Georgetown Academy, Book One

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Friday, 10:47 pm.

Gabe heard the beeping of the front door, indicating that his parents had gotten home from the Texan congresswoman’s fundraising dinner they’d gone to that evening, but he stayed planted on his bed, his back against the wall, bass guitar in hand. His finger caught carefully on the A-string as he attempted the trickiest maneuver in the bass solo from Led Zeppelin’s Dazed and Confused for the tenth time that night.

He’d been trying to perfect the riff for months, but more than that, focusing on the bass was the best way he knew to ease the ever-expanding claustrophobia that had grabbed hold of him since he’d arrived at Georgetown Academy. Sure, he hadn’t been naïve enough to think he’d come back and completely stay out of the D.C. drama, but he hadn’t anticipated the whiplash that would come with Ellie Walker being back in his life, either. Memories of their night together in the vodka cellar flooded him every time her name crossed his mind. The thin tank top she’d worn that clung to her body perfectly, the look she’d given him just before he’d thrown her up against the wall, the urgency to kiss her more than he could control, the way she’d thrown her head back when he kissed her neck…

He firmly ousted the visions from his head, just as he’d forced himself to do hundreds of times since their last conversation. The same way he forced himself to do when he saw her walking hand-in-hand with Hunter through the hallways. Each day, it got a little easier.

His phone beeped with a text that he tried to ignore, his fingers still trying to form the melody. But the incessant beeping made concentration impossible.

When he picked it up he saw there was a text from Taryn. Fairly surprising, considering she’d texted him only an hour ago to say good night and that she was excited for their date tomorrow.

But when he looked at the body of the text, he frowned.

Consider tomorrow night’s date canceled.

He sat back, puzzled by the sudden about-face. Though his feelings for Ellie were still complicated, the truth was, he’d been looking forward to hanging out with Taryn. As opposed to Ellie, everything with Taryn had been easy since day one. She was casual, but beautiful, and had that whole West Coast vibe he’d gotten so accustomed to in Arizona. Every time he was with her it was like the putrid D.C. oxygen got a little cleaner. And it got a little easier to stop thinking about Ellie, to carve out a more livable life in this place.

Why would she bail on him? Something to do with the ridiculous drug rumors someone had started spreading about her that day? After a moment, he tapped his fingers quickly over the keys. R U Okay? There. Nice and simple.

Almost immediately, another text came through from her. I stopped being okay the minute I saw that picture on Huffington Post. P.S. Don’t ever talk to me again.

Okay, so she was angry at him. But for what? He finally put his bass guitar aside, hanging it on the stand next to his bed, and grabbed his Mac laptop from his nightstand.

As he quickly typed in the Huffington URL, he wondered what it could be that had gotten Taryn this worked up. She usually seemed so chill. And not in the fake chill way some girls put on to reel a guy in, only to do an about-face once they were actually dating him.

He waited for the rainbow wheel on his screen to stop spiraling, the front page of the website finally appearing. And that’s when he saw it.

A photo of him and Ellie kissing in the vodka room. It was clearly them, the lighting just bright enough to make it unmistakable.

Gabe remained perfectly still, his eyes scanning the page for answers. Who the hell had done this to them? Someone out to get Ellie? Had she seen it yet? He was surprised at how quickly his need to protect her kicked into gear.