Beautiful Disaster (The Bet) (26 page)

Maddie had warned her, had she not? She’d been cautioned by Gabe on various occasions. And yet had she listened? She had foolishly allowed herself to trust that bastard. Given her goddamned heart on a silver platter and Nicholas had oh-so very nicely handed it back shredded and dripping with blood.

"ELLIE!" He called out to her like a madman, his voice seemingly dredged from the very pits of his soul. Ellie didn't wait for him to catch up to her as she pushed the release bar on one of the heavy double doors and bounded out.

The rumble of thunder reverberated through the heavens as bolts of lightning hauntingly illuminated the churning grey clouds drifting above. The minute Ellie stepped out, the sky split open and pelted her with beads of freezing rain. The rain took no pity, drenching her from head to toe, rendering her limbs numb. And wasn't that just the cherry to top off her shit of a sundae life. She was gratefu
l though, because now, if someone
did happen to come along, they wouldn't be able to discern whether the clear drops of water dripping from her chin were from the weather or her body.

"Ellie, please wait!" Why the hell did the student parking lot have to be all the way on the other side of the gigantic school? Ellie morosely wondered as she continued to run.
She was amazed that she could still run
considering that she was numb all over
.

"Ellie!"

She wrestled
her keys out of pockets of her drenched jeans
and
was behind the wheel of the giant truck in minutes, warm and temporarily safe. With quivering hands she pushed the key in the ignition, shifted gears and reversed the truck.

"Ellie, please give me a chance to explain!"

Rain drenched, face cast in determination, Nicholas stood all powerful before the silver truck, his eyes perforating, the intensity gripping even with the windshield firmly in place, dared Ellie to press her foot to the gas pedal...drive forward.

Ellie's hands tightened painfully around the steering wheel, her eyes narrowing to slits. A thousand times she cursed the name Nicholas Grayson. Cursed the heart that even in its lowest of agonies, could still be affected by this man.

How easy would it be if she just stepped on the gas pedal and drove full force forward without any thought? Temptation running high, Ellie's foot hovered on the pedal. "Get the hell out of my way!"

"NO! Please get out of the car so I can explain myself!"

He moved forward and Ellie stepped on the gas...so close...so fucking close, she missed him by a breath as she rotated the wheel that very last second and sped away. Stupidly she chanced a glance in her rearview and saw that Nicholas had disappeared.

"Bastard." She murmured pitifully as she sped away, no longer able to think. All she wanted to do now was get home and lock herself in her room and possibly plan the death of one Nicholas Grayson.

"ELLIE!" Nicholas boomed. He jumped off his motorcycle, tossed his lacquered helmet on the rain soaked lawn and ran up the pathway that led to Ellie's home.

He had pushed his bike well beyond the speed limit, swerving through traffic as if the very hounds of hell were at his heel. The rain hadn't mattered, his safety hadn't mattered. Desperation
had him thinking only of Ellie. H
e wanted to make her understand,
needed
for her to understand. 

"Ellie!" his fist pounded the door when the doorbell was ignored. "For fuck
’
s sakes, let me explain myself! I didn't do anything!" he was yelling, his fists pounding incessantly at the door.

"Ellie, please, it was a mista---" Nicholas took an instant step back; faced with the semi-automatic he preceded the first step with two more.

Gabe held the pistol steady in one hand, his face eerily calm as he peered down at the rain soaked teen. "I have spent a good a
mount of time in jail, Nicholas. I
t wasn't a pleasant experience. But for Ellie, I would, without a moment's hesitation, shoot you right between the eyes and not feel an ounce of remorse."

"You have every right to want to shoot me, but I swear to you that I didn’t do a
nything. I'm not a coward, Gabe. I
f I did something to hurt her, I would own up to it." Palms held up in front of him, Nicholas stood his guard, unflinchingly meeting Gab
e's diamond hard stare. Man to m
an, the elder sized the younger and had to reluctantly admire the steadfast gleam in storm grey eyes.  

"Get off my property, Nicholas.” He said finally, “Ellie has had enough of you." Admiration aside, Gabe couldn't,
wouldn't
forget that the little prick had hurt his girl. 

"Let her come out and say that to me...I know you're in there, Ellie! You want me to go away? Come out and tell me to leave!"

Gabe clicked the safety off, eyes narrowing. "I really think you should get lost."

Nicholas'
eyes were no longer on the gun as he caught sight of Ellie standing at Gabe's side. She'd changed out of the jeans and sweater she'd worn to school and now stood in a pair of sweat pants and a navy hoodie. Her eyes were swollen, red, no doubt from all the tears she'd shed. The thought alone pulled at Nicholas's heart.

Ellie whispered something in Gabe's ear that caused the man to glare down at her, but with a reassuring pat on the shoulder, Gabe reluctantly conceded to her wishes.

"One wrong move and I'll have you choking on your own blood in seconds." He said in parting.

The rumbling thunder in the heavens and the rhythmic tap, tap of raindrops filled the silence between. They stood so close yet the distance between them could've been measured in light-years. But neither could deny the gravitational pull, so palpable that Nicholas took a step forward.

"Don't come near me." Her voice, arctic cold, made real the encompassing chill permeating his core. 

"Ellie please---"

"I trusted you, Nicholas and you've betrayed that trust. Every moment we shared, intimate or otherwise were sacred to me. They meant the world to me and you violated that." She swiped her palm across her cheeks, erasing any evidence of tears.

"NO! I didn't---"

"Why are you even here? Shouldn't you be somewhere with your friends, laughing it up and shinning up your prize."

"You're my only friend, Ellie, the only person in this world who matters."

"Wow, I have to give it up to you, Nicholas. You’re damn good actor. You managed to fool me completely, didn't even suspect for a second."

"Don't do this, Ellie; don't condemn me before I have the chance to prove my innocence."

"It's over, I'm done. I gave you everything and I have none else to give. You won, Nicky." The tears were rushing so fast that it was futile to even stop them anymore.

Above all the consuming emotio
ns that raced through Nicholas'
marrow
,
fear was the one that clawed its way to the surface. Real, unrepentant and merciless, it tore him to pieces. It was so fucking real and frightening that it caused tears to form behind his lids as he stared at Ellie's sorrowful face.

He fell to his knees. Tears burning his own eyes, Nicholas reached for her and tightly, so very tightly
,
wound his arms around her waist.
He was shivering, his bones rattling in his skin. C
ompletely worn,
Nicholas
rested his head on Ellie's stomach and closed his eyes.

"I won't let you leave me, not after finding you, Ellie. Don't tell me it's over when the only thing I have
ever believed in is you and me. Y
ou're the very thing that keeps me sane and grounded. This love between us, it's binding and I can't let it go...I can't let you go." Tears fell from behind his closed lids and he didn't care.

Ellie bit her lips hard to stop it from trembling as she wrestled with the impulse to wrap her arms around him, hold him just as tightly as he held her and forget everything. But she couldn't, her mind wouldn't let her.
She fought for control as she struggled to free
herself
from his unyielding grasp. She barely managed it before retreating into the safety of her home.

"I..I can't, Nicholas, I can't trust you. I don't want to anymore." She slammed the door shut before Nicholas could reach for her again.

"ELLIE, please!" Ellie sniffed, her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides, desperately trying to ignore the heart wrenching pleas and incessant knocking. "Did I mean so fucking little to you that you're willing to throw it all away! If I betrayed you, do you think I would be here now in the goddamned rain begging you to listen to me?" He wasn't trying to be quiet. Nicholas didn't give a damn if the entire suburban neighborhood heard him. He was on his knees screaming on top of his sore lungs, trying to get the love of his life to have the goddamn sense to listen to him, trying to be discreet was the last thing on his mind.

"Go away, Nicholas!"

"I love you, Ellie and I swear to you that I'll give you the head of the person who did this. But don't ask me to leave you alone; don't ask me to forget everything we shared, because you'll be wasting your breath."

It wasn't until Ellie heard the revving of the motorcycle signaling Nicholas
'
departure that she slid down the door and sobbed her heart out. She felt so hurt, so confused, so betrayed. She knew she had made the right decision in calling it quits with Nicholas, so why then did it feel like she'd just amputated a part of herself. Her mind hailed her a genius for retreating from a situation that would've ended far more disastrous had she remained. Yet her heart crowned her queen of cowards.

She was running. Subconsciously her mind was using this as an excuse to run away. The getting gets a little tough and once again, Ellie could be counted on to put tail between her legs and run away. She'd done it countless times when her mother had called, wanting reconciliation. Her mother had begged to see her and Sophie, but Ellie had always refused, believing it best to keep her distance
lest
she and her husband hurt her again. She was running now, again, from the inevitable pain that came with loving someone. Because eventually, they could always be counted on to hurt you. Her parents, Tony and now Nicholas. They’d all proven that fact quite clearly.

"...If I had betrayed you
,
do you think I would I be here right now, in the goddamned rain begging you to listen to me?!"

Nicholas'
words echoed against the walls of Ellie's subconscious as she rested her cheek on her upraised knees.

Ellie wanted to believe in him, wanted to trust in him again, but the evidence gathered against him all pointed to the fact that he was guilty. He must've planned it all with Matt. But, what was there to gain if he had already confessed everything to her? What was the point of splashing their most intimate moments for the world to see
,
if only to embarrass Ellie? She'd told Gabe that Nicholas had changed and the past Nicholas, Ellie could believe capable of hurting her so maliciously. But the Nicholas she's come to know, the one who'd wept in her arms not so long ago, the one who'd held her like she was the most precious thing in the world, the one who loved Sophie to pieces couldn't be so hateful.

With a long sigh Ellie released some of the anger she felt, sadness, all-encompassing rushed through her veins. She felt very tired all of sudden.  

"Ellie?"
Ellie
wanly smiled at the sound Gabe's voice filled with concern.

"Don't worry, Gabe, I'm not going to go all suicidal." He looked at her like she meant it and the comical expression on his face almost made Ellie want to laugh.

"Joke." She muttered.

"Not funny." He chided, helping her to her feet.

"Where's Soph?"

Gabe slung an arm around her shoulders. "Upstairs with Ronnie, come on, let's go to the kitchen. I made chili."

"My favorite." She said the
n stopped Gabe in the kitchen entryway, wrapping her arms around his waist. She buried her face in his plaid shirt and smiled. "Thanks for not shooting him."

She felt the kiss, ghost soft on her head, and then he ra
ised her chin, his eyes boring
into hers. "I don't think you would've forgiven me."

Everything and everyone had fallen into place, playing their parts like season actors and all Matt had to do was
to
sit back and watch the drama unfold.

The amazing high of knowing that you were the mastermind behind the biggest senior prank in all of John Edgar history was the icing on the fabulous cake of successfully separating Nicholas from his hoity-toity little bitch of a girlfriend.

That little cunt, Matt sneered, taking a hit of the joint in his hand. She had turned his charmingly heartless best friend into a simpering little bitch. But not anymore, Matt thought with perverse smile. He'd cured Nicholas. His best friend probably didn't see it now, but he eventually would and when he did come to reason, Matt knew that Nicholas would thank him in more ways than one. They would be the happy little pair again, Matthew and Nicholas, best friends forever.