Chapter 9: Belle POV
For most people, the best parts of football games are the amazing after parties.
For me, the best part of those after parties was being around a bunch of cheerleaders who'd sweated off most of their makeup.
The actual football games weren't that bad. They consisted of me, a few other girls who didn't cheer, and my current book sweating or shivering in the stands. This game I'd sat next to Charlotte Irving and Aurora Bayle. Well, they'd say by me. That was okay because even though I was expected to party with cheerleaders, I could "slum it" with normal popular girls. Also, Charlotte was Gaston's cousin. So it all worked out.
Not that anybody paid much attention to me. I could pretty much become invisible, which was fine. To me. But towards the end of the game, I stood up and made my way to the fence that separated the track and field from the by-standers fixated on the action.
Gaston threw the ball to Phillip Roy, eliciting a loud scream of praise from Ellen Tremaine, his current booty call. I heard Aurora's patented cough from behind me. She and Phillip were the definition of an on-again, off-again couple. The tall blonde rolled her eyes at Charlotte. "She is so not his type," she huffed.
Her petite friend smiled. "It's okay, Rory. Phillip is loyal at heart." Charlotte was too nice for her own good. You would never hear her badmouthing anyone, whether they ran with her crowd or not. It was kind of nice to know someone was still able to be genuine, and Charlotte, a popular and pretty senior, was an excellent role model.
Aurora pursed her lips and watched the action on the field. "I'm going with Luke Prince to homecoming, Char. Maybe that's why he's with that ginger nightmare again?" she wondered absentmindedly.
I widened my eyes. "Luke isn't even a senior," I blurted.
The "Sleeping Beauty" whipped her head in my direction and gorged me with her alarmingly violet eyes. "Yeah? So?" she hissed. One of her long fingers jabbed the air in Phillip's direction. "Phillip's a whole seven months younger than me." Her face relaxed a bit. "I guess I'm just on a different level than you. Age is just a number to me."
I glanced Charlotte's way, expecting her to be shaking her head at how ridiculous Aurora sounded. But she was paying attention to the tall, dark, and handsome guy in a football uniform running her way. Great. I'd missed the final play. The scoreboard's bright letters declared a Castle Heights Fighting Mice victory, which meant Gaston should be in a good mood tonight.
"Ferdinand!" Charlotte squealed. Her boyfriend reached over the fence and plucked her up. Charlotte was tiny, maybe just over five feet tall, and he scooped her against his wait like she barely weighed an ounce. She lifted off his helmet and kissed him like he'd just returned from a year-long quest instead of a few hours apart.
Aurora snorted. "Get a room, am I right, Higgins?" I gave a fake smile and a nod before I hustled to the gate. Gaston would be ticked if I wasn't there to congratulate him.
And I'd definitely get a hard time from the cheerleaders if they saw me with two of their enemies.
I pushed through the crowd with barely any time to spare. "Hey! Gaston!" I waved my hands in the air to get his attention. Some of the other guys on the team were taller, but Gaston was definitely one of the biggest. He had taken off his helmet already and smiled as he walked over to me.
"Hey, beautiful," he panted. Whatever he'd done in the last few minutes had totally left him out of breath. Ignoring his ripe body odor, I gave him a big hug. It wasn't Charlotte and Ferdinand gross, but it was enough to stroke his ego. Ha, ha, my girlfriend isn't embarrassed of me.
"Hey Avenant!" I heard a girl yell. Gaston and I broke apart and I craned my neck to see who had yelled at my boyfriend. Adella Current. Great. The last thing I needed was a cheerleader after Gaston. I really couldn't compete.
The third youngest Current girl sashayed over to meet us. To her credit, she was definitely Gaston's type. Her hair brown, almost the exact same color as my chestnut hair. She was an inch or two taller than my five foot five inch height. I had hazel eyes, but her eyes were a dark bluish-green that I thought was much prettier.
Actually, most of the time I though girls were prettier than me. But Gaston disagreed. He said that I was beautiful and that was all that mattered. Right?
"You played a really great game," Adella said, her voice oozing sex appeal. In her tight cheer uniform, you could trace her curves with your eyes. I weighed at least ten pounds more than her. My boobs weren't as perky and my waist wasn't as trim. Ugh, I hated this part of high school.
It seemed like Gaston could feel my insecurities because he wrapped his arm around my waist. "Thanks, Adella. Have you met Belle? She's my girlfriend," he told her proudly, gesturing to me with his free hand. I smiled nervously.
Adella's eyes turned cold and she flashed me a frosty smile. "I think I've seen you before. Maybe in the library?"
Gaston used her thinly veiled insult to boast about me. "That would fit. Belle's got a four-point-oh average and a thirty-three on her ACT. And she's only a sophomore," he said with a bit of a laugh. Then his face turned serious. "She's the most beautiful, smartest, coolest girl I've ever met."
I could tell it was taking all of Adella's self-control not to cover her ears. "Yeah, well, that's great. Are you coming to Jasmine's party?"
Gaston nodded. "We wouldn't miss it," he promised. Adella nodded curtly and practically ran away. I unwrapped myself from Gaston's arm and beamed.
"Thanks for saving me," I whispered. He smiled at me.
"It was my pleasure, kid," he assured me. Then we walked, hand in hand, back to his truck. "I'll shower at Jasmine's, okay?"
I gave him a thumbs up. "Hey, can I ask you something?" I broke the momentary silence with my own insecurity.
He started the car and glanced over at me. "Shoot."
"Why do you even talk to her? I don't mean to sound possessive, but I know you don't like her," I added hastily, trying to cover up my feelings.
My boyfriend snorted. "Devon likes her and I don't want to hurt his chances by not being nice to her." We started driving to Jasmine's. Thankfully her house (and Gaston's shower) wasn't too far away.
That made sense. Gaston's best friend, Devon LeFou, was basically Gaston's opposite physically. He was three inches shorter than I was and as round as Gaston was muscular. They both had dark hair. Devon was even dumber than Gaston, but he was loyal and sometimes pretty funny. He got on my nerves a lot, but he and Gaston were blood brothers and who was I to mess that up?
The fact that Gaston was so dedicated to us made me feel guilty. The past few weeks I'd spent every homeroom in the library, nestled in an armchair, sneaking glances at Adam. I decided he looked best when he hadn't had time to brush his hair and it was messy. We'd only spoken a few times, but those few times had meant the world to me. My time in the library were teaching me about what it meant to have a crush in addition to your boyfriend.
The sound of a thumping bass pulled me from my own pity party. I could hear the sound of drunken girls trying to act overly carefree. Gaston helped me out of the truck and walked me over to the bonfire.
Adella Current sat on the edge of a clump of cheerleaders. Devon LeFou was next to her, chatting her ear off. Another football player moved away from Devon so Gaston and I would have room beside him.
"Hey Belle!" a girl squealed at me. It was Jasmine Walters, perched on Flynn Rider's lap. She cocked her head and looked at me with a wide smile. "Where's your librarian friend?"
"What?" Gaston said loudly. His face was getting red. I felt my face go white.
"Uh, it's nothing. Just the new library aid has been helping me find books lately," I said, trying to reassure Gaston.
He furrowed his brow. "Since when do you need help finding books?" he demanded.
I shrugged. "They switched it by author name, not title, and it's been seriously messing me up." I faked a smile. "It's no big deal."
Gaston nodded. He looked a bit suspicious. Jasmine had taken her attention off of me and started slipping off her jeans to reveal the smallest bikini I'd ever seen. She and a few other cheerleaders ran off to the hot tub.
A case of beer and a joint were passed around. As usual, I declined. Gaston accepted a beer, then two, then three. I eventually lost count. Since seeing his bad mood, I decided not to say anything about how much he was drinking.
At around two o'clock, the bonfire had mostly burned out and people had started trailing out. Gaston grabbed my hand before speaking. "Well, LeFou, I think Belle and I are going to head out."
Devon nodded. "That sounds good. I'm going to see if Adella left yet." He wiggled his ears and walked away. Gaston and I made our way back to his car.
My house was only a fifteen minute drive, so I decided to let Gaston take this one. Sometimes, if it was too bad, I'd take the wheel, even though I didn't have my license yet. With the way we were swerving around the road, I started thinking that I'd made the wrong decision.
"Hey, Gaston," I murmured. He didn't acknowledge me, so I cleared my throat. "Gaston, can you pull over?" He looked over at me before turning the car over to the side of the road.
"Maybe I should drive. You've had quite a bit to drink," I told him carefully. Gaston could be kind of hard to deal with when he had alcohol in his system.
He snorted. "Yeah. Because I always have to do what you say, right? You're not in charge of me, you know!" Gaston ended his sentence with a yell. He smacked the steering wheel and glared at me.
My mouth tasted like pennies. "I'm sorry. But there's really nothing going on between Adam and me. He's just a library assistant." I felt a sharp pain in my stomach as I lied. But the truth was, I didn't know if there was anything doing on between us. I wasn't sure if I wanted there to be or not. I didn't know if I should've been guilty or what, but I was and he couldn't know.
Gaston laughed ruefully. "You had better be sorry. You made me look like an idiot," he growled at me.
I wrinkled my nose. "Your drinking made you look like an idiot."
Suddenly, it felt like the sun had landed on my cheek and burnt it. I tasted blood and brought my hand to my face. My lip was bleeding and my cheek felt white-hot. I was shaking as I met Gaston's eyes.
"Did you just hit me?" I whispered. I'd never felt so angry.
Gaston's face was pale and shocked. "Oh my god, Belle, I'm so sorry "
I snapped. "You don't get to be sorry!" I shouted, bringing my fist down on the dashboard. My face burned. My temper was on fire and my head was pounding. "Take me home," I said, feeling tears prick my eyes.
Five minutes later, I sat inside my room, brushing my hair. My hands were still shaking and my cheek was bright red. I grabbed my phone. Gaston had had the decency to not call me. I scrolled through my contacts and found, to my own disappointment, that I had no way to contact the only person I wanted to talk to.
For the first time since I'd met Gaston, I felt completely alone.
