Chapter 10
Briggs
The party’s been going on for two hours, and Charlotte’s not here.
Ella must’ve talked her out of coming. Whatever.
I’d already decided not to do anything to Charlotte, at least not tonight.
I need to stick with the plan and give Ella until Monday.
I haven’t decided what I’ll do to her yet, but I want to do it myself.
I’m not going to involve Finn and Parker. This is between Ella and me.
“Hey, babe,” Aubrey says, stumbling over to me. Her breath reeks of rum and pineapple juice. She’s completely wasted. She was downing vodka shots when I got here and then switched to the rum punch that Scarlett made.
“You need to get home,” I tell her, taking out my phone to get her a ride.
“I can’t leave,” she whines, holding onto me. “I just got here.”
“You’ve been here for two hours and you’re about to either throw up or pass out.” I click on the app to schedule a car. “The guy will be here in five minutes. Let’s wait outside.”
“Come home with me.” She looks up at me, puckering her lips.
Her makeup’s smeared, her fake eyelashes are coming off, and her hair’s sticking up from swinging her head around when she was dancing.
She’s a fucking mess and I’m starting to wonder why I’m still dating her.
She’s hot, but that’s all she cares about — her looks — which I guess makes sense since she’s a model, but it’d be nice if she had some other interests.
We never have anything to talk about, so we just end up having sex.
That’s all our relationship is, which I used to be okay with, but it’s getting old.
“I told the guys I’d stay here.” I peel her off me and lead her to the door.
“You’re leaving?” Scarlett yells above the music as she runs over to us, tripping on her heels.
Aubrey bends over. “I think I’m gonna puke.”
“Fuck,” I mutter, not wanting to deal with this. It’s another reason I’m tired of her. She always drinks too much and ends up getting sick. She puked in my Porsche, and I had to get it professionally cleaned, which cost a damn fortune.
“Can you get her to a bathroom?” I ask Scarlett.
“She’ll be fine.” Scarlett looks around the room and smiles at someone, probably a guy. I think she’s cheating on Parker, but if I told him that, he wouldn’t believe me.
Aubrey slowly stands up, grabbing my shirt as she steadies herself. She turns and smiles at me. “Let’s go find a room.”
“Not tonight. You need to sleep this off.” I take her arm. “Let’s go outside. The car’s probably here.”
I’d rather make Scarlett take her, but she ran off. She doesn’t want to deal with Aubrey either, even though they claim to be best friends.
As we’re waiting out front for the car to show up, Aubrey shoves my chest. “You better not fuck some other girl after I leave!”
She’s entering her angry drunk phase. When she’s had too much to drink, she alternates between clingy and angry, which are both annoying.
“It’s here.” I motion the car to pull around the circular driveway. It stops next to us, and I open the door for Aubrey. “Get some rest.”
She gets in the car and reaches up to kiss me, but I quickly back away and shut the door. The car drives off, and I breathe a sigh of relief that I don’t have to deal with her for the rest of the night.
I remain outside while I check my phone. A text pops up.
Sorry to disappoint you, asshole, but Charlotte couldn’t make it to your little house of horrors. You’ll have to torture someone else tonight.
The text is from Charlotte’s phone, but Ella is obviously the one who sent it.
Charlotte would be too scared to send that.
I wonder what Ella told Charlotte to get her to change her mind about the party.
I wonder if she told her about the threats I made.
If so, it won’t matter. I could easily get Charlotte back on my side.
All I’d have to do is give her a smile and look in her eyes and she’d be putty in my hands.
Hell, just having me notice her would be enough to win her over.
“What are you doing out here?” Parker asks, coming up beside me, a bottle of beer in his hand.
“I sent Aubrey home. She was about to puke.”
“You didn’t want to take her yourself?”
“And have her puke in my car? Yeah, I’ll pass.” I swipe through my phone. “I might be done with her. I didn’t even want to be around her tonight.”
“Suck it up because you’re not breaking up with her. You piss off Aubrey, you’ll piss off Scarlett, and I’m not dealing with that shit.”
“I’m not staying with Aubrey just because you’re afraid to stand up to your girlfriend.”
“I’m not afraid to stand up to her. I just don’t want to deal with her yelling at me because of you.”
“Then find someone else. You don’t like Scarlett that much anyway.”
“I like her. I just don’t like dealing with her when she’s angry.” He takes a drink of his beer. “So what happened with Charlotte? I thought she’d be here by now.”
“Ella talked her out of it.”
He chuckles. “Charlotte’s got her own bodyguard? Is she really that afraid of us?”
“Hell, yeah. Every time we get near her, she runs away.”
“Then how’d you get her to agree to come to the party?”
I point to myself, a smug grin on my face. “She sees this coming at her, how could she say no?”
“But Trailer Girl ruined it.”
“Like she always does,” I mutter.
“So what’s the plan? What are we doing to Ella?”
“We’re not. I told you I’m taking over. I don’t need help on this. I can handle her.”
“And why again are you doing this?”
“Because she pissed me off. I asked her to do one simple thing and she wouldn’t do it.”
“What’d you ask her to do?”
“Doesn’t matter. I’ll deal with it. By the end of next week, she’ll do whatever I ask.”
And if she doesn’t, she’s going to regret it.
“I’m going back inside,” Parker says. “You coming?”
“In a minute.”
He goes into the house while I get out my phone and text Ella. Made your decision yet?
She doesn’t text back.
I return to the party. Girls come up to me now that Aubrey is gone but I’m not looking for sex tonight. I’m too preoccupied with thoughts about what it’ll take to make Ella do what I asked. Why is she being so damn stubborn? It’s really pissing me off.
* * *
In the morning, I’m still half asleep when my dad barges into my room.
“You know what time it is?” he yells, yanking the blinds open.
“What do you want?” I mutter.
“For you to get up and do something with your life!”
I open my eyes and see him standing next to my bed, wearing his golf pants and polo shirt.
“I was out late,” I say, rubbing my eyes.
“I hope you enjoyed it because that’s the last party you’re going to.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so.” I roll over, turning my back to him.
“What was that?” he asks in a threatening tone. It used to scare me, but now I’m used to it.
I sigh as I sit up in bed. “I said I’m not going to stop going to parties.”
“Did you hear what I just said?”
“Yes,” I calmly reply. “And I also recall you telling me to be social because you never know when a social encounter will lead to a new client.”
He wasn’t expecting me to throw his words back at him. He clears his throat and straightens his shoulders. “Yes, well, I doubt any of your drunk high school friends will be clients of ours any time soon.”
“I don’t know about that. Most everyone in my class will be getting a large sum of cash for graduation and some of them might be looking for a place to invest it.”
“That’s highly unlikely,” he scoffs. “If anything, the money will already be in a trust that’s managed by another investment company.”
“Maybe, but if not, they’ll be looking for a place to put their money. Do you really want to lose the chance to get their business?”
He ponders that a moment, rubbing his hand back and forth over his jaw. “My decision stands. You won’t be going to parties until your grades are up. I’d rather pass up a few clients than be humiliated and ashamed that my son wasn’t awarded the valedictorian title.”
“That’s what this is about?” I get out of bed and go to my closet to get a shirt. “You think going to parties means I won’t be valedictorian?” I yank on the shirt. “It has nothing to do with that.”
He walks over to me. “Then prove it.”
“Meaning what?”
“I’ll give you two weeks. You can continue to socialize but if your grades aren’t up in two weeks, all socializing will end.”
“I have a 4.2 GPA.” I walk away from him before my anger takes over and I punch his smug face. I’m so sick of him telling me I’m not good enough. “What the fuck more could you want?”
“For you to be number one.” He storms over to me. “I will not allow you to embarrass me and embarrass our family by fucking this up! You will be valedictorian. Do you understand?”
I don’t answer. I just stare back at him, knowing if I open my mouth, I’ll tell him to go to hell.
“Get dressed.” He walks to the door. “We’re going to the office.”
“I have to study. I can’t go.”
“Then you will not be going out with your friends tonight.” He storms back to me, grabbing my chin and yanking my face up to his.
“Let me make this very clear — I’m the one in charge here.
I have the power. You don’t. You do as I say or there will be hell to pay.
I’ve gone easy on you, son, but it ends now.
You’re not a child anymore, but if you choose to act like one, you’ll pay the price. ”
I lock eyes with him. “Meaning you’ll beat the shit out of me?”
“If that’s what it takes to get your attention.
” He smiles slightly and puts his hand on my shoulder.
“But I’d hate for it to come to that. I don’t want to hurt you, son, but I have a responsibility to our family and to the company that holds our family name.
It’s my job to protect it any cost.” He pats my shoulder.
“We all must make sacrifices.” He walks to the door. “We’ll leave in a half hour.”
The rest of my day is spent at the office.
I’m forced to sit beside my dad and listen to him drone on about stocks and bonds and investor returns and other shit I couldn’t care less about.
I could’ve refused to do this, and almost did, but his little speech in my room this morning changed my mind.
I have no doubt he’d beat the shit out of me if I pushed him too far, and although I could take it, and might even fight back, it would put my plan at risk.
At any time, my father could take away his offer to give me the car, and I need that car to pay for my future.
I only have a few months left. I can do this. I can handle my father. I can put up with his shit and even take a few punches if that’s what it takes to get to my goal.
The only wild card that could ruin my plan is Ella.
She needs to stop fighting me and give me the fucking valedictorian title.
It’s one simple thing, something that won’t even matter years from now, or the day after graduation.
Nobody cares about that shit. It’s meaningless.
But it’s everything to me. It’s my future.
The gloves are off, Ella. No more holding back. No more waiting. You’re going to do what I say. Whether you like it or not, here I come.