Beautiful Disaster (The Bet) (7 page)

"What's your deal?"

The unexpected inquiry caught Ellie off guard and bewilderingly she looked at him, his immense height causing her to crane her neck to meet his gaze. "Whatddya mean?"

"You walk around here like you're the fucking Queen of Sheba or something. If your nose were any more up in the air you'd be smelling god's ass."

Mortified, insulted and only just slightly amused, Ellie wrenched her wrist from his grasp, ignoring how much it
hurt. S
he took a step back and glowered. "I can't believe you're calling me a snob, when
you're
the one who acts like you're the best thing to come along since sliced bread. It amazes me how you and your ego can even fit in this school."

"And I find it very amusing how you can walk with that stick so far up your ass. Must be a real talent." He quipped, irreverent humor dancing in his eyes.

"Seeing as how you're so fond of my ass, feel free to kiss it while I walk away." She didn't get angry too often and rarely allowed anyone to get a rise out of her. Nicholas on the other hand, the self-righteous egoist, had managed to do it without an ounce of effort. The smug bastard seemed to relish the effect he had on her. That knowing smirk on his face had her itching to smack it off. She wasn't a violent person by nature, but for a shot at him, Ellie found she could turn into murderer. Her anger lengthened her strides and halfway down the hall
,
she managed to calm herself enough to continue on her way at a more sedate pace.

Unfortunately, her interaction with Nicholas was not yet over. Not seconds after leaving him behind, she found herself facing him again, only this time
,
he was blocking her path. He held up his hands, palms facing her in semblance of surrender and Ellie faltered at his boyish grin. Straight, pearly white teeth that would've done wonders in
a
toothpaste commercial gleamed back at her.

"Let's start again?"

Ellie's effort to side-step him was countered by Nicholas's hand on her arm, gently keeping her in place.

"If I said I behaved like a jerk because I didn't know how to ask you out, would you give me a second chance?"

Ellie glared and if looks could kill, he would've been a cheerfully burnt pile ash at her feet.

"Look Ellie, I'm sorry, could we please try this again?" He grinned and her attempt to remain immune did not work in her favor. There was something about him that despite her best efforts aroused her interest. Moreover, if she had to be perfectly honest with herself, she could even go so far as to say that she was slightly attracted to him. What female wouldn't be, with looks like his?

"Apology accepted, but really, I'm not interested." Despite his stunningly good looks and wicked appeal, there really was only room for one person in her life and she wasn't even out of diapers yet. "I have to get going." This time when she
began
to walk around him
,
he did not stop her. "I'll see you around." she said over her shoulder a few paces down the hall.

"Ellie!" she turned and found him advancing on her, his long strides eating up the distance between them. "One date and then I promise I won't bother you again." She wavered and readily he pounced. "Come on," he wheedled, brandishing that boyish smirk once more. "I have tickets to an art gallery opening in downtown. They're showing the work of one of my favorite painters, Yves Charmant. He's an up and coming Avant-guard artist---"

"Yeah, I know." She said, slightly bemused, her attention instantly captured. Yves Charmant was one
her
favorite artists. She'd learned about him in her humanities class in the first half of her freshman year and had fallen completely in love with his poignant pieces. One of her absolute favorite titled "
Sadist
" always brought her to tears. She'd never had the opportunity to attend any of his openings considering the price of the tickets and had given up hope of ever seeing his pieces up close---until now. She was actually contemplating the idea of saying yes, but reservation kept her muted.

"The tickets will go to waste if I don't use them."

Puzzled she asked, "Why don't you just go alone."

He grinned. "I'd much rather go with you." He said it with such tender charm that Ellie almost believed he truly liked her.

"It's not a date," she capitulated, "Just potential friends enjoying each other's company while discussing mutual interest in art." It sounded suspiciously like a date and Ellie silently cursed the sight of the witting grin on his face.

"Whatever you say. I'll be at your house around eight."

"You don't need to pick me up. I'll just meet you there."

"I pick you up, I buy dinner, I drop you
off." he said with finality and if
Ellie
were
in any position to say so, she would've rightfully told him to go to hell, only, she
really
wanted to go to that gallery opening and the arrogant jerk knew it too.

"Fine. Do you want a pen to write down my address?"

"Nope, I remember. Only brick house on the block. Do I get a number
,
too?"

Ellie pursed her lips. "Don't push your luck." With that she walked away and absolutely refused to look back, knowing that he was probably still standing there watching her with that stupid grin on his face.

Chapter F
our

Friday afternoon found Ellie in her fifth period gym class seated on the school bleachers waiting for Maddie to make an appearance. They were required to run two laps around the small track before they began class and she didn't feel like running alone.
She spotted
Maddie
exiting the girl's locker room and
rose
to
me
e
t her halfway.
Upon closer inspection, Ellie found her friend to be a little more pale than usual with a fine sheen of sweat glistening across her forehead. Concerned, Ellie quickly asked if she was all right.

Maddie's wan smile and comforting hand on Ellie's shoulder did nothing in allaying her fear. "I'm fine. I'm just a little hot. Come on let's start our lap before hatchet face pops a vessel." As if to indicate
of whom she spoke,
Maddie cocked her head behind Ellie's left shoulder at their P.E teacher who happened to be sending rays of murderous glares their way at the precise moment.

Ellie and Maddie fell into step
, following the one-two cadence of their peers they
ran
quietly
side by side, until Ellie's underlying concern gained the better of her. "Are you sure you're OK? I'm kinda worried."

"Don't be, I get like this from time to time, all a
part of having all this wonderfully smooth flesh." Maddie turned her head with a smile easing a reluctant smile from Ellie.

"As if your skin is that smooth."

"It's a proven fact that fat people have incredibly smooth skin."

Ellie rolled her eyes. "You're not fat, Maddie, just curvy. Pleasantly plump even." Maddie's laughter caused Ellie to burst into her own fits of giggles.

"My Gran used to say that to me all the time." Maddie
answered
as they rounded the track and began their second lap. "So, doing anything special this weekend?"

"Special no, but I do have plans."

"That's cool. What're you doing?"

"Okay, so you remember how I was telling you about that really great painter and how I couldn't get tickets to his gallery opening?"

Maddie nodded. "Yeah, his name was something
like
charming, right?"

Ellie grinne
d. "Yeah, Yves Charmant. Anyway
, I was invited to the opening by Nicholas Grayson of all people, who comes out of nowhere and tells me that he's a fan of Charmant's works..." Ellie stopped, turned around to find that Maddie had come to a complete stop on the track, while their peers ran past her. "Maddie, what's wrong...?"Ellie warily approached her.

Maddie stood stock-still, her face drained of color, while her thoughts lingered on Ellie's last sentence, mainly the part where Nicholas's name was mentioned and the painful fact that he was taking Ellie to this gallery opening. Her stomach clenched in fits of bubbling anxiety and indignation. The memories of Nicholas drilling her for information on Ellie while he'd sinfully toyed with her returned with vengeance. She felt as though she would be violently ill as sorrow quickly overcame her rising ire.

"Maddie? Maddie!" Impervious to the alarm in Ellie's voice, Maddie lost herself to her morbid thoughts. Ellie was pretty, she thought, Ellie was skinny. Ellie was smart and unknowingly sexy; she was everything Maddie was not. She was everything Nicholas wanted and nothing at all like the fleshy, low self-esteem girl he'd so pitilessly seduced and cast off, her mind maliciously supplied, further adding to Maddie's despair.

She heaved a doleful sigh. She'd been in love with Nicholas, was still in fact in love with him and it just wasn't fair that her feelings weren't reciprocated. Even after discovering that she'd been used and easily duped into giving her virginity for the sick amusement of his and his friends, she still craved his touch. He'd humiliated her in front of half the school, he'd callously cast aside her feelings even after taking pleasure from her. She'd become a masochist for him, played the wounded lover so eagerly to his wicked sadism. But he didn't want her.

Now the realization that Ellie could be in danger of be
coming victim to those monthly b
ets, greatly disturbed her. She had to get Ellie to stay away from him and vice versa. She had to protect Ellie; Maddie silently rationalized, because that's what friends did for each other, never mind that jealousy was slowly rearing its ugly head, Maddie almost convinced herself that her intentions were honorable.

"You said no, right?" She asked as if no time had passed since Ellie told her of the impending date. At Ellie's quizzical look, Maddie elaborated, looking anywhere but Ellie's face. "To the date…with Nicholas…you said no, right?"

"Well
,
no, but then it's not really a date…should I have? I mean we're going just as friends, I told him that."

Maddie scoffed. "The word 'friend' is not in Nicholas’s vocabulary. Look, Ellie, you've been really nice to me since you got here and I don’t want to see you hurt. Nicholas is bad news. There’s always an ulterior motive with him.”

"Maddie…"

"Holbrook! Tate! This is not social hour! You want to talk, do it on your own damn time, but not in my class! Now, move your carcasses or it's the principal's office for the both of you!" 'Hatchet face', as she was called by her students, was a no nonsense woman with a voice to match her dour countenance. She continued to scowl at them even after they joined the rest of their classmates.

"There's a reason why a great amount, if not all the kids at school hate him and his group. He may be suave and charming, but behind that pearly white smile, he's a heartless asshole."

Ellie was stunned, never having pegged Maddie to be the malicious sort. The way she spoke, with such venom and hate, one would think he'd ripped her hear
t
---

"Oh my God! Maddie
,
was Nicholas the reason why y
ou were crying the day we met?" Dawning
smacked her across the face and Ellie regarded her friend with new eyes, finally able to see the hurt beneath the hatred. "Oh, Maddie, why
didn't you tell me?" S
he kept her voice low,
while
aware that they were one of the very few still talking.

Maddie shrugged. "It wasn't that big of a deal." Yeah, and the Taj Mahal was only a grave. "Ellie, just try to stay away from him, he's only after one thing and once he gets it, he won't even give you a second glance. There are trails of bleeding hearts behind him and I'm thinking he wants to add you to the bunch."

"I'm not stupid, Maddie, I know what guys like Nicholas want and I'm not about to let myself fall for his stupid pick up lines and tactless come-ons. The only reason I agreed to go with him was because he had these tickets and even then it was strictly on the basis of friendship." Completing their last lap, they headed back to the bleachers, walked up the four flights of stairs and sat among their classmates, awaiting Ms. Hatcher's game plan. "Besides," Ellie continued, turning so that she faced Maddie. "I'm not looking for a relationship with him or anyone else right now."

"Why not?"

"Well, having a baby doesn't exactly allow you a social life."

Maddie's reaction wasn't as bad as Ellie anticipated, only the sight of her slacked jaw and rounded eyes did present a comical image and because she couldn't help herself, Ellie burst into laughter.

"
Shut
.
Up
." Her incredulity was followed by a shove to Ellie's shoulder. "You're kidding...Jesus! You're
not
kidding, you actually have a baby!" she bellowed loud enough for half the student body to hear her.