03
Hypothesis; if I do absolutely nothing, someone would try to buy me.
I couldn't help it. I just couldn't. And it was totally out of my control, like my brain was in control of itself now and not me anymore. But my lips parted, and I asked, "Solution to what problems?"
"La acabamos de conocer, Chanelle. We can't just reel her into this," commented Carol.
Chanelle who had obviously ignored me, faced Carol. "What does it matter? She has everything we need."
At this final point, I decided I'd had enough of the three of these ladies. My frown returned in full swing and I crossed my arms over my chest, probably looking stupid in a towel but did I care?
That's right.
"Okay, I have had just about enough of the three of you talking over me like I'm some piece of meat you all want-"
Chanelle cut me off. "How much?"
I eyed her with a corked brow. "Huh?"
She stepped closer and shrugged. "How much do you want, Noah? Name it and I'll deliver."
My jaw hit the ground. The nerve! The audacity. The effrontery. The temerity. The shingles! "You bitch!"
She cracked up her smirk again and nodded towards her friends. "You think she can't do it? No one in their right minds would dare speak to me like that. Yet here we are!"
"Okay listen here, Chanelle." I wagged a finger at her, and it pissed me all over again when her expression turned amused. She was going down. "I don't need your stupid money and I don't care who or what you are. But you won't come into my room and insult me like you own the fucking place, mierda."
While Chanelle's eyebrows shot up, Carol oohed behind me. "That means shit. She called you a shit."
Chanelle glared at Carol. "I know that," she seethed, her gaze coming back to me. "You know my father's the owner of this school, right?"
My facial expression didn't even flinch but inside, I was a wreck. Did I just insult the VC's daughter?
Of course, I didn't say that. I whipped out my own smirk and showed her my middle finger. "Do you think I give a fuck?"
This time, both Carol and Cherry oohed. I could have sworn I saw a muscle in Chanelle's eye twitch. But she kept it cool. It had to be her superpower. Pretending to be unaffected.
Well bad news for her because I was trained to not let anything show.
She took some steps back and turned to Carol. "She has to be the one."
"I am right here!" I hissed. "And you're yet to explain what the fuck you're talking about."
Chanelle shook her head in disbelief and opened her mouth to say something, but her phone rang, cutting her off. She shared a look with Carol before nodding and heading out of the room to take her call.
The moment the door closed behind her, I turned around and threw my hands up. "What the hell?"
Cherry bit her lower lip and stared down while Carol ran a hand through her hair. "This might sound crazy, but we need your help."
It was my turn to give her a deadpan expression. "You think I didn't pick that up from what bossy outside was yapping about? I want to know what you need my help with."
Carol stepped closer to me and put both her hands on my shoulders, staring me dead in the eye. "Long story short, three months ago, Daniel and Chanelle broke up but she wants to have him back. So for the past three months, she's had tons of girls try to seduce him into a relationship and break his heart, so she can sweep in and be his knight in shining armor... Or damsel in shining-" she shook her head. "Whatever. But she believes you're the one who can finally do it."
I blinked at her dumbly once. Twice. Three times.
First, I was not a heartbreaker. If my current state of singleness didn't give that much info, then I didn't know what would. Second, "what the fuck?"
Carol took her hands off me and smirked. "I know, right? It's crazy."
You know what else was crazy? How her Latina accent wasn't easy to pick up
"But they're meant to be," chirped Cherry entering the conversation with a smile. "You should have seen them together." She paused to look up wistfully and groan in happiness? Joy? "They were so cute. I wonder what made them break up."
The door swung open, and I resisted the urge to groan when Chanelle strutted in, her shoes tapping against the tiled floor. "Daniel's blindness, but that's what I'm here to fix."
I narrowed my glare at her. "Well I'm sorry, but I can't help you with that."
"Why?"
"Because we just met, and you offered to buy me."
"No, I offered to pay you."
"I don't want it."
"Twenty-five grand."
"I said I don't wa-wait, twenty-five?" My eyes went wide, jaw hitting the ground. I had to hold back my towel because it too was about to slip and fall.
"Twenty-five thousand dollars," repeated Chanelle with a smirk. "You'll get an advance immediately if you agree."
It was easy money. Too easy. And that should have been a major red flag for me but right then, it seemed so negligible. I got to receive twenty-five grand without even doing much work. All I had to do was seduce a guy. That would be easy, considering boys always thought with anything but their brain.
Proof? Whoever this Daniel guy was, if he was thinking right, he'd have picked up the fact that there were tons of girls asking to be his girlfriend. Didn't he ever wonder why?
Evidence that men either didn't have brains or chose not to use them.
And all that money, there was so much I could do with it. Maybe get a new-fairly used-car. Or get an apartment, so I wouldn't have to go back to mom during the holidays. I could even go shopping for outfits. I had like... Two pairs of shoes?
"But I don't know who Daniel is. I just got here," I tried to differ.
Chanelle just shrugged. "I'll give you everything you need. All you have to do is become his girlfriend in a month. It's easy money."
Took the words right out of my mouth.
I had to pinch my lips together to prevent myself from blurting out a premature yes. "What if he suspects me?"
Her gaze turned dark and she chuckled lowly. "It's your job not to let that happen."
I bit my lip. It was too easy. But I wanted that money. So bad. It wouldn't be a terrible thing to have some good things in my life sometimes. "Can I think about it?"
"No. I have others waiting in line for an offer two times less than this, so you have to give me a reply now. The sooner you get to work, the better."
I had to remind myself that I was working for this money. That whatever I would receive was what I'd earned. Like business.
So with an inhale, I straightened my spine. "Okay then. I'm in."
When Monday morning rolled in, the gravity of what I'd done dawned on me.
I was seated somewhere in the middle of the class, last seat on my row. My left hand gripped my pencil tightly as I drew line upon line, shading the parts of the drawing that needed shading and leaving some parts of the drawing bare, just to make it a bit more interesting.
My mind drifted to the task at hand. Chanelle had already deposited ten grand out of the fifty she was going to pay me when I was done with it. When I saw my bank balance, I almost thought I was dreaming, that was until she slapped Daniel's file I'm front of me while I was in the library on Saturday. I'd frowned at her of course. I didn't want anything to do with her, but she wasn't someone to be messed with. VC's daughter and all.
Asides that, she was a final year international relations student. So were Carol, Cherry and Daniel.
Leave it to the great Noah Bennett to get mangled up in senior's business on the first day of college.
Plus, she's already held up her end of the bargain and since I couldn't pass up good money like that, I had to see this through. Without any mistakes.
How was I supposed to do that? Considering who Daniel was in the first place.
His last name was Brighton, and he was the captain of the school's basketball team. Furman University's golden boy with too many accomplishments to count. And while at it, he maintained ridiculously high grades, breezing through life like the champion he was.
So basically, a hotshot. No wonder Chanelle was so obsessed with him.
But the most striking part was his picture. On seeing him, I'd gasped so hard that Chanelle asked if I was fine.
That was when I started regretting my decision. Because Daniel Brighton was none other than-
"Cute nose," someone whispered into my ear, startling me so I almost jumped out of my skin. My heart was still racing when I noticed that I had drawn a nose on the cup our lecturer asked us to draw so he could "see our inner artist and know our souls."
I turned to face the source of the very masculine voice and got the second biggest shock of my life.
Daniel Brighton, in the breathtakingly tall flesh was standing in front of me, hands in his pockets, ripped muscle flashing everywhere. His hair was held up in a ponytail that, I had to admit to myself, was cute. From the other side of me, I thought I heard someone sigh wistfully.
So he was also every girl's wet dream. Nice.
I scowled when he grinned, almost blinding me with his straight white teeth. Someone else gasped.
"Though, I don't think it fits on the cup you're supposed to be drawing."
The title was out of my lips in a second. "Stupid asshole."
He simply grinned wider, seemingly trying to fry me with his simmering hot yet icy cool gaze. "Freshman. We meet again."
-tow truck guy.