28. Everybody knows.

"Good name you've made for yourself," Sofia let out with a slight smirk but it was clear anger was seeping through her words.

Mateo didn't stay at his house much in order to not be around Sofia so much but he was missing his bed so he stayed at the house last night. She said she needed a couple weeks to find a place. A place that he said he would cover the rent for the first year but it's like she was still taking her time to look for one in his opinion.

He ran a hand down his face. He had just woken up not too long ago and he was in the kitchen to make himself a bowl of cereal and that was it. They had a game tomorrow out of town so this was his last chill day and he didn't want to deal with whatever bullshit she was on.

He sighed, "what are you talking about Sofia?"

She let out a small chuckle, "what am I talking about? You're a cheater." She smiled as those words seeped through her lips. "People don't know we aren't together anymore and you really were just publicly flaunting your baby mama?" She turned the phone towards him as he saw a picture of him and Jessica leaving the restaurant they ate at the day before. His hand was on her lower back as the two were laughing. It was actually a nice picture. But the title ruined it 'MATEO SANTOS CAUGHT CHEATING?' And there was a whole article under it. But he didn't understand how they even had enough information to make one, but just as quick as he thought it he was reminded this was gossip. They made up anything.

Mateo looked from the picture to Sofia, it was clear she was bothered by the picture. He shook his head as he went to grab the box of cereal and milk from the refrigerator. He could imagine how his phone was blowing up. He had left it in the car the night before and was too lazy to go back out to get it. And he wasn't going to stress it now. But he was reminded that Jessica was getting way too close to being due for him to be doing that.

"You have nothing to say?" Sofia questioned. He sat down the box of cereal, waiting to put the milk in once he came back in from getting his phone. "What is there to say? I'm not cheating. You aren't my girl anymore. And you already know what this shit is about. If you're trying to figure out if me and Jessica have something going on, we don't. And if we did it's really none of your concern."

He made his way out the kitchen and put on his slides and clicked the unlock button on his car keys as he ran out to grab his phone. As soon as he got it he saw thousands of notifications. He scrolled through to make sure none of them were Jessica, and some were so he clicked on it as she was saying something about Alexis and Xavier and then about what Sofia had showed him. He shook his head deciding not to even attempt to deal with this situation until he ate his cereal. It wasn't that deep to him, it was just a misunderstanding. One that he felt he should easily be able to clear up.

He locked his phone throwing it in his pocket as he poured milk in his cereal. Sofia was still seated at the island as her eyes were on him. She shook her head. Seeing that photo hurt, he looked happy and it wasn't with her and that hurt. And her looking like she got cheated on didn't feel good either. But the amount of love that she was receiving her in DMs from other girls did feel good. And there were also plenty of guys trying to shoot their shot.

She stood up realizing there was nothing more that could truly be said because they weren't together. "Good luck cleaning that up." She let out.

"It should be easy as long as you're honest about what it was." He responded with ease as he took a bite of his cereal. She did play a part in it and if she tried to spin it any other way it would look bad. He was just hoping she would be real about it.

She rolled her eyes. She could be petty and she could make it seem like he really did cheat. Shit part of her was ready to play into the tabloids but at the same time the other part of her saw no benefits, she would just have to keep up a lie and she had enough going on and definitely didn't want to have to do that. "No worries," she let out as she headed upstairs to one of the guess rooms.

She sighed as she fell back on the bed, quickly going to her contacts to call Xavier. Lately he had been the one comforting her in all the craziness. He was a bomb ass friend to her and he often gave her hope that Mateo and her would get back together, but she didn't feel it was true anymore. Whatever plan he claimed he had, wasn't working.

—

Alexis was driving Jessica's car as she made her way to Xavier's to get her stuff. She ended up just staying with Jessica for the night but since her flight was leaving later she needed to go grab her stuff.

Jessica was ready to ride with her and start some shit but she didn't want Jessica in their bullshit, especially while she she pregnant. She pulled into Xavier's driveway as her eyes widened at the sight of her shit outside his house. She quickly put the car in park as she ran to her stuff.

He was nice enough to not just throw all her shit out, it was clear he threw it in her suitcase and bags any kind of way though. "Bitch ass nigga." She mumbled. She grabbed her stuff heading to put it in the car and make sure all of her stuff was in there.

She spent a minute going through each bag making sure everything was accounted for, and it was. She zipped her stuff back up and closed the door. She debated on going to knock on his door but she really didn't have shit to say. She was over him, she saw a side of him she didn't like and she wanted no parts. She couldn't flex like it didn't hurt, but it did simply because she liked him so much. She walked to the driver's side of the car as she heard the door to his house open, she stopping looking over as the sight made her boil.

A girl was walking out, skimpy dress on with yesterday's makeup, the girl quickly turned around facing the door again. Alexis rolled her eyes with disgust as she saw the sight of Xavier at the door with no shirt on. They caught eyes as she got in her car even quicker.

She was bothered and it hurt, it hurt to see how quickly he easily had another girl in his bed. She had to have been a fool to even think they would have truly been something. She shook her head as she started the car.

She gave one last look his way as his eyes were dead set on her causing the girl to turn to see what he was looking at. She quickly put the car in reverse and backed out of his driveway. When she was halfway to Jessica's house her phone started ringing as his name popped up. She rolled her eyes and ignored it but as soon as it stopped ringing it started again. She wasn't going to answer.

There was nothing more he could've possibly had to say to her. He tried to shade her best friend the worst way, he put all of her stuff out his house like a little bitch and he had another girl walking out his house this morning like she wasn't there just 24 hours ago. She was done with him and there was nothing more he could say or do to even attempt to get her back.

She quickly pulled back up to Jessica's and parked the car. She grabbed her phone and blocked Xavier now that he had finally stopped calling. She got out the car grabbing her stuff so that she could shower and repack.

She walked into the house as Jessica sat on the couch with her face engulfed in her phone. She closed the door and locked it, as she looked over at Jessica who didn't even look up from hearing her come in. "What's got you all intrigued over there?" Alexis questioned as she left her stuff by the door and walked towards her.

Jessica looked up, sadness with a mix of anger all over her face. Jessica scrolled up and then shoved the phone towards her. Alexis smiled at the picture, that's a cute picture of you two.

Jessica shook her head, "no read the fucking article. Shit, just read the fucking title."

Alexis grabbed the phone out of her hand as she took a seat. Her eyes widened as she read the article. Words about Jessica sticking out to her. Home wrecker. Side chick. And the comments were even worse. She felt bad for her friend, especially since her face was on it and the story was highly falsified.

"None of this shit is even true." Alexis let out, "I'm sure Mateo will come forward and clear all this shit up. They shitting on him too. Have you talked to him?"

Jessica sighed as she sat looking stressed. She ruffled her curls. "I sent him the article, he hasn't responded yet."

"Well look bitch, don't stress this shit. Fuck them! Fuck this article. They don't know you and they don't pay your bills and the nigga who do is the one that's in this article so he don't give a fuck either! This is fake news and that's what this world thrives off of. This shit will get cleared up, but don't be stressing my son out about this stupid mess."

Jessica knew she was right but it wasn't that easy. That was never a way she wanted to be portrayed as. Especially to millions of people. "What about when I'm looking for jobs again? Like that shit looks bad!"

"They don't even know your name in this article! Girl stop it, it's Mateo not fucking Barack Obama. That would be something to trip over."

Jessica chuckled slightly. "Okay Alexis!"

"I'm just stating facts." She smiled. Jessica gave a small smile back. "How did it go? With getting your stuff?" She questioned changing the subject.

Alexis rolled her eyes, "girl he had my shit sitting outside."

Jessica's mouth dropped. "You're lying!" Alexis shook her head no. "A whole ass man child, no he bout a whole ass bitter female."

"Hell yeah." Jessica let out. "That's lame as fuck."

"And girl, I'm putting my stuff in the car and checking to make sure everything there and this girl walks out looking like last night. At that point I was really over him."

Jessica's face was stuck with shook for a moment. "Wow. See I ain't like him for a reason." She pointed.

Alexis laughed. "Girl shut up."

"I'm serious! That nigga ain't all there. Something wrong with him."

"Trust me, I know that now. And the nigga was blowing my phone up when I was headed back here. But I blocked him so I'm sure he'll get the point. I'm good on that."

Jessica laughed as she unlocked her phone. "Good! Weird ass nigga." She paused for a moment. "I'm sorry though, I know how much you liked him."

Alexis sighed as she waved it off. "It is what it is. I'll get over it and him. It does suck though." She laughed lightly. "But I'm happy it happened before I was too deep in my feelings over him."

Jessica nodded, "agreed." There was slight pause between the conversation the two were having. "You're on shaderoom." Jessica let out as she looked up at Alexis from scrolling through her phone.

"What?" She questioned. "One of the pictures the paps got. They're wondering who the cutie is holding Xavier's hand." Jessica smiled as she explained it to her.

Alexis rolled her eyes, completely forgetting about that bullshit. "Great!"

"At least it's not negative," Jessica let out, "and you look cute as hell and plenty of people think that in the comments too. Except for some of the haters." Jessica rolled her eyes. "But you know how that shit go."

"And I could give a fuck about a hater." Alexis let out. "Shit, I could use this to help me get some more shoots. Might go comment and be like, this is me!"

Jessica laughed as Alexis opened up her Instagram seeing that people had already found her and were tagging her. "Well shit they beat me to it." Her following was going up as well as the likes on her pictures and that she wouldn't complain about.

She scrolled through looking at the comments left as one stuck out to her the most under a picture of her and Jess. Isn't this the girl that was in the pic with Mateo? And the girl tagged her friend. "Shit." Alexis let out.

"What?" Jessica asked as she was still all up in her phone. "Make your page private. Someone just figured out that was you in a picture of me and you and I have you tagged."

Jessica's eyes widened. It slipped her mind that quick that she was in some bullshit. She shook her head. "It was bound to happen." She quickly changed her profile to private. Just as she did that her phone started ringing as Mateo's name popped up. "This is Mateo now, I'll be back."

"I'm going to hop in the shower!" Alexis called out as Jessica walked upstairs towards her room.

She answered the phone just before he was about to hang up. "You see this bullshit?" Jessica asked.

Mateo licked his lips as he sat on his couch with his laptop in his lap. He sighed, "yeah."

"I'm not none of that shit Mateo!"

"Jess, I know. Relax. I talked to my agency and they said not to speak on anything right now there are already radio shows and stuff reaching out to hear what it really was and they want me to use one of those platforms to to talk about it."

"Mateo this is my name! Who I am as a person, I'm not a publicly stunt."

He sighed as he leaned his head back. "I know that Jess. But it's me too!"

"But it doesn't make you look as bad! Men don't get nearly as much bad mouthing as women do! Especially the other woman! The woman who looks like she messed up a happy home! It's not the same! And that's what I look like! There were such nasty comments! Did you see the comments?"

"No," he stated honestly. "I didn't even look at the article because I know it's total bullshit."

Jessica shook her head as she paced her bedroom floor. "But listen Jess, I need you not to stress this shit. I promise you I'm going to clear it up. Just relax. You're due in like two weeks and I don't need you stressing or anything happening because of it. I promise you I'll deal with it."

She sat down on the edge of her bed knowing she needed to listen to him. She pulled the phone away from her ear as a notification popped up saying she received a DM. She clicked on her IG seeing her followers request skyrocketed. "They found my Instagram Mateo."

"Man fuck them Jessica, okay? Fuck them! We have more important shit to worry about like our fucking son. Just stay off social media until I deal with this shit." He let out with aggravation lacing his voice. He understood her feeling how she felt but he couldn't deal with her trippin' off of every little thing about it.

He sighed, "This is my PR calling now. I'll call you back." And with that he was off the phone with her. He quickly answered, "tell me something good."

"Well hello Mateo!" She laughed lightly at how quick he was to get to the point, but she understood his need for wanting to get right to it. "So you all will be in New York for a game in a couple of days and the TST show on Hot 97 wants to talk! Probably one of the best shows you could get on they pull in a large crowd for sports and music."

"What day?"

"Thursday. It stands for Tea Sipping Thursday's. Typically debunks myths and lies about celebrities or confirms them. So that's what you'll be there to do. But you all have a game that afternoon and you would do the interview that morning. So don't let it throw you off your game."

Mateo nodded. "Okay. Well just set it up and let me know the time."

"Will do."

He hung up the phone as he moved his laptop and stood up to stretch. He turned around as Sofia stood there. He looked at her like she was crazy.

"I just got down here chill out." She let out. "Some shows have reached out to me," she let out as she walked towards the opposite couch he was by.

He sat back down. "And?"

"I was just letting you know." She stated with slight attitude.

"Well are you going to do it?" He questioned.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Haven't decided. Sounds like you might be doing one though."

Mateo rolled his eyes. "Not playing this game with you Sofia. Do one if you want I don't care. I'm sure some of them are offering money, but do it honestly is all I ask. This is actually my life, my career and my money you could be playing with."

He stood up and grabbed his laptop ready to head upstairs to start packing for the next few games. "And look for a place, you need to have some options lined up when I get back." He said before he fully was on the stairs.

Sofia watched him as he walked up the stairs. This was never how she saw their life playing out.