He got a shocked look on his face as he read the text.

"They're lying! I would never do that Jolie! You know me better than that."

She looked up at him with tears streaking her face and shook her head.

"No I don't. I hardly know you at all Austin."

His expression changed to hurt and confusion. He looked down at the phone reading it again.

Then he knelt down on the step in front of her, laying his hands on her knees. "Jolie look at me please!" he pleaded, but she was crying too hard to look up.

"This is not true! Someone is making this up to try to make me look bad. I promise it wasn't me Jolie. Please believe me," he begged.

She couldn't answer him because she was too upset. Austin reached down and picked her phone up typed back to the person on the message.

'.'

They answered back. '

''

'' they answered back with a winking emoji.

He could tell he wasn't getting anywhere with them so he put the phone down and looked back over to Jolie.

She sat there stunned, trying to process all this information and her head was spinning. They were right. She could feel it. She had always felt in the back of her mind that Austin liking her had to be too good to be true. Now it all made sense. He made up this entire website and this chase to get her to sleep with him first just to prove to the whole school that he was the big man on campus and to feed his ego. He didn't really like her. She had been a fool to believe it and she was sure everyone at school knew and was laughing at her behind her back.

Austin sat in front of her with his hands on her knees and rubbed his hand down the side of her face and said, "Jolie?"

She pulled away from his hand and said, "I'm just confused right now about everything Austin. I need time to process this."

"Jolie please don't shut me out. I didn't do what they're accusing me of. To these assholes this is all just a game and it's about winning money. They don't care that we're real people that really like each other. They would destroy our lives just to win that money without a second thought. This isn't a game to me. I'm starting to have real feelings for you and I thought you were starting to have them for me too."

"I do have feelings for you Austin. I'm just so afraid of getting my heart broken that this made me take a step back and think about what I'm doing here. I realized I don't really know you that well. I was just getting caught up in the moment and the way your kisses made me feel and how gorgeous you are. I almost rushed into getting physical with you and now I realize I wasn't ready for that and I almost made a big mistake."

Austin was still kneeling on the step in front of her and he studied her face, thinking but without saying a word.

She took a deep breath in and let it out.

"I've got to take this claim seriously Austin to protect myself. I've got to find out for sure if this is true before we do anything." She hesitated for a minute before saying, "I think we should take a break for a while."

Austin hung his head in defeat and was silent for a minute before looking up and saying, "You do what you need to do Jolie. Just know that this isn't true what they said and I'll do everything I can to prove that to you."

"I just need some time to think Austin. I'm sorry," she said crying, before she got up and walked down the steps and out his front door and back into her house, shutting the door behind her.

Her Mom saw from the kitchen that she had tears running down her face and she came out and said, "What's wrong honey?" looking very concerned.

Jolie just walked up and buried her face in her Mom's shoulder and wrapped her arms around her neck, sobbing onto her shoulder while she held her and patted her back.

"Let me guess ...... Austin?" she asked and Jolie just nodded her head in silence. Her Mom held her for a minute and finally let go and looked at her. "Ok tell me what he did," she said with a sympathetic smile, wiping a tear from Jolie's cheek.

"He was the one who created the 'Chasing the New Girl' betting website. He planned to have sex with me tonight to win the money and prove that he could beat the other guys and then he was going to dump me," she sniffled, choking on the words, as another tear fell down her cheek.

"What!" her Mom screamed. "Are you kidding?!"

"No I'm not kidding!" she sobbed. "I got a text message from an unknown number that told me all of this. Austin denied it and says they're lying to split us apart. I'm just not sure what to believe Mom. What if it turns out to be true and they tried to warn me and I didn't listen? I would feel like an idiot."

"Well I would be careful not to jump to conclusions and condemn him before you know for sure if this is true," her Mom said, patting her on the shoulder. "This just doesn't sound like him."

"I know, but I need to find out for sure. I'll have to act like a detective like Dad does on his cases to find out what the truth is. Oh I forgot to tell you. I did call and talk to him earlier."

Her Mom's eyes widened.

"How did he sound? Did he sound happy?" she asked. She looked at her with puppy dog eyes and looked so vulnerable that she didn't have the heart to tell her the truth. She couldn't tell her that her Dad said his girlfriend Amber made him feel happier than he's felt in a long time.

"No. He sounded depressed. He probably misses us."

"Really?" she asked. Then she sat up straight and looked serious. "Well he should feel depressed after what he did. I hope he's miserable and when I find some gorgeous piece of man candy that's 10 years younger than him, I can't wait to rub him in his face like he's been doing to me with his little girlfriend."

Jolie smiled at how confident her Mom sounded.

"That will be incredible Mom," she said with a smile. "I can't wait to see it. As angry as I am at him it was good to talk to him though. I actually told him about the 'Chasing the New Girl' website and he was so mad! He wanted to go to the press with the story and tell them how the police refused to help us but I talked him out of it. I don't want to be any more humiliated than I already am. He did say he was going to have his people look into it to figure out whose site it is and get it taken down."

"Have you told him about this text you got today yet?" her Mom asked.

"No but I will," she said getting up and giving her Mom a hug and kiss and telling her good night.

Then she went upstairs and called her Dad again and gave him the new information; the cell phone number that texted her today and that they said Austin Fox was behind the website. She also gave him the website address. He said that he would send it to his detectives and see what they could find out. She thanked him and promised to call again soon.

She turned on her TV and put on a Netflix movie, cuddling up in bed. It was a beautiful warm night so she had her window open to smell the fresh country air and listen to the crickets outside. As it started to get dark she looked over and saw that Austin's window was open too and he was laying in bed watching TV too. It made her so sad because she should be over there cuddled up against his warm chest, watching a movie with him instead of over here all alone, hugging a pillow and feeling miserable.

She pressed her face into her pillow and cried and a minute later she heard her phone ding.

''