I paced back and fourth in my apartment constantly looking at the time as I awaited for Marcus to meet me here.
Ever since the photograph was leaked, things couldn't have gotten any more worse. My Twitter notifications had been blowing up comments accusing me of stupid things like dating sport stars for stories, using Marcus because according to many people I was a gold digger and that this was only a publicity stunt for the newspaper. I had also got magazines calling me several times begging me for an interview which wasn't surprising seeing as tabloids like that cared for so called breaking news about celebrities being lizards or Justin Bieber eating sandwiches.
Ironically enough I had also gotten calls from a few club officials trying to my version of events which was stupid seeing as this wasn't a big scandal or whatever. The photograph affected Marcus a little but majority it affected me the most. What baffled me the most was how much people cared over a little photo that could have come from anywhere really.
As well as that, work hasn't really been the same with many of my colleagues suddenly treating me as though I committed a murder which in all honesty didn't seem like a bad idea with the rate of how everything was going. Even some of the boys were a little confused with the whole thing but thankfully they had my back and did everything they could to support me, this was excluding Michael who left me several angry voicemails which hardly concerned me since I never had his support in the first place.
I felt sick in my stomach, taking a seat on my couch as I buried my hands on my face. I was genuinely terrified about how Marcus was going to react to the media attention surrounding the pair of us, especially seeing how I've done nothing but push him away each time he'd get close to me.
Grabbing my phone off the coffee table in front of me, I bit my lip as the phone buzzed with a notification. I hesitated before tossing my phone aside knowing that the notification was only going to make my world more painful. Sitting down, I could feel myself on the verge as the loud ring of the doorbell entered through my ears.
Did Marcus know about the photo too? Because right now, I knew I could be in a lot more shit with him than anybody else if he had seen it.
A tear had rolled slowly down my cheeks as the doorbell rang. I took a deep breath, doing my best to calm myself down and headed straight to the door where I hesitated for a moment before opening the door, coming face to face with him.
I stared at him for a slight moment. He stood at the doorstep wearing a cold expression on his face and hair that was tousled, the mess reminding me of the one I was in right now. The clothes on his body looked cleaned and by the looks of his face too were cleaned, cleaned off the radiance and youthful vibrance Marcus would normally show off.
"Marcus." I said shyly feeling quite vulnerable at the moment with everything going wrong at the moment overshadowing my thoughts. I could feel my hands beginning to shake when he just nodded his head. I let him in, shutting the door behind him as I took a deep breath, allowing myself to hold it together. We both sat down on the couch and remained quiet as I looked at him, trying my hardest to put together a conversation in my mind but was interrupted from my thoughts when Marcus spoke up.
"Listen, if you've called me here only to say that a relationship is a mistake again, I don't want to hear it Scarlett."
"No please Marcus, I promise that this isn't going to be that kind of conversation again -"
"Then tell me Scarlett. Why is that you constantly push me away when you and both know that there are feelings between each other? I don't understand -"
"Yeah, of course you don't understand Marcus." I added bluntly as I immediately regretted the brutal words that came out of mouth. He slouched down, looking down at the ground quite coldly, his next sentence hitting me hard like a bomb on a war ground.
"It's because of Biggs, isn't it?"
"What?" I nervously asked still keeping my eye on him. He hasn't flinched a muscle yet and the expression on his face clearly told me why.
"I knew it, I absolutely knew it. You've gone right ahead and made excuses for yourself when it comes to me but when it comes to Shane, all is fine when you flirt with him right in front of me." He exclaimed, his tone slightly higher jumping out of his seat and stood up quite aggregated.
"Flirting? With Shane? What the hell is wrong with you Marcus? Maybe it was a bad idea to call you here. All I wanted to do was sort out this issue between us, especially with that photograph circling around but instead you burst in here and assume that instead of being with you I wanted to be with him."
"Well is that what you want to do? Do you want to be with Shane instead of me?" He asked, his tone lowering as I suddenly felt myself exploding with anger.
"No, no I don't want to be with him and do you want to know why I don't want your teammate? It's because I want you Marcus, nothing else but to be with you. I'm falling for you Marcus and don't know how many times I can say that but the truth is that I'm just scared. I'm scared for me and you." I admitted looking embarrassingly at the ground. It felt like a large weight was taken off my chest which was always a good thing but somehow I still didn't see how this could help out my problem with Marcus.
I could hear his footsteps moving towards me as I let out a sigh. I could feel his warm hands against the skin of my arms, a kind of shock rushing through my body.
"I'm sorry Scarlett, I really didn't mean a lot of what I said. I don't know, I guess I was just anxious after you turned me down several times and in my mind for some reason I kept believing that you did more with him than you did when you were around me; you smiled more, you laughed more, you probably even dreamt more. I just wanted to be the one who made you live more rather than any other man."
"No it's my fault, I should have told you my problems from the start instead of just pushing you away." I sighed as I could feel his hands wrap around my waist. Looking up, I felt my body tingling as he looked into my eyes with concern.
"What is it that's scaring you Scarlett?" He asked as I broke off the gaze between the two of us and looked down onto the ground.
"The reason I kept making excuses of why being together was a mistake was that I was scared of what people were going to say about the two of us being in a relationship. With you being a professional footballer and me being a journalist, the whole thing was likely to get a lot of people heated up and harshly judge us. I mean I'm used to it seeing as I cop shit all the time but honestly I didn't want anybody talking trash about you."
"Has this got anything to do with that photograph too?" He asked as I stared at him with wide eyes as Marcus continued talking. His fingers gently fit underneath my chin as he slowly lifted it upwards, my eyes locked into his. My lips slowly trembled but then stopped, my body loosening up as my fears suddenly seemed to fade.
"I couldn't give a stuff about what anybody says. People say crap about me all the time whether it be on the football field or outside of sports. A lot of the things they say are complete bullshit and I know they say words hurt but who is anyone to judge or dictate what we do in our lives. Scarlett, I don't care what people believe that we should or shouldn't do, all I care about is what's right and that's my feelings for you. Take as many photographs they want, write as many articles as they please but remember this, I wouldn't want to trade any of it if it meant losing you."
"You really believe that?" I asked still in shock of what he just said when he pulled me closer and placed his lips on mine. For a moment he kissed my lips before releasing from it, leaving a lingering sensation behind.
"Do you believe me now?" He asked as I smiled and stared into his eyes, my body beginning to less tense than it was previously.
"Of course Marcus." I said as he let a smile form across his face filling me with the happiness I never realised that I had craved before. Silence formed between us for a few moments before he looked down and turned his attention back onto me.
"I know that this is probably going to sound like a stupid thing to say seeing as there's a whole heap of media attention on us but what would you think if we took this slowly. I mean if that's what you want Scarlett, then slowly as we feel my confident I guess, we can be more open with our relationship."
"I think I'd like that a lot Mr Bontempelli." I grinned cheekily as he let out a slight chuckle and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me closer to him as we spent several moments in a tight hug as we enjoyed our beautiful embrace together.
"Oh yeah Scarlett?"
"Hmm?"
"Did I mention how hot you looked in that photograph?" He asked as I rolled my eyes and let out an irritated groan.
"Shut up Marcus!" I let out a chuckle as he let out a laugh.
"No but seriously, those green pants you wore looked good on you."
"Really? Oh thank you Marcus, maybe I should buy you a pair of the same ones that you can strut those gorgeous legs of yours at training." I added with a chuckle as he released from the hug and gave me an are you kidding me look.
"I'm sorry but you asked for it Marcus."
"You know what you asked for you?" He asked as I stared at with a raised eyebrow unsure of where this conversation was leading to.
"What?"
"This!" He excitedly exclaimed before beginning to tickle me, my eyes starting to water with how much I was laughing that somehow I found myself on the floor, alongside of Marcus who continued to tickle me, filling me with a kind of happiness I hadn't felt in a very long time.