30 Day Angst Challenge

Twenty Five: Scandal

I couldn't believe what I was reading. Mainly because it wasn't true. But as much as I knew that it wasn't true, all my insecurities were pouring out at once. I feared that I wasn't good enough for him. A lot of his fans agreed...especially the female ones.

But he'd reassured me countless times that he loved me, and that he'd never leave me. The press wanted me to think otherwise with the way they were spinning this story, however I wasn't going to fall for it. But I still felt absolutely tiny as I sat in the player's lounge waiting for the game against Everton to begin. The story had broken at the worst possible time.

"Hey (Y/N)". Rebecca, Jordan Henderson's wife smiled, joining me at my table taking the seat opposite me.

"Hi." I replied, sounding more miserable then intended. Rebecca frowned.

"Okay, the game starts in like half an hour, and Trent's starting, yet you sound like you don't want to be here. What's up?" Rebecca asked.

"It's nothing." I brushed the whole thing aside, not really feeling like explaining it to Rebecca through my embarrassment. In my head, I could already feel everybody else's eyes piercing into me.

"It's definitely something." Rebecca commented. I just twiddled my thumbs.

"Ignore the whole thing love, you and I both know it isn't true." Rachel, Andy Robertson's wife told me, throwing herself into the chair next to me.

"What's going on?" Rebecca questioned.

"This." Rachel pulled the story up on her phone and held it out for Rebecca to see.

I'd read that bold headline too many times to count at this point; Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold Pictured Cosying Up To A Girl Who Definitely Isn't His Girlfriend. Below the headline was an image of Trent helping a girl into his car.

The context that was missing was that this was his best friend Nina, whom he'd known since childhood...she also happened to have a long term boyfriend. Nina had had a row with her boyfriend that night so had gone clubbing with some friends. Trent had received a call from a very drunk Nina asking him to pick her up, and obviously he'd gone to collect her and make sure she got home to her boyfriend safely.

"Shit." Rebecca cursed.

"It's not what it looks like though." I said quickly.

"Do you know that for sure?" Rebecca asked cautiously.

"She has a boyfriend. They've been together for 5 years." I explained.

"That's Nina, she's been Trent's best friend ever since they were like 3." Rachel added. She'd met Nina when she, her boyfriend and I had gone to a game together. Rebecca hadn't been there that day though since Hendo was injured.

"What's Trent doing with her?" Rebecca asked.

"She got in a row with her boyfriend and got drunk. She asked Trent to take her home, which he did because he's a kind person who wasn't going to see her stranded in the middle of Liverpool." I explained.

"He shouldn't be getting photographed like that, poor boy." Rachel had a point. A member of the public had probably taken that picture and sold it to the press.

"It's what happens." I shrugged, still feeling small.

"Listen, don't you worry about it okay? We all know what the true story is." Rebecca tried to reassure me.

"I know, but I just...when I see him in pictures with her it makes me think that I'm not good enough for him. Nina's so beautiful, and so are all our other female friends. I just think he could do way better than me." I explained.