Breaking the Broken

Five

An Unholy Alliance

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So call off the quarantine,

You can't save the rest from me.

Clean this with kerosene,

If you can't leave it be, might as well make it bleed.

Dashboard Confessional

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Whoever thought up the idea of "roommates" obviously never lived in a dorm. That was the major thought running through Jason's head as he unpacked his stuff. But seriously, who thought that the concept of taking strangers and sticking them together in small living quarters was a good one? Hanging up a button-down shirt in the too-small closet, he cast a forlorn gaze at the two single beds in the dingy room and tried to tune out the sound of his roommate. Patrick Bale. Of all the guys in the world, he had to be stuck with the one who was probably the biggest loser.

Since arriving, Patrick had kept up a steady stream of babbling. Actually, it was more of an interrupted stream, consisting of talk-hacking cough-talk. Jason had been ignoring most of it, and setting himself up for what promised to be another interesting year at Prestridge. After all, how could it be dull when there was Cassidy Merteuil on the scene?

The mere mention of her name caused Jason Argyle to break out into a fond smile. That cruel, calculating, gorgeous bitch. To a degree, he had been in love with her ever since he laid eyes on her at Freshman Orientation. They quickly became friends. Kind of. Sort of. It was more a relationship of understanding than one of friendship and feeling. He was the only person that knew the real Cassidy.

Or so he thought.

Everyone knew of the Merteuils. They were, after all, one of the most influential families in the world. They were particularly famous for their women. They made for the perfect trophy wives. They were always beautiful, confident, intelligent and innocent. Unless the murmurings were true…

So when Jason Argyle came face to face with Cassidy Merteuil, he was in for quite a surprise. The true her was far from the docile, obedient, well-mannered image she put forth. Admitted, he only saw this side of her after catching her in the act.

OCCUPIED! The sign's brilliant green letters shown against the darkness of the deserted hallway. He had been quietly creeping his way back to his dorm room after some late-night escapades with a few drunk co-eds. He licked his lips at the memory. But suddenly, Jason found himself standing outside the dark room, wondering why somebody would be developing their photos at three in the morning. Flinging the door open, he was created with a loud clamoring noise and a shrill scream.

"Asshole! What the fuck are you doing!"

Jason looked up in surprise at the vaguely familiar voice and saw a head of glossy brown curls and blazing brown eyes. In those eyes, he saw not only anger, but a trace of fear. Sure, he knew of Cassidy. Every guy on campus had. But he had always heard that she was so nice, so sweet, so… not cursing people off for opening doors.

You can't always believe what you read.

Turning his attention downward, he stopping staring in awe at the brunette in front of him and looked at exactly what she had dropped. Scattered across the hardwood floor were pictures. Not that that was surprising in the least, seeing as it was the university dark room. But the subject matter was enough to raise even Jason's eyebrows.

"Is this Professor Armstrong?" he asked, disbelieving.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, and he admired the defiant tilt of her chin. "Yes."

"And that's Violet Taylor?" he asked slowly, still unable to quite grasp the situation.

"Yes," she snapped impatiently.

"And she's giving him—"

"Yes," Cassidy said, with a cruel and satisfied smirk twisting her pink lips.

"This is wrong on so many levels…"

"I know. You know. And I'm betting that Professor Armstrong knows that too."

"So what is this, like blackmail?"

"Ooh, somebody catches on quickly," she mocked, bending over to pick up the pictures and strategically giving him a good look at her ass. Seeing that he was distracted, she took the opportunity to grab the photograph out of his hand.

"Now look Jason. You aren't going to tell anybody what you saw here," she started slowly, as if speaking to a daft person.

"No? And why not?" he countered with a smirk, leaning against the doorframe.

"There are a whole lot of reasons why not. The top two would be that you have no proof and nobody would believe you. I'm the goddess that you all worship here at Prestridge. You're currently the man whore, right? Yeah, you look really credible next to me. Can't wait for a 'your word against mine' match up."

"Touché."

"Merci," she drawled, a slight smile curving her lips now. She extends her hand, which he kissed. "See ya 'round, Jason," she giggled, walking past him, a renewed bounce in her step and photos clutched tightly in hand. Yet as she walked past, he heard her mumble something under her breath. Words that would stay with him, occupying his thoughts that night. Words that he just heard, almost lost among sounds of the night, and cut off abruptly with the swinging closed of the heavy door, leaving him in absolute darkness.

"And they said Valmont lead with his zipper…"

Valmont… Valmont… the name had sounded so familiar, and he had no idea why. So the next night, after another interesting run-in with Cassidy, he had gone to an Internet search engine and typed in the name, not fully aware of how creepy that was.

He had gotten more results than he could have ever dreamed. Everything from Fortune 500 company owners to homemakers to lawyers and judges, it seemed that there was a Valmont in every field, with only one thing in common. They were the best at what they did. There were also interesting patterns in the family. The men all lacked fidelity, and the women all looked the other way. More interesting, in Jason's opinion, was when teenage girls' weblog entries starting popping up. He had thought that the older Valmont men had gotten around, but apparently Sebastian had a track record to be reckoned with.

Looking for more information on this mysterious Sebastian, he discovered an article containing a picture. A young blonde man with an almost too pretty face and deep blue eyes stared back at him. On his arm was a petite brunette with electrifying green eyes and flawless porcelain skin. They were wearing matching smiles and had equally intense gazes. He was instantly enamored with the girl. Jason froze in shock when he read the caption.

Stepsiblings Sebastian Valmont and Kathryn Merteuil

celebrate at the 70th birthday of

Isabelle Merteuil.

Merteuil?

This was when Jason first began to realize that everything in high society was a web. A large, tangled, nasty, complicated web that once you were in, there was no escaping. However, he got his most intriguing glimpse into the life of Sebastian Valmont when he saw an entry for eBay on the search engine.

"'Cruel Intentions', the Journal of Sebastian Valmont'," he had murmured aloud. Clicking impulsively on the link, he found that the Don Juan had tragically died in a car accident under some very intriguing circumstances. After receiving news of his death, his girlfriend at the time had run off and published his infamous journal. Reading on in the summary, the writer had snidely hinted that his words were responsible for the ruination of the Merteuil reputation in New York. Now he had to read it.

When he read the summary, he had thought that Cassidy had probably seduced and humiliated Valmont as revenge on behalf of her cousin Kathryn. However, he noted with wide-eyed fascination that that was definitely not the case. He had never been so envious of a dead man.

Cassidy had started talking to him more after the Dark Room Incident. Slowly, they had become friends, forming a deep bond of mutual respect and distrust. At first he hadn't understood this development at all, but after reading 'Cruel Intentions', his perspective changed. He had thought Cassidy to be a master manipulator, but saw that she was a cheap imitation of Kathryn. He had thought himself quite the ladies man, but saw that he was nothing in comparison to Sebastian. But he saw through the words of Valmont himself that even deceitful and cold people like themselves need someone to be real with. He was that for Cassidy, as Sebastian was for Kathryn. However, he was deeply disturbed by one thing. Through Valmont's writings, he could tell that it went without saying that Sebastian was in love with Kathryn. Yet through the journal, Jason found himself completely engrossed in Sebastian's life, feeling the same things as the deceased writer. He wondered if that inadvertently made him in love with Kathryn.

Suddenly, he heard his friend's name, and thought he must've imagined it. But then he saw Patrick Bale giving him a triumphant look, and knew that it wasn't only in his mind.

"So, are you in or are you out?" his nerdy roommate had asked, and Jason's mind flew inadvertently to Kathryn Merteuil demanding the same of her stepbrother.

"Have you read 'Cruel Intentions'?" Jason asked, going on a hunch. Instead of the confused look he had half-expected to be greeted with, Patrick let out a smooth smile.

"It's my Bible."

The new roommates exchanged a glance that said that there was clearly a lot they didn't know about each other.

"So? The bet?"

"What bet?"

"It's sort of a square bet. It really works out for everybody. I get Cassidy, you get to see her taken down a peg or two, she gets a reality check, and nobody loses any money in the process…" Patrick begun.

Grinning, Jason realized that he and his new roommate had a lot more in common than he first thought. And that they could have a hell of a lot of fun this year…

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Humm... what do you guys think? I don't know, that might've turned out really sucky, but I tried. It was some necessary back story, I thought. I don't know, I'm currently trying to kick an evil writer's block, and writing and reviews always help that lol. So… thanks for reading, and please let me know what you thought.

Xo Sam