Reasons to Love You- Sokeefe Human AU

Chapter 8

"How bad is it?" I groaned, burying my face in a pillow as my friends crowded around Dex's computer.

"We-ell..." Marella dragged out. That made me raise my head.

"There's been worse," Linh reassured me, trying to be the optimist. "I mean, there's only been one picture so far, so they don't have much to go on-"

"How's your head?" Dex interrupted, subtly angling the laptop away from me.

I glowered at him. After checking me over, Elwin had sentenced me to a week of bed rest. So, I was basically stuck in bed all day doing homework. Besides the head injury, he had said I had a slightly sprained wrist and a faint concussion, both of which would take at least a week to heal.

My injuries weren't the thing I was worried about. I got those all the time. My biggest problem right now was the stupid picture that Sophomore had snapped. Since I was stuck in the dorm, I escaped the brunt of it, but I couldn't escape the millions of wild speculations circling the internet. Seriously, people, don't you have better things to do than obsessively stalk a teenage boy with amazing hair?

"Nice try, Dex, but don't change the subject." I tried to cross my arms, but the brace Elwin had put on my left arm was too bulky, so I ended up in an awkward half-cross with my sprained wrist hanging down. Definitely not threatening.

"Fine," Dex grumbled, walking over to my bed and putting his laptop onto my lap. "See for yourself. But don't say I didn't warn you."

I squinted at the screen. Elwin had said to stay away from screens, but this was more important.

"I need to go into hiding," I whispered in shock, trying to stop the terror seeping into my voice. "Preferably for the next century."

It was so out of proportion, so incriminating and was totally fake. And yet, it was so embarrassing.

KEEFE SENCEN FINDS NEXT GIRLFRIEND! The headline screamed. And that was only the first tabloid magazine. The next one said: SENCEN KIDNAPS INNOCENT GIRL! FOR WHAT PURPOSE? I snorted at that one.

And the next one: SENCEN SCANDAL! ONE MONTH AFTER SWEARING OFF GIRLFRIENDS FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR, SENCEN ALREADY GOES BACK ON HIS WORD!

"I didn't know he had sworn off girlfriends," I mumbled, trying to process the enormity of everything. I felt drained just by looking at the magazines.

Then I saw the next headline.

"They're freaking STALKING ME?!" I shouted angrily. In one magazines it said: "Sophie Foster, a sixteen year old girl who lives on an animal preserve with her adopted parents..."

"WHAT THE HELL!" I shouted at the screen. I shoved the laptop away and buried my head into my arms, trying to fight the angry tears that were squeezing past my eyes.

"I can't believe they did this," Linh choked out. "This is so..."

"It's gonna be ok," Marella murmured to me soothingly, rubbing my back. "I know you're not used to all the scrutiny, but it's not actually that bad. These tabloid magazines don't actually hold any weight. Just keep your head high, take some time to recover, adjust, and it'll be ok."

"How would you know?" I snapped through my arms, wishing my voice wasn't so scratchy from all the crying and screaming.

"Crazy Caprise Redek, remember?" Marella told me gently, but not without some anger. But that was directed to the media. I bit back my shame. I had totally forgotten about the big mess Marella had gotten into when she was younger.