A/N: Chapter 10…very late, but well, well, well worth the wait.
"How the hell did you manage this?" Vivian's enthusiasm had yet to wane and her curiosity had spiked to join it, leaving me in the awkward position of either A) having to lie or B) confessing and have a potential witness to testify against me if this ever went to court.
"I have my ways," I replied, doing my best to smile enigmatically. Vivian stared at me for a moment before shaking her head as she continued to poke through the pile in front of us.
So, originally I had been thinking panty raid. So originally I'd only grabbed their underwear.
And then the complete and total lack of originality set in and I decided 'What the fuck? Why not?' and stole the toiletries as well.
So razors, complete with hairs in case someone wanted to perform secret voodoo rituals, soap that had actually touched their bodies for the slightly perverted, and underwear for the truly perverted…like Rob.
Only, hopefully, female.
And just for kicks, I'd grabbed their swimming trunks.
"The underwear looks lonely," I noted, causing Vivian to glance over at me.
"It's underwear, Angel," she stated, somewhat confused. "It's incapable of emotional expression."
I ignored her, frowning as I cocked my head to the side and continued to stare at the thirty or so pairs of underwear in front of me.
They ranged in styles, from plain old boxers, to boxer briefs, to plain old briefs. The most humorous pair had hearts on them and had been lifted from Pogue's room. The rest of them ran the rainbow from plaid to plain.
In short, aside from having caressed the 'Holy Backsides' of Ipswich's version of royalty, they were pretty damn boring.
"Can you wait a half an hour before cataloguing them?" I finally asked.
"Sure," Vivian replied, setting the pair she'd been caressing (Caleb's) aside.
"Great. I'll be back in ten."
Rob was still in the library, looking forlorn and lost.
"I couldn't find it," he informed me mournfully as I skidded to a stop in front of him.
"Oh, well, that's too bad," I managed to sound appropriately sympathetic before reaching down and tugging him to his feet.
"I need you to do me a favor," I told him, tugging him along as I practically dragged him out of the library.
"Do I get to touch your boob?"
I fought the urge to sigh in annoyed frustration.
Rob was an equally opportunity pervert and his price for what I wanted was a pair of Pogue's boxers, ironically enough, the ones with hearts on them.
"What is he going to do with them?" Vivian asked in a low whisper as we watched Rob work his magic.
I fought the urge to gag, not managing to fight the shiver as I shot Vivian the evil eye.
"I don't want to know."
"Me neither," Vivan agreed with her own gagging shudder.
"You know," Vivian stated once Rob had finished his masterpiece collection and meandered away, Pogue's boxers in hand and from this moment on, no longer in my mind ever again. Ever.
"You're pretty good at this," Vivian cocked her head to the side as she studied the realistically drawn representation of Reid Garwin's…assets. "You should start a business or something."
Years of blatant lying kept me cool as I gave her a wide-cheery half-mad smile in reply.
"You really think so?"
"What did you do?"
I just barely managed to strangle my scream as Alyssa popped up next to me, Zac standing at her shoulder his lips twitching like mad as he stared at me.
"Tell me it was you. Oh please, God, tell me it was you." Laughter danced in his eyes as he grinned down at me.
"It was me," I replied, confusion more than obvious as my gaze darted over to Alyssa. "Wasn't it?"
"I don't know," was her reply, her arms crossed firmly over her chest. "Have you committed any breaking and entering lately?"
"Well," I cocked my head to the side, realization sinking in. "If I didn't break anything, technically it's only entering, right?"
"I didn't hear that," was Alyssa's flat reply as Zac did his shoulder shake of barely suppressed laughter.
"Tell me you have a plan," Alyssa continued on, a faint twitch at her left eye making her dissatisfaction with my actions apparent.
"I have a plan," I replied.
Now, I added hastily in my mind.
And then I frowned at her.
"When don't I have a plan?"
"Whenever you do something," was her dry reply. "The planning usually comes afterwards."
"Hey," I frowned as I shut my locker. "I stalk Tyler. That takes pre-planning."
"You're a horrible stalker," Alyssa replied as we turned and started walking.
"Am not," I sulked. "I got to be in an enclosed space with him the other day. That's pretty good, isn't it?"
I looked over at Zac for confirmation only to get a half-assed shrug in reply.
"Did you plan it?" I opened my mouth and shut it just as quickly.
"Its okay, Angel," Zac soothed, placing a supportive hand on my shoulder. "You'll get better. All you need is practice. You can stalk me tonight if you want."
"No thanks," I replied, stopping at the door to my next class and waving the two of them off. "You're not that interesting. You spend too much time in the library or outside the girls locker-room."
"How the hell – " I heard Zac sputter as I disappeared inside with a faintly victorious smile.
Practice, my ass.
Vivian had obviously done her best to spread the word so by the time I got to my first class with the Sons, I was treated to the gut-busting hilarious sight of Tyler sitting firmly in his chair, his hands on the desk, eyes glassy and shocked as they stared off into space while Kate verbally eviscerated the idiot dumb enough to place her hands on Kate's man and Caleb very politely removed one of the Sophomore's hands from the inside of his pants.
And Reid…
Reid was sitting on top of the desk, Indian-style, watching the door and obviously waiting for something.
Something that it turned out was my arrival.
Hands folded under his chin, blue eyes glinting as they tracked my movements, I let out a startled yelp as Reid's hand was suddenly on my arm, yanking me close enough to smell the soap he used to shower as well as the faint tang of chlorine.
"Where," he started, his voice low and completely without humor. "Are my boxers?"
"Boxer-briefs," I corrected without thinking before flushing slightly as any possibility of me not being the guilty party seemed to evaporate from his gaze.
"Or so I've heard," I struggled to hastily cover my ass, biting my bottom lip as I blinked my wide blue eyes up at him, projecting confused innocence with every fiber of my being.
"You are evil," Reid finally declared, his gaze narrowing slightly as admiration reluctantly colored his words.
"Thank you?" I hazarded, the confusion becoming the slightest bit real as Reid abruptly released me with a smile.
"You're going to have to do some serious ass-kissing to get out of this one," he stated, sliding off the desk and moving with feline grace into his seat, leaving me standing there as his smile grew to wicked proportions. "And Angel?"
"Huh?" I blinked, turning to find Tyler had turned his shocky gaze away from the front of the room and had managed to focus in on me, eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion as they locked in on mine.
"Angel," Reid murmured, the liquid slide of the word sending shivers down my spine as I turned half my attention back to Reid, the other half still focused on Tyler.
"We're not wearing any underwear."
I think I swooned.
"How the hell did you manage to get this past the Headmaster?" was Alyssa's quiet demand as we toured the backstage area of the Charity Auction.
"We didn't put them out until after he left," was my reply, causing Alyssa to pause and blink.
"How…ingenius."
"I know," I beamed, proud of my powers of planning.
"You know," Alyssa twisted her head slightly to give me an assessing look. "Maybe you just might survive."
"Survive?" I blinked at that, frowning as Alyssa continued walking even as I stopped. "Survive what? Alyssa? Alyssa! What am I supposed to be surviving? Alyssa!"
I was twitchy and on edge thanks to Alyssa's mysterious declaration, so when Reid Garwin plopped his ass down in the seat next to mine, my reaction was totally justified.
I bolted like a startled bunny, only to come up short as I smacked straight into Pogue Parry's more than muscular chest.
"You've been working out again, haven't you?" I murmured into his left pec as I twisted my head slightly to look up at him.
"Sit," was his reply, his lips twisting upwards slightly in a fairly threatening and more than a little amused version of a wolf smile.
"Uh, thanks but no thanks?" I sort of squeaked the last part as I took a healthy step back, twisting slightly to see Reid casually stretching his legs out, blocking my exit in the other direction.
So I tried to go over the seats, only to come up short as Caleb was suddenly there, arms crossed over a t-shirt clad chest and wearing…
"You're not a virgin, are you?" I nearly whimpered out as I raised my gaze from his tightly packaged goodies to find him staring down at me with that amused knowing look a guy gets when he knows you're about five seconds away from jumping him.
"Not hardly," was his dry reply.
"Okay," I nodded, twisting and turning to bolt in the last available direction only to draw up short as mental processes cut me off in mid-step.
Reid to my left, Pogue to my right, Caleb behind me, which left Tyler…
When I say mid-step, I mean literally, mid-step, so I had the realization that Tyler was in front of me about the same time that I flew into him.
I braced myself, half-expecting to send both of us tumbling to the floor, only to find that Tyler had expertly maintained his footing and now had both hands wrapped around my back, holding me to his chest to keep me from tumbling any closer to the ground, supposedly.
But being this close to his chest and his smell and him in general had me biting my lip on a whimper.
"You're not going anywhere." And when he spoke, I shivered, an honest to god body shiver that had my eyes rolling back in my head.
"Promise?" I mumbled into his chest, eliciting a sharp bark of laughter from Pogue who'd moved closer during my little trip to Tyler-land.
I twisted my head slightly and noted, with no small amount of alarm, that they had all moved closer.
"Sit," Reid demanded, patting the seat next to him as he smirked wickedly at me.
"No thanks," I replied faintly. "I'd rather stand."
"All the better to run, my dear? I don't think so. Sit." Tyler's deep rasping chuckle was like superglue and Xanax combined and I had the alarming thought that if he told me to jump off a cliff while holding me this close, I'd probably do it.
So, with all the dignity I could muster, which admittedly wasn't much since I'd left a faint trail of drool on the front of Tyler's shirt, I wrested myself from his grip and settled myself into the seat next to Reid, flushing slightly and shifting when Tyler promptly settled himself on the other side of me.
"So," I tapped my fingers against the tops of my jean-clad thighs as I struggled to fill the slightly-heavy silence. "Bit drafty today, wasn't it?"
Pogue coughed, hunching over, his hands cupped over his face as his shoulders shook and Caleb shot me an amused grin over his best friends back.
"You really have no survival instinct at all, do you?" I blinked at Caleb.
"You can't prove a thing," was my unconvincing defense.
"Please," Reid replied, arms crossed over his chest as he slouched back in his seat and stared up at the front of the stage. "This has your name written all over it."
Actually, it mostly had Rob's name. Or rather, his artistic signature which he had refused to leave off.
Shit.
I slouched lower in my seat as the realization of what was about to happen hit me.
Okay, so the Sons knew I'd stolen their underwear and had probably figured out that I'd taken the other stuff, too, but they had no idea about the 'improvements' that had been made to their underthings…
"Relax," Tyler told me, lips curled up in a cupid-bow barely-there grin as he slung an arm over my shoulder and began curling a strand of my hair around his finger. "We're not going to kill you."
"You say that now…" escaped my mouth before I could stop it and I closed my eyes, letting my head thunk back.
Okay, new rule: when Tyler was touching me, I kept my mouth shut. Period.
"An-gel," Reid sing-songed, his fingers ghosting along my side and prompting me to open my eyes as I slapped them away and glared at him.
"What?" I grumped, shifting my shoulders to shrug out of Tyler's grip, ignoring the widening of his smile as he held up both his hands in surrender, pulling the right one off my shoulders and settling it in his lap.
"What did you do?"
"Me?" I gave him wide blue eyes. "Why, Mr. Garwin, I have no idea what you're talking about."
Reid was quiet for a moment before shrugging his shoulders, the enigmatic grin returning to his lips as the wicked gleam in his eyes grew to alarming proportions.
"Just remember," he murmured quietly to me as the lights dimmed at the Headmaster appeared on stage. "This is all your fault."
No, my mental voice pointed out reasonably enough. It's yours.
Except I couldn't think of a rational reason to justify that response so I kept my silence as the first item was introduced and bidding began.
Vivian had arranged it so the items I'd procured went last, after the Headmaster had done his token duty and disappeared with his wife to the reception room with the rest of the people who had either already spent money or weren't ever going to.
"Reid," a warm lemonade-summer-night voice spoke from behind us, causing me to twist slightly, my breath nearly strangling me as Tyler placed a semi-restraining hand on my thigh.
"Mother," Reid twisted slightly, bestowing a warm smile on the woman behind us as she leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek before her curious glance strayed towards me.
"And who's this?"
"Mother, meet Angel, Angel, meet my mother."
My wooden polite-company smile made an appearance as I shifted again, drawing Tyler's hand dangerously high on my thigh resulting in an awkward movement of half twisting as I extended my hand to shake Mrs. Garwin's.
"Mrs. Garwin," I greeted her, my smile shaking as Tyler's index finger stroked down my inner thigh once. "It's a pleasure."
My smile was shaky and I was just managing to keep my trembling in check as I swallowed nervously and tried to appear like a lady of good upbringing as Mrs. Garwin arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow and gave my hand a quick shake.
"You're the girl who stole my sons underwear."
I choked on my saliva, Tyler's hand forgotten as I jerked my gaze to Reid, absolutely gobsmacked.
"You told your mother?"
"Of course," Reid gave me a faintly amused look. "I tell her everything. Don't you?"
"I don't know your mother," was my dumb reply as the ramifications of everything came smashing down on me.
Oh God.
Rob had drawn anatomically correct models on some of the boxers. As in, both sides. As in…
Oh fucking God.
I whimpered vaguely in the back of my throat.
"Not my mother your mother," Reid replied with a faint note of exasperation.
"My mother's dead," was my automatic reply. Reid shifted in front of me and I drew my attention back to find he had lost some of his cocky edge and was giving an uncomfortable sort of grimace.
"I'm so sorry, dear," was his mothers sympathetic reply. "Was it recent?"
"No," I replied, frowning at her. "It was twelve years ago."
"I see. Cancer?"
"Sky-diving," I replied. "She forgot her parachute."
There was a sort of dumbstruck silence there and I turned to find Pogue mouthing 'forgot her parachute' to Caleb who looked equally incredulous.
"How?" was Tyler's helpful and less than sympathetic contribution to the conversation.
"She was distracted," I defended my mother will all due loyalty. "She said something about wanting to learn how to fly."
"Oh." Mrs. Garwin was staring at me with the faintest look of bewilderment. "That explains a lot."
"Really?" It was my turn to be bewildered. "It does? I mean, everybody keeps telling me that, but nobody will explain what it means."
There was one of those awkward silences then, the kind that happen when everybody's thinking something they knew wouldn't be polite to be said out loud.
So I left them to their moment, swallowing and mentally trying to remember the prayers I'd been taught as a child as Vivian poked her head out from behind the curtains, her gaze scanning the crowds, most of whom where Spencer students, before landing on me.
Come on, she mouthed, motioning me over with a frantic waving of her hand.
I can't, I mouthed back, jerked my thumb over to where Reid was quietly conversing with his mother. Help!
Vivian's eyes widened and her jaw dropped slightly as her gaze took in the other three Sons and she would have stayed that way if it hadn't been for someone jerking her back behind the curtain and I could just vaguely make out her startled yelp.
"Excuse me," I decided to try for polite as I attempted to get to my feet only to have Tyler latch onto my left thigh and Reid my right, effectively putting me in the awkward position of either sitting back down and having their hands in relatively safe places or continuing to stand and having them end up in inappropriate places.
Keep going! Keep going! a gleeful little voice in the back of my head cheered on.
Shut up, I instructed, sinking back down in my seat. Listening to you is what got me into this mess in the first place!
Spoilsport, was its sulking reply.
Suicidal tendency, I shot back, eager to get the last word in.
"You're not going anywhere," Reid stated confidently.
"I have to pee," was my bland reply.
"So take one of us with you." I stared at him, completely aghast.
"I'm not taking you into the bathroom with me." I was horrified my even the suggestion.
"Who said it had to be me?" Reid replied, eyes dancing as he smirked at me. "Take Tyler."
My jaw dropped a little and I turned my head to find Tyler starting to his feet, looking down at me expectantly.
"Caleb!" I practically shouted, lunging for the son who I viewed as the safest option, grabbing his hand and practically yanking him to his feet. "You can come with me. I can pee around you."
"Gee," Caleb was wryly amused as I tugged him forward. "With an opening line like that, how can I refuse?"
I tried to make my escape when the first students approached Caleb to chat, but he wrapped his surprisingly strong grip around my shoulders, holding me close enough to his side to earn me several dirty looks from the female population.
It took about ten minutes before we reached the bathroom and I slipped inside, leaving Caleb to stand guard at the door.
"What the hell is going on?" Vivian hissed, appearing out of the end stall with Alyssa and Danielle trailing behind her, Danielle wearing the most gawdawful wig I had ever seen.
"Quick," Alyssa ordered, grabbing Danielle's coat and tossing it to me. "Get undressed. We're helping you escape."
I felt guilty about abandoning Danielle to Reid's twisted affections, but it only lasted for a few seconds before the desperate need to get out of the building had me practically trotting.
"How the hell did they catch you?" Vivian stated, jogging lightly to keep up with me and Alyssa's frantic pace.
"Lucky guess," I breezed, rounding the corner that lead to the backstage with a relieved sigh before turning to Alyssa.
"It's been fun knowing you. You've been a great friend." And I gave her a hard hug that had her wheezing before turning to face Vivian.
"It was a pleasure doing business with you."
"You're welcome?" Vivian had the dazed look of a newcomer to my crazy world and I gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
"You're not leaving!" Alyssa snapped, causing me to turn back to her with an incredulous expression.
"Did you see me out there? They had me surrounded! Reid's mother was there! Tyler was groping me! And I drooled on him!"
"Really?" Alyssa pulled back in surprise at that. "Seriously?"
"Wow," Vivian breathed, eyes going slightly out of whack before refocusing on me with jealous admiration. "You lucky bitch."
"What? The drooling?" I blinked in confusion.
"The groping!" Vivian exclaimed, shaking her head at my brainlessness.
"Oh, yeah. That." My own eyes glazed over for a moment before reality reasserted itself with the swishing of the curtains.
"I have to go," I stated, drawing away from the two of them only to come up short as Alyssa gave my arm a hard tug.
"You're not leaving town," her tone was firm, demanding, and as much as I wanted to disagree, I had the distinct feeling that if I tried to run, the Sons would become the least of my worries.
"No," I finally stated on a sigh, my shoulders slumping slightly at the implications of my agreement. "I guess I'm not."
Raucous cheering erupted suddenly, grating on my already raw nerves, and I turned my head slightly in reflex, already looking away before recognition hit causing me to do a double take.
"Oh. My. God."
"What?" Both Alyssa and Vivian wore almost identical looks of alarm…sort of. Alyssa's look of alarm was visibly less alarmed than Vivian's, but I recognized it as one of super alarm on her usually expressionless face.
"That's my thong."
"Huh?" I grabbed Vivian's head and forcibly turned it towards the stage, which we could just make out, and the lime green thong that was currently dangling from Reid's fingers.
"And in front of his mother! I'm going to kill him!"
I was moving before either Alyssa or Vivian could really process my thought process, but not fast enough.
"Uh, uh, naughty Angel. No killing for you," Pogue grunted as he lifted me off my feet, throwing me over his shoulder as he marched out on to the stage next to Reid.
"Let go of me you…you…jerk!"
So I was lacking in creative insults. You try to be witty when somebody's shoulder blade is jammed into your solar plexus.
"Nice," was all Pogue said by way of reply before setting me on my feet next to Reid, slinging a solid arm over my shoulders to pin me in place as he grinned and waved at the audience.
"And this, ladies and gentlemen, is our final item up for bid."
I tried to twist in Pogue's grip to get a glimpse of whatever was in Reid's hands only to find his hands...pointed towards me.
"What?" I breathed, eyes widening in horrified realization as I gaped at him.
"One slightly used, flaky red head still in possession of all her original parts – "
"For now," Pogue chirped cheerfully, eliciting another round of laughter from the audience.
"For now," Reid agreed with that wicked grin that I admired for its owners sneakiness and desired desperately to smack off his face.
"Opening bid starts at five dollars."
"I'm going to kill you!" I screeched, shoving Pogue's arm off of me and launching myself at Reid, only to be drawn up short as Pogue caught me mid-leap.
"Ah, ah," he scolded, his hands sliding along my arms as he fought to get a grip around my middle, hauling me tight against his body as I kicked out in nearly blind rage.
"On second thought, lets go for two dollars – she doesn't seem like she'd be much fun now, does she?"
"I'll show you fun," I promised, voice appropriately low and threatening as Reid drifted dangerously close to scratching distance.
"Ah, ah, ah," Reid scolded, drawing the mike away from his mouth as he smirked at me. "Remember Angel, you have some serious ass-kissing to do."
My reply was succinct and to the point, eliciting a startled bark of laughter from Pogue who's grip was iron hard.
"That sounds like fun," he stated on a whisper of laughter. "Maybe I should suggest it to Kate sometime."
"Eat shit and die."
"I'll take that bid!" a familiar voice called from the back, causing me to freeze in Pogue's grip.
"Four dollars!" An equally familiar deep voice yelled in response.
"Oh no." I whispered, eyes wide, face pale as I tried to see past the blinding stage lights.
"Fifteen," a strangers voice drawled from near the front.
"Twenty-seven!" was the sporadic call from the back.
"Oh No."
"Fifty-three!" Caleb's voice cheerfully and erratically raised the price.
"Two hundred!" Pogue called out, nearly deafening me with his booming voice.
"OW!" I twisted to glare at him.
"What the hell?" Reid spoke, drawing my attention back to him as he ran his gaze up and down my body with a lecherous smirk. "Five hundred!"
Oh No. Oh God No.
"Five hundred and one!" Tyler called out, eliciting a relieved sigh that had me relaxing in Pogue's grip.
"Five hundred and seventeen!" Reid answered.
"Five hundred and twenty!"
"Five fifty-five!"
"Five fifty-six!"
Pogue was openly laughing in my ear by now, which was great. I was so glad at least one of us found this whole situation amusing.
I hung limply in his grip and Tyler and Reid cat-called back and forth, the price steadily rising until suddenly someone called out the word 'Sold!' and I was whisked away to the backstage area.
"Huh? What?" I stared blankly at Reid's smirking face before Pogue's delighted chuckle drew my attention towards him.
"Congratulations," Pogue gripped my shoulders in his hands before turning me back towards Reid, who by now had been joined by Tyler, the two one them doing some sort of weird ritualistic handshake before turning as one to grin identical wolf-grins in my direction.
"Who won?" I managed to ask through suddenly numb lips.
"That's the beauty of it," Pogue gave me a none too gentle shove in their direction. "They've agreed to share."
"Oh God."
A/N: Well? What do you think? I actually couldn't stop giggling as I wrote this. I think I even had a few hot flashes…And Chace Crawford does have the sexiest gravely voice I've ever heard. I want to make a recording of it and listen to it every night before I go to bed.