36Chapter four.
Contagious.
"Are you OK?" Ashley asked behind me, his voice filled with concern and I hated it. Today was such a bad day for me, not only about my scandal with Daniel Blair and my mother but I also cried in front of someone I just met. Twice. I hated showing people my vulnerable side, that was why they called me an ice queen back in school because being a bitch was my defense mechanism.
I wiped my tears before facing him. "I'm sorry I left you there,"
"I understand, you OK now though?"
I nodded and smiled weakly at him. "Er, yeah. Sorry about my mother,"
He let out a false grin, "No need to apologise," he said, he took my hand and squeezed it. From that, I suddenly felt slightly better; I felt safe with him holding my hand. I didn't want him to let go. "I think it's me that needs to apologise, I judged you too early. I thought you were the typical rich girl who gets whatever she wants but you've proved me wrong this evening with your mother. I'm sorry I misjudged,"
"I hope you won't tell anyone about my relationship with my mother, it makes me feel vulnerable and I hate that," I told him. God, I hated the fact that it felt so easy to tell him everything. This was all new to me... this whole opening up to some guy thing. I had never opened up about my family life with someone, never with Jamie back when we were together and not even with my best friend Catalina.
He squeezed my hand again and made me look up to him, "You can trust me, you know. You can tell me everything and I promise not to judge,"
I looked deep into his pools of blue eyes and I knew I was in trouble. "It's getting cold, can we get in the car?" He nodded.
We made our way back to my car, he was such a gentleman and he even opened the car door for me. He offered to drive because he said I was too emotional to do anything.
I told him I didn't want to go home just yet, so we sat there in silence for a while, not knowing what to say to each other. I kept sighing and trying not to let any more tears fall. Ashley on the other hand didn't know what to say to make me feel better so he just kept his mouth close.
He looked back at me and smiled weakly, "Come here," he said, opening up his arms. I accepted his hug and it felt so good, I'd almost forgotten about my scene with my mother back in the restaurant. We stayed like that for a while, in silence. "Maybe I should break up with her," he suddenly said and I looked up. Confused.
"Her?"
"My girlfriend, Clarisse."
"Why?"
"We've been fighting a lot lately ever since I joined the team. She doesn't understand my passion for football, you know?"
"How long have you been with her?"
"Almost a year," he replied, I suddenly felt my chest tightened. Was I jealous?
"Do you love her?"
"I did but now I don't know," he replied, he chuckled nervously. "It's complicated. Since she's gone on holiday with her friends, I feel like I could breath again, you know?"
I couldn't understand why he was telling me about his relationship problems, although it helped me forget about what happened back in the restaurant. Maybe it was his way of helping me feel better- by telling me about his love problems.
"So, she was really possessive huh?"
"Something like that," he looked away.
"You're lucky to have someone care for you like that, though she may be possessive it's probably because she loves you too much. I tend to be possessive myself, I guess it's all down to my insecurities and all,"
He looked at me and sighed, "Lucky? She doesn't trust me anymore,"
"What did you do to her that made her stop trusting you?" I had to ask, he didn't seem to mind me asking all these questions. I could feel that he was kind of relieved to share his problems with someone too.
"Well, she trusts the papers more than me. Lately it's all we've been fighting about," he replied. Ashley was also a victim of the little demons that was the paparazzi. "Hey, we should go home... it's getting late, way past your bedtime," he chuckled to lighten up the mood. I only nodded
"LEXIE!" Someone yelled, I groaned. I could hear her running up the stairs, I heard a loud bang as she opened my bedroom door. "Lexie, wake up! Wake up!" she was sitting on my bed and she was shaking my duvet.
I groaned once again, I really need to lock my door before I go to sleep. "Catalina," I peeked through my pillow, glancing at the pink digital clock on my bedside table. It said, 9.45. It was too early for me.
"Lexie, look at this!" I sat up and took the newspaper from Catalina.
I had to rub my eyes and looked at the front page picture. There it was a picture of me and Ashley by the fountain outside Groove Manor house, hugging. "Lies!"
"What happened last night, Lex?" Catalina asked,
I shrugged, "He was just comforting me, nothing's going on,"
"Oh OK, I'd love to believe that but you should read what they wrote,"
I looked at the little paragraph written beside the picture and my forehead suddenly wrinkled.
"It seems that Alexandria Demetri and the new Blakewood player Constantine Ashley have been dating for a while and they're getting serious. Alexandria even introduced Constantine to her mother -the famous socialite Stefanie Doll- last night during their dinner in Groove Manor; it looks like their relationship is still going strong despite Alexandria's alleged affair with Westfire's player of the year, Daniel Blair last week. Does daddy Paolo Demetri know about this relationship?"
My first thought was Constantine and his girlfriend, Clarisse. I knew they'd be fighting over the paper right now and I felt so guilty that I was the reason why they'd be fighting now. "I need to call Ashley," I said to myself, reaching for my phone but Catalina stopped me.
"No need, they were fighting on the phone when I left the house. Never thought Constantine would be so cruel, you should hear all the stuff he said to her," Catalina told me, happily. "He's breaking up with her. But that proves that there is something going on between you two,"
"No, seriously he was just comforting me as a friend, we didn't know there's pazzis around..." I started to drift off. Of course, there was bound to have paparazzi whenever Stefanie Doll was. She liked it when a mob of paparazzi follow her around.
"So, it's not true that he met your mum?"
"It just so happened that she was there," I replied, lazily.
"Oh, want to have breakfast together and then shop with me. We're going to that WAGs party right?"
"Are we?" I asked, getting up and heading to the bathroom.
"Yeah, since you're now dating Constantine. You're now a WAG so you got to come to this party," she called after me, I only shrugged and closed the bedroom door behind me.
I couldn't help but think about Ashley. I felt sorry for him; I knew he was hurting right now and I wanted to see him. It was my fault why he was now breaking up with his girlfriend- whatever her name was. I should really go and see him after shopping with Catalina.
Dress in just denim shorts and Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt; Catalina and I headed to Westfield shopping centre in Central London which is thirty minutes away from my house. We went straight to Starbucks cafe for breakfast with our favourite Frappucinos and Starbucks Belgian brownie. We talked about what we wanted to wear on Friday night and Catalina also filled me in about the WAGs and their rumours and what they were famous for. She also went on about Jamie; it seemed that I wasn't the only one who disapproved of our friend's chosen date.
"He's only dating her to annoy you, it's cruel." Catalina told me, and I sighed.
"It's working,"
Catalina nodded, "He needs to get over you,"
"I completely agree," I giggled
My phone suddenly started ringing. It was Ashley. I looked at Catalina and showed the caller ID to her and she grinned and took my phone from, she answered my phone. "What's up, bro?" she said, playfully. Catalina giggled and handed the phone back to me.
"Hey, Ash." I greeted,
"Lexie, where are you?"
"We're in errr... Westfield, why?"
"Can I meet you there?"
I raised an eyebrow and looked at Catalina. "If you two are going together, tell him to take Andrey with him so at least I have someone to talk to while you two get on with whatever you're planning to go," Catalina said,
I made a face at Catalina and she just rolled her eyes at me, "Catalina said to take Andrey with you when you come here, we'll meet you in The Village," I told him, and he agreed, saying he'd be here in thirty minutes.
Catalina and I finished our breakfast and then decided to walk around the big shopping centre while waiting for the boys. Catalina and I had a few minutes of more girl talk; she told me about her problem with Andrey, saying that she saw some girls' very generous messages on his social networking page. I told her not to believe any of those bullshits and that Andrey's world revolved around her and I told her about my growing feelings for Ashley, it was weird, it didn't even seem like Catalina and Constantine were half-siblings. I got used to knowing Catalina as an only child so I felt comfortable telling her about my frustration and guilt for her half older brother.
A third of an hour later, the guys called to meet us in Prada in Westfield's The Village. I bought a new gold purse I was going to use for the WAGs party there and Andrey bought his girlfriend a brand new pair of latest Prada black snake skin shoes. We then went to Chanel to buy our dresses for the upcoming party; according to Catalina, it was going to be a grand, classy party as it was a celebration of Cheryl Cole's latest success with her single and also to celebrate the start of the Football Cup.
When Catalina and I got our outfit sorted out, we helped the guys find their suits in Armani shop and after that we had lunch in one of the Chinese restaurants located inside the centre.
I noticed that Ash was very quiet and he was cold towards me too so I asked him if he was all right when Andrey and Catalina were still ordering their food; it was a self-service restaurant.
"I finally broke up with her this morning," he told me but he sounded angry when he said it.
"I'm sorry,"
"Sorry for what? It wasn't your fault,"
"It kinda was, I saw the paper this morning. If I was your girlfriend, I'd be furious too,"
He shook his head, "I told you last night, I was going to break up with her. She didn't even see the paper, it's not your fault so don't get involve with it,"
I nodded and didn't say anything else. He looked annoyed for some reason so I stopped asking questions. But from the way he was acting, he was making me feel even more guilty and also confused.
I think he really was bipolar.
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Thank you for your reviews. I hate her mother too! :))
Sorry for the late update. It will take a while for the next chapter too cause I'm going to Philippines for Christmas and I also have a lot of university essays to do. Rah. Real World is hard. xxx