Beautiful Disaster (The Bet) (2 page)

“Break out the whiskey.”

Chapter
One

She’d begged for this, Ellie knew, but she was suddenly wishing she was back home, sitting at her dining room table waiting for Mrs. Humphries to begin her lessons. She suddenly found herself missing the crumbling bag of bones and her perpetual smell of moth balls and mint. Mrs. Humphries, despite her advanced years and antiquated ways of teaching was familiar. She was routine, she was reliable. Ellie was beginning to miss that.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, rain or shine, Mrs. Humphries never failed to show up at Ellie’s house, lesson book in hand ready to start teaching. For two and a half years, they’d been together in that small dining room getting Ellie ready for the start of her senior year. Gabe had wanted her to continue her homeschooling for her Senior year also, but Ellie had refused, pleading and arguing that she needed to be around kids her own age. She’d made her case, stating that she was ready to get back in the fold of things, and to be a high school student again.

You only get to be a senior once after all and she wanted to be part of a class when she did eventually walk that line to get her hard earned diploma. She wanted to go to the prom, as silly as that sounded and take advantage of the opportunities she’d failed to take before. Ellie wanted to be part of something normal for once in her teenage life before adulthood took complete control. Gabe, as he was wont to do, had eventually capitulated to her wishes.

Now she wished he hadn’t. Anxiety rooted Ellie to the spot, temporarily shorting out her brain. Two and a half years of homeschooling and she’d forgotten what going back to school was like. She wanted to turn around, dash back to her beat up car and hightail it home where it was familiar.

This was a madhouse. Students ran about the corridors, greeting each other, all loudly speaking at once to be heard over the already deafening crush. Ellie didn’t miss the cliques forming, the ones who looked alike congregating together to discuss the events of their summers. The smell of newly painted lockers, floor wax and cheap perfumes melded into noxious gas that hung heavily in the air.

She kept telling herself that she needed to keep moving or she’d make a bigger fool of herself than she already was by standing in the middle of the hallway. Ellie fought her way through the overzealous crowd. With the map her guidance counselor provided, it didn’t take long for Ellie to find her Humanities class.

She was happy to find it much quieter than the hallways, although the twittering cliques were apparent. A few heads turned and looked her way as she made her way to the back of the classroom. Some looked out of genuine curiosity, while others looked because they were nasty.

With the sound of the bell ten minutes later, students trickled in, and brought with them was a fairly young looking man who was maybe in his late twenties. He walked behind the desk in front of the class. He turned his back on everyone and scribbled “Mr. Porter” across the blackboard. The girls to the left of Ellie began to whisper to each other how hot he was. He
was
actually damn good looking.

He was tall, with a swimmer’s physique of broad shoulders and slim waist. He had skin like burnt sienna, a nice clean shaven face and a low cut fade. The preppy casual clothes he wore suited him well. They were very artistically sculpted. Fitted black slacks, navy blue and white checkered shirt and a pair of leather loafers finished the ensemble.

Mr. Porter turned and gifted everyone with a smile. The combo of dimples set the girls to sighing.

“Hello class, my name is Mr. Porter and I’d like to welcome everyone back from a wonderful summer break.” He went on after that, breaking out the class syllabus and reading list for the next two terms. By the time class was over, Ellie didn’t think he was so cute anymore. The amount of assignments he’d given, combined with the two books they were to read by the end of the month had her seeing Mr. Porter for what he truly was; a slave driver.

She didn’t fare any better in her following three classes either and when the lunch bell rang she couldn’t have jumped out of her seat fast enough. She made a quick stop at her locker to drop off a few books and grab the lunch Gabe had made for her before heading towards the quad.

She found a place to sit beneath the willow tree, yards away from one particularly boisterous table. There were five of them; four guys and a girl and they were undoubtedly a clique. They were popular too from what Ellie could tell of the green and white letterman jackets that two of the three guys sported. The girl appeared to be the stereotypical cheerleader who smiled and flipped her bone straight blond hair over her shoulder in a flirty kind of way as she hung from the arm of one of the jocks. 

Their antics made it impossible to concentrate on anything else, especially when the lanky, blond-haired guy Ellie recognized from Physics approached the table.

"Well, don't you look like the cat that swallowed the cream? Been on your knees again?"

"It's funny how you mistaken me for you, Evey.
 
Some
 
of us have don't make giving head a daily requirement. "

Evey Abrams, head captain of John Edgar’s cheering squad who had a certain affinity for guys in suspenders and pocket protectors threw a carrot at Matt and scowled.

"Closet-case."

"Whore." He retorted with a smile, while taking a seat across from her.

Overhearing their banter, Ellie wondered whether they were serious, she would have gone on ignoring them were it not for the odd girl standing by the table who was attempting to be heard over the din of the crowd. Ellie wouldn’t have thought much of her if the table hadn’t fallen uncharacteristically silent upon her arrival.

All eyes focused on the cinnamon haired girl as she reached out and settled a hand on the shoulder of the hooded guy seated with his head down and his back to Ellie.

He was nursing a hangover and any attempt Nicholas made to catch up on some much needed sleep proved futile as he felt the weight of a hand on his shoulder. He would’ve shrugged it off, but the voice accompanying that light touch had him lifting his head.

Maddie stood before him, embarrassment staining her cheeks, while with a shy smile, offered him the basket she’d cradled in her arms.

"Hi Nicky. I…uh…I made these for you in Home-Ec..." Chortles from the peanut gallery prompted Nicholas to sit up straighter, the characteristic
 
Grayson
 
smirk tugging at his lips.

"Th--they're cookies..."

"How quaint." Evey quipped with a condescending smile.

The feeble attempt his friends made in trying to stifle their laughter failed miserably as low snorts and grunts caused the flustered girl to redden even more, reminding Nicholas of a ripened tomato.

"No thanks."

"But I---I made them for you. I even baked oatmeal ones."

"I'm allergic."

"Oh..." for a beat of a second she looked crestfallen, but her face immediately brightened, “well, that's all right. You don't need to eat those. There are sugar cookies at the bottom and---"

"Look, I don't want your goddamn cookies, alright? Now fuck off."

"But---but I thought we---last night we----” She looked at him expectantly with those large blue-green eyes and Nicholas looked away with a frown.

This was all getting very tiresome.

He stood, towering over her. "I said a lot of things last night, Maddie. You couldn’t have possibly thought I meant any of it." He gave her a patronizing smile, forcing himself to laugh in the process. “Jesus, you’re even more pathetic than I thought.” Maddie flinched as if she'd been struck. The basket of cookies fell from her nerveless fingers tumbling to the unforgiving concrete. Maddie was gone before anyone could miss her.

Ellie frowned, feeling nearly sick with what she’d just witnessed. Were people truly that cruel here? She wondered with silent fury. What gave the entitled bastard the right to treat someone that way?  She stood up with a huff. She was no longer hungry. She grabbed her bag and made her way back to the school building nearly knocking over Matt.

“Watch where you’re going, bitch!” he yelled after her, growing angrier when she simply flipped him off and continued on her way.

"Another one bites the dust. Bravo, Nicky, that's got to be an all-time record. What's that, like the tenth one this week?
How do you do it
?"

Making a point to ignore her, Nicholas dug inside his sweater, retrieved a small tape and tossed it over to Matt. "She’s on there, with the other five. That's two hundred a head. I'll expect large bills this time."

"You even managed to get Bridget?"

"Ten minutes in, although I should warn you, she wasn't all that exciting. Worse fucking case of pillow princess I've ever seen."

"And our Fatty Maddie?"

Nicholas smirked. "Mouth like a Hoover."

Matt chortled. “Who would’ve thought? Up for another one?"

Nicholas regarded him curiously, the smug grin on Matt’s face garnering his interest. "Who did you have in mind?"

Matt’s grin widened an idea forming in his head. "The bitch who just shoulder checked Me." he said, sliding his notebook to Nicholas.

Nicholas raised a dark brow in question, taking the notebook in hand. “She’s new here, right?”

"Fresh meat, Nicky. You've managed to fuck almost every hapless bitch in this sorry ass school, I even recall seeing a tape of Mrs. Cunningham in my collection. Why not add a black piece of ass to the notch? I sure as hell wouldn't mind seeing her on her knees. Who knows, she might even end up being a closeted masochist like our lovely Jillian."

"Jillian’s a freak." Jason said, grabbing a seat adjacent to Nicholas as he set his lunch tray down and grabbed the notebook from Nicholas's hands. "She wanted me to cut her while she blew me. Any new bets?"

"I'm not interested." Nicholas said offhandedly.

"Not interested… not interested in what?"

Matt ignored Jason, choosing instead to goad his silver eyed friend. "Come on, whatd'ya have to lose? You said you were looking for a challenge. Well, here she is."

"She’s not my type."

"Since when has that ever stopped you?" Evey piped in, grinning when she received his withering glare. "Face it Nicky, you're a slut."

"This coming from the girl who slept with the entire chess club...?"

"Tell you what, Grayson, get a video of her and I’ll sweetin the deal."

At this Nicholas perked up.
Finally,
they were getting somewhere. "What do you have in mind?"

"The Desmo. It's yours." The Ducati Desmosedici RR was Matt's pride and joy. He loved that sports bike more than he loved his drugs. The fact that he even offered to give it up meant he didn't think Nicholas had a chance in hell.

“Ok, I’ll bite. You got yourself a deal, Bates." He stood, walked behind Matt and set his hands on his shoulders, "Make sure to shine it up for me, I want to able to see my face in the finish."

"And I'll expect a great performance," he yelled after Nicholas's retreating back.

"It'll be Oscar worthy!"

Chapter Two

The very second Ellie entered the girls bathroom she heard it. The indistinct sound of weeping came from one of the teal-green stalls. Impossible to ignore, she furtively approached that stall and gently knocked. “Hey in there…are you all right?” Stupid question really, Ellie chastised herself. Of course, the girl wasn’t all right. “Uh…do you want me to get someone?” She pressed her ear to the door and received a sniffle for a response.

“I’m fine.” Was the muffled reply minute into the infinite silence.

“Are…Are you sure…?”

“I’m fine.” She reassured voice a bit steadier this time.

Ellie stepped away from the door, brow knitted into a frown. “Ok.”

She’d felt bad for her so Ellie had followed the cinnamon haired girl to this bathroom hoping to provide some sort of comfort. She knew she shouldn’t interfere; she did after all want to maintain a low profile. She, however, was a teenage girl at a new school and it really wouldn’t hurt for her to have a friend or two at her side.

Ellie made another attempt, trying a different tactic when she heard the stall door creak open. The girl who cried as if the world was at an end appeared with a blotchy face and tear tracks coursing down her reddened cheeks. She wasn’t beautiful in the usual sense, but she did have the most amazing set of blue-green eyes, despite that they were puffy and red.

She stood no taller than Ellie's own five foot seven inches. She wore loose clothing, consisting of a pair of faded blue jeans and a brown hooded sweater with the words, "Chocolate is friend" stitched across the chest. Her hair, a beautiful shade of cinnamon red fell in two braided ropes in front of her, stopping a few inches from her waist.

"I'm surprised you didn't drown us." Ellie smiled to show that she was joking as she turned around. With her backside against the sink, she allowed the girl to finish her own perusal of her physique.