** I don't own the right to The Covenant, only to my own characters**
Pulling up in front of the crowded bar, we could quickly see that Nicky's was the place to be on a friday night. Students from Spencer were there to let loose from the up-tight attitude expected at school. Finding a parking spot in the crowded parking lot proved to be a difficult task for Tyler, so he just let us out in front of the bar's entrance.
As Tana and I got out of the Hummer, Tyler rolled down the driver side window and said to Tana, "Hey, if you can get a table, save me a spot." Tana got that dreamy look in her eye and just nodded her head at the shy, baby faced guy.
"Come on Juliet. Romeo will come find us.," I said as I tugged Tana in the direction of the bar's entrance.
The dim lighting and crowded space of the small building proved further as we entered the small bar that Nicky's was indeed the it place to be at.
Yelling over the music and voices, Tana leant into me and said, "As if we're going to be able to find a table in this place! Its packed!"
Nodding my head, I said, "Yeah, I don't think we're going to have much luck. Do you want a drink?"
Yelling in my ear, Tana said, "Yeah, let's head over to the bar."
Leaning on the bar, we got the attention of a big, bald bartender and ordered our drinks.
"What can I get for you ladies?," asked the hulk-like bartender.
"I'll have an Alabama Slammer and a Kamikaze, please." I said to the bartender. As I flashed him my fake id.
Giving me a look, Tana said, "And I'll have an Adios Mother Fucker, please."
"Alright, coming right up.," said the bartender.
"If you get trashed tonight, I'm not taking care of your ass.," said Tana as she leant into the bar and faced my direction.
Rolling my eyes, I said, "Relax. I do have to sneak back into Shirley's later tonight, so do you really think that I'm going to get completely trashed? On second thought, don't answer that."
Getting a knowing and playful smirk on her face, Tana said, "Oh, I can't wait for the moment tonight when we have to drag your ass up to the front door, and Shirley has to come downstairs in her robe and curlers in her hair."
Laughing, I nodded and said, "Yeah that would be quite the sight to see. Although, I don't fancy being severely intoxicated and having Shirley yelling in my ear as she puts me to bed."
"Just promise me that you'll take it easy on the drinks tonight.," said Tana as she looked at me with pleading eyes.
"Fine.," I said reluctantly just as the bartender set our drinks in front of us.
Quickly taking the Kamikaze shot in my hand, I said, "Here's to a good night." Throwing back the shot and slamming it down on the bar, I enjoyed the burning feeling and warmth that the alcohol brought to my system.
"Alright, let's go try to find somewhere to hang out.," I said as I picked up my drink and began making my way through the bar's thick crowd.
Putting her hand on my shoulder to stop me in my tracks as we were making our way through the bar, Tana motioned over to where the pool tables were situated.
"Reid and Tyler are over there. Let's go join them.," said Tana as she already started in their direction.
Man she's got it bad., I thought as I reluctantly followed after my lovestruck friend.
Seeing us approaching the pool table, Tyler handed Reid his cue and went over to greet Tana.
"Hey. Where did you girls go off to?," asked Tyler with those cute innocent eyes as he looked directly at Tana. You would swear that he knew no one else existed by the way that he looked at her. I was suddenly reminded of that ridiculously and did I mention, romantically gross idea of imprinting from the Twilight Saga. I couldn't help myself from rolling my eyes at the idea of Tyler and Tana being exactly like the shape-shifing Quileutes from Twilight.
Blushing and motioning toward the bar, Tana said, "We went over to grab drinks."
Rubbing the back of his neck nervously, Tyler said, "Oh. Yeah."
Quickly recovering, Tyler said, "Hey, do you guys want to watch us shoot some pool?"
Biting her lip and nodding her head, Tana pretty much sealed our fate. I just rolled my eyes and went to stand beside the pool table as I took generous sips from my drink.
"Come to watch me win, Queenie?," asked a cocky Reid as he leant against his cue.
Rolling my eyes at him, I said, "Trust me, I'm not here to watch you. I'm only here because my best friend is tragically in love with your best friend."
Raising her eyebrows, Reid said, "Oh, really? That's the only reason your over here?"
As if trying to test me, Reid was giving me one of those looks that just screamed that I was full of shit.
"Yeah really. If it were up to me, I'd be as far away from you as humanly possible.," I said before taking another generous pull from my drink.
"You know, if you keep taking pulls from you're drink like that, I can almost guarantee you that I'll be carrying you out of Nicky's tonight.," said Reid giving me a carefully masked face that showed absolutely no emotion.
Just to spite him, I took another generous pull from my drink and said, "Well lucky for you then."
Turning his head away from me, Reid looked at Aaron Abbot, who was cockily making his way over to our pool table.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Garwin, Simms, Princess, and her troll haired friend.," said Aaron as he laughed and smirked at his goons.
If it was one person that I disliked more than Reid Garwin, it would definitely have to be Aaron. I narrowed my eyes at the cocky guy. No one gets away unscathed after calling me a troll. Mark my words, by the end of the night, this guy was going to be leaving the bar with his tail in between his legs if its the last thing that I accomplish tonight.
"Hey Abbott, how about you nut up and play some pool with us, or get lost.," said Reid who was clearly annoyed by the cocky curly haired guy.
Getting into Reid's face, Aaron said, "Fine, but be ready to put your money where your mouth is tonight." Smirking at Reid, Aaron and one of his friends each grabbed a cue and made their way over to the opposite side of the pool table. Setting up the balls in the triangle, Reid smirked and said to Aaron, "Bitches get to break first."
Clearly already getting pissed off, Aaron just picked up his cue and lined it up with the cue ball, ready to break. Getting a clean break, I watched as the balls spread out across the pool table and listened to some familiar thunks as some of them were sunk into the pockets. Looking please with himself, Aaron said, "Well, looks like I'm going to be making some good money off of a pussy like you tonight."
As if unperturbed by Aaron's statement, Reid stoically stood off to one side of the pool table. Raising an eyebrow at the competitive guys, I said, "I think I need another drink." Pushing myself away from the pool table and turning to walk past Aaron and his friends in the direction of the bar, I was quickly stopped by Aaron reaching out and placing his arm around my hip and pulling me close to him. Stupid move, Aaron., I thought. Looks like my chance to kick Aaron's ass was going to be coming sooner than I expected tonight.
"Why don't you get me a drink too. I'll take a shot of whiskey.," said Aaron as he squeezed my hip and dug his fingers into me.
Turning into his side to face him a little more and resting my arms so they were around his neck, I said, "Sure, Aaron. Let me get that for ya, right after I kick your ass." Forcefully pushing down his upper body, I brought my knee up, I made sure to make forceful contact with his abdomen.
Dropping him to the floor, I stood over him and said, "I sure as hell am not one of your whores, Aaron, so I don't need to get you shit."
As I turned to walk away, I said, "You might want to put some ice on that Aaron. I think I bruised more than your abdomen tonight."
The whole time that this was happening, Reid, Tyler and Tana were laughing at Aaron, who had yet to get up from the bar's floor. I think his ego was taking quite a hit tonight, but knowing him, he'd recover it by the end of the night, and by Monday at the latest.
Walking up to the bar, I got the attention of the bartender and ordered two Kamikaze shots and paid for them.
Looking around the bar, I noticed that Pogue and his girlfriend were sitting across the room at a table with Caleb and his girlfriend. Much like Reid and Tyler, those two boys seemed to be attached at the hip.
"Here ya go.," said the bartender as he set my two shots in front of me.
Tossing each of them back and slamming them back onto the bar, I relished in the delicious burning feeling that they left in their wake. Tonight was going to be a good night indeed.
A couple pool games later and a few drinks to many beyond my stopping point, and I was sitting on the pool table resting my hands on Reid's shoulders as he tried to talk to me as my intoxicated brain tried to make sense of things.
"Queenie, I think you've had one too many drinks tonight.," said Reid as he steadily kept me from falling back onto the table.
"No, I'm just buzzed.," I said as I drew out the z sound.
Now it was his turn to roll his eyes at me tonight. "I think you're more than buzzed. I think we need to stick to water from this point on tonight, or you're really going to hate yourself in the morning. Trust me, I've been there done that.," said Reid.
Pouting, I said, "You're no fun."
"Yeah, and you're wasted.," said Reid.
"Ha ha, very funny smart ass.," I said sarcastically.
"Stay here, and I'll go get you a glass of water.," said Reid as he removed my hands from their places on his shoulders and steadies me before walking away.
Kicking my legs as they dangled down the side of the pool table, I quickly became bored. Unsteadily dropping down from the side of the pool table, I quickly realized how off my balance was from the way that I was wobbling from side to side as I tried to maintain a steady upright position. Disappearing into the thickening crowd, I quickly found myself on the opposite side of the room.
Spotting Chase, Kate, and Sarah sitting at a table, I found myself making my way over to them without a second thought. Unceremoniously flopping myself down into empty chair at their table, I said, "Chase! I am sooo glad to see you. You look really nice by the way."
Chuckling, Chase grinned and said, "You've had a little much to drink tonight."
Allowing myself to relax further into the chair, I said, "Yup."
"How about I get you a glass of water.," said Chase as he went to get up and walk over to the bar.
Stopping him before he could even make his way over to the bar, I said, "No, that's Reid's job. Speaking of Reid, please don't tell him that I ditched him, or that I'm over here."
Seeing my pleading eyes, Chase reluctantly sat back down in his seat. "Alright, but you have to stay right here with us."
Nodding my head with more exaggeration than I usually do, I willingly agreed to his terms.
Spacing out for a bit, it wasn't until I heard Sarah say, "It never fails, every time we go out, our boyfriends ignore us."
"That's just boys being boys. You know, they need their guy time like we need our girl time.," said Kate as she made excuses for the guys.
"Kate, they literally hang out all day long. How much more time do they need to have with each other?," asked Sarah.
Rolling her eyes, Kate said, "Ya know what, maybe we should just forsake our relationship with them and let them have their little bromance."
"No, I have a better idea.," said Sarah as a new song started over the jukebox.
Getting up from their seats, Sarah and Kate walked over to grab their guys and drag them over to the dance floor. Now as I was just sitting there with Chase, he smiled at me in a way that made me feel slightly uncomfortable.
"So, who did you come with tonight?," asked Chase.
"Tana, Tyler, and, unfortunately, Reid.," I said.
"What about you? Did you catch a ride with Kate and Sarah?," I asked.
"Nah, I drove myself here.," said Chase, shrugging and taking a quick sip of his Coke.
"Oh. Cool. So how are you liking Spencer so far?," I asked, decidedly changing the subject.
"Its alright. I think I'll like it a little more as the year progresses.," said Chase with a grin that yet again had me feeling even more uncomfortable.
Nodding my head, I tried not to seem as creeped out as I felt. Something was just really off about this guy. I mean don't get me wrong, I felt as if Chase was someone that I could easily get along with most of the time, but tonight, I just felt as if Chase had this other side of him that I didn't know if I could ever feel comfortable around.
"So, how's Spencer's swim star taking being at a new school?," asked Chase with a grin.
"I mean, its alright. Classes are fine. The students seem to be alright, well, for the most part. And I'm just thankful to be out of that hell hole known as St. Kate's.," I said with a lopsided grin.
"So, if you don't mind me prying, why did you leave St. Kate's? I mean, I've heard of their outstanding program, and it just makes me wonder, why leave a school like that?," asked Chase all innocent like.
Looking down at my fingers, which were nervously ringing themselves together, I finally said, "I didn't leave. I was expelled." I really didn't want people to know what happened to me during my time at St. Kate's. It was still an open wound that bled every time that I even thought about it, let alone talked about it. Sitting there in silence, I felt my mind drifting away from the crowded bar and to a different time and place.
During my time at St. Kate's, I had a lot of bad things happen to me. I was in a really hard place at the time, and it certainly didn't help that I was involved with people I shouldn't have been. At St. Kate's, I was the golden girl. I had everything. The friends, popularity, grades, and I was the best swimmer to ever grace St. Kate's. You can probably only imagine the pressure that I felt. Well, during my time there, there was a group of girls that ran the school. You actually met theses girls the night of the bonfire. They were only my friends out of convenience. You see, I had what it took to put St. Kate's up on the first place pedestal at the state swim meet every year. They needed me, so they dug their claws in to keep me right where they wanted me. Last year, they decided that just because they needed me to win the school some swim titles and records didn't mean that they needed to be friends with me outside of practice and meets. At first things started off small. It was the occasional ignoring me in the halls or at lunch, but things soon began to progress as the year went on. Nasty rumors started to be spread about me, and my world quickly turned upside down. I started going to Boston College on the weekends and partying so much to the point where, often times, I wouldn't come home that night, and I'd wake up on some random person's couch. When partying just wasn't enough anymore, I turned to combining pain killers and other pills with alcohol, which is never a good combination. Finally after almost a year of putting up with their shit and me just wasting away because of it, I finally got up the courage to confront them, they just said that they were so jealous of me that that's why all this drama started. Me being an idiot and kind of strung out at the time, I decided to believe them. They said they were sorry, and that they wanted to mend our friendship again. I, of course, so desperate to have them back as my friends, accepted their apology. Well, about two weeks after that, it was during my school's spring break, a girl from St. Kate's was throwing a party at her parent's house. They invited me to it, and, of course, I was so elated to finally be back in their group again that I jumped at the invite. The night of the party, I had already popped some pills and was ready to have a good time. Like any party, the liquor was flowing, and people were having a good time. At the time, my so called friends had some how found out about my new habit, and so they kept feeding me drinks throughout the night. Little did I know that the drinks had been laced with pills. So, as you can probably imagine, I wasn't doing so well. My usual feel good, numbing haze soon turned into a living nightmare that night. The girls that I thought were my friends had been taking videos of my erratic behavior that night to use and post all over social media about me as well as to turn into the provost. I was hallucinating pretty bad that night, I couldn't make sense of what was reality and what was caused by the alcohol and pills. Next came the dizziness and my growing loss of balance. Then came the extreme abdominal cramps, nausea and vomiting. All the while when this was happening, people just stood around and did nothing. People were laughing and saying how I deserved this. As I laid there on the floor of the kitchen at the party, in my drug overdose comatose, the one clear thought that rang out above all others was that I was going to die and no one was going to care. Lucky for me the police showed up after a call was made that a party was going on. The found me on the kitchen floor going in and out of consciousness and immediately called for an ambulance. I was taken to Lawrence General Hospital, which was about eight minutes away from where the party was and admitted to the ER. I had to have my stomach pumped and was treated in the ICU for a few days with the short-acting sedative, midazolam. My airway had to be maintained throughout the time of my treatment, since the pills and alcohol caused my central nervous system to be depressed. Over the course of a week, doctors and nurses worked to make sure that I would be back on my feet once more. Even as this was happening, the girls turned in the video of me to the provost, who decided that they didn't want a student like me to be attending their school. Even after my parents appealed to St. Kate's Board, I was turned away. The school didn't want to have this hanging over their heads, so they released me. After I was treated at the hospital, I was admitted to a rehab facility for about three months. During this time, my parents pressed charges against the girls, who got a slap on the wrist with only gaining about seven hundred hours of community service from the judge that presided over the case. It was during the time that I was in rehab that I became a lot closer with Tana. She was the one throughout that tough year that kept me going. And I think more days than not, she's afraid for me. She's afraid that at the drop of a hat, I'll go back to that dark place that I was in that year. Sometimes I just shut everyone out because I can't deal with reality. Some days are better than others, and some days like tonight, I can feel myself falling back into where I was. That addictive nature that I inherited last year just doesn't seem like it will be tossed aside so easily.
"Lena! Have you heard a single word I've said?," asked Chase as he knitted his eyebrows together and looked at me with a stern face.
"What? Sorry...I, uh, need to go.," I said before getting up and absentmindedly began walking over toward the pool tables.
As I got over there, I realized that there was a glass of water resting on the side of the pool table, and Reid was back to playing a game of pool by himself as Tyler and Tana watched.
"Where did you go off to? I told you to wait here.," said Reid heatedly, not even bothering to look up. Somehow, he just knew that I was there.
"I'm sorry. I'm not very good at listening to instructions.," I said as my lame excuse that didn't excuse me just disappearing. Rubbing my forearms nervously, I chanced a glance at Tana and Tyler, who wouldn't even look at me.
"Ya know, I don't even want to hear it.," said Reid, clearly pissed off about something.
Throwing his cue onto the table and scaring me in the process, Reid made his way toward the door.
Coming up beside me, Tyler said, "I'll go talk to him." With that he quickly went and followed after Reid.
Going to go sit over by Tana, I said, "I shouldn't have drank as much as I did tonight, and I really shouldn't have just up and disappeared on you guys. God, everything in my life is just so fucked up right now."
Placing one of her hands over one of mine reassuringly, Tana said, "Everyone has nights like these. And don't worry about Reid, the only reason that he's pissed off is because he knew that it was all going to be on him if something happened to you tonight. He just feels responsible. Just promise me that you'll cut him a break. He's actually a really great guy, if you just give him a chance."
Nodding my head, I said, "Okay."
"Okay? Okay. Now how about we give you that water over there.," said Tana as she motioned toward the waiting water on the pool table.
Nodding my head, Tana went over and grabbed it before gingerly giving it to me. Taking generous sips of the liquid, I hoped that it could clear away this haze that I was in tonight.
As soon as Reid would come back into the bar, I decided that I owed him an apology for tonight, and all those times that I was so shitty to him. He didn't deserve my attitude. I barely know him, and he barely knows me, so what gives me the right to constantly be giving him slack when all he's trying to do is be playful. I silently prayed that in his anger with me that he hadn't left leaving me to wait for the next time that I would see him to apologize. I suck at apologies anyways, so later would only constitute a mess of an apology. Just please send him back in here, I silently plead to whoever was listening to my thoughts.
Hey, so there is another installment of this story! I hope that I didn't go too overboard on Lena's story from her previous time at St. Kate's Academy for Girls. I just wanted to give everyone a little background on why she is having such a difficult time dealing with Reid. Part of her sees Reid's attitude like those of the girls from St. Kate's, and she doesn't identify with it very well. So hopefully as this story progresses, she'll learn to trust Reid. Or at least that's what we hope, right?! Well anyways, enough of me just jabbering away, review and let me know what you guys think! You guys totally rock by the way for keeping up with this story!
Xoxo,
Nova