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Chapter 53: A Party for Gabrielle...Or for Ellie?

Elena, Angela and Tommy sat on the steps outside of school waiting for Brad as he and Gabrielle kissed and cooed and were generally disgusting.

"Please tell me we don't look like that," Angela groaned.

"Please tell me I didn't look like that," Elena said.

"He's suck a fucking hypocrite," Tommy muttered, shaking his head. The girls turned their heads and looked at him. "Did I say that out loud?"

"What did he do?" Angela said.

"I'm not supposed to tell you two," Tommy shook his head.

"But I'm your girlfriend," Angela protested.

"And I'm," Elena started, "Well, I'm me! You tell us everything!"

"Not this," Tommy glared at them both, "I'm serious, both of you, drop it, it's really not even any of my business."

"Did they finally do it?" Elena said, her morbid curiosity peaking. Even saying it caused that knot in her stomach to tightened, but she had to know.

"What finally?" Angela argued, "They've only been together a few months."

"Says the girl who took off her panties and tried to lose it on a golf course," Elena snorted.

"OK," Tommy said, "If I tell you will you stop playing bitchy and bitchier?" They nodded. "He slept with Kyla over break."

"Who's Kyla?" Angela frowned.

"His Skankarella Stamford townie ex," Elena said.

"Whoa," Tommy looked at her, "You're particularly bitchy today." Elena snorted.

"Whatever," She said, "He had sex with her?"

"Yup," Tommy said, "But you don't know, he swore me to secrecy."

"It's in the vault," Angela nodded, her eyes drifting across the field to where Nick was standing with his ever growing group of underclassmen cronies. She knew all too well how easy it was to stray, not that she'd had sex with Nick, but considering her level of experience when she met him, what had gone on between them had been very significant.

"Ha," Ellie let out a burst of laughter. "Last time he calls me a slut."

"Lena!" Tommy said stern tone, "You don't know this. Do you understand that?"

"Yeah, yeah," She mumbled.

"Hey," Portman walked over.

"Hey baby!" She said and kissed him. "I missed you so much!"

"I saw you about four hours ago," He laughed. She nodded. "But I missed you too."

"Hey," Jimmy said, "Elle, can I talk to you?"

"Um," Elena said, "Not right now, later?" Jimmy had been leaving her messages asking if they could talk all week. She had a feeling she knew why.

"Ellie," He said, "It's really important that I talk to you." She looked at him venomously. "Fine, whatever, I have to go find Julie." He walked away.

"What's that about?" Dean frowned.

"Who knows," Elena said, with a much too casual shrug. "Walk me to class?"

"Sure," He nodded and they ran off. Angela and Tommy sat for a minute.

"What's with Jimmy?" Angela asked.

"I don't know," Tommy said, "He's been really odd about Elena lately. I thought might be Evelyn drama, I don't know."

"It might have something to do with when she was sick," She said. Tommy looked at her. "It was weird, Tommy, when I went over there, it's like one minute she was completely out of it and the next she was perky bubbly Lena."

"You said she took a shower," Tommy shrugged. Angela nodded. "You're probably reading too much into it."

"Angela," Nick said walking in past them.

"Scum bag," Tommy hissed. Nick snorted and walked inside. Angela glared at Tommy. "What?"

"You promised," She said.

"I promised I wouldn't hit the a-hole," He reminded her. "Taunts are not off limits." They kissed.


"Jimmy," Julie smiled as he walked over and kissed her, "Listen, I was thinking,"

"Hi Julie," He smiled, "How was break? I missed you so much." He kissed her again.

"Jimmy," She whispered, "I wanted to talk to you."

"OK," He said, "What's up?"

"What's happening this weekend?" She asked.

"Nothing," He shrugged, "Why?"

"So, the junior prom is on Saturday, and I thought it would be nice to throw Gabrielle like a party or something," She shrugged. He raised his eyebrows.

"How much did Brad pay you to ask me that?" He asked. She sighed. "I can't just willy nilly throw parties anymore, Jules, my dad and Ana are like around and stuff, not to mention Eva puts like everything in her mouth."

"You had that one at the beginning of this year where Rick and Cassie took your dad and Ana out," She said. "Please, it would mean so much to Brad."

"What is with you two?" He asked, she rolled her eyes, "You spend so much time with him."

"We're friends," Julie said, "Same as I am with Charlie, or Portman or Luis or Guy."

"They're your teammates," Jimmy sighed, "It's different."

"Jimmy," She said, "I don't see Brad that way. After all he's my little brother." Jimmy laughed. "So?"

"Fine," He said, "A party it is." She squeaked and kissed him. "You are lucky I love you so much."


That Friday everyone was sitting around lamely in the Riley's basement. They hadn't managed to get Ana and Tom out of the house, but they had managed to strangle up a few bottles of liquor and a few cases of beer. Elena had popped about seven pills over the course of the day with the stress of being around Gabrielle and keeping a smile on her face getting to her. She and Dean had settled on a chair and had been drinking a few of the beers. Somewhere along the line something in her snapped.

"I'm going to say something," She stood up.

"What?" Dean said, following her. "Lena, what are you doing?"

"Well, isn't this a nice little party?" Elena laughed. Everyone stopped and looked at her.

"Lena," Dean said, "You're drunk." She laughed and kissed him.

"I'm fine baby," She said. She looked around the room and saw Gabrielle, and then looked at Jimmy. "James, it was so sweet of you to throw little Gabrielle here a party. She should get to know everyone. I mean, it's hard to really know anyone, because everyone here lies."

"Elena," Tommy said, "Come on, don't do this."

"Let's start with our perfect couples. Julie and Jimmy, are just oh so perfect for each other. They're madly in love, they're going off to California together, but I bet Jimmy didn't tell her that this time last year, he was lying in bed with me, telling me that she'd never made him feel as good as I did."

"Ellie," Jimmy said.

"Which means you lied to one of us, doesn't really matter which one," She said, "And Tammy and Fulton, Tammy keeps secrets, like what her art is really about," Tammy looked down. "But we all know who I found out that little piece of information from, right Tommy?" She walked over and squared off with him, "You and Angie, with your whole 'functional relationship' except wasn't she rufied the first time you two had sex? She was definitely still high."

"This is attractive Elena," Brad said. She laughed and turned and looked at him, "Really, keep going."

"Oh, Bradley," She smiled and walked over to him, "You're the best one. Where do you want to start?" He frowned. "You could start with how you used to try to get me to break up with my boyfriend, back when we were freshmen and you were obsessed with me. Or when I did, and then I threw myself at you and you," She laughed, "Well, I wouldn't have believed it was your first time if I didn't know better. And then when you kissed your exgirlfriend right in front me, or when you made out with Julie, those were both winners."

"Lena, stop it," Dean pulled her away, she shook him off.

"I'm not done," She said fiercely. "Gabrielle deserves to know this stuff, because the next is when he ran off to Rhode Island and made her fall in love with him, and then came back here and jumped to defend my honor when Nick was at school," Brad looked at her wide eyed, this was bad, "Or was it Julie's? Either way, his heart wasn't in New York. But then you two got together, you're so sweet and pure and wonderful. But Bradley got tired of waiting." Brad looked down, "And since he knows I wouldn't I cheat on my boyfriend, and for some reason he thinks little miss goalie is out of his league, well, that just left Kyla, didn't it Brad?"

"You're a bitch," Brad said.

"At least I'm honest about it," She said.

"Alright you need air." Dean picked her up and walked her outside. "What has gotten into you?"

"Nothing," She said. "Except it took my boyfriend weeks to notice things weren't right with me."

"I've been asking you what's wrong for a month," He said firmly, "Don't put this on me! What were you thinking down there?"

"Gabrielle deserves to know what he's like, what he did to her," She said. "Why aren't you more concerned about the fact that when you leave I'll be here with a cheating guy who used to be in love with me?"

"Stop turning this around on me Elena!" He said. "So yeah, Brad did a shitty thing to his girlfriend, it's got nothing to do with you. Your ex boyfriend is a douche, you win, OK?" She crossed her arms. "As for you being around him next year while I'm at school, I trust you Lena, or I did." She looked at him. "So what's going on with you? Because it's one thing for you to get all wound up about Brad, but to talk to Tommy the way you just did is amazingly unlike you!"

"Ellie," Jimmy ran up. She laughed and rolled her eyes. "Where are they?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Jimmy," She started to walk away.

"Ellie," He grabbed her arm, "Where are the pills?" She sighed. "I swear to God, Elena, I will tell your mother that you're messing with that shit if you don't hand them over right now." She pulled away and dug into her purse and handed him the bottle. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He said. "You know what this shit does Elle!" He shouted.

"Don't yell at me!" She said, "Besides you were in there chugging down booze, your dad was drunk from when you twelve until you were sixteen. Doesn't stop you."

"It's different and you know it," He said.

"I'm going home," She said. She marched back over to her car. Dean looked at Jimmy and they both walked into the house. Jimmy walked to the bathroom and flushed the pills.

"I've never seen you like that," Dean said. Jimmy shook his head.

"I can't believe she'd start using," He said, "After all those years with her mom. How did you not notice something was wrong?"

"I did notice," Dean said, "But you know what it's like with her, it's like pulling teeth to getting her to talk, at least when she doesn't want it."

"Hey," Tommy walked upstairs. "Is she alright?"

"She left," Jimmy said, "She was taking these." He dropped the bottle.

"I guess that explains it," Tommy said. "So what do we do?"

"I think someone should probably call Biff," Jimmy said softly. "She'll listen to him."

"I vote the guy who never had sex with her," Portman said. Jimmy nodded and they looked at Tommy.

"God," Tommy said, "You two are a couple of fucking cowards." He walked over to the phone and grabbed Cassie's address book and looked up the number.


"Is that true?" Gabrielle asked sitting quietly on the couch. Brad looked at her. "Everything Elena said?"

"Yeah," he whispered. "Yeah it was." Her eyes started watering. "Gabrielle, I swear I love you I just,"

"You said you didn't mind waiting for me," She whispered. "You said that you wanted it to be special and that it was different, it was more than just sex because we were in love."

"It will be," He said, "Gabrielle, I do love you, it just happened." She nodded.

"It can happen as many times as you want it to now," She whispered and stood up, "Because I'm going home." She marched up the stairs and outside, pulling out her cell phone to call a cab.


I know, so dramatic, right? Review Please!