Chapter 95 Chapter Ninety Five
I stood frozen in Marco's Pizza, my mind spinning while I tried to process what had just happened.
Jace was gone before I could follow while I waited there like a fool, shocked beyond belief, wondering when exactly I’d become the kind of girl that got followed around by paparazzi.
At least Jace was gone now, I thought, that’s the end of that. I wouldn't have to think about that again.
I was just about to leave when my phone suddenly buzzed in my hand.
I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw it was an incoming call from Nicole.
"Hey, Nicole. How’s your morning going? You won’t believe what just happened to me…” I started, desperately needing to get it all off my chest.
"Girl." Nicole's voice was cold and flat. Nothing at all like the bubbly warmth that I'd gotten used to over spring break. "What the hell did you do?"
“I… I don’t understand. What do you mean?” I asked, my voice sounding thin and pathetic. “If this is about our road trip, I haven’t talked to my mom yet but I think…”
"Don't." She hissed, her voice harsh. I pulled the phone from my ear and started at it in disbelief. Was Nicole really the one talking to me like this?
"Don't play dumb with me right now.” Nicole continued, “After everything Jace put you through, after everything, you're seriously still hooking up with him? At Marco's? At our spot?"
"No! Where did you hear that? We aren’t hooking up at all!”
“So you’re saying you haven’t seen him since the last football game?” Nicole accused.
“I mean… I have. He literally just left here and—”
“Oh my God, Lena. I’m so disappointed in you " Nicole's voice wavered slightly, and somehow that made it worse. "I really thought you were better than this.”
She groaned, “Can that asshole’s dick really be so good you’re willing to sacrifice your reputation for it? For heaven’s sake Lena, he bullied you nearly to death, have some self-respect!”
My vision blurred with tears at her hurtful words. "Nicole, please, it's not what it looks like. We were talking and things got weird and I didn't—"
"You got so carried away talking that you made out with him in public?" Jake's voice cut in. “Are you guys having sex again?”
He was on the call too, listening to our conversation from the beginning. Nicole must’ve added him
Oh God.
"We never had sex!” I yelled defensively, so loud that my voice echoed off Marco's restaurant.
Every single person in the restaurant turned to stare at me in shock.
Marco froze mid-slice, his pizza cutter hovering in the air. The elderly couple's forks paused halfway to their mouths, and a little kid dropped his breadstick, gaping at me with his mouth wide open.
Heat flooded my face as I flushed with embarrassment. I grabbed my bag and stumbled toward the door, my eyes stinging with tears.
“Where did you even get this information from? Who is telling you guys all this!” I demanded.
"We're literally looking at the picture right now," Nicole said. Her voice had grown quieter, and it was also a lot sadder.
“What picture?” I asked. Though as soon as I asked that question, I realised with horror what she was talking about.
Barely 20 minutes had passed since that photographer took those suggestive photos of me and Jace from the bushes. Barely ten minutes ago, and it had already reached Nicole’s ears.
"The whole school is looking at it. Someone took a photo of you and Jace together and so that gossip blog, TeaSpiller posted it like a few minutes ago. The comments are..."
She trailed off, clearly not brave enough to say the words.
"What?" I pushed through the door, "What are they saying?"
"They're calling you a slut." Jake's voice was matter-of-fact over the phone. "Basically everyone is saying that you're playing both sides. That you cheated on the guy who literally just won us the championship game."
My knees went weak. I had to catch myself against the brick wall outside so I wouldn’t crash to the ground, my phone pressed so hard against my ear it hurt.
"Come on guys, you know me." My voice cracked. "You know I wouldn't do that. I would never do that. Please. You have to believe me."
Silence stretched across the line, and then eventually Nicole sighed heavily.
"I thought you finally had what you wanted," she said quietly. "Real friends who actually care about you. A boyfriend who was literally devoted to rebuilding your entire life just because he wanted you to be happy. And now you're just... throwing it back in our faces."
"I'm not! I swear I'm not, this is all some huge misunderstanding—" I begged frantically.
“He is literally the perfect boyfriend, what more could you possibly want?!” she demanded.
"It feels like you used us, Lena." Jake's voice had an edge now. Angry. "Like we were just props in whatever twisted game of ‘Hate me Love me’ you and Jace still have going on."
"It’s really not like that— just tell me where you are so I can come meet you and I promise I’ll explain everything."
“We already have evidence, Lena. What more could you possibly have to say?” Jace cut in.
"We… We can’t be friends with you anymore." Noah finished for him.
Their words hit me like a fist to the stomach and all the air went out of my lungs.
My phone started buzzing in my hand, notifications piling up so fast that my screen couldn't keep up.
Instagram. Snapchat. Twitter. The school gossip accounts I didn't even follow were somehow finding their way into my feed.
I swiped through them with shaking hands.
@WestbrookTea: BREAKING - Jace Dawson spotted getting VERY intimate with mystery brunette at Marco's Pizza. Allison is gonna FLIP 👀💔
A photo was attached of Jace and me together. His arms were tight around me, his hand in my hair, and my head tilted back. To anyone who didn't know better, it looked like we were actually kissing.
@TeaSpillerHQ: “@TeaSpillerHQ: Not even 24hrs out of the hospital and our boy is already back to his old ways. That’s our captain! IYKYK.🏈😏
@JallisonFanClubForever: Whoever this HOME-WRECKING BITCH is needs to BACK OFF. Allison has been at that hospital EVERY SINGLE DAY taking care of her man, so who the hell is she?!
There was comment after angry comments, each one worse than the last, making my stomach turn with terror.
Who is she???
Some nobody trying to get famous off Jace probably.
Wait I think that's the scholarship girl? The one who tutors him?
LMAOOO no fucking way, she looks way too good to be her
It IS her! I saw her at the game wearing Noah's jersey! She's literally dating his COUSIN. I bet the photo is photoshopped though, she’s still the same fat bitch she always was.
What an actual SLUT
This is so messy I'm obsessed
Poor Allison :(
Poor NOAH. He just won us that game and helped her fight for that spot on the cheer squad and this is how she repays him??
Each comment was a knife stabbing into me, sharp and painful and designed to kill.
I got off my knees and started running. Oast the boutique with the designer window displays, past the park where kids were playing on swings, past the coffee shop where I used to study.
My lungs burned, a sharp pain formed in my side while I ran, but I didn't stop. I couldn’t stop.
I had to get home, find Noah and explain all of this to him before he saw the photos or heard it from someone else first, before—
"Lena?" Nicole's voice came through the phone, "Are you still there?"
I'd forgotten I was still on the call.
"I'm here," I gasped, my breath coming in ragged bursts. “I’m just trying to find—"
"I'm sorry, but..." She paused. "You need to forget about New York."
I stumbled, catching myself against a mailbox. "What? Why? How?”
"Jake and I are still going, but you can't come with us. And I don't know how Noah feels about everything, but I'm guessing he won't want you there either."
My world started to blur around the edges.
All of the plans we’d made. From the road trip to shopping in SoHo, to the Broadway show Nicole had been researching.
I was already looking forward to the fresh start we'd talked about on the drive back from the city.
But that was over bow.
"Nicole, please." Tears were streaming down my face now, hot and relentless. "Please just let me explain, okay? Jace set me up. There was a photographer hiding and he grabbed me and made it look like—"
"I defended you." Nicole's voice cracked. "When people first started commenting, I told them you'd never do something like this and they didn't know you like I did. That was before I looked at the photo, and now I look like an fucking idiot."
"You're not—"
"I have to go. I'm sorry, Lena. I really am. Please don’t call this number ever again."
The line went dead.
I stood there on the sidewalk, my phone buzzing relentlessly in my hand, strangers walking past and staring at a dumb crying girl having a breakdown in public.
My careful new life was imploding in real-time before it even had the chance to start.
I forced my legs to move. Putting one foot in front of the other, even though every step felt as heavy as wading through concrete.
Home. I needed to get home and see Noah.
I had to.