Ellie debated stalling for a moment, but when she heard Portia call out to Nora about whether she’d seen the latest numbers in the poll, Ellie immediately threw her history notebook into her bag and high-tailed it to the hallway, almost colliding with Evan and Hunter as they exited the class.
“Hey, Elle,” Evan said with a quick smile, nervously tucking her hair under her ear and slightly distancing her body from Hunter’s. Ever since she’d gotten together with him, she seemed slightly ill at ease around Ellie, especially when the three of them were together. “Are you doing okay with everything?”
Ellie shrugged as the three of them walked down the hall together, not knowing whether Evan was referring to the beat-up her mother was now taking in the press or the emergence of this poll.
“I guess,” she replied, her mess of jumbled emotions adding a slight quiver to her voice.
“This stuff Matt Drudge kicked up about your mother is ridiculous,” Hunter said, referring to the single-mom comments that had erupted last night. “I know he’s trying to act like it’s not a gender thing, that anybody who is a single parent, male or female, shouldn’t be vice president, but it’s still completely off-base.”
“And completely sexist,” Evan added with conviction. “I don’t believe for a minute they’d be doing this to a guy who was divorced with kids.”
For the second time today, some of the tension sitting in Ellie’s shoulders dissolved. As horrible as it was to hear people say negative things about her mom, it was doubly vindicating to hear others rise to her defense.
“I know,” Ellie agreed with a sigh. Underneath her anger at the situation was a layer of guilt she couldn’t talk about to anyone. Despite trying to be incredibly careful the last few days, she was still inadvertently causing issues for her mother. It wasn’t like she could help being born—or that her parents had chosen to get a divorce. But no matter how many times she told herself this, she couldn’t help but feel responsible for ruining things yet again.
“I hate to say it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Thomas Madison is the one who started this. Matt Drudge is like his personal squawk box,” Hunter told her.
Ellie nodded glumly. She’d already assumed as much, though she hadn’t said anything about it to Brinley yet. The night Alan Reyes had hired Thomas, the two of them agreed not to let it affect their friendship. Brinley professed they’d both lived around politics long enough to know how to keep it from getting personal and Ellie had wholeheartedly agreed. Her mom and Brinley’s parents often had different political opinions and backed different candidates. But she was now realizing this particular situation was more difficult than she’d initially imagined, especially when Thomas Madison was potentially responsible for such a below-the-belt attack on her mother. It wasn’t fair to blame Brinley for her father’s political tactics, but if she were honest with herself, it was part of the reason Ellie hadn’t wanted to wait for her at the end of history class and endure a five-minute hall walk with her. Even if she told Brinley she was upset about the comments, Brinley would probably tell her this was the way the political game worked and to suck it up. Not exactly what Ellie wanted to hear right now.
“Your mom will weather this,” Hunter reassured her. “These things have a short shelf-life.”
“I hope so,” Ellie replied.
Hunter spotted Thatcher Wellington down the hall at his locker.
“I’ve got to go talk to Thatcher about the off-campus driving policy he wants student government to take up.” He turned to Evan. “I’ll see you later?”
“Yup,” Evan said quickly, and they exchanged an awkward half-hug that Ellie was sure was for her benefit. It didn’t bother her to see Evan and Hunter affectionate. It was more just weird. Like somehow in the last month she’d woken up in an entirely alternate universe.
“By the way,” Evan said, once Hunter had walked away, “I have to bail on seeing North by Northwest tonight. I’m sorry.”
Ellie instantly deflated.
“Why?” she asked, trying to keep the intense disappointment out of her voice and suddenly acutely aware of just how excited she had been for her quasi-date with Gabe.
“My Macbeth essay isn’t even close to being done yet and I’m not going to have that much time this weekend because of the Dedication Party. I’m just kind of overwhelmed with everything right now, I guess.” She paused as if she were about to say something more about that, then changed course. “I feel really bad, though. You know I would if I could.”
“It’s okay,” Ellie replied, trying to assuage Evan’s guilt even as her mind raced forward. If Evan wasn’t coming tonight, it would be just her and Gabe going to the movies. And as much as the thought thrilled her, she knew she should bail on it now too.
But that was easier said than done.
“Are you serious?” Gabe asked her over the phone, when she called him after school. “You’re over-thinking this, Elle. No one is going to care that we saw a movie. And if anyone did, we could say Evan was supposed to be there. She’d do that for us.”
Ellie lay back on her bed, stretching her legs up toward the ceiling. “I know, but…” She was still thinking of a way to end the sentence when Gabe cut in again.
“Come on. This is ridiculous. We bought the tickets. You were excited to see the movie. It’s not fair for your whole life to be ruined by this V.P. crap.”
She absorbed his words like a sponge soaking up water. There was so much of what happened in the last twenty-four hours that wasn’t fair. Like the fact her mere existence was hampering her mother’s chance at victory. Or that it was her best friend’s father who may have engineered the attack. Or that the entire school was now apparently enthusiastically debating whether she or Taryn was hotter. None of it was fair. And she couldn’t take any more of it right now. At least one thing needed to go her way today.
She was going to go to the movie with Gabe. She’d just be really cautious about it.
Later that night, Ellie was wondering how good of a decision that was as she stepped out of her Lexus SUV in the parking garage by the theater. She’d had to lie to her mother about where she was going (though Marilyn was so preoccupied with deflecting the single mother comment, that wasn’t difficult to manage), and it had taken her twice as long as usual to get ready, trying on half a dozen outfits before finally settling on her dark J Brands and an emerald green gauzy blouse that brought out the color in her eyes and was ever so slightly sheer. Usually, she would’ve called Brinley for wardrobe assistance, but the circumstances made it impossible. She couldn’t risk telling a soul that she and Gabe were seeing a movie together. Especially Brinley. Ellie didn’t think Brinley would ever do something so under-handed as sell Ellie out for the family business, but it was better not to test that premise. And who knows if Thomas Madison had bugged Brinley’s phone. Ellie really wouldn’t put it past him.
She reached the front of the theater and fished out the ticket Gabe had emailed her earlier. Their plan was to arrive separately, with Ellie waiting until a few minutes into the previews to enter, ensuring no one saw them together outside of the darkness of the theater.
“Better hurry up,” the usher said as he scanned her ticket. “It’s about to start.”
“Thanks.” She kept her head low, refusing to make eye contact. The fewer people who recognized her, the better.
“Theater seven on your left.”
Her heart began beating even faster as she walked past the framed movie memorabilia, down the long hallway to the theater, her soft gray booties crushing leftover popcorn remnants into the carpet. She reached the door and paused for a moment, not just to catch her breath, but to triple-check no one was following her. Satisfied, she opened the door to the already-darkened theater where a preview for the latest Diane Keaton-as-a-divorcee movie was playing.
She stepped forward, allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness as she walked toward the base of the stadium-seating stairs. Gabe had texted her that he’d be sitting in the
back row, which was good because it meant no one would be behind them, able to watch their every move. Not that they were going to do anything scandalous, but even an innocent whisper could look like a kiss when photographed with a camera phone in a dark theater.
As Ellie turned to walk up the stairs, though, she saw the entire theater was empty. Except for Gabe, sitting alone at the very top, his torso poured into a thin long-sleeved gray shirt and his dark hair rakishly askew.
She didn’t know how they’d gotten so lucky to be the only ones there, but she sincerely hoped no one else would be showing up.
“Hey,” Gabe whispered, as Ellie turned down their row.
“Hey,” she replied, giving him a smile as she sank into the seat next to him, their bodies mere inches apart.
By the time the opening credits began to roll a few minutes later, that distance had disappeared, their shoulders subtly grazing each other’s, neither of them shifting away. Ellie tried to focus on the screen, though her stomach was doing Gabby Douglas style back flips.
Her eyes flicked toward him, catching the quickest of glances of his chiseled profile before she turned her attention back to the film.
But it was nearly impossible to focus on the dialogue, especially once Gabe reached his hand out, taking hold of hers. He left it that way, safely enveloping her fingers. His eyes remained on the screen, as if the fact they were now holding hands was no big deal, but his breathing seemed measured and Ellie doubted how much he was really absorbing what was happening in the movie.
Ellie shifted slightly, crossing her legs in a way so that her foot just barely tapped his, the small touch sending a new wave of electricity up her body.
He must have felt it too because his eyes were instantly on hers.
“It’s kind of crazy we’re the only ones here,” Ellie whispered, leaning her head closer to his, sending the scent of vanilla from her hair conditioner his way and hoping it had the same effect it used to have on him years ago.
“I figured it would be easier that way,” he replied.
She looked up at him questioningly.
“I bought all the tickets for this showing,” he told her, his eyes blazing into hers. “So you wouldn’t have to worry about anybody else showing up.”
Ellie’s heart skipped so many beats, she might’ve checked herself into the hospital if she’d had a moment to think about it. But she didn’t. Because suddenly Gabe was leaning into her, his lips on hers. Ellie closed her eyes, kissing him back, finally giving in to the magnetic pull of attraction that had been relentlessly tugging at her since she first saw Gabe in the hallways of Georgetown Academy over a month before.
His hands stroked through her hair, bringing her closer to him, kissing her so urgently she had no doubt he’d been waiting as long for this moment as she had. And unlike their ten-minute escapade at the Rookie Party, this time Ellie had no interest in stopping herself. She wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed the world to fall away from her, just like it always did with Gabe.
It was taking all of Ellie’s concentration to walk in a straight line as she made her way through McKinley Hall with Brinley the following afternoon after school let out for the weekend.
She had spent the entire day in a blissful haze, successfully blocking out all the hallway chatter about her and Taryn by merely allowing herself to think about the two hours she had spent with Gabe the night before, how his lips had felt on hers, how warm his skin had been, how they would pause for a moment, staring into each other’s eyes—the air charged between them—until one of them couldn’t take it anymore and would pull the other back in.
Even now, she flushed at the thought of it. She had seen Gabe three separate times today, although in each instance, she’d been with either Brinley or Evan, neither of whom knew about their rendezvous last night. It wasn’t that Ellie thought either one would purposely throw her under the bus, but she knew first-hand the most casual, inadvertent mention of it by them in the wrong setting could send everything spinning out of control.
The only question now was when she and Gabe could see each other again like that…It wasn’t like Gabe could keep buying out showings for movies. She knew they’d both be at the Dedication Party on Sunday night, but maybe there was a way to hang out before then? Like if there was a big get-together somewhere. Not that they could necessarily hook up again there, but at least they could hang out.
“What are you up to this weekend?” Ellie asked Brinley, slightly fishing. “Have you heard about anything happening tonight or tomorrow?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Brinley said as she quickly tapped her fingers along the keypad of her phone, texting someone as she spoke. “I heard Sarah Corliss might be having a house party. Apparently, her parents tacked on an extra night to their Palm Beach trip. You want to go?”
“Maybe,” Ellie replied, wondering if Gabe would want to go, too. Plus, it might be nice to hang out with Brinley there. Ellie’s newfound bliss made it much easier to stop internally resenting her for the single-mother attacks Thomas had masterminded. She now even felt a little bad for how cold she’d been toward her yesterday. Going to a party together would hopefully get them back on track.
Brinley’s phone beeped with an incoming text and she instantly looked down at it, a grin spreading across her face.
Ellie caught a quick glance of the name “Shane” at the top of Brinley’s text dialogue.
“Who’s Shane?” Ellie asked curiously. Last she heard, Brinley had been hanging out with some guy named Kyle Price, though Brinley had told her it was over before the ski trip even ended.
Brinley whipped her phone back into her pocket. “Um, just some lacrosse player from St. Albans,” she chirped out, though a faint blush colored her pale cheeks. “Nothing exciting. We met for like five seconds on the ski retreat.” From the smile she’d just seen on Brinley’s face, she doubted that. But if she wanted to be coy, so be it. It wasn’t like Ellie was being totally straightforward with her about her own dating life either.
Ellie suddenly noticed a group of senior girls silence themselves as she walked past, clearly talking about her or her mother, who was on her second day of getting crucified in the press. But Ellie let it roll off her back. Nothing was going to get her down right now. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of them flashing her a “thumbs-up.” Ellie gave a half-smile before wondering what the burst of support was for. Had she won that day’s D.C. Dish poll? Not that she’d checked it herself, but at lunch she’d heard the question was something along the lines of “Who would make a better impression abroad?”
They reached Ellie’s locker and she began to twirl in her combination. Instead of waiting with her, Brinley paused for only a second.
“I’ll see you at lacrosse, Elle. I just remembered I need to grab a book from the library before they close for the day.”
Ellie nodded and they exchanged a quick hug. But before Brinley even turned the corner at the end of the hallway, she’d taken her phone back out, her fingers already typing out another text, most likely to the mysterious Shane.
Ellie turned back to her locker, trying to remember which notebooks she needed to bring home with her when Melanie Cassir, the blue-eyed brunette whose mother was head of EMILY’s List, ran by and yelled, “Loving your mom right now, Ellie!” She pumped her fist in the air as she passed, like they were united in solidarity on the matter.
“Thanks!” Ellie called back. After all the brutal single-mom press she’d been getting, it was about time people started standing up for her. Even if it was just in the hallways of Georgetown Academy.
“Right on!” called out Katie Levine, the wavy-haired junior tennis phenom, who brushed by her on her way to the exit of the building.
Ellie flashed a grin at her as well. She had no idea what was bringing on this vocal onslaught of support for her mother, but she’d take it.
“Elle!” yelled out another voice she instantly recognized as Hunter’s. He approached her locke
r, a huge grin on his face. The discomfort that permeated their few one-on-one exchanges since their break-up seemed to have finally evaporated, perhaps as a result of them both being so firmly rooted on Marilyn’s team.
“Looks like your mom finally found a way to strike back,” he said when he reached her, his light blue eyes flashing with excitement.
“What do you mean?” Ellie asked. It suddenly dawned on her all the hallway shout-outs must have been prompted by something her mother had actually done.
“You didn’t hear?” he asked incredulously.
Ellie shook her head, impatiently. “No, I disabled the Google Alert on my phone yesterday. What happened?”
“I guess your mom was leaving the Capitol for some meeting this afternoon, and a reporter called out to her and goes, ‘What do you say to people like Senator Mills who agree with Matt Drudge that it’s too tough to be a single mother and vice president?’”
“The reporter said that?” Ellie asked, a sense of trepidation growing at the mention of Gabe’s father.
“Yeah. And then, your mom stops, turns to the reporter and says that just because Dick Mills demanded his wife quit her job when they had kids, doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for everyone. And then she started talking about how Gabe’s mom used to be a human-rights lawyer. And the world would be a better place, not a worse one, if she’d stuck with her career helping to prosecute sex-traffickers. About how many innocent children’s lives might have been saved instead of just her own two children having the comfort of a constant mother around.”
“Oh, god,” Ellie responded, able to perfectly picture the fire in her mother’s eyes as she spat those words out. Last Ellie had heard her mother’s plan had been to keep a low profile and hope the story waned. Apparently, emotion had gotten the best of her that morning. Or else the chance to lash out at Gabe’s parents had been too tempting to pass up. “What’s wrong?” Hunter asked Ellie, whose brows were furrowed together in worry.
Georgetown Academy, Season One Page 46