Half A Heart ♡ A Marcus Bontempelli Fanfic

thirty seven

marcus

"You ready?" I say, walking over to Tayla, grabbing her hand.

"Ready." She smiles. We make our way down the elevator to the ground floor where the event was held. It was the AFLW Launch tonight and I wanted to support Tayla since she was one of the marquee players. She takes a deep breath as we approach the red carpet.

"You'll be fine," I say, whispering into her ear "You look gorgeous." She gives me a confident smile as she intertwines our fingers. I was just as nervous as her, this would be the first time we'd be seen together after nearly a year. There's no doubt that there would be conspiracies since the media were basically told we had broken up. It was also my first public appearance since the incident with Alex, there were still plenty of questions in the air.

"I'm joined here by the Brisbane Lions Marquee player Tayla Harris and premiership player Marcus Bontempelli. How are you guys doing tonight?" Says the tall, blonde reporter shoving the mic in our faces.

"Good." We smile in unison.

"Now, I'll start off with you Tayla, how was the first season of AFLW?"

"It was amazing. The girls were all amazing and winning the grand final just topped it off." Tayla smiles nervously.

"No doubt. We've got some vision of the celebrations from that night." Says the reporter turning to the camera as we see the video played on the small T.V next to the cameras "Now, how was your time at the Lions? You've confirmed that you're moving to the Carlton Football Club, how do you feel about the whole thing?"

"Yeah, last year we had a great playing group. The girls were all amazing and made the time up in Brisbane even better. The club is amazing and took us girls on and did so successfully. I'll definitely miss my time up in Brisbane but I'm very excited to come home and play for the Blues next season." She says, to the camera's as the reporter nods.

"Now, onto you Marcus. How's your recovery doing?"

"It's been going well. I've been in rehab for a couple of weeks now and there were some concerns about coming here tonight but we got the green card, which was good." I smile.

"I don't really want to talk about it much but I have to ask, have you talked to Alex at all?"

"Uh, yes. He's reached out to me and my family and apologised. We're on good terms." I nod.

"Last time we saw you here at Crown Palladium, you were with girlfriend Bianca Hart, are you guys here as friends or couple?" The reporter asks. I look at Tayla who's expression changed. I could barely even remember who Bianca was, why would she ask such a question? Infront of Tayla too? It only made me mad.

"Couple." I say barely a whisper, as she gives me a fake smile. I let out a fake laugh, as I give her a look.

"Well, thank you for joining us tonight. Enjoy the launch." She says. I don't say another word to the reporter and leave. I just wanted to get myself and Tayla out of that situation. I didn't expect to get any questions like that, it didn't even cross my mind.

Tayla releases herself from my grip, walking fastly to the bathroom. I quickly chase after her but she pulls away and goes in. I stand outside the door waiting patiently, not knowing what do. I knew that it had hurt her and I wanted to just comfort her.

"Tayla." I say, grabbing her arm as she walks out of the door. I pull her aside in the corner, looking down at her. She had tears running down her face

"Marcus, I don't want to be here." She sobs into my shoulder.

"Tayla," I frown, rubbing her back "she shouldn't have asked that question."