EXCEPTional

Ch. 25 (Chance)

*Chance*

I had spent the past couple days avoiding every media site and device I could think of. I turned off my Facebook notifications, and so many other social media notifications my phone was hardly a smartphone anymore.

I just didn't want to deal with the theories and assumptions and headlines that I was positive were cluttering social media. I didn't want to read all about my breakup from someone who wasn't there and didn't know the whole truth.

But I couldn't hide from it forever.

In my room, I sat down in a chair and turned on my laptop. To procrastinate, I connected my camera to my computer and started to download the pictures. But I could do others things while it downloaded.

So I took a deep breath and clicked on the shortcut link to an online news site I subscribed to. The major headlines, of course, were of political espionage and drama. But along the side were the latest and biggest scandals of the celebrity world. And my name was everywhere.

I selected the first article I saw my name as the highlight in, and came face to face with a picture of myself (which was actually quite common for the profession I was in). In the picture, I looked distracted, with wild hair, wrinkled clothes, and tired eyes. But I could tell from the positioning (and with the assistance of my memory) that it came from a shoot I did in Europe a year ago (the theme was "distraught").

Sighing, I braced myself for the words to follow.

In big, bolded letters, the headline read, "Dream Couple Turned Nightmare!" with a subheading that said, "Chance Olson and Adriana Pierce have called it off!"

And then I moved onto the article.

"The world had to get used to the newest, and sexiest, power couple of the year, just last year. When male model and actor Chance Olson announced Adriana Pierce, a rising Victoria's Secret model, as his girlfriend, no one was surprised but everyone was overjoyed. Chance had been voted Sexiest Man Alive, again, and Adriana was given the same title for women. And so, the world came into harmony.

"But that didn't last long. Chance Olson decided to end the dream relationship just a couple days ago. According to Adriana Pierce, the world-known male model thought the relationship was at a standstill and that Ms. Pierce didn't have "true" feelings for him.

"Remember that rumor about Chance Olson cheating on Adriana Pierce? It was squashed by the model, claiming it was just a joke between old friends. But maybe there's something more to that "rumor", and that that old friend is actually a friend with benefits—and the reason for the breakup of the perfect couple."

My sigh turned into a groan once I finished reading. I let my fingers thread into my hair and then tugged out of frustration.

For one, Adriana had gone straight to the media to talk about our falling out. Or maybe they were lying. Although, it wasn't farfetched. She could go out with her blue puppy-dog eyes and gain the sympathy and popularity while my image suffered. I hated to admit it, but it was actually quite an ingenious plan.

And for two, Bridget was beginning to wind her way into the media's eye, and through no fault of her own. I knew how much she detested attention, and while she remained unnamed for now, she was still receiving unwanted attention. I just hoped she wouldn't start hating me because of all this.

I glanced over the other headlines dotting the page: "Perfect Couple Isn't Perfect Anymore," "Who Saw This Coming?" "Happy One-Year! Here's Your Gift . . ." Just by reading the article titles, I knew what each one was about: how perfect Adriana and I were together, and how disappointed the masses were now that we were no longer dating.