How to Steal a Happy Ending

•twenty• There's good advice and then there's GREAT advice.

My room was a disaster site. It looked like my closet had a stomach ache and puked clothes all over the floor. Two sole outfits were laid on my bed, away from this fabric sea. Mom's gonna have a heart attack when she sees this. Sighing, I tightened the towel around me and started shoveling as many clothes as I could back into the closet. Once the majority of them were inside I tried to pull the door shut but in vain.

"Stupid thing," I grumbled under my breath and pushed my back against the closet door, ignoring how the wooden handle was digging into my shoulder blade. Just as I heard it click into place, my phone began to ring. Rubbing the red, bar-shaped imprint that had formed on my skin, I stalked towards my dresser. "Hello?"

"Tell me you aren't actually serious about this." Nate said incredulously. "I mean, this guy you're so excited about is a legit criminal. Do you know what he got expelled for? Trying to run the Principle over...in his HUMMER."

"Oh come on, I'm sure that was all just a misunderstanding and he actually has a heart of gold or...something. You know, like in A Walk to Remember."

I held the phone between my ear and shoulder as I applied a thin layer of my lucky lipstick. (Thin because I only had a tiny stub of it left.) I ransacked the drawers to find some lip gloss I could use for a fuller look.

Nate groaned my name loudly. I could almost see the face palm happening on the other end of the line. "Listen to me, you lunatic. This isn't a romcom, you don't have cancer and he's just friggin' crazy"

My laughter was met with another one of his exasperated groans.

"I swear this has got to be the stupidest-" The sound of an engine coming to life drowned out the rest of his tirade. "I'll be there in 10 minutes," he stated presumably driving his car out of the garage.

I halted mid-lip smack, suddenly thrown into a type of panic I'm sure only women could understand.

"I can't get dressed in ten minutes," I exclaimed, hastening to find my underwear in the mountain of lingerie lying at the foot of my bed. Instead of waiting around to hear Nate's ignorant rebuttal, I ended the call and speed dialed someone more qualified to deal with my crisis.

I ran over to my bed, tripping over half a dozen bras and puncturing my toe on one very pointy eye lash curler in the process.

Billy picked up on the third ring and through what I could only peg as ESP, got straight to the point. "Let me guess, you have no idea what to wear," she said as she switched her blow drier off.

"Do you think a dress would be too 'bang me'? You know... easy access and all."

"Well, I'm wearing one. But considering what happened last time you wore a dress, you should probably stay away from them. You know, easy access and all." she replied quoting me.

"But it's not Friday night without a dress," I sulked, wanting more than ever to wear the hot red number I'd spread on my bed.

"Fine then, you can wear a dress. And then drunk-you can flash everyone on her way down the stairs...again." I gave her a sigh of defeat, grimacing at the memory. "Good choice. I can't wait till you see this dress I've got on though. It's totally vintage chic," she gushed. And I probably would've gushed with her had I not been smarting from her reminder of the-night-we-do-not-speak-of. I pushed the dress off my bed and watched it slump onto the floor with a pout.

"So I'm left with a white crop top and shorts." A long hmm followed from her side. I held the hanger up, suddenly less infatuated with this outfit when just seconds before it was near impossible to tell which one I liked better. Talk about wanting what you can't have. "It's the one I bought at the summer sale." I supplied.

This was rewarded by a deafening squeal, "Oh, that's perfect! We're going to be the hottest chicks in town."

I rolled my eyes at her over- confidence. "I don't know about hottest, but at least this shows enough cleavage to get my neighbor interested," I muttered in reply, trying to slip into the dark pink shorts without dropping my phone.

"Why does that even matter?" She gave me her signature snort-laugh, "Random much."

"Oh no, it's this-" A loud honk from outside my house caught my attention mid-sentence. "Shit, that's Nate. I have to go. I still didn't do my hair or anything. I'llseeyoulaterbye," I rushed before throwing the phone on the bed and barreling towards the straightener I'd plugged into the wall socket.

The same barreling was done through the front door, nearly a half hour later. I briefly wondered if I should've asked Nate if he wanted to wait inside.

"What took you so long?" Nate asked as soon as my butt connected with the leather upholstery of his hand-me-down Chevy.

I shrugged, "I told you I couldn't get ready in ten minutes." I slammed the door shut once...twice...thrice, and every time it simply bounced back off the frame to crack open again.

I cursed at it. He laughed. I cursed at him. And he laughed harder.

Finally, after he'd had his fill of amusement, Nate reached over me to shut it himself.

"That guy lives a couple houses away. I sent him a text saying we'd pick him up." I dropped my phone into the clutch I'd brought along, trying to control the exhilaration I felt at being that much closer to beating my mentor at his own game.

Nate rolled up the sleeves of his midnight blue shirt and shifted out of neutral. "That guy?" Nate snorted."Do you even know his name?"

I gave him a deliberately slow and dragged out duh.

He just shook his head and sighed, "His name is Austin. Try and remember that this time, okay?"

As the car cruised down the road, I couldn't help but wonder what I'd do without him.

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A/N: I know it's been a month since the last one but THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR STILL BEING HERE!

About the title of the chapter: obviously in Claire's mind, Billy's advice is great advice while Nate's is just meh.

Also look! A bad boy that's actually bad (well, kind of... if you count trying to murder your principal as "bad")

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