Billboards and Benches

Chapter 28

"These headlines are so mean!" She whines falling against her pillows. She's on a call with her boyfriend because she can't be with him anymore. The media is ripping her apart. They've moved on from that and they're shaming Dylan again for being out with another guy after her public split with Shawn. She just wanted to go for dinner with Colton. She thought he could be a good distraction and suddenly he's famous for bagging the girl everyone wants and she's a whore for eating dinner with a guy she's known for years.

"I know babe. They're awful." He sighs. "But they aren't as bad as the ones from yesterday." He offers a half smile. He's right by all means. Reading the headline that called her a roadside hookup or the ones that said she was for sale hurt a lot. By far the worst was the one who called her a reckless whore. She was in tears because of the names she was called and she was in tears on the phone with her PR rep talking about what she should say to pretend she dumped her boyfriend.

"The girl that took the video messaged me." She mumbles moving to face the camera on her iPad. She hates that this is how she has to talk to him but it's only temporary.

"Really? Did she apologize? I'm sure there wasn't an ill intent." He pouts. She scoffs at his response adding a bitter laugh.

"She thanked me for her followers and asked if we could meet up somewhere so that I could give her more to post. She's only sixteen! Her mom was driving the car." She huffs looking at the bedsheets. "I'm thinking about deleting my social media. My reps said that it would be fine but that I would have to post on all of them stating that I'm leaving first." She kicks her feet behind her. This truly is her worst nightmare.

"I'm leaving here tonight. Your parents only booked it for the night so I get to come home and sleep with you! I don't know if that makes it any better." He looks down slightly. He doesn't know what to do anymore. He wants to help her so desperately but he can't. There's nothing he can do for her.

"It makes it so much better. I'm gonna make my post delete my socials shut all of the blinds and cuddle my boyfriend. I swear to god I'm gonna sue if I see a camera flash!" She growls standing up and walking towards the window where she shuts her curtains.

"You're gonna be already Bubba. Only a little while longer before I come home to cuddle you."

...

"Hi baby." He smiles shutting the door behind him. Dylan knows there's are cameras outside so seeing her boyfriend walk in with sunglasses his hood up and wearing a hat wasn't surprising. "I missed you!" He smiles offering a soft hug and a gentile kiss.

"I hate that you had to be gone for a while night!" She groans. "And you have work all day tomorrow." She whines making him smile wider.

"I like doing things darling. Sure I wasn't here last night but we can make up for it and I will be here tomorrow night too. Work won't be that bad. You can go buy groceries and visit me. You just have to look disgusted the whole time." He teases and she rolls her eyes.

She doesn't find any of this funny. She's sick of the cameras documenting her breathing pattern. She's angry that she has to hide herself because some teenager thought that she could get her fifteen minutes of fam off of a video that is borderline pornographic. She hates what happened to them but she knows that it is still partially her fault. She did make the decision to do what she did but people aren't supposed to be so heartless.

"Did you eat?" She turns in his arms marching them both towards the kitchen. Once she notices the lights she walks away. "I ordered some food that should be here soon.

"Okay babes. I figured you would." He chuckles softly kissing her neck. She nods gently leading him up to her bedroom. She locked the windows and shut all of the curtains earlier she didn't want anyone to ever know she was in her room let alone with another person. "It's temporary sooner or later something more interesting is gonna happen." He nods lacing their fingers together. She's spent most of her time on social media today. She's been reading the tweets in response to hers. She's looked at the trending hashtags of how she's a whore or that her career is destroyed. She just wanted to have a minute with the man she loves. "Have you read the nice ones darling? You're being defended by a lot of people." He whispers leaning back against her headboard.

"Yeah but it's not even half of the comments. I have like a quarter of people saying that it was wrong and the rest of the world is calling me a prostitute and a disgraceful whore." She groans and he smiles kissing her softly. "I talked to my doctor today. I needed to know why I had my miscarriage." She mumbles holding his hands. "She told me I had a hostile uterus and that it was possible but unlikely that I'd be able to naturally get pregnant. So I called an IVF clinic which says that I can go in tomorrow to get some eggs harvested but I need a sample." She mumbles.

"Sure." He shrugs. He has no reason to say no. He knows that wether she likes it or not he is staying in her life till the bitter end. He was trying to plan a proposal before all of this happened. He wanted her parents' blessings but he's too nervous to ask them now. He doesn't want to talk to them knowing how much they hate him. He had a whole plan too but he needed to buy a ring which he has to pick up more than his fair share of extra shifts to afford. He needs to convince her parents that he is the man she will marry and he needs to get Dylan out of her own head for a minute. It's like she stares right at him without even looking at him at all.

"Really? That's it?" She furrows her eyebrows leaning against his shoulder. She was going to propose to him. She knows it's abnormal but she loves him so much she wanted to propose to him so that he knows how much he loves her. He tells her everyday that they're going to get married wether she likes it or not and she wants him to know that she's prepared for marriage. Especially with him.

"Yeah. I could care less. As long as one day we get ourselves beautiful babies I'll be happy." He smiles kissing her temple. Though the natural way is tried and true she's starting to worry she'll put out the eggs faster than she can fertilize them. She wants to start taking a shot to try and help her fertility the doctors are starting to think she may just be infertile.

"Then tomorrow morning before you leave you have to drop off your sample into the little cup in the bathroom." She nods and he chuckles.

"You're not even gonna help me a little bit?" He teases. He knows it may be a little far to push right now but he wants to see if he can convince her.

"I took some pictures for you and put them in the envelope underneath the stupid cup in the bathroom. I love you but I'm not waking up at like four in the morning to help you out." She chuckles and he nods. It's understandable she generally leads a pretty gruelling lifestyle and he understands why she likes her sleep so much. Then again they don't usually go to bed until midnight and she wakes up every morning at seven.

"It's enough for know that you thought about me!" He giggles kissing her temple.

"My foods here!" She giggles jumping down the stairs. Shawn stands at the doorway waiting for her to get back.

"Dylan who's the man we all watched walk in here! What's the truth about you and Shawn?" He hears all of these questions and knowing he can't go downstairs to face the people for her he calls her mom. Her mother hates him significantly less than her dad does. He hopes that she'll be able to help especially since she's been sitting with a lawyer all day.

"Get out of my house!" Dylan squeals. He creeps closer to the stairs so that he can see down. "Dont touch me!"