After The Bet

7

"It only took one mistake to send her entire world crumbling down."

Charlotte

I didn't take Becky's hand, but I did give her a small nod to let her know that I was going to follow. She let her boney, freshly polished hand drop to her side as she motioned me to come with her. It was easy following her through the crowd, for her bouncy blonde curls stood out even in the low lighting.

Becky took me to a flight of stairs that has been blocked off by a couple of chairs. She moved them to the side enough for me to step past them and we continued up the wooden staircase. It seemed to creak with every step we took.

The upstairs portion of the house was very small compared to what they had downstairs. There were only a few doors leading to the different rooms that they were connected to.

It felt like she was leading me to my own death, but that was ridiculous to even think about. The girl may have hated my guts, but I knew she would never do something like that.

Her icy eyes pierced into me as she stopped in front of the last door in the hallway. She gave me a small smile before turning the knob and pushing it wide open. The wooden door creaked as it opened, and I stepped inside first.

"Ian?" I gasped, looking over at him sitting on a chair. He was dressed like your typical college student, wearing a flannel and distressed jeans with a pair of vans. "What're you doing at a frat party?"

"Hey, I might be old to you, but frat brothers are still invited back to their parties for years to come." Ian chuckled as he folded his hands on the desk he was sat behind.

"Fair enough." I couldn't help but to laugh as Becky closed the door behind her as quietly as she could possibly make it. "So, what is this all about?"

Ian sighed as his eyes looked away from me for a moment, gazing off in the distance. I tried to follow his eyes to see what he was looking at, but it seemed as though he was just staring at the empty wall.

"Look, there's something that has been hidden from you for a little while now. Becky and I decided it was about time that you learned the truth."

"The truth?" I asked, my words coming out much slower than I had anticipated. Ian nodded his head and gestured to the chair across the desk from him. I decided not to argue and just take the seat anyways. "The truth about what? I don't understa–"

"I know it doesn't make any sense to you right now." Ian abruptly cut me off, his knuckles seeming to turn white as his grip on his own hands became tighter. "I didn't want to just out and ruin you with the anxiety of all this though, figured we might as well talk a little first."

My eyes flickered over to Becky as she took a seat on the torn up couch in the corner of the room, becoming within eye's view of me.

"How are things with Cole?" Becky asked, laying down lazily on the couch, picking at one of the pieces of foam that was bursting out of the seam.

"Uh, we've been great." I said, followed by a nervous smile. It baffled me why she, out of all people, would want to know how we were. "I mean, there's some rough patches here and there, but I feel like they've really helped bring us closer."

"That's great. Also, I heard that he got some money not too long ago."

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, pressing my palms down against the top of my thighs. What kind of question was that?

"Uh, I s-suppose so." I stuttered out my answer, not really knowing what to say. He told me he had some money come in not too long ago, but never specified where it was from.

"Did he ever tell you where he got it from?" Ian asked, causing me to shake my head no in response. "That's quite surprising."

"Stop toying with her." Becky whined and sat back up, glancing between the two of us quickly. "Just show her, the poor girl should know."

"Know what?" My head was jumbled with thoughts as I tried to pull together what the hell the two of them were talking about.

Ian sighed and finally opened up the laptop sat on the desk in front of him. He began to type away, entering his username and password before the screen came to life. He immediately double clicked to his files folder and located the videos section. He paused after this to look at me.

"Do you want the explanation first, or what he did first?"

My heart immediately sunk at those words. That could mean anything. Stealing, cheating, murder? Alright, that was an exaggeration. But nonetheless, saying "what he did" did not have a good connotation following it.

"What he did." I said with a shaky breath. Ian turned the laptop screen towards me and double clicked on a video file. The file popped up, and a picture of our hotel room had came on the screen.

"Before you play it, just know that we've all seen this. Me, Becky, Kylie, and Liam. Dylan didn't show up, and Andy only saw the first minute of it before he left in disgust." My nerves were skyrocketing by the minute. "I edited out the first couple of hours that the video was just left playing. I figured you'd want to see the important part of it anyways."

I turned back to the screen and decided to finally press play.

The video began rolling, and my heart felt as if it had immediately shot into my throat. I popped up on the screen with Cole the night of New Year's in the hotel room together. We were giggling as he began stripping me of my clothing.

It was dark in the room, so it was hard to see all my intimates. But my face had definitely been visible multiple times as he threw me down to the bed and had his ways with me. This was like some sick porno I didn't want to be a part of.

"Charlotte?" Ian asked as the salty tears began to form in my eyes. My cheeks were heated with embarrassment as the video played on.

Every moment of that night, every intimate moment we had shared, it had all been recorded on film.

"You all saw this?" I barked out, my hands trembling as I grasped onto the edge of the desk. Ian gave me a nod as Becky looked the other direction.

My mouth was left agape as I kept watching the video. The way he touched my body so gently as if I would be damaged under his touch. Little did he know that I was falling apart while I watched this.

After we had sex, things slowed down a bit. We both said I love you and fell asleep. That was the first time I had ever said those words to him. I meant it, but looking at this video now I wonder if he truly meant it.

I was shaking as I hastily pushed myself up from the chair and took off running out of the room. Ian called out after me, but I left the two of them behind as I sprinted down the stairs.

The heartache and pain I was feeling was too much. Betrayal and lies were all that clouded my thoughts. It felt as though everything I had worked so hard to keep, had put in all of my effort to make things work out went to waste. All for a stupid video that I don't know why he made. The only thing Ian had told me was that he made money off of it.

It really did feel like a sick homemade porno. Seeing my body exposed on that screen for all of his friends to see made me want to scrub myself down clean with thousands of soap bars. Whose to say that they're the only ones who saw it? What if he showed other people? All of these thoughts began to beat at my brain as I stumbled my way down the stairs.

"Charlotte?"

•

WOW LOOK AT THAT, I AM ON A WRITING STREAK.

Although, this chapter wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It still works though and is setting the entire scene. So TA-DA. Please give me some slack, college has officially ruined my last few living brain cells.