...
They arrive at Pete's house in high spirits, Lizzie beaming throughout the whole car ride.
Don, having been at Pete's house countless times, was used to seeing the gigantic, modern penthouse that belonged to the Maguire family, so he parked on the street without taking a second look at the house.
Lizzie, on the other hand, was not.
"Um, Don, you're sure this is Pete's house, right?" Lizzie's eyes were wide as she looks at the enormous building that was crowded with people.
Don laughs. "Yeah, Lizzie, I'm pretty sure."
He gets out first and holds the car door open for Lizzie to step out. She thanks him graciously with a brief smile.
"Haven't you seen the main building his dad owns downtown?" Don asks, walking with Lizzie past the fountain and into the house. "His dad even built this place. Maguire Construction? Does it ring a bell?"
She shakes her head. "I don't go downtown much."
"Oh. Well, in summary, Pete and his family are pretty freaking rich."
"I can tell."
They walk further into the house, past the main doors where groups of people are chatting animatedly and as they pass further through the house, the louder the music becomes and the more people there are.
Lizzie sticks close to Don's side, being careful not to bump into anyone. A few people are checking her out, noticing her makeover, and Don can't help but feel proud for Lizzie and himself.
It was him who sort of encouraged this makeover, and with this new look, maybe she'll open up more and even win prom queen!
But this isn't all about that, Don thinks. You know Lizzie's more than that to you.
They are about to walk past the giant staircase until someone yells their names.
"Hey, guys!" a loud voice behind them yells over the music being blasted at top volume by the DJ. It's Pete.
"Hey, Pete. How's it going?" Don grins as Pete slaps him on the back. Lizzie pointedly looks away, clearly feeling awkward.
Noticing this, Pete continues enthusiastically, trying make more conversation. "So, welcome to my house! Glad to see that you two could make it!" Pete winks at Don knowingly, and Don quickly looks away, hoping that Lizzie didn't notice. "Man, I love having these parties, they're the best, except when my parents get back and wonder how the hell this mess came to be."
Lizzie carefully looks around. "Um, who are these people?"
Pete glances around him for a second, then looks back at Don and Lizzie, grinning proudly. "I have no idea!"
Behind them something falls over and crashes, and Pete looks behind him. "Damn. Pretty sure that was my mom's favorite vase. I gotta go, have fun tonight, you two!"
He races away, supposedly in the direction of the broken vase, and Don chuckles.
"Classic Pete. Hey, you want anything to drink? Non-alcoholic, of course."
Lizzie smiles, still skeptically glancing around. "Just water would be nice, thanks."
At that moment, Samar appears in front of them.
"Lizzie, I told you you'd look great! Keep the dress though, you look amazing in it." she beams, looking at Lizzie's outfit with pride. "Plus I don't really like dresses all that much."
"Yeah, thanks for doing this." Lizzie says, sounding a little bit more relaxed now that she finds someone else there that she is comfortable with.
"Hey, mind if I steal her for a second?" Samar asks Don. "There's this really cute guy that just moved here, I think he's Sarah's neighbor or something, Lizzie you should meet him."
Lizzie looks at Don, as if for approval, and Don nods. "Of course not."
"Thanks." Samar flashes a quick smile, then grabs Lizzie by the arm, dragging her into the throng of people.
Don stares after her for a bit feeling alone, half-wishing that she would come back and join him even though he's familiar with the crowd, then goes to the kitchen where various people are going through Pete's food cabinets and pours Lizzie a glass of water.
When he gets back to the same spot with her water, she's still not there, so he sets it down on a table nearby and waits. And to his dismay, Tom Keen appears seemingly out of nowhere and puts his hand on Don's shoulder.
"So, pal," Tom sneers, and Don does his best to stare straight ahead and ignore him. "You came with Lizzie Scott, did I hear right?"
Don doesn't respond.
"I'll take that as a 'no', then. But you two did arrive in the same car, so that means that you did come with her. Then that would be a 'yes', correct?"
Don bites down hard on his tongue. Tom was getting on his last nerve, and Tom knew it. "That would be none of your business."
Tom chuckles. "Too late, my friend. Everyone at this party knows now; seems that the makeover she got opened up the eyes of everybody here, I tell you that girl's not going to be single anymore for long."
Don's head whips around to face Tom, who steps back in mock surprise. "Oh, I'm sorry, were you two dating? It sure doesn't look like it. Oh, wait, that's right, she's nothing to you, she's just your bet for one-hundred dollars. If you were really that interested in the money, you should have accepted my offer for-"
That's it.
"I am so close to punching you in the face right now, Keen." Don snaps, his eyes glaring into Tom's cold ones.
"Go ahead, Ressler. Punch me." Tom hisses, standing up close to his face as a small crowd begins to form. "You've always wanted to, especially after I took Gina Zanetakos on a date before you could sophomore year-"
Don is just about to throw his first punch into Tom's face until he notices Lizzie walking from the other side of the room in his direction, and he quickly tries to calm down.
"Go away, Keen." he says, his eyes steely and boring into Tom's.
Tom smirks and puts his arms up in the air, walking away. "I get it, you want alone time with your bet- excuse me, your girlfriend. I'll leave you two to it, then."
He leaves just in time as Lizzie finally gets to him after shoving through the crowd.
"Sorry I took so long." she says breathlessly, reaching for the glass of water and downing it in one gulp. "I just helped some girl clean up her puke. It was disgusting. I didn't even know her."
"What happened to that guy you and Samar were talking to?"
"Oh, she still is talking to him, I just found him kind of boring so I left for the washroom and that's where I found the puking girl. That boy was pretty drunk, though, because he was asking all these strange questions, like what color my-"
"Where is he?" Don demands to know, looking around the room.
If anyone dares do anything to Lizzie he swears he will find them and make sure they-
"Don, it's fine." Lizzie intercepts quickly, placing a hand on his chest to stop him. "I never let him finish, or do anything else. Hopefully Samar's still not with him now."
She glances around the room for Samar, and at that exact moment, Audrey Bidwell and Michael Williams enter the room.
Don notices this immediately, and quickly grabs Lizzie's hand and takes her up the stairs.
"Um, Don, where are we going?" Lizzie asks puzzledly, looking behind her.
"Sorry, I need to go somewhere quieter, I feel kind of queasy." Don lies, dragging her into a spare room, where they find a couple making out, and he quickly brings her over to another room.
"Uh, do you want food? I can go get you some food." Lizzie offers as Don shuts the door behind them, looking at him with a concerned expression.
"No, no, no. I'm fine, just sort of claustrophobic." Don says easily, because that wasn't a complete lie.
He can't let Lizzie meet Audrey, or things will go wayward very fast and this bet (and his growing relationship with Lizzie) will be destroyed.
"Oh, okay." Lizzie sits down on the queen-sized bed that is positioned in the middle of the room.
"Actually wait a sec, I'm going to go grab a bite to eat, stay here, I don't want to lose you again." Don says, swiftly shutting the door behind him without giving Lizzie a chance to answer. He needs to make sure that Audrey and her stupid idiot boyfriend stay out of this.
He runs down the stairs, and when he reaches the main floor, he bumps directly into Audrey Bidwell.
Oh no.
"Donnie, hey," Audrey says all too brightly, one hand perched on her hip, the other holding a designer handbag, and her light brown hair is up in a high ponytail. She is dressed glamorously in a sparkly (and very short) blue dress. "I didn't know you were here. Michael and I just got here."
"Oh, that's nice." he avoids her gaze, trying not to remember the time she dumped him, in which she used the exact same greeting to get his attention.
"Yeah. Did you see him play last night?"
"No, I didn't." He has made a point to not see Michael nor Audrey and he's sticking with it.
"Oh, that's a shame. I can get him so you guys can talk about it if you want." Audrey was doing that thing she always did with him when they were dating when he knew she was up to something, that stupid lip bite.
"No, no, I'm good." Don tries to make his answer clear by giving her a curt smile.
"Well, let's go find him anyways." Audrey sharply grabs Don's arm and brings him outside, where the pool is.
And there's Michael, dancing like a moron, not even on time with the music, by the crowded swimming pool where a couple of girls are standing by, unimpressed.
"Mikey-Mike!" Audrey screeches, and Don even has to covers his ears. "Come here and meet Donnie."
Donnie. He hates it when she calls him that.
Michael slickly slides over. "Alright, coming, babe."
"Hey hey hey, if it isn't Don the Pawn." Michael says with a slimy grin.
Don blinks. What did he just call me?
"Just kidding, Audrey calls you that all the time." Michael stands next to Don, clearly trying to prove the four inches he has on him. "Just kidding. So Audrey tells me you want to chat about the game yesterday, huh?"
"Uh, not-"
"Great! It is just so awesome that you like sports too, eh? Like, you're awesome at football, but you're not so good at basketball though, hm?"
Don sighs. He'd really like to go back to Lizzie now. This guy is a complete fool.
Michael continues for five minutes, Audrey smirking (She's enjoying this. What a horrible person.) as she sits by the side of the pool.
"I got to use the washroom, man. I've had too much fruit punch." Michael slaps Don on the back so hard it actually hurts, then runs back inside.
Audrey gets up, and to Don's complete surprise, puts her arms around him.
He doesn't even shrug them off.
"So, Donnie." she says, smiling sweetly. "Michael may not be able to make it to prom night cause he has this family reunion thing in like Vermont or somewhere, so I was wondering if maybe you and I could go together instead, like we had planned. . .?"
You're over her, you're over her, that what this whole bet thing is supposed to be about, Don continuously reminds himself, even though that smile, no matter how fake it is, is his weakness.
But he doesn't say no.
Suddenly, he hears a familiar voice calling his name.
Lizzie.
Shoot.
"Don?" she calls out, finally reaching where he stands. With Audrey's arms around him.
This is going to be bad.
Lizzie's smile falters as she notices the unfamiliar girl clinging to him. Don finally pushes her off, noticing Lizzie's expression of fear and hurt.
Audrey turns around, finally noticing Lizzie standing behind them, and her gaze turns to steel.
"Oh, hi there, sweetheart." Audrey says, her tone of voice sounding anything but sweet. "Heard you came with Donnie tonight."
Lizzie swallows, and her gaze flickers to Don, who steps forward. A crowd is forming around them.
"That's a surprise though, because like why are you even here?" Audrey snarls, now standing face to face with Lizzie although she is significantly taller than her.
"I-I was invited."
"You were?" Audrey lets out a fake gasp. "I could have sworn that you've delivered Chinese take-out to us before, does the name Bidwell Residence ring a bell?"
Lizzie shakes her head, clearly intimated. "I, um, I wouldn't remember."
Audrey laughs haughtily, and Don tries to step in but it's too late; Audrey has reached for a glass of fruit punch, and spills it right onto the front of Lizzie's dress. "Oops!"
The music stops immediately and the whole backyard is quiet. Everyone is staring.
"That's a shame." Audrey says, pretending to be apologetic but her intentions are very much the opposite. "It is a really nice dress."
Don feels so badly for Lizzie, he needs to help her now, but he sees Lizzie shaking her head.
"Yeah." she says, looking up at Audrey with not fear this time, but hurt. "It was. Thanks for that."
Audrey is undeterred, because she continues. "Honey, listen. Just because you got a makeover and took off your glasses and dressed up nicer not automatically make you one of us. You're nothing but a loser. Nothing's gonna change that. You don't belong here and you never will."
The whole yard is so silent you could hear a pin drop. At that moment Don really does regret bringing her here, she's so hurt she's going to hate him forever.
"Yeah, the truth does hurt." Audrey says coldly. "So go home and cry alone, Lizzie. Nobody should see you cry. That would be too embarrassing."
Lizzie stands there for a second more, then she sprints back into the house, not even looking back.
Don follows her without a second thought, glaring at Audrey, who just stands there with a satisfied expression on her face.
He runs past everybody who is staring at him. They probably all heard it too.
When Don finally catches up to Lizzie, she's breathless and sits down on the curb, sobbing.
He sits down next to her and attempts to put his arm around her, but she brushes him off.
They sit there in silence as the tears subside.
"You know," she says finally, avoiding his gaze. "after all the rumors they make up about me, all the things they say at school, after all the countless times I've been picked on, I've never cried in front of them. Never."
Don sighs. "I'm sorry, Lizzie." He means it.
Lizzie shakes her head. "It's not your fault."
"Well, you did have a bit of fun today, right? At the beach?" Don tries to lighten her up.
She nods ever so slightly, even smiling a bit.
"Those people can be so stupid, you shouldn't listen to them."
"I know, but sometimes it just gets to a point that you can't take it so you break down in front of all of them and it's just really bad." Lizzie sighs quietly, and Don pats her back comfortingly.
This time, she lets him.
"Please. I want to go home, Don."
"Okay. Let's go home."
They get into his car and they drive off in silence.
Now Don finally accepts it.
He cares for Lizzie Scott, and he's not afraid to admit it.
...
A/N: I know this chapter was pretty long and I kind of made Audrey and Tom the bad guys, but I hope you liked it! Please tell me what you think in the reviews of this chapter because I wasn't too sure of how good this one was. Until the next update :)