by S Doyle
I turned my head and saw Reen leaning against the lockers beside me, looking at me with a very serious expression. I pressed my forehead against the cold metal door and closed my eyes because I was just…tired. Tired of all the problems that didn’t ever seem to stop. How much more was I supposed to handle?
Because it really felt I was failing in everything. I couldn’t convince my mother to face reality. Lydia was on the prowl for someone to relieve her of her virginity. Girls were still being emotionally destroyed because of the stupid Freshman Bait List and Fitz…
Fitz was gone. Or so it seemed.
“What now?” I asked. Then I forced myself to stand tall and stiffen my spine. Cowering from whatever it was, wasn’t going to work. The only option was to face it head on.
“You’re on the list,” Reen whispered, leaning in closer.
“What list?” I asked stupidly.
“The. List.”
I blinked a few times. “You’re joking.”
Her lips pressed together. “I’m not. And worse, I think Locke has known about this for a while. He gave me this cryptic clue…anyway it took longer than it should have for me to get someone to fork over the information. I had to flirt with an actual sophomore. So beneath my talents of seduction, but he cracked like an egg. Your name got added to the list after you showed up at the party with Fitz. They’re taking bets on when you’re going to give up your virginity.”
I laughed. Actually laughed. Because last Friday there might have been an actual chance of that happening. But now?
“Wait,” I stopped her. “You said Locke knows this.”
“Yes, the little shit. He wasn’t willing to tell me directly but gave me enough information to start looking for it. It’s like he’s testing me.”
I did a little deduction of my own. Last Friday Fitz was pursuing me full throttle. Then suddenly, my name is added to a betting list. Our last text exchange was Sunday night then by Monday…suddenly, poof. He’s gone.
“That jerk!” I shouted.
“Technically we don’t know who’s behind this, but it’s a pretty good bet Wick wasn’t happy to have his nose caved back into his face. Fitz took you to that party, so Wick might see you as a way to get back at him.”
“I didn’t mean Wick,” I muttered. “But it doesn’t matter. This calls for a new plan of action.”
“What are you going to do?”
Hmm. What was I going to do? Then I smiled.
“Beat them at their own game. But first, I have a little business I have to take care of.”
Saturday Night
In war, sometimes sneak attacks were most effective. Taking a deep breath, I rang the doorbell then took a step back.
Wearing the tightest jeans I owned, paired with the tightest sweater I owned, I’d blown out my hair to its fullest potential, letting it fall down my back instead of wearing it up. Not one for a lot of makeup, I kept it simple with some mascara and lip gloss. I was as sexy as was possible for me.
More so than I’d been for Chas’s party really. For this evening, I had a different agenda.
The door opened and I smiled brightly.
“Hello, Wick.”
I could hear the pulse of the music in the background, the sound of teenagers drinking and laughing. This was nowhere close to the blow-out party Chas had hosted, but Wick’s family didn’t have money like the Bingleys did so his house wasn’t nearly as big.
No, this was a party for just his friends. A smaller, intimate crowd that would serve my purpose perfectly.
“Beth?” he asked, clearly confused by my arrival. “What are you doing here?”
I beamed at him. “Well, I’ve placed a significant amount of money on me losing my virginity tonight and you’re going to help me.”
His jaw dropped. “You’re not serious right now.”
“Oh, I’m deadly serious. Can I come in?”
He let out a puff of air. “Sure, but why do I feel like I’m going to regret this?”
I patted his chest as I passed him into the house. “Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle.”
Later That Night
Fitz
I looked at my phone and frowned. I’m not sure why I thought she might text. She was far too proud. I knew that. Did I think she might go so far as to text me three times?
Yes.
Three times wasn’t needy or desperate. Three times said you really, really cared.
Two texts seemed weak. Like I wasn’t worth the potential embarrassment of a third unanswered text.
Which, of course, would have gone unanswered since that was the plan.
I had to make the world, which equated to my high school, believe I wanted nothing more to do with her. This was not uncommon. Things started and ended quickly all the time. Look at Ed and Bee. They were ten minutes of romance, followed by months of shit show.
I took Beth to a party then moved on. People would most likely assume I wasn’t that into her and decide she was no longer worthy of any extra attention.
A perfect plan. If only she didn’t hate me when all was said and done.
“You’re brooding,” Heath said, tipping back a bottle of beer. “That’s my job.”
We were in my game room, the three of us, but instead of playing video games, we were strategizing ways to take Wick down. The problem was, as Ed put it, to do something without having any backfire or potential negative ripple effect.
A forceful confrontation in two instances hadn’t worked. It was time to be more subtle.
“What if we found the bank?” I suggested. “The money has got to be held somewhere, right? Locke said he couldn’t keep tabs on the Venmo accounts people were using to send their bets because they kept changing. Which means Wick must have several accounts. But if we could nail down one, maybe we could use that to figure out where he was transferring the money to. Odds are it’s a single bank account that’s just linked to all of his Venmo ones.”
“Brilliant idea,” Ed said. “All we need to do is steal Wick’s phone, hack his code, take a look at all of his Venmo transactions, somehow do a reverse transfer of all the money from the linked bank account back into his Venmo where we would then move it to one of our accounts. Or I have another idea. We could ask all the lovely girls of Haddonfield High to stop having sex. That might be easier.”
I snorted and glanced over at Heath to see what he thought. He was staring down at his phone, frowning as if he didn’t like the news. Given that there was rarely the good kind anymore, I braced myself for impact.
“What?” I asked him.
He glanced up, clearly startled to have been caught looking at his phone. He slid it into his back pocket and took another slug of beer.
“Nothing. Earnshaw is checking in like a fucking parent. I seriously wish he would give it a rest.”
“The Earnshaws aren’t bad people,” I reminded him. “If you took that chip off your shoulder and let your foster parents be cool with you, you might realize that.”
He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
“Uh, Fitz, we might have a problem,” Ed said. His phone had buzzed and was now in his hand.
“What?”
“It’s from Janie. Beth found out about the list and she’s pissed. Janie thinks she might be doing something batshit crazy.”
“Like what?” I asked impatiently.
Ed read the next series of texts and his eyes grew wide. “Oh shit. She wouldn’t…yeah okay, maybe she would.”
“Tell me!” I demanded.
Ed looked up from this phone. “Beth went to a private party at Wick’s. She told Janie if everyone’s so interested in her virginity, she might as well give it up and make some money at the same time. She placed a bet on herself and now plans to offer it up…to Wick.”
I couldn’t name the emotion that took hold of me, so I didn’t worry about it. I just knew I had to take a few breaths and think my way through the problem. Brains over emotions.
My current objective had be
en to remove Beth as a target.
My new objective. Stop Beth from sleeping with Wick.
Nothing else mattered.
“Ed,” I said softly, “I’m going to need you to drive.”
Wick’s House
“You hit him again, in his home, he’s likely to call the police,” Ed said as we pulled to a stop in front of Wick’s home.
“I’m not going to hit him,” I said calmly. Because I was, in fact, calm.
Heath had bailed on us saying something had come up that he needed to take care of, so it was just me and Ed. Which was all I needed. I had no plans to muscle my way into the house. I was simply going to knock and ask to speak with Beth.
And I was going to do this calmly.
Because I was calm.
“She wouldn’t really do that, would she?” Ed asked me. “I mean, for real?”
No, she wouldn’t. She had too much respect for herself as a person to treat sex so casually. She certainly wasn’t going to barter her virginity for money, no matter that she’d previously joked about it. Which is why I knew, when I was able to think rationally, she’d simply figured out what I’d been doing this past week and she was doing this to send me a message.
Message received.
I’m sure she expected me to bust through the door, pick her up over my shoulder and abscond with her. However, I was not to be outwitted. Still, I couldn’t stand by and do nothing.
Ed and I approached the ranch house, one of the smaller homes on the block, and I rang the doorbell. A moment later Wick answered wearing a smug expression and two, still, severely black eyes.
“Fitz,” he said. “Can I help you?”
“I would like to speak to Beth.”
More smugness. “Let’s forget how you even know she’s here and say she’s indisposed at the moment.”
I forced myself to remain calm. “Please don’t tell me you’ve been feeding her sleeping pills. You know you might want to try engaging with a girl when she’s awake. Unless you have tried, and they only prefer your company when they’re asleep.”
His eyes sharpened. “I didn’t… That’s not what happened with Gi. I don’t give a fuck what you think.”
“Whatever. Let me talk to Beth.”
“She doesn’t want to talk to you. That’s why she’s here. Everyone in school knows you dropped her after the party last week. Pretty harshly, too.”
Excellent, my plan both worked and failed spectacularly. Because Beth was too damn smart for her own good.
“Wick, we can do this easy way or the hard way. You and I both know why Beth is here and it’s not to get naked with you. Tell her I’m here and to come talk to me. Now.”
He seemed to consider my order. “I could shut this door on you right now and call the police to report someone trespassing on my property.”
“You could. Or you could ingratiate yourself back into my good graces by simply asking Beth to come to the door.”
I could see it in his face. Hope. The idea that I might forgive his treatment of Gigi. That I might let him back into my inner circle. I was popular, being in that circle, by definition, made the people around me popular.
Popularity in my high school meant power.
And everyone wanted more power.
Whatever incentive Beth was giving him, which was no doubt just to piss me off, wasn’t worth nearly as much to him.
“Wait here.”
Wick left the door open and walked away. I turned to Ed who was smiling at me.
“What?” I asked him.
“You two do like your dramas.”
“I do not care for drama,” I said stiffly.
“Yes, you do. For you two it’s like foreplay. You’re circling each other like sparring partners waiting to see who is going to throw the first punch. For what it’s worth, my money’s on Beth.”
“You’re useless to me right now. Go wait in the car. In fact, why don’t you go home? I’ll walk Beth to her house. It’s only a few blocks from here.”
“But I think I might want to watch,” he laughed.
I glared at him. “Sure, sure. But then I might take some time to ask myself a) how Janie Eyre had your number, and b)why she texted you about what Beth was doing. What exactly is your connection with her?”
Ed’s expression changed, briefly to anger, then finally to resignation.
He shoved his hands in his jean pockets. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“Thank you.”
Ed left and I stood on the doorstep waiting. It didn’t take long. A furious and fiery Beth came to the door with Wick trailing behind her. The tight jeans, the blown-out hair loose around her shoulders. She’d put more effort into her appearance tonight than I’d ever known her to do and it made me want to throttle her she was so damn hot.
“What do you want?” she asked, crossing her arms over her breasts, which were more pronounced in the sweater she was wearing.
“I would like you to come outside so we can talk. Privately.”
“You want to talk to me. That seems odd because you haven’t talked to me all week.”
I gritted my teeth. “I think, by now, you know why that is.”
She lifted her stubborn chin. “I’m here with Wick. We’re on a date.”
I peeked around her back and could see three other guys hanging out in his living room besides Wick.
“That’s a pretty crowded date,” I sneered.
She shrugged both shoulders. “Well, you know how it is. I wanted to make sure I was satisfied for my first time. If Wick can’t get the job done, then maybe one of the other guys—oof!”
I didn’t let her finish the sentence. I simply plowed my shoulder into her stomach and lifted her over my shoulder as if her weight was insignificant. Given that she was smaller than Gi, it was.
“Fitz Darcy! Put me down now!”
I walked off Wick’s porch and didn’t listen to a word she shouted. Not when she whaled on my butt cheeks with her fists, not when she tried to bite my back through the shirt I was wearing.
She wiggled and squirmed and called me every name she could think of and, had a police officer driven by, it might have actually looked like an attempted kidnapping rather than a lovers’ quarrel. Fortunately, one did not drive by and it wasn’t until we were in front of my house, because my home was also only a couple of blocks away in the other direction, that I put her back on her feet.
A little woozy from having been upside down for the last fifteen minutes, eventually she steadied herself and once she did, she attacked.
“You asshole!” she said, using her fists in a way that showed she’d paid attention in gym class when they were teaching self-defense.
I let her hit me in the stomach once, then again. Then I pulled her to me, her back against my chest, crossing her arms around her as I’d made her body into a straitjacket.
“Are you done now?”
“Not even close,” she snarled.
“I was trying to protect you! And you know it!”
“You humiliated me in front of the whole school, and I can protect myself!”
“Since when do you care what the whole school thinks?” I asked softly into her ear.
“Let me go.” She wiggled against me, which had the opposite effect of her intentions. Instead of letting her go, I only held her tighter. Because that was thing about Beth. She brought out this instinct in me that wanted to grab and hold on.
“Tell me why you’re really mad,” I said. “Just admit it and I can apologize for it.”
That stilled her.
“You hurt me,” she confessed. Probably easier to do because she wasn’t looking me.
“I’m sorry. When I found out they’d targeted you, it was the only thing I thought I could do to keep you safe.”
She shrugged out of my embrace and, this time, I let her go.
“I don’t know who is doing this, Beth. But it feels like they’re doing it to me. You shouldn’t have to pay for that.”
&
nbsp; She snorted. “You honestly think I can’t handle the male population of Haddonfield High? Please, give me a little credit.”
I moved toward her slowly and she didn’t back away. I put my hands on her shoulders and she let me.
"Guys are bigger and stronger. That’s just a fact. And right now, there is no one I trust. I couldn’t risk anyone hurting you. I thought if it looked like I didn’t care about you, they would leave you alone.”
“You could have told me,” she said. And then some emotion overcame her, and she hugged me around my waist, pressing her face into my chest. “I thought we were over.”
I pulled her in tight and rested my chin on to the top of her head. “We are never going to be over, Bennet. Don’t you get that? Never.”
I pulled back a little and lifted her face to mine.
“Never,” I repeated. Then I bent down to kiss her.
17
Beth
It was all rather surreal. He’d been kissing me in front of his driveway, when he’d suddenly stopped and told me he would drive me home. I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to leave him having just been with him again.
So instead, I’d walked up to his front porch where he’d informed me no one was home.
His parents were at some event and I knew Gigi was at my place having a sleepover with my sisters.
I’d walked inside, found the stairs leading to the second floor and made myself perfectly at home as I searched for his room.
I’d known instantly it was his room by the smell of it. Like some dark, woodsy, earthy scent that never failed to identify him, it was so uniquely his alone. His sheets would smell that way. His pillows.
Now, I was standing at the doorway to his bedroom wondering what he would think if I face-planted in the middle of his huge bed and inhaled his pillows. No doubt that I was a freak.
“Beth,” he said, quietly coming up the stairs behind me. It had taken him a few minutes to catch up with me, so I knew he’d given himself some kind of pep talk. I just didn’t know if he was pro or con about taking my virginity tonight.