"On the plus side, it's a great picture of you?"

That was Simon's terrible attempt at lightening the mood. Obviously it didn't work. He, my sister and I had gone to her room out of the way to talk about whatever it was that Izzy had found. That happened to be a magazine with Camille on the cover. Why would she want to show me that? Because me and Magnus were on the cover too. In a smaller picture coupled by a lewd caption about Magnus having an affair.

My eyes widened and I held the magazine close to my face trying to see the image more closely. I was seething. "Who took that?"

"There are more inside." Izzy said uncomfortably. I nearly tore the magazine trying to find them.

There was a double page spread; mostly images and captions, not an awful lot of writing. People who read that kind of trash were more interested in judging what they saw then hearing the actual story. This was a garbage publication even by Isabelle's typical teenage standards.

All of the photos were phone-quality snaps from what would have been prom night. I couldn't understand how I hadn't noticed them being taken. The restaurant hadn't exactly been brimming with people on their mobiles. The picture of Magnus holding wine to my lips was accompanied by a caption about how I was probably a minor.

Somehow seeing it in print made it seem… dubious. It wasn't the two of us out having a good time anymore. Now it was a grown man encouraging a teenager to drink until all the camera-phones went unnoticed.

It was becoming very clear why we'd been getting so many looks. Go figure that Magnus' usual table was actually Camille's usual table too. The regulars – the waiters – had all known about her. And judging by the evidence in front of me they assumed that I knew as well.

"This isn't…" I took a seat on the bed shakily. "It's not a 'big' magazine, right?"

It could have just been a minor blip. There were gossipy things like this everywhere. They all looked the same to me, anyway. It was wishful thinking, though, to think some good luck might actually come my way in the midst of all this.

As Isabelle shook her head I knew it was hopeless. Just as things were looking up, Magnus had dragged me back down again.

"Sorry, Alec..." She said.

I growled and threw the magazine onto the floor, frustrated. Were they even allowed to do that? Just take pictures of people without permission and use them to tell whatever story they liked? They were completely twisting it and everybody was going to believe them. People always believed the story they heard first.

"They haven't used your name?" Simon offered pathetically. As if my identity would stay secret for long if the girls from my school read that stuff. The only little consolation there was that I wouldn't have to walk the halls with them knowing, with school over. They'd still tell everybody.

Everybody would know. How was I supposed to forget all about what Magnus had done with something like this hanging over my head?

Just hours before I'd been an unsuspecting, mislead teen. There was even a picture in there highlighting that Magnus had taken off his wedding ring. Now I was about to become known for sleeping with an actress' husband. Based on pictures taken before that even happened.

Apparently nobody ever told these people that overdone 'never assume' thing.

"Maybe we can do something about it..." Isabelle pondered out loud. I didn't see her finding an excuse or way around this one. I rolled my eyes.

"I can't exactly tell them the photos are fakes, can I?" I said cynically.

"You can tell them you didn't know." She suggested. It would be pointless to contact them. They wouldn't even consider publishing one disclaiming quote from a nobody like me when they had a whole spread on an upcoming movie-star's love life. They wouldn't care what I said because what I said only mattered to me.

And who was I?

Izzy paled when she checked her phone. I felt my stomach drop when she started to tug on the ends of her hair nervously.

"What is it?" I asked. Daring her to tell me things had gotten worse. Waiting for it.

"Okay, don't freak out or anything." She said. "But it's online."

I definitely freaked out.

I'd wasted the rest of the day at my computer screen, I realised when I noticed how dark it had gotten outside.

As it turned out fans can get very defensive of their celebrity idols. The comment section of the online article was a warzone. The trouble was there were just two armies: Team Camille and Team Magnus. Neither of these were on my side. I was just the poor sap sat in no-man's land taking all the hits.

"Alexander, you haven't touched your food." I heard my Mother say. Earlier on she'd left a plate on the desk beside me. 'Special' circumstances excused me from the family meal downstairs. She was collecting the plate now, I didn't even look up from the comment I was reading.

"Look, Mother." My voice cracked unpleasantly when I spoke. "Apparently I'm a 'man-stealing slut', now."

Because, you know, I so backed Magnus into a corner one day and forced him to bother with me. The things that people came up with were so stupid. So, so stupid, and wrong.

So why did I feel rotten?

I felt a hand rubbing kind circles on my back as Mother leant over to read some of the comments on the screen. I almost didn't care that they were going to make her feel as ill as I felt.

"'This kid must give really great...'" She trailed off before finishing the comment. If I'd bothered to look at her I might have seen her blush.

"Head, Mother." I completed. "'Must give really great head to make anybody cheat on Camille'. Camille is perfect, you see."

"I think you should stop reading these..." Mother suggested. I was much too far gone, though; I wanted to know everything being said about me.

And by the Angel, were things being said about me. Just when my family had me convinced I wasn't the bad guy I managed to find a place where hundreds of anonymous people hated me. It was insane, considering Magnus was so low-key he was never recognised in public. Everybody had jumped on this outraged band-waggon without even considering that, like them, I wouldn't have been able to pick Camille Belcourt's husband out of a line-up just a few days before. They didn't even share a last name for goodness sake!

But the fans were merciless, like most people behind the safety of a computer screen were. My name had been posted, by then, half the classes I took and...

I hit refresh.

Yup. There we go. Accusations that I was sleeping with the staff at school.

I shook my head; I didn't know who the people from my school were but without a doubt they'd be sharing the link with all their friends. I just wished that their friends were my friends too. If anybody had said anything in my defence then I hadn't seen it. And I'd seen everything. I would have responded myself if I didn't think it would make it worse. Watching the comments accumulate was one thing; if people were specifically replying to me I wasn't sure I could take it.

The screen went black and I took a panicked glance at my Mother who was holding the plug in her hand.

"No more." She said. "These people aren't worth listening to, Alexander."

"I didn't know..." I said, hoarsely. Mother came to put her arms around me.

It was still comforting, even at my age, to know that she was there for me. My whole family was there for me and my friends too. I knew that, and in theory they were the only people that mattered. But it was still hard to ignore everybody else.

I could only hope that I wouldn't be noticed in public. Magnus never was, maybe we'd both be safe. Or maybe not now that there were pictures published of both of us. Who knew? All I really knew was that I couldn't read those comments anymore if I wanted to keep surviving.

Still not 100% satisfied with this one but if I keep re-writing the same chapter I'll never finish. I hope you guys enjoyed it, anyway, thank you for reading. Next is "Hideout", I'll try to make that one better.

PS: If this chapter came up twice on your alert, I'm sorry, I made a change to the authors note when I wrote in the wrong chapter title and re-submitted.