Addicted to the Billionaire

-19-

I wake up the next day with a major headache, and I find it hard to get up, probably due to partying last night. I lay, staring at the ceiling as I recall the events of the party. I had left by 9pm, when everyone started drinking. Xavier took me home, and we had had a good time, going over his business deals and meetings. When I arrived, I hadn't met my parents, so I crept into bed and fell asleep. All in all, it was a good day, except for when I fell into the pool.

A feeling of dread came over me as I remembered my near death experience. I had told Xavier that someone must have accidentally stumbled into me, and pushed me into the pool, but the truth was that I had a feeling that I had been intentionally pushed in, maybe by one of the cheerleaders as a joke.

I was distracted from my thoughts by the sound of my phone (not my iPhone) vibrating. I was surprised to see it there, but I assumed that my parents decided to let me have it back.

I reached for my phone, and saw that I had tons of messages, mostly from Jordan and Audrey. I was just about to open the most recent one, when I caught a glimpse of the time on the alarm clock and realised how devastatingly late I would be if I didn't move my lazy behind from the bed. Panicking, I scrambled out of bed and within ten minutes I was seated in Xavier's car with Eric at the front, dressed in a sweatshirt and my hair in a messy bun.

"Eric please drive as fast as you can", I told him, and he must have heard the urgency in my voice because he pulled a Lightning McQueen and drove so fast, I had serious doubts of reaching school alive.

***

When I arrived in school, I had a weird feeling that everyone was staring at me. I walked down the hallway which was oddly quiet, except for the hushed whispers which quickly faded as I got near. did I have a stain on my jeans or toilet paper in my shoes? I checked myself, but I looked normal – as normal as I could look considering the train wreck of a morning that I had had.

However, as I walked towards my locker, I saw a large group of students gathered around it. What was going on? I struggled to push my way through the crowd of students, but for some reason, when they saw me, they all stepped aside, and gave me space, so that I could now see my locker.

Suddenly, I understood all the weird looks and whispers. I felt queasy and wanted to throw up. Pasted on my locker was a printed picture of me kissing Xavier.

***

"Candy, I know you're in there. Open up.", Audrey knocked on the bathroom door. Once I saw the picture I had fled to the safety of the girls' bathroom, which was where I planned on staying until school ended. However, Audrey had different ideas and had been trying to persuade me to come out for the last ten minutes.

"Look Candy, I know that you think that this is bad but..."

I opened the door then.

"But what?", I snapped. "Don't tell me that things could be worse because they can't be. The whole school has seen that picture of...", I couldn't even finish my sentence. "This couldn't be worse."

Audrey hugged me then pulled away. Looking deep into my eyes, she said, "Trust me, it's worse."

She pulled out her phone and showed me a website. On it was the same picture of me and Xavier kissing, with the caption 'Billionaire Playboy and his New Girlfriend for the Week'. Underneath, was a picture from yesterday, a picture of Xavier when he rescued me from the pool. He was carrying me, and I was looking deep into his eyes. The heading was 'Xavier Reyes and his New Girl take a Dip'. Both photos were a bit blurred and amateurish, but it was obvious that the people in the picture were me and Xavier.