Georgetown Academy, Season One

by Schwartz, Alyssa Embree

  Taryn laid on top of the hospital bed sheets, Brooks on one side and Gabe on the other. Her leg was propped up by a few pillows while the thirty-something, bald doctor finished re-bandaging her ankle. Thankfully, he had confirmed it was just a mild sprain.

  “Do you need anything else for the pain?” the doctor asked.

  “No, I’m good.” When he had taken her vitals a few minutes ago, she knew she was still loopy from the first painkiller because she found herself unable to focus on anything except whether he’d decided to shave his head because he was prematurely balding or because he was making a fashion statement.

  “Are you sure we shouldn’t helicopter her to a hospital in a bit less…rural area?” Brooks asked, critically taking in the tiny, no-frills hospital room.

  The doctor looked at him, exhausted. “You don’t need to airlift her for a sprain, Mr. Madison.”

  “Mmmm. So you say. Did you get your degree out here in Stowe?”

  The doctor stood up from the bed with an expression of disbelief. “No. I got it in Cambridge actually. I came back to Stowe to be closer to my family.”

  Harvard momentarily shut Brooks up and Taryn stifled a giggle.

  “Thanks for the help, Doc,” Gabe said quickly, attempting to cover up for Brooks’s unabashed rudeness.

  The doctor shot him an even more disdainful look than the one he gave Brooks. “Well, I better get to my patient next door. The poor kid who has a broken nose, jaw and cracked rib thanks to you and your friend.”

  What?! As soon as the doctor left, Taryn’s eyes darted to Gabe imploring him to explain himself, but instead he changed the subject.

  “Are you hungry, Taryn?” he asked. “There’s a burger place next door.”

  “She doesn’t eat meat, you idiot,” Brooks snapped.

  “I was assuming I could find her something else there, but thanks for the heads up.” Gabe sounded like he wanted to give Brooks a cracked rib, too, but Taryn was suddenly too tired to fully turn her head around to see his expression.

  Brooks ignored him and bent down toward her. “I’m assuming they have some kind of food situation in this archaic dump. It might not be fructose fortified frozen yogurt, but I’m sure I can find something that uses artificial flavor enhancers to mask the disgusting taste.”

  She laughed. “Flaming Hot Cheetos work, too.”

  He rolled his eyes, smiling. “Of course they do.”

  He threw Gabe a dirty look before leaving and the gesture clinched what was already pretty obvious to her. She had been spent this entire ski trip trying to make Gabe jealous of Brooks, but Brooks was the one jealous of Gabe. And there was only one thing he had that Brooks didn’t. Taryn.

  Gabe sat on the bed next to her, just as she was about to allow herself to wonder how she felt about that.

  “I’m really sorry I didn’t come after you. I’m actually glad Banana Republican was there.”

  Taryn stared at the bruise on his face, her eyelids getting heavy. “Who did you punch?”

  He looked away and she knew the answer before he said it. “Weston Morris.”

  Obviously. A surge of annoyance flashed through her, but something was dulling it from becoming full-blown anger even though she knew she should be furious.

  It’s probably just the painkillers, she thought, before drifting off to sleep.

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  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Sunday, 10:24 a.m.

  The G.A. student parking lot was a mess of town cars and mingling parents, as the chartered buses pulled in from the airport. After everything that had gone down yesterday at the hospital, Ellie was relieved to finally be home.

  However, the relief was short-lived when she stepped off the bus with Brinley and realized that, from the conversations she was hearing around her, all the parents were chattering endlessly about the dramatic fist-fight between Weston and Gabe.

  Luckily, the cover story Brinley had created seemed to have caught on. Late last night, after the chaperones had shown up at the hospital and brought them all back to the lodge, Brinley had gone straight to Nora and Liesel (who were only too excited to be usurping Portia with such prime gossip) personally to explain the “reason” the fight had broken out. And it was a pretty believable one too. Weston was upset about the things Gabe’s father had been saying about his mother on national television, and after the two of them began arguing, it got physical with Gabe throwing the first punch.

  It was interesting, though. As Ellie and Brinley weaved through the crowd to the back corner of the lot where Ellie’s mother waited beside the Walker town car, the parents seemed to be in two distinct camps over whose fault the fight actually was.

  “From what I heard, it never would have happened if Gabe Mills had been even slightly apologetic. His father’s been ruthless to poor Weston’s mother,” Beth Gold, the Democratic head of the ACLU said to Charles Tate, the Assistant Secretary of State and fellow Democrat.

  “The problem is that Weston Morris needs to take things a little less personally. His mother can handle her own battles,” Ryan Pike, head of the Republican National Committee was saying to Republican Ohio Congressman Craig Chaden.

  “You know, I completely agree,” Brinley added as she passed by, giving the two men a wave. They were, of course, old friends of her father’s.

  Ellie raised an eyebrow at her as she looked back and they continued walking.

  “At least the story is sticking,” Brinley whispered. “I’d rather have Weston come out looking like the bad guy anyway.” Ellie couldn’t agree more. She had left the hospital last night without saying good-bye. And she had luckily avoided seeing him on the flight home that morning, thanks to the fact that he still hadn’t been discharged. It made her skin crawl just remembering the feel of his mouth on hers.

  “Anyway, I see D.D. over there,” Brinley said with a sigh, pointing to her family’s chauffeur, who she had affectionately named Designated Driver years ago. She had seemed inexplicably glum since the second they boarded the airplane and left Vermont, though she insisted she was merely tired after their crazy night. “I’ll talk to you later?”

  “Yeah,” she said, giving Brinley a quick hug.

  As Ellie continued striding toward her mother, she caught sight of Hunter closing the door for a beaming Evan as she entered the front seat of her mother’s Taurus. It looked like whatever Evan was so worried about last night with him had been fixed.

  Though it momentarily jolted Ellie to see them interact like that, they were so low-key it seemed the rest of the student population at G.A. hadn’t caught on to their new romantic status. But despite any awkwardness on her end, Ellie had meant what she said at the hospital. She couldn’t have dibs on Hunter forever, especially since she hadn’t felt the same way toward him since Gabe had come to town anyway. If he and Evan liked each other, she wasn’t going to stand in the way. It might be a little awkward for a while between her and Hunter, but then again, things were already awkward between them. As the Taurus drove past her, Ellie gave Evan a quick wink of approval through the window.

  Finally, she reached the last black town car, where her own mother stood.

  “Hey, Mom,” Ellie said, giving her a kiss.

  “Hey, sweetie. Sounds like you had quite a weekend. Liesel and Nora’s parents all but accosted me. They were so excited to tell me you had a sleepover with them and that you told the girls we should all go out to dinner this week.”

  Ellie couldn’t help but laugh at that one. “Sounds like the apple doesn’t fall t
oo far from the tree.”

  Suddenly, Marilyn inhaled sharply. “Apparently not,” she said in a clipped tone. Ellie followed her gaze to the town car three rows over where Gabe was greeting his father.

  Gabe looked up, his eyes fusing with Ellie’s, just as their parents exchanged venomous glares. If there was one image to sum up their relationship, this was it.

  Ellie quickly turned away. After her oddly intimate exchange with Gabe in the hospital, she’d probably have to go back to her usual tactic of avoiding him so it didn’t hurt so much. Thankfully, her mother was already getting in the back of the car and Ellie quickly followed.

  Once they pulled out of the school, they started heading toward Wisconsin Ave.

  “I thought we could grab breakfast at Le Zinc before I have to go back to the office,” Marilyn said. Working on a Sunday was nothing new for her.

  “Sounds good,” Ellie replied.

  Marilyn turned to her. “This fight everyone was talking about sounded rather dramatic.” She paused. “You know, when I first heard about it, I thought maybe it had something to do with you…” She let the sentence hang.

  It was the moment of truth. Ever since Ellie had left the hospital last night, the question had been simmering in her brain. What should she tell her mother? Would she tell her the version Brinley had expertly crafted that had already spread through the G.A. students (and apparently parents)?

  Or would she tell her the truth?

  Ellie took a deep breath. “It had nothing to do with me, Mom. It was just political stuff. Weston wasn’t wild about all the comments Gabe’s dad has been making.”

  A wave of guilt washed over her for lying so blatantly to her mother, but it was better this way. Ellie didn’t want to put her mother in the middle of it. She had allied herself with Gail, and if Ellie told her the truth, it would put her in an impossible position, making her feel guilt-ridden, yet helpless. Because would Marilyn seriously retract her support for Gail because her son was a pig? Of course not, and Ellie wouldn’t want her to, anyway. That was the thing with politics. You couldn’t let the personal stuff get in the way. It was better for her mom to believe it was two guys fighting their parents’ battle than anything having to do with her.

  “I heard Gabe threw the first punch,” Marilyn said in a disapproving tone. Ellie had to forcibly bite her lip to keep the words from tumbling out of her mouth. That Gabe had been doing it for Ellie. That Weston was the one who was bad news. But again, what good would it do?

  “It was kind of a blur,” she replied.

  “Well, I’m sure you could relate to what Weston was going through—what with Gabe’s dad not letting up on Gail. He must appreciate that.”

  “Actually, Mom, Weston and I aren’t really hanging out anymore,” Ellie said shortly. Her mother would find that out soon enough from Gail, so there was no reason to hide it.

  Marilyn furrowed her brow. “Really? He seemed like such a nice boy.” Ellie almost choked on her gum, but played it off like a cough.

  “So, what happened?” Marilyn asked.

  “He was a little too wild for my taste,” was all Ellie could come up with.

  Just then, her phone buzzed with a text with a text from Weston. Hey girl. We should talk.

  She tapped her fingers nimbly across her iPhone’s TypePad. I know what you did. Never call me again.

  ***

  Sunday, 11:15 a.m.

  Taryn waited in line at the Burlington airport next to Miss Goldberg, the just-out-of-college G.A. biology teacher who all the guys secretly had a crush on, and more importantly, the chaperone who had been assigned to stay with her. While everyone else had left Vermont earlier that morning, the doctor at the ER had insisted on checking out Taryn again today before he finally cleared her to get on the afternoon flight.

  Though Taryn couldn’t say she was sad about not being stuck on an airplane with all the Georgetown Academy students. She was sure the news of Gabe punching Weston was circulating like wildfire and it was the last thing she wanted to hear about. Last night, as she was getting into bed, Evan had asked her to keep the real reason behind the fight a secret. Taryn hadn’t felt great about it, but she had agreed, mainly because her brain still felt hazy from the painkillers.

  However, now that her mind was perfectly clear, there was no getting around the fact that Gabe had started the fight on Ellie’s behalf. And the look on his face when Evan had told him about Weston had been bothering her ever since.

  After being rushed to the hospital with Brooks at her side, and discovering Gabe was in the same ER for punching Weston, she had passed out from the pain pills the paramedics had given her. When she woke up a little later, Gabe had been sitting by her side, Brooks having retreated to the waiting room. But she had been too out of it to have a real conversation with him there, and then the chaperones had arrived and escorted them home.

  Or maybe that was the excuse she had told herself. Because when Gabe had come to their room that morning to fetch Evan and tell Taryn good-bye, she had feigned sleep. The truth was, she needed more time to herself to get her thoughts together before she could face him.

  She half-hoped Brooks would come by before he left, at the very least so she could thank him properly, but he had stayed away all morning. Though he had texted her once he got to the airport to let her know he had her iPod. It had been in her parka pocket when she was snowboarding and it must have fallen out in all the commotion. But the clipped tone of the text nagged at her and she wondered if Brooks was upset about how everything had gone down last night. He had been highly annoyed with Gabe, and somewhere in all the fuzziness, Taryn had realized that Brooks was jealous of him. Maybe he was mad she hadn’t made Gabe leave. Ugh. Her head hurt.

  “Next!” the airline check-in person yelled out.

  Taryn hobbled up to the desk on her crutches and handed over her ID. The check-in person began clacking on the keys furiously. It reminded Taryn of that scene in Meet the Parents and even now she had to stifle a giggle.

  “Miss Reyes, you’ve been upgraded to business class.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Your ticket. It looks like miles were used to upgrade your ticket. There’s a note here about you needing more leg room due to your crutches.”

  Her mind raced. Was it possible her father had thought to do something like that for her?

  And then, as if on cue, she got a text.

  Enjoy the flight, Gimpy.

  So Brooks wasn’t mad at her. As Miss Goldberg checked in beside her, she saw that he had even thought to upgrade her, as well. A grin slowly formed on Taryn’s face…Say what you will about Brooks Madison, but he really is a gentleman.

  By the time she landed in D.C., Taryn knew what she needed to do. And it was going to happen even sooner than she thought, because when she got down to the baggage carousel, she saw Gabe waiting for her in the dark jeans that she used to love him in. It wasn’t like her feelings for him had totally disappeared, but somewhere between their fight at the bottom of the mountain and the hospital, Gabe had become significantly less attractive to her.

  “Hey…” he said, almost shy. “I told your parents I’d give you a ride home.” His face was awash with guilt. It was the same expression she’d seen on him at the hospital last night. It wasn’t his fault she had hurt herself, but obviously if he would have come after her instead of Ellie, she never would have found herself in that position to begin with.

  “Yeah, thanks,” Taryn said, just as awkwardly.

  It wasn’t until he had loaded her bags and pulled his black Tahoe out of the airport and onto the highway, that she finally broached the subject.

  “Gabe, about everything that happened…”

  “Before you say anything, I’m sorry. I know if you and I hadn’t gotten in that stupid argument, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Believe me, I’ve been beating myself up about it all day.” It was nice to hear that it had at least registered for him.

  “That’s fine,” Taryn said
, “but it doesn’t change the fact that….we need to stop seeing each other.” He looked up, sharply, as if he expected it, but now that it was happening, he was surprised it was.

  “I really like you,” she continued. “You know that. But I can’t get past the fact that when I’m with you I feel like a consolation prize. Like the girl you decided to date after you realized you couldn’t be with Ellie.”

  “Taryn…” It was like he wanted to argue the fact, yet couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

  “I deserve someone who wants to make our relationship official. Who looks at me like he won the grand prize.” She had gotten a taste of that from Brooks, and they weren’t even in a relationship. And wasn’t that what a guy is supposed to do? Make you feel better about yourself, not worse? If Gabe didn’t make her feel like that, then there was no reason for them to be together.

  “And if I’m not that for you, then…it’s just not fair to me.”

  Gabe was silent for a second, keeping his eyes focused on the road. She had almost given up on getting a response, when he finally spoke. “I hope you know I never meant to hurt you. I do really care about you.”

  “I know,” Taryn replied. She believed Gabe had tried with her. It just hadn’t been enough. And the fact that he wasn’t fighting to be with her now only confirmed she made the right decision to break up. Although they never really were together, were they?

  The doorbell rang at the Reyes household a few hours later and Taryn jumped up to get it, which was difficult considering she had a bandaged ankle and needed crutches to get anywhere.

  But Brooks was coming by to return her iPod, and she wanted to reach the door before her little sister Lola, who would inevitably pepper him with a million inappropriate questions before he even walked in.

  She opened the door to find Brooks on the front stoop, in a black pea coat with a burgundy scarf tied perfectly around his neck, dangling the pink iPod from his hand.