Beautiful Disaster (The Bet)

by Francette Phal

  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.

  She sheepishly returned Ellie's smile. "Sorry about that. I'm not having a good day." She proceeded to the sink adjacent to the one Ellie leaned against, spun the taps and splashed a handful of water on her face.

  Ellie shrugged. "It happens to the best of us. Are you better now?" Ellie watched as she flashed her hands beneath the paper towel dispenser, the sensor blinked red before whirring out a sheet of paper. "I'm not better, but I will be. He---he was special to me."

  Ellie didn’t understand why, not that she knew or had seen the guy, but he seemed like an utter jerk. But she kept her opinion of his character to herself, choosing instead to give the sympathetic ear she’d initially wanted to provide. "Say no more. I know exactly how you feel. But it does get better. I'm a testament of that."

  She smiled at Ellie, it didn't quite reach her gorgeous blue-green eyes, but it was still warm in its effect. "I'll take your word for it." She exte
nded a hand to introduce herself. "I'm Madeline, by the way, but people call me Maddie."

  Ellie accepted the hand, mildly content in having made a new friend. "Ellie Holbrook."

  ~~~~~~~

  Ellie damned her luck, not for the first time in her life as she heard the flapping of her rear left tire air out. With a disheartened sigh, she put her emergency lights on and pulled off the side of the road. Taking her keys out of the ignition, she pocketed them before exiting her car. She popped open the trunk. With any luck, she'd have a spare tire and would change it. But, as luck would have it, she didn't have a spare.

  "Wonderful." She murmured, slamming the trunk shut. She pulled out her cell phone. Three rings later and Gabe’s gruff voice answered. Ellie kept it brief, loathed to disturb him while he was working. He, of course, worried, but she quickly reassured him that a tow truck would be called and she would be home soon. It took an effort, but Ellie managed to convince him not to come and to get her and only after promising to pick up Sophie from the sitter, they hung up.

  With a wearied sigh, she settled on the hood of her car to wait for the tow truck. With any luck, he wouldn’t take an obscene amount of time to arrive. She hunched over and shut her eyes while realizing for the first time how excruciatingly tired she was. Her days began at the ass crack of dawn and ended just as late. There was her opening shift at Redford’s, the local bagel shop on Main. She put three hours in before heading off to school where it was nothing but droning lectures, conceited students and homework that rivaled Mount Fuji in height alone. Now she had track, courtesy of her guidance counselor, who’d made it clear that she would need some extracurricular activities if she had any hope of getting into college.

  So seeing as how track was by far the only sport she was good at, Ellie had opted for that and only recently finished practice. The only bright side to the day thus far, had been meeting Maddie and attending art class.

  Tomorrow was another cycle with the same grueling hours and aside from the small pleasure she would take from sleeping in late, nothing would change. Although now there was track to look forward to and after that it was off to Splendor to put in a few hours. Splendor was a small restaurant Gabe opened up a few years back that did fairly well with the college crowd.

  It wasn't necessary for her to work as hard as she did. Gabe even told her he would gladly foot the bill for her college tuition when the time came. But Ellie had refused. She’d depended on Gabe for far too many things in her young life already so that having him pay for college when she could attempt to get in on her own, seemed too much. There were scholarships out there and grants and loans at her disposal. Ellie was determined to succeed. She wanted, needed to prove to herself and her parents that though she’d stumbled upon an obstacle when she’d become pregnant with Sophie, it was not an excuse to fail.

  She had aspirations, dreams, and with her daughter at her side, Ellie had strength and the drive to achieve those goals. She was determined to give Sophie a stable future.

  The revving sound of a motorcycle buzzed through Ellie's head drawing her away from her thoughts. She slowly lifted her head and glanced at the person responsible for all the noise. She wasn't familiar with motorcycles, but from the looks of it, the machine was an object of sheer beauty; from the lacquered black on black sleek frame to the powerful vibration emitting from the chrome tinted engine. It was, to be perfectly cliché, a sex machine and Ellie couldn't help but stare.

  The bike was one thing, the owner was something else. He was enthralling, no doubt about that. His very magnetism demanded attention and Ellie involuntarily sat up straighter. His legs encased in dark jeans straddled the powerful machine beneath him with a sensuality that oozed. His face, foolishly devoid of a helmet, was another tale of its own.

  He was breathtaking in his masculine beauty. Arrogance clearly instilled in the cut of his jaw line. His nose was fine and straight, his lips, set in an unsmiling line, were sensually a plump dark mauve. He stared right through Ellie with eyes of indiscernible hues. His hair was like ink, overlong and mussed, and it looked like he’d either just rolled out of bed or ran his fingers through it a few times. Regardless, it painted a sexy picture. Hell, the guy himself was all things sexy and Ellie was mesmerized.

  "Hey." He gave an imperceptible cock of his head.

  "Hey, yourself."

  "Need a ride?" He had a nice voice, not too deep, sensuous almost, like hot chocolate and cayenne.

  She shook her head. "No, Thanks." She said, raising her voice over the hum of the engine.

  "Looks like rain." Ellie raised her eyes heavenwards and sure enough the overcast sky loomed, rain was inevitable.

  "My ride should be here any minute. Besides, I don’t even know you. You might be a serial killer or an Ax murderer wanting to kill me. No offense, but I’d rather take my chances with the rain.”

  The ignition died a quick death as he twisted the key. He jumped off the bike and headed towards the car. He walked with all the confidence of a man who knew his worth, who was far too aware of his sexuality and flaunted it for the world to see. He came to a stop right where Ellie sat, a sly grin curving the fullness of his lips.

  “I’m Nicholas.” Beneath full dark brows were eyes as gray as storm clouds and just as ominous. “And I'm not particularly fond of axes, but I can kill you with a few well-placed touches."

  Ellie gave an unladylike snort and doubled over in laughter stopping only when she received his glare. It took a moment or two before she was calm enough to speak. "Wow, thanks for that, I really needed that laugh." She wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled. "Well, at least I can't fault you for being original."

  Caught off guard, Nicholas frowned and silently reassessed the girl grinning down at him. He silently cursed, realizing that this wasn't going to be as easy as he'd initially thought. This, he figured, was probably why Matt put his Desmo on the line. Fucking bastard, probably knew something like this was going to happen. Deciding on a new plan of action, Nicholas spun around and walked away. The sound of rumbling thunder in the heavens was working perfectly in his plan.

  "Damn it!" Ellie cursed and he grinned.

  "You should really find some shelter." he caustically advised, then hopped on his bike and sparked the engine to life. Nicholas only needed to count to ten.

  "Hey wait!"

  "Hop on and hold on tight." Was his only response.

  Very reluctantly, Ellie straddled the bike. Wrapping her arms around his waist she buried her face against his back and stifled a scream when the bike took off all the while damning her luck, the rain and the stupid towing guy for taking so long.

  Ellie stood unsteadily from the bike, clothes sticking to her body and hair plastered to her face. She doubted that she looked half as good as the guy who had dropped her off.

  "Th---thanks." Teeth chattering, she drew her hands to her lips to breathe life back into them.

  "I'll see you around."

  Ellie involuntarily smiled, despite the chill. "Yeah...you, too."

  Nicholas’s bike zoomed down the quiet suburban streets and Ellie wondered what Gabe's reaction would be upon hearing it. With a sigh, she ambled up the cobbled pathway that led to her home.

  "Who's the guy on the crotch rocket?"

  Ellie grinned, accepting the towel he handed her. She wasn't the least bit bothered that she'd been spied on. "No one important."

  Gabe peered skeptically at his goddaughter, disapproval tightening his features. "Dinner's in the microwave." He hoped for Ellie's sake that the guy truly was no one. He had already dealt with Ellie after a certain "no one" by the name of Anthony Carlyle practically destroyed her life. Gabe did not want anymore "accidents" occurring.

  Saturday rolled around far quicker than expected, but not altogether unwelcomed for Ellie as she prepped for her late night shift at Splendor. Her life over the last few days had consisted of school, track practice and work. To finally escape from the routine, cheered her immensely. Sadly, her car had yet to
be fixed. But she couldn't bring herself to feel the least bit doleful about it seeing as how she now had access to Gabe's silver Honda Ridgeline. She grinned at the memory of how she'd come to procure the Ridgeline. There'd been promises made. Bribes and pleas had been abundant. And she even recalled having promised her liver at one point. Ah, but it really was a small price to pay, for such an awesome truck.

  With one last cursory glance in the mirror, she grabbed her purse and made her way downstairs to the living room where Sophie carelessly played. Upon sighting her mother Sophie turned and held out her arms, her little sausage fingers expectantly wiggling. Only too happy to indulge her, Ellie scooped her up with ease and they were off, Ellie the jet plane and her little passenger. Ellie twirled her around the room; it wasn’t too long before they were both giggling. Dizzily Ellie came to a stumbling halt and collapsed on the loveseat.

  "Mowah, Mama!" She demanded with laughter in her voice. Rich obsidian eyes stared back at her and for a fleeting moment, Ellie was reminded of Sophie’s father. Tony stared back her. With those glazed, impenetrable midnight hues she remembered so well.

  The uncanny resemblance between father and daughter left Ellie momentarily staggered. But then the memories flooded back and with them her senses. She'd put Tony in her past for good reason and that's where he was going to stay.

  Sophie.

  Her beautiful little Sophie may have inherited her father's features, but that's where the resemblance would stop. There was no way Ellie would allow Sophie to live the life she and Tony had led, no way in hell.

  Sophie's hand on her mouth drew Ellie from her musing. With a resounding kiss on her cheek, Ellie put her down and sat up. “Ok, babe, Mamma has to go to work now.” Ellie knew she should’ve anticipated the waterworks even before Sophie’s lower lip began to tremble. They went through this more times then she could count and it never got any easier.

  "Come on, Soph." She was in her mother's arms in a blink of an eye. "You have to be a big girl." Her wails grew louder. "Sophie," Ellie softly chided, soothingly rubbing her back, "It's Ok, baby." She walked around the living room, holding Sophie close.