marcus did. The last post Jane put online was a photo of her walking through the paddock; some photographer spotted her. She looked so beautiful and comfortable... As Marcus blinked, the tears dripped from his eyelids and slid down his face.
He read some comments, not all of them were kind, but people seemed excited for this 'relationship'. Marcus went to Jane's followers, searching for Lando Norris between it. Nope. He looked between the people Jane followed, out of the 250 following people, there was also no Lando Norris. What is going on?
Jane called him a couple of times, he all missed them due to his own struggles. He dried his eyes and cleared his throat. He was scared to speak to Jane, but he had to. "Okay..." Marcus called Jane, impatiently waiting for her to pick up. She didn't pick up. All his positive mood sank away, everything around him fell apart.
Marcus walked to the bathroom, putting the shower on. Without even waiting for it to get warmer, he stepped under the falling water. It was cold, but it didn't matter to him. His clothes perfectly melted around his body, it felt gross and weird, but it didn't matter to him. He sat down on the ground, looking in front of him. He refused to move any muscle, being afraid he would break down. But soon after the thoughts of not breaking into tears, the lump in his throat developed into a nod. Marcus' lungs screamed for oxygen, the cold water made it even harder to keep breathing.
Tears involuntarily left his eyes, he couldn't take it anymore. The sound of his ugly sobs filled the bathroom. Marcus kept asking himself how this could happen, how he couldn't see this before. He was lost, alone, desperate. And he still had to perform for two weeks straight. The warm water embraced him like a warm blanket, making Marcus break down entirely.