Elizabeth opened her eyes the next day to the sound of shouting and yelling from the outside of her window. When she awoke, she could see the debris of eggshells and tomato juice in front of her window. The sound of megaphones and chanting some sort of statement outside.
She looked out with her tired eyes to see what was happening. She saw the multiple number of media, paparazzi, journalists, reporters, cameramen, and even teenage girls swarming in front of her apartment complex. She figured it had something to do with some other tenant in the building, but suddenly, when they all saw her face. They widened their eyes, which made her shocked as well, which began all the sounds of camera clicks and the increasing volume of those megaphone chants.
With the quickest of her agility, she grabbed her curtains from the sides and shut it close completely. She panted in shock and couldn't seem to figure out what was going on. All kinds of thought kept wandering round and round in her head.
What have I done? Did I do something wrong? Did I kill someone in my sleep? Am I going to jail?!
She didn't know what was going on and she was confused as hell. Her head was going wild with thoughts. What were they screaming? She wondered. So she pressed her ear to her window and pushed it slightly open behind the curtains. She still wasn't visible ,so she allowed herself to listen intently.
"Give Mark Hale back you slut!"
"Mark's girlfriend... Bullshit!"
"He's the fans' treasure, don't keep him all to yourself!"
"You're too ugly for him!"
Woah... what happened? She thought. She wondered if all those words were towards her and also realized how hardcore Mark's fan's are during game season.
The ringing of her phone sounded. Looking for some kind of solace in this confusing situation, she hurriedly picked it up knowing it was Megan.
"Megan!"
"El! You finally woke up! I've called you a hundred of times this morning, have you seen the news!?"
"No. What's going on?! My apartment is being swarmed right now."
"I thought you would know how to explain the whole thing you did. Check out social media, It's everywhere!"
Elizabeth's anxiety shot up a hundred levels, not knowing what had happened and also after hearing Megan's shock. So she quickly hung up her call with a short 'bye' to her friend' and quickly opened up her social media.
Overnight, the media shut her up with a storm. Her profile was filled with all sorts of hate messages and some, surprisingly, support messages in her so-called 'relationship' with soccer player, Mark Hale.
Placed first in the trending list, was an article from a well-known blogging company who covered the whole thing.
World-class soccer player, Mark Hale, caught meeting up with girlfriend in nearby restaurant.
What a headline, she thought. She read through the whole article which featured pictures from them eating in the restaurant yesterday, the two of them laughing together, a clear zoom-in shot of her's and Mark's face, and a picture of Mark dropping her off home.
She was impressed and disgusted at the same time by how some paparazzi did all that without them noticing. It was nuts! The short article gave out all her details. It seemed like they did their research and gave out a link to all her social media. Which explained why her phone was flooded and her apartment entrance as well.
She sighed to herself and internally panicked, thinking about what to do. The people still didn't give up outside and her notifications didn't stop ringing. She laid back down on her bed and covered her ears with the thick pillows that surrounded her to,hopefully, drown out the sound.
Another ring from her phone came and she couldn't ignore it because she hoped something would help her right now. Hayden's phone I.D came up, so she picked it up right away.
"Hello..."
"El! Are you okay!? Is it true?! What they say? If it isn't, oh, I'll beat up that Hale's face...fuck the consequenc-"
"Hayden! Stop... It's fine. Don't go beat up Mark. It isn't true, but it isn't his fault."
She could hear Hayden sigh form the other side of the line before continuing, " No El, he brought you to that restaurant without some sort of protection. He was careless! And now, you're..."
"I know..."
"Just stay inside for now, I'll find a way to contact him or something that would help you."
"Thank you Hayden."
"Rest easy, don't turn on your phone after this for a while, it's toxic. I'll get you out of this."
With that, Hayden quickly hung up, probably trying to do something for her. Hayden's advice was right. She shouldn't go out of this building til' then and she should try to turn off her phone, or her notifications at least. So she did just that, she sat and went to her settings and turned everything off, everything except the ringing of phone calls.
As she did that, she couldn't help but think about the consequences. Will something happen to her when she goes out soon? Or will it somehow damage Mark's reputation, or something about the upcoming game, or maybe it will affect her Job?! And she just got it too...
She sighed to herself once more and tried to not think for a moment. She bid herself t think that maybe, all of this was just a dream, or maybe it will have a positive effect. Like, somehow, being called Mark's 'girlfriend' was going to be a good thing. She laughed at the weird thought.
Another ring came up in her phone,she saw that it was her mother, who also, already called multiple times before she woke up. She decided to not pick it up, knowing that she would support and tease her for all that happenings. Congratulate her or something, and maybe even ask to see Mark. So, as fast as lightning, the call was declined.
With the phone close to her, it rang again. This time, it was an unknown number. Because of her unwilling curiosity, she picked it up, wondering who it was.
"Hello?" She said through the line.
"Miss Elizabeth Lane? Is this you?"
"Who is this?"
"We've met before. It's Thomas Gavenport, Mark's manager. I'm here to help."
Hearing those words, Elizabeth felt a surge of relief and enthusiastically replied, "Really? Oh, thank you so much! What should I do?"
"You must exit your apartment and meet up with us. We need to discuss all these personally."
"How would I do that?! I'm swarmed and trapped."
"Don't worry. We'll be getting you through the back door which the owner had informed us of. It's by the emergency stairs, at the very bottom."
Lucky... she thought to herself and continued by asking, "When should I go?"
"Right...now. We're by the door already."
She herself was surprised that she had to act now, so she quickly hung up and internally panicked, as she put on her shoes and brought her purse and phone. She almost ran to small room for the emergency stairs and hurriedly went down. Until at the very bottom she saw a metal door and opened it up.
It went out to the small alleyway behind her apartment building and there she saw the familiar figure of Sir Gavenport. Except that, he was in a some sort of disguise, wearing a cap and a pair of really big and dark sunglasses.
"Let's get going shall we." He said as he put on a pair of glasses on her as well as a large hat on her head.
Without a word, the two started walking. It was a bit claustrophobic, but she couldn't complain. They got through the small street, and slowly, the sounds of the screams were becoming a bit lower. She could already tell that they were far away because she could barely hear the noise from earlier.
There she entered a small black car with fully tinted windows. She was escorted into the back seat by the manager as he as well casually gets in the driver's seat. When they got in, Elizabeth was surprised that Mark was actually sitting in the seat next to her.
"El! I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"
"Just a bit surprised..." She simply said.
In front of the two, the manager mumbled, "You two better figure out a way to solve your wrongdoings. We cannot have any bad publicity right now, and Mark has some really hardcore female fans. They might criticize you, Miss Lane and maybe soon, the team. The coach left me to handle all this, so please, don't make my job harder than it is."
"I was careless. I forget how paparazzi are sometimes." Mark said. He then turned to Elizabeth then continued, " Don't worry El, I've thought of something that might solve this."
"I wanna solve all this as quickly as possible. I don't wanna be caught up in some weird misunderstanding."
The manager then butted in and said, "I'll be going out for you two to talk privately." And without another word, he exited the car and roamed around outside.
"Is it really weird, for you and me to..." Mark mumbled under his breath. Elizabeth took notice of this, but didn't quite hear, "hm?" she asked.
With a small cough, Mark said, " Well, we could each produce statements on our social media to resolve it all."
"What should we say?"
"The truth." Mark ruefully said, yet with a small smile, before continuing, " That we're just friends and.... are... never suited to be in.... this kind of relationship." She probably will never like me anyways, Mark thought.
Oh...
Elizabeth thought, before she turned to Mark and forcefully smiled, "That sounds like a great idea. It should work..."
In the deep corners of a dark room, one person is laid down in between the pile of junk scattered on the floor. Empty cups of noodles, packages of chips, plastic cups, and dirty laundry. There she stared at her ceiling. A ceiling filled with almost a hundred photos of the person she had very much adored in the bottom of her heart.
She laid there with only the light of her smart phone illuminating her sleep-deprived face. The aura around her was surrounded in hatred and anger as she scrolled through the news of that day. She read every article, insulted every post of the other party in mention, and stared intently at the pictures that surfaced the web.
She sat up and threw her phone away from her hands and screamed. Mascara was running down her face and faded make-up was on her. She run her hands through her already disorderly hair.
She looked at her wall filled with pictures of the said to be couple. Not even during the time of their latest get away, but pictures from the game, to the lunch they had before, and even their faces as they went home together from a celebratory dinner. A red and huge 'X' marked the spot of the person that was speckling the view of her almighty ad godly handsome article.
"Who are you to filthy my Mark." She muttered underneath her breath. She then screamed her lungs out as she ripped one of the pictures of the woman on the floor.
"You will be mine soon. "