It was everywhere. People were whispering about me in class and the entire time I just wished I could snatch the phones right out of their hands but I stayed silent, drowning myself in work as I prepared for finals and then I would finally be rid of their judgmental stares.

It was much harder to avoid Layla, however, as she was in one of my classes. Yay.

She walked up to me immediately after the final bell rang. Speak of the devil...

"Lydia! You didn't tell me you were already living with Emmett Scott. You think he'd be interested in what we read in your journal?"

My blood boiled. On the surface, however, I was cool as a cucumber.

"Layla. If you still have my journal, I would very much appreciate you returning it."

I spoke through gritted teeth, desperate to get my journal back but she simply pretended I hadn't spoken and picked at the bed of her nails as if what I had been saying was the most uninteresting thing she'd heard all day.

"What's your price?"

Finally, some recognition filtered through her features.

"Well, since you're asking. Ten thousand dollars."

My right eye twitched in annoyance. She didn't know it, but I could actually make that happen with three extra ad campaigns, which usually only took me about two days to write.

"I need proof that it's actually still in your possession and I'm not just giving you money for nothing. Also, I want any copies of it, if I know you and Nate well enough I know you'd have taken pictures of the pages."

"You drive a hard bargain. I'll talk to Nate and we'll see. Oh, and I'll send you a picture of it later tonight, just to prove we have it."

She threw me a malicious wink and strode away, all the while I was grounding my teeth in fury.

If she tried to release that journal to the press and said it was written by 'Emmett Scott's girlfriend', they would be all over it. My personal past would be splashed all over trashy gossip magazines and websites for all the world to see.

I couldn't let that happen.

I didn't even want my best friend to know about my past, let alone Emmett or the rest of the world!

I really needed a trip to my favorite psychiatrist.

And so that was exactly where I went...right before I made a little pit stop first.

My face was ground into the turf as I inhaled minuscule tire pellets and synthetic grass. To say that I'd been sacked was an understatement.

The other recruits for the Patriots did not fuck around, and I was just now finding that out.

"Scott! That's three. Take a seat."

I grunted in annoyance as their head coach told me to take a break, limping over on my recently re-injured leg.

"You gonna have our trainer take a look at that hamstring pull?"

"Yes coach. I'm sure it'll be good as new by tomorrow."

He grunted in acceptance and fixated his slightly age weathered eyes on the rest of his prospective new team, yelling play after play to his satisfaction.

I hobbled over to the medic table and allowed the personal trainer to poke and prod at my thigh until I winced out in pain.

I was slightly distracted and didn't notice when Drayton Merrick came strolling through the double doors to the field.

"Uh oh..." the trainer mumbled.

All the plays stopped immediately and the coach stomped over to the newcomer.

"And who are you?"

I could barely hear their words over the loud music pumping through the speakers.

"Excuse me?"

The coach grabbed Drayton roughly on the arm and paraded him into the middle of the field.

"This is what my team will look like this fall. You are not on that list. Where did you even find the address of this place?"

I gulped. I was more than ready for him to rat me out but he kept his mouth shut, simply shrugging at the coach in confusion.

"Well now that you've crashed my practice, why don't you get warmed up and try out the QB position since mine is down for the count for now."

What?!

Drayton's cocky smirk fell upon his face, a face that I wanted to punch very hard. I hadn't embarrassed him, I'd given him a prime opportunity to show off his skills in front of the Patriots head coach.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"Maybe you can let your new girl kiss your hamstring and make it all better," he remarked to me, eyebrows raised as if he were mocking me.

"New girl? What are you talking about?"

"Oh I get it, you were trying to keep her a secret. Well, it's out now man hate to break it to you. It's all over the news."

I pulled my phone out from my bag nearby and checked the internet results on my name and sure enough, Lydia's picture was plastered on almost every single article.

"Shit."

"Mr. Scott, you need to rest this muscle every second that you're not practicing. Alternate heat and ice and elevate as much as you can, numbing cream should help with the pain, but otherwise you're cleared to continue practice."

"Good Merrick. Now let's see how you do against Scott."

I put my helmet back on and joined the throng of mammoth sized men all wanting to tackle me to the ground, my chosen profession. I must've been a madman.

All thoughts of Lydia were shut out from my mind for that moment as I concentrated on the task at hand: impressing the head coach. There wouldn't be anymore news stories done on me if I didn't show him that I was better than Drayton, which is exactly what I did: Drayton Merrick was not asked to come back to practice after that day.

LUCAS

"Dude, did you hear about Emmett Scott's new girlfriend? Layla was telling me all about her the other night."

"Oh, you were with Layla, huh? I thought she had a man?"

"Yeah well apparently they're over now, at least that's what she told me."

"Oh, so what did she say about Scott's new girlfriend? Is she easy?"

My ears perked up at the guys behind me in my only lower grade class, one that I needed to acquire my graduate student status and continue on before getting grants for projects that I desperately wanted to create.

"Apparently she accused this guy of rape when he didn't do it, the cops were about to charge her with filing a false police report and everything!"

Every fiber of my being wanted to reach around behind me and shove my fist through that guys' face, but I restrained, knowing what that would do to my academic career if I acted out.

No, I would bide my time and find out everything Layla had been saying about my sister...right after I confronted Emmett about this rumor that he was dating my sister.

"Holy shit no way, we gotta warn our guy that he's dating a snake."

My fingers found my phone at full speed, the letters punched until my hand was sore.

My father's response was clear as day.

Once the class was over I called Lydia to meet me back at the house, and then did the same with Emmett.

I wasn't surprised to find a drove of paparazzi camped outside on our lawn, their microphones and cameras shoved in my face as I attempted to dodge their questions.

It wasn't long until my father burst through the door and then came Lydia and Emmett, consequently arriving at the same time thus fueling the rumors that they were together.

"Dad?"

"Lydia. We need to talk."

A pale, ashy sheen overtook her and I could practically feel her panic taking over her as she took in the scene before her.

"What's going on?"

"It's about Layla. She knows what happened, and she's spreading rumors, distorting the truth and making it seem like you were lying about everything and since the court documents are sealed, there's not much we can do about her going to the press unless you get in front of it and post a statement releasing the truth of what happened."

Her frame began shaking and Emmett's clueless face took in the scene before him with calculable curiosity but clear concern for my sister.

Maybe those dating rumors weren't as baseless as I had imagined.

He turned to her and whispered something in her ear but she shook her head slightly, but I had to turn my head because it was clear that they were sharing a moment between each other.

"I'm not going to release a statement. Layla isn't going to say anything to the press, and she's going to give me back my journal where she got what she calls 'information'."

"What? She said she threw it away?"

"Turns out she held onto it to torture me a little more. I guess Nate is more ruthless than I thought..."

"Nate? They're not together anymore."

She shook her head in confusion.

"Regardless, I'm handling the situation."

"Really? And why is she giving you back your journal in the first place? What is she getting from it?"

When Lydia didn't immediately reply, I grew worried.

"Lydia?"

My father spoke up and she couldn't lie to his face.

"I agreed to pay her ten thousand dollars."

"WHAT?!"

It wasn't often that I witnessed my father fly off the handle, but when he did it was epic.

"Between this Rafael character, and your best friend extorting your past for money, it's no wonder you never come home! Honey, I'm sorry but you can't give this girl that money. Just agree to meet her somewhere and have her give it to you and just don't give her the money."

"But dad, if I do that she'll go to the press and then I'll have to make a comment on it, and if I try to lie and say nothing ever happened, the people who were at the trial can speak out, all kinds of people can come out of the woodwork! I just want this all to disappear."

"I don't want to overstep, but Lydia, if you're the one telling the truth then I think you should tell your side of the story. How hard could it be to just release a statement?"

Fury flashed through Lydia's eyes and that was when I knew Emmett had screwed up.

"Are you serious?! You don't know anything about me or my situation, you don't get to tell me what you think is best for me! If I just want this to all go away, then I'll make it go away. It's not hard for me to make that kind of money. I never wanted anyone else finding out what happened back then and I'm not going to let go of those reservations just because my ex friend is being a birch and blackmailing me. Now if you'll all excuse me, I have to go make ten thousand dollars."

She stormed away from all of us in the living room just as Reed poked his head out of his room just as Lydia slammed the door to her own.

"Did I miss something?"