Playing The Game

Playing The Game - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The next three months were probably the best months of my life.

Mason and I were pretty pissed off with each other for a bit, but eventually we made up and were friends again.

About a week after the incident at McDonald’s he and Mandy started going out. A week after that, they’d gone all the way. Meaning sex. Allie and I soon found out that Mandy wasn’t the innocent little girl we thought she was. She was only 16 and she’d already slept with a lot of guys.

Joel and I told the public about our relationship, since there were quite a few photos going around, and everyone was dying to know exactly what was going on between us.

Although there were a lot of jealous fans out there when we went public, Joel was the sweetest, most caring guy in the world. The attention and publicity scared me a bit, but he helped me through it. We had a few fights, just like every other couple, but it was never anything serious. He rarely got angry with me and he never pressured me into anything.

Being a rock stars girlfriend was hard on me; I felt like I had to be perfect all the time, considering I was kind of famous now too, but Joel told me I didn’t need to be perfect. He loved me as I was.

But I think it was hard on him too. He was constantly raided by the paparazzi asking questions about our relationship: if we’d had sex, if we were going to get married, stupid stuff like that.

After a couple of months, he started to get moody and depressed. He was always angry at everyone, and he wouldn’t tell anyone what was wrong.

It had begun to affect his career, but he always told me that he was fine, that everything was fine. Everything was perfect.

But nothing can stay perfect for long. He was under a lot of stress, and it just built up, pushing him to do stupid irreversible things and bottle everything up. And one day, he snapped.

* * *

Joel and I were sitting in my room on my bed. He was supposed to be helping me with my homework, but all he had done the whole time he was here was stare out the window. I sighed as I threw my book onto the bed next to me and moved over to him.

“What’s wrong, babe?” I asked, putting my hand on his arm. He just shook his head and yanked his arm away from me. I frowned. He’d been upset plenty of times before, but he’d never rejected my touch. “Joel…”

“Just leave me alone,” he snapped.

I gasped and went back to the other side of the bed, staring at him with wide eyes. He’d never yelled or snapped at me before. I continued to gape at him, watching for any signs of guilt for getting angry at me, but he didn’t move an inch. He just continued to stare out the window.

I was confused. What had come over him? It wasn’t like him to get angry with me. He normally just ignored me, but I think that’s worse.

 I reached out a hand towards him, not exactly sure what I was going to do, but then the door bell rang and I pulled away hastily. I jumped up and ran out of my bedroom, eager to get to the door before whoever it was left.  I was glad to be distracted from my confusion and hurt.

 When I got downstairs I opened the door to see Branden standing there. At least I think it was Branden. I hadn’t seen him for weeks, and I barely recognised him now. He’d stopped bothering me when I’d screamed at him to leave me alone in the middle of class when he was yet again attempting to get me back (he knew I had a boyfriend, yet he still tried. He wasn’t too happy when he found out that I was with Joel). He hadn’t been at school since then.