Lemon Drop.
The image was the group photo cropped to show just me and Lamar, which was a change from what had been happening before. I clicked on it tentatively and read the caption.
After doing some digging, it would appear that Hollywood Anderson may not be single after all. An inside source has confirmed that the breakout defensive star was seen canoodling with the woman in this photo. Apparently at this event, an end of the summer birthday party, the two spent the whole night together. We don’t know if it’s a friendship, a one-night stand, a date, or a relationship, but we do know he’s not married yet so he’s still fair game. What do you think about this pairing?
My stomach churned as the comments caught my eye.
She doesn’t look like an athlete’s girl. She doesn’t fit the aesthetic. Hollywood needs someone like me!
If she got him at that size, then why am I in the gym five days a week and single?
She’s pretty and you can tell she has ass. Now that he’s getting a contract, I bet he’s going to get her a tummy tuck, breast implants, a nose job, and a wig so she’ll look the part.
He’s making that league money now. I hope she enjoyed the party. She’s cute, but she won’t be seeing him again!
Honestly, they look cute together but now that he’s in the league, he’s going to trade up. There’s no way he’s staying with her. She was fine when he was on the practice squad, but now that’s he’s Hollywood, he needs a baddie.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I put my phone down, pulled the covers up, and went to sleep.
I woke up with a start a few hours later. My heart was racing, and there was sweat on my brow. I pushed myself into a seated position and tried to shake off the nightmare.
The problem was that it was easier to forget a nightmare than it was to forget a memory.
It had been mid-October of junior year of high school, and people were campaigning for homecoming king and queen. Someone hung flyers that featured a picture of me with the wordsfat chance beating Olivia Chapman for homecoming queenaround the entire town.It wasn’t just embarrassing; it was humiliating. I was getting stared at, talked about, and laughed at during school. I received a bunch of sympathetic looks from random adults around town. For a full week, I had those flyers on my locker, at my desks, in my classrooms. After homecoming, all the flyers seemed to come down.
That was the incident that broke me.
I’d shied away from attention before then, but I’d gone out of the way to avoid the spotlight after that. The only thing that differed between real life and the dream was that the flyer had said,Fat chance with Hollywood.
I put my hand over my heart and tried to steady my heart rate and calm my breathing.
It’s not happening again.
It took a while, but I finally got to sleep. So Monday was a long day.
While I felt like I played it cool, I was stressed all day at work and ready to get home.
Ben Riker appeared at my classroom door. “Hey, Ms. Payne… oh wow, you’re in a rush!” he exclaimed as I came barreling toward him.
He moved out of the doorway just in time.
“Sorry, Mr. Riker, I have an appointment at four o’clock,” I said as I passed by him. “If you’re heading out, we can walk and talk, or you can just call me.”
He jogged to catch up and then fell into step with me. “Jazmyn,” he started, his voice low. “I was looking up info for my fantasy team, and I came across something.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “Is that you in that picture with Hollywood Anderson?”
We approached the door to exit the school. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. “It is.”
“Holy shit,” he mumbled as we made it outside. “Is that your—”
“Ben,” I interrupted, pointing my key fob toward my car and starting the engine as we approached. “I can’t say anything else, and I don’t want my name out there. So, if you could keep it on the low, I would appreciate it.”
“Yes, of course. But wow!” He walked me to my car and watchedme throw my stuff in. “Tell him I said good work on Sunday. He’s on my fantasy team.”
I nodded. “Bye, Ben.”
I hopped in the driver’s seat and pulled off, shaking my head. I knew Ben was going to tell Alexa and his wife. Outside of that, I was confident he wouldn’t tell anyone else or make videos on social media about it.
I pursed my lips as I sped home.
