Page 66 of The Bet
Stella flicks the lights back on.
No one breathes for a long, impossible moment.
Then, with the casual, almost bored confidence of someone who’s been waiting to drop the bomb for weeks, Stella says, “You know, I always wondered who the secret guy was. Andie, you could have just told us it was my dad. You didn’t have to lie.”
I want to speak, to say anything, but the words won’t come.
Kayleigh is the first to break the spell. She lets out a wild, whiplash laugh, then snaps, “That is so fucking hot. I mean—” She shakes her head, speechless. “I knew you were an anal aficionado, girlfriend, but wow. Just wow.”
Mary Kate just gapes at the two of us, as if she’s never seen either of us before.
Stella looks at me, rolling her eyes with the weary amusement of someone who’s seen worse. “Honestly, Dad, I’m more surprised that you let yourself get caught like that. You know those stairwells are crawling with cameras, right? It was moving day too.”
I snap back to life. My voice is a whip crack, sharper than I intend. “Where did you get that video?”
Stella sits, calm, a queen in control of her court. “I shot it, obviously. I was grabbing the last of my stuff from the dorm, and I decided to use the stairs because the elevator was taking forever. I thought, ‘Oh my god, are people doing drugs in there?’” She shrugs. “But it was you two, fucking your brains out.”
Kayleigh shrieks with laughter, again. “Best. Story. Ever.”
But I’m not even hearing her anymore. I’m staring at Andie, at the ruin in her face, the way her body is shaking. I want to pull her out of here, to wrap her in a blanket and never let her see daylight again. But she doesn’t look at me—she just stares at the carpet, lips pressed white.
Simone is more cautious. “Are you okay, Andie?”
The beautiful blonde doesn’t reply, merely shaking in place as tears fill her eyes.
But my daughter isn’t done yet. Stella, ever the dramatic show-woman, leans forward. “But, and here’s the fun part, Andie, I think we owe you a grand, minimum. Because you are definitely the winner of our little contest. Hell, you got double-popped, girl. That’s like bonus points.”
Simone gasps, “Wait. The bet was real?”
Kayleigh claps her hands, delighted. “Yeah, she got anally taken too! That’s got to be worth more money. I’m happy to contribute more to the pot.”
I turn to Andie. “What bet?” My voice is soft, not even mine. “What are they talking about?”
She shakes her head, mouth open, but no words come out.
Stella answers for her. “Oh, Daddy, you really didn’t know? The whole reason Andie started fucking you was because we made a bet: a thousand bucks to the first girl to lose her virginity, but she had to have proof. Now, we have proof and Andie won, hands down. That video is basically a work of art.”
For a long, sick moment, I don’t move. I just let the words detonate inside my skull.
Then, slowly, I look at Andie. “Is this true? Youusedme to win a contest?”
She shakes her head furiously. Tears are streaming down her face now, quiet and slow. She tries to speak, but only a squeak comes out. “No, it’s not what it looks like…”
That’s when the rest of me shuts off because with that phrase, I know it’s exactly what it looks like. I go very cold, very quiet.
I look at the faces in the room, all those bright, greedy eyes, hungry for gossip, for drama, for the spectacle of it. I look at my daughter, so sure of herself, so proud to be the one who broke the news.
And then I say, in a voice I barely recognize, “You’re all sick little bitches. Immature fucks, every one of you.”
A silence falls, this time total.
I grab the toolbox off the floor, the metal handle biting into my palm, and I stalk out without looking at any of them. Not at Stella. Not at Andie, who is shaking so hard she might shatter.
The door slams behind me, hard enough that the walls rattle. I take the stairs two at a time, then three. My hands are shaking, and my jaw feels like it’s going to split in two. I make it outside, into the cold blue air, before the first wave of nausea hits.
I lean against my truck, breathing hard, trying to force it all down: she used me. All along, there was a bet in place. The first girl to lose her virginity would win a monetary prize, and Andie used me to get her hands on the money.
What the hell was I thinking? Of course, she used me. That’s why she was taking photos the entire time, and I knew that. I even let her snap my face, goddamn the little bitch.
