Lost in the Game {Brollins}

| Chapter 52 |

Days passed and the group noticed that Rebecca had been in and out of school sporadically. It was strange coming for her seeing as she was usually regimented, and now she often came to classes late, was missing during some lunchtimes, and was always zoning out.

Nobody knew about what had happened the day Rebecca never showed up at school after Jonathan dropped her off at home, and she didn't plan on telling anyone anything.

Rebecca started struggling to care about anything that had to do with school, and she constantly found herself disengaging. She also found that makeup actually could work wonders and she quickly learned how to hide the still fresh-looking gash on the bridge of her nose with it, and unless someone looked extremely carefully there was no chance that they'd notice it.

She walked through the halls knowing she was already late before she started getting a string of text messages. The first was sent one on one from Mercedes and was a picture of an updated drug test. Another one was from Ashley one on one, confirming that Rebecca would pick up some birth control for Ashley the next time she was at a store.

However, the other messages were on the group chat filled with all of them. She leaned against the nearby wall and started scrolling through the conversation. The four of them were reading the messages but only Ashley and Mercedes were actually texting.

The first few started off with questions asking Rebecca if she had something to tell them, but it was the picture Ashley sent further down that caught Rebecca's attention the most.

Her face instantly wrinkled in both confusion and frustration, "What the..."

It was a picture posted online by Alexis, and Rebecca immediately knew it was going to cause controversy. It showed Rebecca and Jonathan the day they fell asleep together in his car. They were both curled up beside each other, fast asleep, and it must've been taken minutes before they woke up because there was natural sunlight brightening up the picture.

There were already countless likes, multiple re-uploads, hundreds of comments, and the caption made Rebecca want to throw her phone at the wall when she read it.

'Lovebirds'

It was simple yet effective for the drama Alexis was absolutely trying to start, and the extremely annoying heart next to it made it ten times worse.

She quickly texted the group explaining that it was innocent and there was nothing going on. The girls knew she had no reason to lie, both making that clear, and Rebecca couldn't get mad that they wanted clarification.

She rolled her eyes at the thought of Alexis pulling this stunt, just before her phone started ringing and she saw Jonathan's contact appear. 

"Yeah, I saw it." Rebecca stated quickly, understanding why Jonathan was calling.

"I thought you might've." Jonathan nodded to himself, "Listen, the guys texted me, wanting to talk, and I think it's obvious why. It's your choice if you wanna or not, but I'm about to head over."

"I'll go with you." Rebecca responded, knowing it wasn't fair for Jonathan to face the heat alone.

Jonathan quickly replied, "They're at my locker. I'm just rounding the corner now, so hopefully, I take the brunt of it." 

Rebecca sighed, feeling bad for once again dragging Jonathan into her issues, "I'll be there soon."

She ended the call and closed her phone, gripping it tightly as she started walking down the halls again. She couldn't even sleep in peace without someone bothering her or plotting against her and quite frankly, she was over it.

Jonathan found himself once again walking towards his locker on rocky grounds. He knew they'd have to explain everything and once they did it would be fine, but he was also aware of how protective Joseph was over Rebecca, and how strangely Colby had been acting whenever it came to her.

"Hey." He walked up to the two nonchalantly.

"Hey?" Colby moved away from the wall he was leaning on, "Hey!?"

"Don't." Joseph forced Colby back, before looking back to Jonathan, "You know what this is about?"

Jonathan nodded, prepared to take on the worst parts of the conversation alone, before he quickly felt a hand on his back, as Rebecca moved beside him.

"No nothing happened. It was innocent. The picture was taken out of context. That's it." Rebecca quickly spoke as she stared at the two.

"Rebecca, you don't have to protect him." Colby took a step forward.

"Nothing happened, Colby." Rebecca matched his actions and moved forward. "Alexis knows what she's doing. She did this on purpose."

"She placed you two in the truck? She made you sleep next to each other? He knew you were vulnerable and he capitalized on it." Colby moved so close to Rebecca that there was almost no space between them, "Are you two dating?"

"Dude, stop it." Jonathan pulled Rebecca backward protectively.

"Are you two dating?!" He repeated as rage began setting in.

"No!" Rebecca yelled, "Colby-"

"I can't believe you." Colby sneered as he glared at Jonathan.

"You're that self-conscious huh?" Jonathan laughed bitterly. "Ridiculous."

Colby swiftly shoved Jonathan in the chest, as the two death-stared each other, and Rebecca quickly pulled Jonathan back, as Joseph pushed back Colby before things could escalate. 

"Colby!" Rebecca stared at him with a stunned expression, "Stop and listen to me! Nothing happened. It's not his fault, it's mine!"

She shook her head in disbelief before turning around and walking away, as the group stood in silence.

Rebecca walked into the washroom, and gripped the edge of the sink, as tears of rage and exhaustion filled her eyes. Her dark circles were obvious, and there was only so much she could do to keep her facade up. 

Her words could cover up a lot of her story, but her body would evidently give in, and there was nothing she could do to stop that.